Mac Maintenance

A

amo

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Hi, I'm a fairly new Mac user. Very new to OS 10. I am wondering, what kind of maintenance should I be performing on my Mac? As in, should be defragging my hard drive every couple of months, zapping the pram, or anything like that? I am tempted to purchase this software called Drive 10, it's supposed to be pretty good for keeping your Mac healthy or recovering it. Has anyone used this software or heard anything about it?

Let me add that I am using OS 10.1.3 and have 9.1 on another partition, but I rarely use it (or Classic).

Thanks for your comments!
 
you should search the forums for "defragmentation", "optimization" or "prebindings", or even "faster and faster". You will start to see how much is this debated, and begin to make your own opinion for sure.
 
amo, it is a good idea to do regular maintainence work using osx. there are still some problems youjust won't cure with fsck -y or disk utility. How often depends on ho you use your mac and how often. certain activities are going to leave temps scattered around your hd more than others.

here is a repost of my previous report of defraggers

below is my run down on the three i have used. i prefer and recomend the plus optimizer/diskwarrior combo but i would add that both are very simple interfaces. techtool pro is by far the most imformative and comprehensive tool, but i had at least one instance lately where only diskwarrior saved my disk.

1. techtool pro - also a good diagnostic and repair tool, includes a virus checker. is perhaps the best value of all. defrag is done seperately from optimization and will at times only defrag if certain conditions are not met. claims to be completely safe in preventing loss of data in case of interruption. drawback - slowest of the three.

2. optimizer plus - can be bought alone or with diskwarrior - i recommend getting the combo. diskwarrior saved my drive when all others failed recently. op is also interuption safe and does partials in case of obstacles. it is slightly faster than TTP. there is an osx version in the works but not out yet. it will be a paid upgrade as far as i know.

3. speed disk - part of Norton utilities which also diagnoses and repairs. fastest of them all. can lose all your data if interrupted. defrags and optimizes in one sweep but will not circumvent obstacles. least recommended but the one most people have because they advertise and promote the most .

the latest version of all these work with osx but must be run from another disk using 9.

i also have drive 10 and it does a good job of repair. At present drive10 does not have defragmentation but it should be in the next release. really all have something to offer, but some are more essential than others.

i would be glad to answer any more specific questions as well.

oh and going to www.versiontracker.com and getting program called Xoptimize is good too. it will prebind your apps for faster launching.
 
I've read it yet, but your review is objective, Ed.
May be I'm wrong, and this will start a new religion war, like suitcase vs ATM or Entourage vs Eudora. Except you don't crash your disk with Eudora the way you can do it with SpeedDisk.

You advise XOptimize ? I prefer Mox Optimize. I can't remember why someone told me not to use Xoptimize.
 
testy - glad you caught that about the update. i had meant to say something in my post and forgot all about it. as for the Mr. thing, i wish people wouldn't call me that. Even my son calls me Ed.:D

rezba - not sure if it is the language difference or what, but i don't quite understand your post. norton is always last on my list and i believe i emphasized that it can take your files with it if something goes wrong. i stay away from it, but some people only want quick and easy. let them live with the risks. as for Mox Optimize, i have never heard of that one. i do know that others here on the board confirm that all XOptimize really does is put a gui on a terminal command which is nice for teminalphobes like me.

amo - one last thing (besides to please call me Ed), there are lots of people who on the site who have come from the linux world and still don't understnd the need to do maitainence. It appears to be a foriegn concept to them. they seem habituated to reformatting every so often and just starting over. that is the other option to maintainence. that seems as alien to me (and a bigger headache) as buying an app to repair and optimize.
 
Ed, my post was made in a hurry, and not really understandable. I'm glad you notice that Alsoft or techTool work most of times better than the Big Symantec. I'm always fascinated by the power of marketing, and the Norton tools are another illustration of that. Defrag, for example : many people like SpeedDisk just because the very beautiful colors your disk seems to be painted with after the job. How the job is made, why this order or another ? You just don't know. It's the "naturally and magic" way of computing for people who think computers should just be "natural and easy". So it's always good to see that, in this place, a new user can be told that, with just a little more knowledge, he will be able to make his own trip in the jungle.

Mox Optimize is also a GUI, for many terminal commands. I just find it more comprehensive and informative, which is good value for terminalphobes like you and me.
 
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