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Post by uproar13 on Jan 2, 2009 18:13:23 GMT
Would anyone like to share their tips for keeping your mac in tiptop order? Since I got my Imac in September I have not done any maintenance etc. What should I be doing?
As always, thanks
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Post by Forum Cat on Jan 2, 2009 21:42:45 GMT
Would anyone like to share their tips for keeping your mac in tiptop order? Since I got my Imac in September I have not done any maintenance etc. What should I be doing? As always, thanks Hi there, You may get one or two different answers to this question but here is mine. You don't have to do anything to maintain your iMac. It will just look after itself. I have two iMacs on one I have done absolutely nothing at all. On the other I have run DiskWarrior because the directory had become corrupted after a power failure. OS X is pretty much self maintaining. It self runs regular "scripts" to sort out the logs and caches that can build up. It self de-frags. It checks for updates to the OS and asks you to install these when necessary. That said there are things that can be done. Mostly it is only switchers that bother. They can't seem to believe that the OS can survive without their help. Most of the tools out there just "force" the scripts that the Mac will run itself if just left alone. If your computer develops a problem then it might help to investigate one of these tools. However if all is running well I see no need to bother. From time to time it might be a good idea to power down your Mac. I kept mine running for three or four months and it did start to slow down a bit. A restart fixed that problem though. Hope that helps. Cat
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Jinja
Full Member
Posts: 83
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Post by Jinja on Jan 2, 2009 23:22:37 GMT
You don't have to do anything to maintain your iMac. It will just look after itself. I have two iMacs on one I have done absolutely nothing at all. On the other I have run DiskWarrior because the directory had become corrupted after a power failure. OS X is pretty much self maintaining. It self runs regular "scripts" to sort out the logs and caches that can build up. It self de-frags. It checks for updates to the OS and asks you to install these when necessary. That said there are things that can be done. Mostly it is only switchers that bother. They can't seem to believe that the OS can survive without their help. CatI'm loving this Mac ownership more and more every day...lol
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Post by HeatherKay on Jan 3, 2009 11:12:53 GMT
I'm with Mr Cat. With previous variants of the Mac OS, I didn't have to but did perform regular maintenance tasks like permissions repair and so on. However, with Leopard, I think I can safely say I've not done one thing to "fix" my Mac. It's a 2-year-old MacBook Pro, which is on or asleep 24/7. I've had some issues over the Chrimble break, mainly because I've been video editing and it's given the poor box a bit of a thrashing which has led me to reboot once, and force reboot this morning. Other than that, maintenance? What's that? You mean, like, empty the trash occasionally?
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Post by BeoWolf on Jan 3, 2009 14:44:00 GMT
I don't do any maintenance either, anymore. I do have Onyx, which is free and pretty useful, and I used to use this to force the maintenance scripts etc but I don't think it really makes much difference. I also have DiskWarrior but I've only needed this once to repair a corrupted drive, when Disk Utility couldn't seem to do it.
One observation to Cat is that I always leave my MacBook Pro on or asleep 24/7, but I've never managed to keep it going 3 or 4 months without a reboot. Usually the pretty frequent software updates force a reboot.
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Post by Forum Cat on Jan 3, 2009 17:01:58 GMT
One observation to Cat is that I always leave my MacBook Pro on or asleep 24/7, but I've never managed to keep it going 3 or 4 months without a reboot. Usually the pretty frequent software updates force a reboot. Well mine on occasion will go longer for two reasons. I don't apply an OS update until the drivers are available for my audio interface. This can take a while. Also one of my iMacs is still on Tiger so updates are less frequent. If you keep bang up to date though you are right the updates will mean that powering down to reboot will be quite common.
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Post by uproar13 on Jan 3, 2009 17:30:46 GMT
Ok. I'll do nothing then! Thanks y'all
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Jan 4, 2009 20:05:44 GMT
, why don't you just time machine that computer, and get the install disc that came with your newer imac and install that, or perhaps you just don't want Leapord on that machine? Anyway, I recommend OnyX, a free disk utility app that can do so much more, there is a Leapord, tiger and older versions as well, only problem is, you have to be running as an administrator to run it, and I presume most of us (myself included) run on a non-admin account for security reasons. It is the only app I have installed on my admin account, going back to my previous thread on viruses, if there is one thing to do to protect yourself, I think that is the way on a mac, don't run under your admin account, does anyone elso do that?
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Post by Forum Cat on Jan 4, 2009 20:50:07 GMT
, why don't you just time machine that computer, Time Machine is not part of the 10.4 OS and get the install disc that came with your newer imac and install that, Install discs are machine specific. The new iMac discs won't work on an older iMac or perhaps you just don't want Leapord on that machine? I don't as I like to keep Classic mode in reserve. Anyway, I recommend OnyX, a free disk utility app that can do so much more, there is a Leapord, tiger and older versions as well, I have no use for such a tool. I let the Macs look after themselves. only problem is, you have to be running as an administrator to run it, and I presume most of us (myself included) run on a non-admin account for security reasons. What security reasons would they be? It is the only app I have installed on my admin account, going back to my previous thread on viruses, if there is one thing to do to protect yourself, I think that is the way on a mac, don't run under your admin account, does anyone elso do that? I have never heard of anybody ever having a problem in running under an Admin account. If you browse a lot of porn and then install everything that asks to be installed then maybe you could have an issue so if you have kids make a non admin account for them. For myself I see no reason not to trust my own judgement. Mr Cat
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Jan 4, 2009 22:02:15 GMT
I have read in a lot of places and on a lot of podcasts that if you are running under a non-admin account, that if you ever do get anything nasty on your machine, that it can't do anything terrible without an admin Username & Password, it's just how I was brought up, I have heard it mentioned on the maccast, & from my dad, who is a developer... sorry if I was just talking a load of rubbish I still run my personal account as a non-admin account, and I have a admin account, beacuse you have to, but I never login as that user, I only use the username & password for changing system prefs etc, I user a longer & stronger password for the admin account, does anybody agree with me, or am I just paranoid?
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Post by Forum Cat on Jan 4, 2009 23:06:40 GMT
does anybody agree with me, or am I just paranoid? No you are not paranoid, just careful. No harm in that. It is just that I have never heard of a real person ever being affected by the kind of problem that you are describing. As far as I can tell the problem is pretty much theoretical. Most of the people who are "careful" about Mac security have a background in Windows. It becomes part of the psyche. There is no harm in having an extra lock on your door. I might add one too if ever the risk becomes an issue for me. Cat
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Jan 5, 2009 0:20:15 GMT
It's what I did in the start and there's no point changing it now
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Alex Coplan
Senior Member
The future of mac...
Posts: 387
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Post by Alex Coplan on Jan 5, 2009 0:30:12 GMT
I once had a problem where finder wouldn't quit /edit when I tried to shut down/, this I was not alone on and found a fix, what you should do is navigate to Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences, then look for the plist for the finder, it might look something like com.finder.plist, I can't remember exactly. This goes for all applications if they play up, correct me if I am wrong
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