definitive safe way to optimise my MBP

A

antonioconte

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Help, I need to optimise my Mac Book Pro running 10.4.10 - 160HD with 73gb available.

noticed its running a bit sluggish recently.

can anyone advise on a safe app to optimise it r fragment it? anything to speed it up?
 
i use mainmenu on my macs regularly, it's a menu bar app i run batch tasks weekly - alternatively take a look at iceclean that's an absolutely storming app for maintenance.
 
ok, sorry, onyx is ok for what it does - i used it a while back before i found main menu, which i much prefer due to ease of use and better system maintenance options.
 
You can try them both and decide which one you like more. :)

I've used OnyX for years and it's on the first 5 applications I install on any Mac I need to work with. Not only clean too big logs or take care of cron but also disable/enable dashboard, change login screen texts etc etc etc.
 
antonioconte said:
Help, I need to optimise my Mac Book Pro running 10.4.10 - 160HD with 73gb available.

noticed its running a bit sluggish recently.

can anyone advise on a safe app to optimise it r fragment it? anything to speed it up?
Click to expand...
In Mac parlance, optimization and fragmentation have nothing to do with each other. Optimization in the MacOS X sense means to prebind applications to their supporting frameworks. This is done automatically when a new app is installed. If not done, then the app is bound to its frameworks when it is run for the first time and does not have to be bound again. As for defragging, MacOS X does this automatically. Apple specifically recommends against defragging. The defrag utilities do not understand Apple's logical memory map on its hard drives. This may cause your hard drive to actually slow down.

MacOS X 10.4 requires little, if any, user maintenance. I have used MacOS X 10 since MacOS X 10.0. Back then, I periodically ran MacJanitor. When MacJanitor became fee-based, I switched to OnyX. However, I use OnyX less and less. MacJanitor and OnyX are primarily graphical front-ends to the standard Unix periodic maintenance utilities. Because people tend to run their Macs like personal computers rather than workstations, their computers are powered down when these routines are scheduled to run. However, MacOS X now runs them when the computer is powered up. Apple also added journaling to the file system. With these two advances, the need for user intervention has all but disappeared. I only run OnyX now only for the heck of it.

If I get nervous, then I restart in single-user mode and type fsck -fy at the command prompt. This runs File System Check and forces it to correct any problems found. fsck is the most effective disk repair utility available if your hard drive is otherwise OK.
 
antonioconte said:
just asking about Onyx, as its been mentioned to me. don't take offense. Still looking into MainMenu
Click to expand...

OnyX works great, though it just runs scripts for features your computer does on its own, just less frequently or at 3am when your computer won't necessarily be turned on. It's perfectly safe. The only thing I find is when I clear caches it runs all my apps as if it was their 'first run'. Only a minor gripe.

Otherwise, the easiest thing to do is repair permissions: apps/utilities/disk utility/repair permissions. This, done once a month or so combined with shutting your machine down at least once a week will do wonders for performance.

Get TinkerTool from versiontracker.com to optimize your window and dock functionality and for simple permissions tasks (good for when you're on a network and want to globally change your permissions).
 
middigit , I've downloaded Iclean - wow, sooo many options - any essential advice as I am worried about deleting anything? is it dangerous to just select anything? or do you need to know what you are doing? some pointers would be good.
 
antonioconte said:
... or do you need to know what you are doing?
Click to expand...
Yes, you do.
antonioconte said:
some pointers would be good.
Click to expand...
If you don't know what you are doing, then don't do it.

Here is the deal: "Cleaning" your Mac will likely result in no performance increase. Left alone, your computer does an excellent job of maintaining itself. I spend quite a bit of time on this and other Mac fan sites. The vast majority of reported problems are created by the users themselves--usually by newbies doing unnecessary and/or stupid things. Other problems are created by hardware glitches and failures. There is nothing that software can do to fix hardware. If you have a hardware problem, then take your computer to a qualified technician.

Boot into Single-User Mode. Run fsck. It will fix almost all filesystem problems and report that it did so. Download and install Onyx. Run it. After doing this and if there are no reported problems, stop worrying. Stop futzing with your system. Use it and enjoy it.
 
Well could also do the code terminal monkey way by looking here and here and here. There are many other Terminal ways to do maintenance if you want look around the net.

Now if you want to have long term OS X and hard disk maintenance then look no farther then DiskWarrior. This program IMHO is the best maintenance program a Mac user could own. If you don't believe me then read this MacWorld review.
 
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