Clean up?

[Peter Franks]

Any of you guys give the drive a clean up to get rid of things that you start and stop on Mac, so if it's doing stuff that doesn't finish, does it create wasted clusters on the hard drive taking up space, like Windows did. I've had it 5 months now and want to tidy up and clean it,

I heard you can clean up stuff in Disk Utility, is that the way to go? Does that clean up web history too over and above the delete history, as well as cleaning up the hard drive to get more space back? Is it true that what something like Clean My Mac does, which I've been advised by you guys to steer well clear of, can basically be done in Disk Utility? Am I half right in assuming 'Erase Free Space' is what I'm maybe after for cleaning documents, web etc, and is it safe to do?

While we're on the subject, Can someone explain what the difference is in the left column of disk utility. between the Macintosh HD capacity 319, and the 320.07 HD above it, I thought it was the same thing, but clicking one gives different options to the other, what's that all about?

 

[Dhelsdon]

While we're on the subject, Can someone explain what the difference is in the left column of disk utility. between the Macintosh HD capacity 319, and the 320.07 HD above it, I thought it was the same thing, but clicking one gives different options to the other, what's that all about?

I can only partially help you, It's the same drive it just displays the different partitions and their size. That is all!

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Any of you guys give the drive a clean up to get rid of things that you start and stop on Mac, so if it's doing stuff that doesn't finish, does it create wasted clusters on the hard drive taking up space, like Windows did. I've had it 5 months now and want to tidy up and clean it,

No need for it, as Mac OS X runs daily, weekly and monthly scripts, and it doesn't fragmentise the HDD as Windows does.
I once had two HDDs scanned for fragmentation via iDefrag and there was less than 1% fragmentation after two years of use with the Mac OS Extended file system (HFS+).

I heard you can clean up stuff in Disk Utility, is that the way to go? Does that clean up web history too over and above the delete history, as well as cleaning up the hard drive to get more space back? Is it true that what something like Clean My Mac does, which I've been advised by you guys to steer well clear of, can basically be done in Disk Utility? Am I half right in assuming 'Erase Free Space' is what I'm maybe after for cleaning documents, web etc, and is it safe to do?

To clean caches, you can use the individual applications to do so, Safari and other browsers offer this feature, or you can use Onyx or Cache Out X.
The ERASE FREE SPACE feature in DU is for Securely Erasing data you emptied from the Trash.

While we're on the subject, Can someone explain what the difference is in the left column of disk utility. between the Macintosh HD capacity 319, and the 320.07 HD above it, I thought it was the same thing, but clicking one gives different options to the other, what's that all about?

One is the actual HDD, the other is the partition.
See below:

 

[Peter Franks]

Thanks guys... I've not set up any partitions so suppose that's not relevant. As for Erase free space, if I Empty Securely from Trash anyway, that's redundant then and doesn't clean anything else up.

Do you set the scripts to do either daily, weekly etc or is it all set anyway?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks guys... I've not set up any partitions so suppose that's not relevant. As for Erase free space, if I Empty Securely from Trash anyway, that's redundant then and doesn't clean anything else up.

Do you set the scripts to do either daily, weekly etc or is it all set anyway?

The Macintosh HD partition is the partition set up for Mac OS X, and is done in the factory. No need to set one up. But a partition, even if only ONE, is needed to store data onto an HDD.

And the scripts are already programmed into Mac OS X, it's a UNIX relic.

 

[Peter Franks]

Many thanks

 

[Peter Franks]

To clean caches, you can use the individual applications to do so, Safari and other browsers offer this feature, or you can use Onyx or Cache Out X.

Forgot to ask, when you clean caches such as Safari isn't it much like windows where stuff is not really gone, it's just emptying what you see, but it's not cleared from the computer? Or does it work differently on a Mac, so if my work details and bank details are in a document, it's still retrievable if someone knew where to look

 

[Peter Franks]

Forgot to ask, when you clean caches such as Safari isn't it much like windows where stuff is not really gone, it's just emptying what you see, but it's not cleared from the computer? Or does it work differently on a Mac, so if my work details and bank details are in a document, it's still retrievable if someone knew where to look

Is Onyx/Cache out easy enough for a clueless one?