Mac Maintenance

[sjpetry]

I would like to know what upkeep I should do to my Mac. I already empty my cashe, cookies, verify disk permissions, repair disk permissions, I also run Virex 7.5 at least once a week. I have a 1.6GHz iMac G5 running 10.3.7.

Any help would be much appreciated,
Spencer

 

[MisterMe]

I would like to know what upkeep I should do to my Mac. I already empty my cashe, cookies, verify disk permissions, repair disk permissions, I also run Virex 7.5 at least once a week. I have a 1.6GHz iMac G5 running 10.3.7.

Any help would be much appreciated,
Spencer

You should run the daily, weekly, and monthly utilities. I would also suggest that you periodically run fsck within single-user mode. All of these commands and utilities except fsck can be done using Onyx. Onyx is freeware and can be found on VersionTracker.

 

[sjpetry]

What is fsck and how do I run it.

Thanks

 

[Macky-Mac]

and then there's the other school of thought........you don't need to do much of anything

I've been using Macs since the late 1980s.....I've never had a maintenance routine and never had problems with my computers.......they just seem to work properly

and some of my friends who are Mac users who have such routines seem to be the very people that have the most problems....so go figure?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

What is fsck and how do I run it.

Thanks

fsck = File System ChecK

To run it in single-user mode:

Reboot your Mac, and hold down Command+S until a command prompt appears filling the screen.
Follow the directions it gives you to make changes (type the command exactly as it appears then press Return)
Once that's done, type "fsck -fy" (without the quotes) and press Return.
If it tells you that something was changed, run the command again (pressing the up arrow will recall the previous command you typed) until it doesn't tell you that.
Finally, type "reboot" (without the quotes) and press Return to exit single-user mode.

You may want to print these directions for reference, since you won't be able to visit this site while at the command prompt.

 

[sjpetry]

Thanks

Thanks for helping, if anyone else has any thoughts on this please post.
I love MacRumors people who use Macs are so helpful.

 

[MisterMe]

and then there's the other school of thought........you don't need to do much of anything

I've been using Macs since the late 1980s.....I've never had a maintenance routine and never had problems with my computers.......they just seem to work properly

and some of my friends who are Mac users who have such routines seem to be the very people that have the most problems....so go figure?

You are correct. As a Mac user since 1988, I find that maintenance is somewhat optional. Maintenance of Wintel computers is mandatory. However, I would not place the periodic (daily, weekly, and monthly) tasks into the optional maintenance category. MacOS X 10.3.7 is not System 6.0.3. It is BSD underneath. BSD expects to be up 24/7. It expects that these tasks will be run on schedule. As for fsck, it is run each time that your computer starts up. In the event of a problem with your hard disk, however, fsck run in single-user mode is probably the most effective thing that you can do to repair the damage.

 

[flyfish29]

and then there's the other school of thought........you don't need to do much of anything

I've been using Macs since the late 1980s.....I've never had a maintenance routine and never had problems with my computers.......they just seem to work properly

and some of my friends who are Mac users who have such routines seem to be the very people that have the most problems....so go figure?

Yeah, but I would probably guess that those same people tweak and download lots of shareware and freeware that causes most of their problems- not the maintenence since Apple reccommends all the maintence listed above to be done regularly- and if you leave your computer awake all night some is even done automatically by OSx. OSx requires a bit more maintence than the old OS used to I think.

 

[kcourt]

Here is a good rundown on mac maintenace and utilities to perform same....

Of the following, I have Macaroni, MacJanitor and Onyx.....I use them all occasionally but Macaroni does it automatically. I also use the Disk Utility athat comes with OSX to repair permissions.


http://www.applelinks.com/pm/more.php?id=3079_0_1_0_M


These utilities are helpful mainly if you turn off your computer at night. If you leave it on 24/7, ther computer automatically performs maintenance in the middle of the night.

Hope this helps.



Kathy