WHats the best way to tidy up your mac?
- Thread starter sappleton
- Start date
icemanjc
I'm cool, I have a mac.
To delete applications, you can use AppZapper which will delete everything related with the application.
If you want to clean up your system and make it run smoother, you can use Onyx.
If you know what you are doing, you can go into your user folder then into Library and then into Application Support and delete folders from old deleted applications. However, do not mess around too much or you could screw things up.
You can also do it in the main library, just open up the Library on the root drive.
Of course you could always just reformat....
If you want to clean up your system and make it run smoother, you can use Onyx.
If you know what you are doing, you can go into your user folder then into Library and then into Application Support and delete folders from old deleted applications. However, do not mess around too much or you could screw things up.
You can also do it in the main library, just open up the Library on the root drive.
Of course you could always just reformat....
jbarley
One more, for the road!
Not quite "everything".
EasyFind...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11076/easyfind
Will find and allow you to delete or destroy files associated with installed Apps, that AppZapper and other "undelete" programs seem to insist on leaving behind.
jb.
I've given up on trying to keep machines really clean. The file count on a machine can easily approach a million so as long as the garbage does not consume a lot of disk space I usually don't take the time to track it down.
Onmi Disk Sweeper does a good job of displaying files in order of size and it can help to find and delete the big useless ones. It's free now.
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/
Onmi Disk Sweeper does a good job of displaying files in order of size and it can help to find and delete the big useless ones. It's free now.
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/
Randy Singer
Registered
It's true that there can be millions of files on your hard drive.
So here is another way of looking at things. How much is your time worth? Are you willing to spend hours going through hundreds of files and determining if you need them or not? Are you willing to risk damaging your software setup and having to troubleshoot your Macintosh if you trash the wrong thing? (I hear from several people each year who have borked their hard drive irrevocably doing this.)
Here is another option. (I'm not saying that this is the best option, but it is one to consider.)
FireWire hard drives are now very reasonably priced. You can even get a huge 1 Terabyte FireWire drive for only about $100 these days. Get a FireWire drive that is at least as big as your internal drive, but bigger would be better.
Clone everything from your internal drive onto the external drive using:
Carbon Copy Cloner (free)
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Make sure that everything cloned onto the external drive is good.
Do an erase and install of OS X on the internal drive.
Your internal drive will now be like new. When you boot from it, your Macintosh should also be as fast as it was when it was new. You can choose to store new data on your internal drive or your external drive.
Maxtor 750GB FireWire hard drive
$80
http://shop.seagate.com/store/sgateus/en_US/buy/productID.156625000
So here is another way of looking at things. How much is your time worth? Are you willing to spend hours going through hundreds of files and determining if you need them or not? Are you willing to risk damaging your software setup and having to troubleshoot your Macintosh if you trash the wrong thing? (I hear from several people each year who have borked their hard drive irrevocably doing this.)
Here is another option. (I'm not saying that this is the best option, but it is one to consider.)
FireWire hard drives are now very reasonably priced. You can even get a huge 1 Terabyte FireWire drive for only about $100 these days. Get a FireWire drive that is at least as big as your internal drive, but bigger would be better.
Clone everything from your internal drive onto the external drive using:
Carbon Copy Cloner (free)
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Make sure that everything cloned onto the external drive is good.
Do an erase and install of OS X on the internal drive.
Your internal drive will now be like new. When you boot from it, your Macintosh should also be as fast as it was when it was new. You can choose to store new data on your internal drive or your external drive.
Maxtor 750GB FireWire hard drive
$80
http://shop.seagate.com/store/sgateus/en_US/buy/productID.156625000