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OSX Performance - Desktop & App Folder

Daiden

Daiden

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 25, 2007
532
0
Chicago, IL
I was curious about something. I got my Mac a little over a month ago, and when I first got it, it was very fast. Navigating all the folders, etc. was speedy and quick, but for the past week or so, there has been noticeable slowdown. I'm not sure if this is normal since I have quite a few more applications installed (probably 10-20 more than factory install) plus I have about 6-7 folders full of fairly big files on my desktop. So, my question is, does OSX normally behave like this? Is there some way I can store my files more efficiently that I may not know about (being a fairly new OSX user)? Does RAM eventually become an issue here (I only have 1GB)? Or should I be worried about my current hard drive/RAM perhaps being faulty?

Thanks, I know I may seem fairly paranoid, but when I drop over $2k for a new piece of hardware, I'd like it to run properly (and it's still under Apple's warranty for another month or so). :)
 
For some reason, Mac OS X doesn't like having more than 100 or so files in a single folder, and tends to slow down, especially when viewing the offending folder. The workaround I use for this is to further categorize the files into groups (making additional folders, and grouping them as necessary). This problem gets much worse the higher the number of files - above 1000, it gets painfully slow. :(
 
First, you can check the Activity Monitor app in the Utilities folder to see if you are running low on RAM at any given time. It could be an issue, but I'd doubt it.

Second, these folders on your desktop...are they residing as folders in the Desktop folder of your home directory? or do you have them as aliases from other locations?
You might try keeping the actual folder in your home directory and then create an alias to in on the Desktop. As an aside, lot of newer OS X users that come from the Windows camp keep a lot of stuff on the desktop (which there is nothing wrong with, to each their own), but realize that the right side of the dock and the left sidebar of finder windows exist for this purpose to.
 
Thanks for both bits of advice, both of those suggestions are most likely part of the problem I'm experiencing. I do have lots of files in each folder, and the files actually do reside on the desktop (you're right, it is an old Windows habit). I'll try organizing my files better to see if things run a bit smoother.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
For some reason, Mac OS X doesn't like having more than 100 or so files in a single folder, and tends to slow down, especially when viewing the offending folder. The workaround I use for this is to further categorize the files into groups (making additional folders, and grouping them as necessary). This problem gets much worse the higher the number of files - above 1000, it gets painfully slow. :(
Click to expand...

Gah, this is such a nuisance.... My journal articles folder has almost 1300 files in it, and I really don't want to have to start sub-categorizing them. The system as is works really well, except for speed.... :(
 
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