Is there a Mac OS X version of "Disk Cleanup"?

[elevenpower]

I was just wondering if there was a "disk clean up" like utility in OS X.
I used it regularly in windows, and would like to find a way to clean out my temporary internet files and other un-wanted/needed files.

Thanks.

 

[CanadaRAM]

CacheOut X is one
search versiontracker.com for info and downloading

 

[Lacero]

Is disk cleaning really necessary in OSX? I've been running OSX for 3 years without the need for any 3rd party disk utility and everything still runs fine. I run disk utility and disk-warrior a few times each year and leave my computer on (no sleep) continuously over the months and have had no problems.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Is disk cleaning really necessary in OSX? I've been running OSX for 3 years without the need for any 3rd party disk utility and everything still runs fine. I run disk utility and disk-warrior a few times each year and leave my computer on (no sleep) continuously over the months and have had no problems.

You are fine.

OS X comes with three cron scripts that run daily, weekly, and monthly at obscure times. You can force them to run using something like MacJanitor or Cocktail.

They won't run if your computer is in sleep mode.

 

[rainman::|:|]

All caches will eventually be cleared on their own, so it's not a necessity. In fact I haven't heard any evidence that cache-flushing improves performance, it may have the opposite effect since caches are intended to speed the computer up, not slow it down. But if you've got a corrupted file in a cache or something, a utility like that would be invaluable.

 

[grapes911]

You are fine.

OS X comes with three cron scripts that run daily, weekly, and monthly at obscure times. You can force them to run using something like MacJanitor or Cocktail.

They won't run if your computer is in sleep mode.

Forget that, install anacron and do nothing else. It will run the scripts normally. If by some chance your computer is off or sleeping, it will run them as soon as it can.

 

[iBunny]

Is disk cleaning really necessary in OSX? I've been running OSX for 3 years without the need for any 3rd party disk utility and everything still runs fine. I run disk utility and disk-warrior a few times each year and leave my computer on (no sleep) continuously over the months and have had no problems.

What if you dont have the luxury to keep it on all the time

 

[jsalzer]

what if

What if you dont have the luxury to keep it on all the time

Then the worst part of the clutter (the swap files) will clear themselves out on reboot and you're in an even better position!

He was pointing out a worst-case scenerio (someone who never shuts down) - not recommending not shutting down.

 

[slooksterPSV]

One word, Onyx. Its free and cleans out tons of caches

 

[26139]

Uh....

What if you dont have the luxury to keep it on all the time

Huh? Does your power turn off often? It actually takes less power to leave it on then start it up every day...

 

[virividox]

One word, Onyx. Its free and cleans out tons of caches

i second that

 

[aus_dave]

It actually takes less power to leave it on then start it up every day...

You can't be serious - 24 hours of power draw vs a few seconds when starting up?

 

[MacNeXT]

OmniDiskSweeper (www.omnigroup.com) is a tool that shows which folders take up most space. I highly recommend it, I've freed a couple of hunderds of MB's of unneeded stuff I wouldn't have found otherwise. There is a free version.

 

[0098386]

You can't be serious - 24 hours of power draw vs a few seconds when starting up?

true. same goes for lights, apparently it takes (in terms of your power bill) 12 minutes of power to boot up a flourecent light. or so my drama teacher said when some idiots kept switching the hall lights on/off

although booting up my powerbook dosnt seem to take off only 1% of the battery.

 

[iBunny]

Huh? Does your power turn off often? It actually takes less power to leave it on then start it up every day...

I am currently deployed in support of Operation Iraqi freedom in Al Asad Iraq. I do not have power except for at work... and If i leave my iBook at work, it will be gone the next day. So i have to turn it off every day... nothing I can do about it, otherwise it will die

 

[MisterMe]

You can't be serious - 24 hours of power draw vs a few seconds when starting up?

You could not be more wrong. When you power up your computer, it draws a lot more power than it does during normal operation. It is generally true that electric motors draw more current during startup than they do while running at full speed under no load. (Ever notice that large electric motors dim the lights during start-up, but not a full speed?) Electric switches are among the most vulnerable components in electric devices. Mechanial switches will fail before any other electric component under normal use. Many people mistakenly believe that heat eventually burns out electronic devices. Although a current surge can burn out a device, the real danger is thermal cycling. The resulting mechanical stresses creates cracks in conductive traces and components. A crack may eventually become a break in the circuit as revealed bare metal oxidizes. Some of these issues are mitigated by Energy Star compliance and Apple's use of non-mechanical switches. However, your Macintosh and MacOS X are intended to be left on 24/7. This is why Apple did not modify the schedule for the cron tasks. This is also why the ON/OFF switch is so hard to find on some Macintosh computers. The safest way to operate your computer is to plug it into a good UPS and leave it on.

 

[ravenvii]

You could not be more wrong. When you power up your computer, it draws a lot more power than it does during normal operation. It is generally true that electric motors draw more current during startup than they do while running at full speed under no load. (Ever notice that large electric motors dim the lights during start-up, but not a full speed?) Electric switches are among the most vulnerable components in electric devices. Mechanial switches will fail before any other electric component under normal use. Many people mistakenly believe that heat eventually burns out electronic devices. Although a current surge can burn out a device, the real danger is thermal cycling. The resulting mechanical stresses creates cracks in conductive traces and components. A crack may eventually become a break in the circuit as revealed bare metal oxidizes. Some of these issues are mitigated by Energy Star compliance and Apple's use of non-mechanical switches. However, your Macintosh and MacOS X are intended to be left on 24/7. This is why Apple did not modify the schedule for the cron tasks. This is also why the ON/OFF switch is so hard to find on some Macintosh computers. The safest way to operate your computer is to plug it into a good UPS and leave it on.

If they didn't modify the cron tasks because they expect you to leave the computer on 24/7, then why did they have the Energy Saver preferences on "go to sleep in (some minutes)"? Why not default on "never"? Apple really should update their cron, and use something like anacron above.

 

[slooksterPSV]

I withdraw my arguement, my aunt was married to an electrician.

 

[PlaceofDis]

If they didn't modify the cron tasks because they expect you to leave the computer on 24/7, then why did they have the Energy Saver preferences on "go to sleep in (some minutes)"? Why not default on "never"? Apple really should update their cron, and use something like anacron above.

i could be wrong, but i thought in one of the past 10.3 updates that apple put out, that it did the same thing as anacron, but then again i could be wrong and be imagining something, if i have time i will go and check it out and post back

 

[MisterMe]

If they didn't modify the cron tasks because they expect you to leave the computer on 24/7, then why did they have the Energy Saver preferences on "go to sleep in (some minutes)"? Why not default on "never"? Apple really should update their cron, and use something like anacron above.

Putting the computer to sleep is not nearly the same as shutting it down. The most obvious answer to why the default to sleep is minutes rather than never is to remain in compliance with Federal law on energy savings. As for modifying cron, Apple has made to conscience decision to ensure that Darwin is a best-of-breed distribution of standard BSD. You don't have a standard BSD without standard BSD utilities. Numerous users and third parties have produced GUI frontends, AppleScripts, and shell scripts which reschedule the cron utilities. It is not necessary for Apple to modify cron or to distribute anacron as part of Darwin.

 

[CanadaRAM]

You could not be more wrong. When you power up your computer, it draws a lot more power than it does during normal operation. It is generally true that electric motors draw more current during startup than they do while running at full speed under no load. (Ever notice that large electric motors dim the lights during start-up, but not a full speed?)....

Think about this a moment. Lets take the case of a PowerMac left on for 24 hours vs. one used for 4 hours then switched off. For EnergyStar certification, a computer has to draw 30 Watts or less while in sleep, or 60W for a computer and display together.

Let's say 30W for the pair. So the machine consumes 600 Watt-hours of electricity while sleeping 20 hours a day. How long does it take to boot up -- 60 seconds or so of high speed drive activity until it reaches a steady state? To equal the amount of power wasted in sleep, the machine would have to draw 36,000 Watts during that one minute, a draw of 327 Amps at US 110V. This is approximately the amount of power consumption as three heavy duty arc welders at full power for one minute. Suffice to say that if your contention was true, the Mac would be a puddle of slag on the floor.

The maximum draw of a PowerMac G5 is 6.5 amps, or 710 Watts. Normal operating draw is something like 180 - 250W

So: saying that the extra power drawn in starting up a Mac negates the savings of turning it off does not hold true, except possibly in the extreme example of turning it on and off 100 or more times per day. Yes, startup takes more power than normal running. But only a factor of 2 - 4 times, and only for a short period. The statement that startup consumption outweighs the sleep consumption is off by several orders of magnitude.

Apple's advice is if it's 8 hours or more between uses, turn it off
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=4701

And if you live in areas of bad power, turn it off more often.

Let's look at one more thing: letting a computer sleep 20 hr. per day for a year instead of turning off uses over 200 KWh of electricity. In terms of carbon dioxide emission, that creates, depending on how you get your electicity generated: 4000 Lbs of CO2 (coal) 3400 Lbs of CO2 (oil) or 2000 Lbs of CO2 (natural gas).

 

[Mechcozmo]

Think about this a moment........

You obviously have a lot of time to think

But I learned quite a bit. Thanks.

 

[Lacero]

I wish I could turn off my computer but it's either always downloading crap off bittorrent or I'm too busy to save and close down my programs such as FCP and then having to re-open them. Perhaps I could set my energy saver to turn off the computer after 8 hours of inactivity.

 

[aus_dave]

You could not be more wrong.

Right back at you MisterMe...

Thanks to CanadaRAM for backing me up with a very complete explanation .