How can I make my MacBook Pro run faster?

[worshiper28]

How do I reformat?

You go to System Preferences > Startup Disk* and select the cloned copy of your internal HDD to boot from.

Image​

Restart the Mac.
Verify everything you want has been copied while booted from the clone.
Go to Disk Utility: How to format a new HDD to install Mac OS X onto (or make a bootable copy onto)
After that is done, clone the contents from the clone back to the internal HDD, again go to Startup Disk and select the internal HDD/SSD to boot from and restart.
Again, verify everything is in order.

Thanks again, the only thing i'm a little confused on is... your partner GGJstudios..had listed the whole cleaning process in this order:

"The most thorough approach would then be to reformat your drive, reinstall OS X, then reinstall all your apps, then restore your user data from your backup."

My question is .. between your helpful advise, and what I quoted above from GGJ is this same thing?..or different

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thanks again, the only thing i'm a little confused on is... your partner GGJstudios..had listed the whole cleaning process in this order:

"The most thorough approach would then be to reformat your drive, reinstall OS X, then reinstall all your apps, then restore your user data from your backup."

My question is .. between your helpful advise, and what I quoted above from GGJ is this same thing?..or different

No, it is not. I was confused. A reinstallation of the OS would not be done via cloning and such.

Depending on the Mac OS X version you have:

To create a Clean Install (formerly known as Erase & Install) of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (the 19 USD Upgrade DVD is a fully working retail version of Mac OS X and does not need a prior installation of Mac OS X on the Mac), follow one of the following guides:

• Short version: Clean Install of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
• Long version: Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard: How to Erase and Install

Perform a Clean Install of OS X Lion on Your Mac

• How to Clean Install OS X Mountain Lion
• How to Do a Clean Install of OS X Mountain Lion

If you want to make a bootable installation medium, you can follow these steps:

• Lion DiskMaker

• Create bootable installation medium for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
• Create bootable installation medium for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
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[j0ester]

Does this only happen in this user profile? Maybe too much files on the Desktop, this very well indicates slow Computers. Also, I'd make a new user profile and see if the problem occurs there too.

It could be Hardware or Software.

 

[worshiper28]

How to make my mac run faster

You don't need to pay anyone to clean up your Mac or to install RAM. You can do both quite easily yourself.

Back up your entire drive to an external drive, using a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner, before you do anything major on your Mac, like reinstalling software.

You can use version 3.5.1 ($40) or 3.4.7 (free, and works well on OS X 10.6, 10.7 and 10.8).

The most thorough approach would then be to reformat your drive, reinstall OS X, then reinstall all your apps, then restore your user data from your backup.

I've backed up my entire hard drive on Carbon Copy Cloner.. I just don't know how to do the rest of your steps listed as "the most thorough approach".. please help ... I appreciate all your help on this ..

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I've backed up my entire hard drive on Carbon Copy Cloner.. I just don't know how to do the rest of your steps listed as "the most thorough approach".. please help ... I appreciate all your help on this ..

I guess post #52 and the clean install guides for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion are not enough? What exactly do you need help with?
What Mac OS X version do you have?

 

[worshiper28]

I guess post #52 and the clean install guides for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion are not enough? What exactly do you need help with?
What Mac OS X version do you have?

I have the Mac OSX 10.5.8..

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I have the Mac OSX 10.5.8..

Then this guide applies to your Mac OS X version, unless you want to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard while doing so, then the clean install guides posted above will work just fine.

 

[Tclementi1]

Screenshots-Please help my mac has gotten extremely slower over the past few weeks.

Please Help.

Thanks,

Tclementi1

 

[GGJstudios]

Please Help.

Thanks,

Tclementi1

One thing I see is you have both Avast and Sophos antivirus apps installed. First, it is never recommended that you run more than one antivirus app, even on Windows, as they can conflict with each other and cause false postive readings. Second, I recommend that you avoid using Sophos, as it could actually increase your Mac's vulnerability, as described here and here.

Finally, Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 10 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). Also, Mac OS X 10.6 and later versions have anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.

Read the link below for tips on practicing safe computing, which is all you need to keep your Mac malware-free.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ​

 

[RecklisBalla]

Mac Running Suuuuper Slow

Help Me PLease!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Help Me PLease!

You probably do not have enough RAM, but since we do not know, when the last restart was before the screenshot, it is only speculation.

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

 

[thykes]

performanice issues

I've been having performance issues with my Macbook Pro. I'm a graphic designer/developer and I couldn't afford to buy a new macbook pro since i'm a student and all but... once I start designing and developing my mac moves so slow really slow. I just powered my mac up this morning and here are the images... Do I need more memory or what? Thanks in advance for the help.


My System
MacBook Pro
15-inch Early 2008
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB
Software OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)

 

[GGJstudios]

I've been having performance issues with my Macbook Pro. I'm a graphic designer/developer and I couldn't afford to buy a new macbook pro since i'm a student and all but... once I start designing and developing my mac moves so slow really slow. I just powered my mac up this morning and here are the images... Do I need more memory or what? Thanks in advance for the help.

It looks like you might benefit from an increase in RAM. Read the first link in post #2 and read post #17 in this thread.

 

[thykes]

It looks like you might benefit from an increase in RAM. Read the first link in post #2 and read post #17 in this thread.

Thanks!!!

 

[thykes]

It looks like you might benefit from an increase in RAM. Read the first link in post #2 and read post #17 in this thread.

Ok, So I restarted and its 0 pages. So when I start to develop and design my issues is running to many programs at one time. Which is using up a lot of ram. Would I still benefit from an upgrade or will the be to much for the system to handle.

My System
MacBook Pro
15-inch Early 2008
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 256 MB
Software OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)

 

[GGJstudios]

Ok, So I restarted and its 0 pages. So when I start to develop and design my issues is running to many programs at one time. Which is using up a lot of ram. Would I still benefit from an upgrade or will the be to much for the system to handle.

If you are routinely getting page outs during normal operation, you would probably benefit from more RAM. Your MacBook Pro can take up to 6GB of RAM, which would help with running multiple apps simultaneously.

 

[Queue Cumber]

I would appreciate any feedback on my mid 2010 MacBook Pro, which has begun running sluggishly in recent months. I presume bumping my RAM would help, especially based on the page in/outs (I last restarted less than 24 hours ago) but before I do want to be sure I am not unintentionally allowing other stuff to significantly bog down performance, especially since my normal usage is just internet & email stuff. Seems like I shouldn't need tons of RAM for that. In particular, what is all the resources for Google Chrome Helper? It doesn't show in the screen grabs, but one of those were sporadically showing %CPU between 20% and 30%, just while sitting idle!

Also, I have about 90GB free on my 250 GB HD.

Here are my CORRECTED screen grabs. Thanks for any help!

 

[GGJstudios]

Here are my screen grabs. Thanks for any help!

Follow the instructions in the 2nd post of this thread (especially steps 2 and 3), then re-post your new screen shots.

 

[Queue Cumber]

Follow the instructions in the 2nd post of this thread (especially steps 2 and 3), then re-post your new screen shots.

I've edited my original post to include the corrected screen grabs. Sorry for the error - hard for these old middle aged eyes to read I guess!

Appreciate your time and help!

EDIT: Also just figured out that I had 7.7 GB of space dedicated to Chrome as I wasn't aware that previous versions were retained! Unbelievable! Just reclaimed all over 7.6 GB of space by deleting the old versions. Perhaps that stupid oversight contributed to the multiple incidents of Chrome Helper showing up in the Activity Monitor?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I've edited my original post to include the corrected screen grabs. Sorry for the error - hard for these old middle aged eyes to read I guess!

Appreciate your time and help!

EDIT: Also just figured out that I had 7.7 GB of space dedicated to Chrome as I wasn't aware that previous versions were retained! Unbelievable! Just reclaimed all over 7.6 GB of space by deleting the old versions. Perhaps that stupid oversight contributed to the multiple incidents of Chrome Helper showing up in the Activity Monitor?

Sorry, mistook post 69 for post 67 and was confused. Bedtime.

 

[GGJstudios]

I've edited my original post to include the corrected screen grabs. Sorry for the error - hard for these old middle aged eyes to read I guess!

Appreciate your time and help!

EDIT: Also just figured out that I had 7.7 GB of space dedicated to Chrome as I wasn't aware that previous versions were retained! Unbelievable! Just reclaimed all over 7.6 GB of space by deleting the old versions. Perhaps that stupid oversight contributed to the multiple incidents of Chrome Helper showing up in the Activity Monitor?

First, I recommend avoiding Sophos, as it can actually increase a Mac's vulnerability, as described here and here. 3rd party antivirus apps are not needed to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as the user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ​

If anyone insists on running antivirus for some reason, ClamXav (which is free) is one of the best choices, since it isn't a resource hog, detects both Mac and Windows malware and doesn't run with elevated privileges.

Also, I'm not sure what you're using Net Nanny for, but it's likely unnecessary, unless you have kids using the computer.

Boom seems to be using more CPU than it should. Make sure you're using the most current version. You might consider uninstalling/reinstalling it.

If you're looking to free up some space, this may help:Freeing up drive space in Mac OS X

 

[Queue Cumber]

First, I recommend avoiding Sophos, as it can actually increase a Mac's vulnerability, as described here and here. 3rd party antivirus apps are not needed to keep a Mac malware-free, as long as the user practices safe computing, as described in the following link.

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ​

If anyone insists on running antivirus for some reason, ClamXav (which is free) is one of the best choices, since it isn't a resource hog, detects both Mac and Windows malware and doesn't run with elevated privileges.

Also, I'm not sure what you're using Net Nanny for, but it's likely unnecessary, unless you have kids using the computer.

Boom seems to be using more CPU than it should. Make sure you're using the most current version. You might consider uninstalling/reinstalling it.

If you're looking to free up some space, this may help:Freeing up drive space in Mac OS X

Thanks. I have been reading some negative reports about Sophos and will likely delete that. I may need to replace it with clamXav, as I have two teenagers who use this laptop, so despite my repeated 'safe computing' lectures I cannot be confident that websites and files that should be avoided actually are avoided. Hence the presence of Net Nanny as well. Hopefully the day will come soon when I do not need such measures, but that day is not now.

I'm using the most recent version of Boom, buty I'm also debating removing it, as my research shows its a known CPU hog. However, it is probably a cost I am willing to accept, as I have significant hearing issues, so I will likely keep anyway.

Do the page in/outs suggest to you a RAM upgrade would significantly improve performance?

 

[GGJstudios]

Do the page in/outs suggest to you a RAM upgrade would significantly improve performance?

To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used​