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Mac Maintenance

Now if there are other programs out there that can help 'maintain' a Mac, why doesn't Apple just include them with their computers? Does Apple think it is unnecessary, or what?
I talked to Apple and they said there wasn't any maintenance except maybe repairing the disk permissions every now and then, but then why are there all of these programs that do other stuff?
 
EricNau said:
Now if there are other programs out there that can help 'maintain' a Mac, why doesn't Apple just include them with their computers? Does Apple think it is unnecessary, or what?
I talked to Apple and they said there wasn't any maintenance except maybe repairing the disk permissions every now and then, but then why are there all of these programs that do other stuff?
Click to expand...
Most of these programs run apple's scrpts on demand, instead of waiting for certain time. Onyx for example doesn't do anything that isn't already built-in to OS X. Its just a program to put all maintance stuff in one place.
 
EricNau said:
Now if there are other programs out there that can help 'maintain' a Mac, why doesn't Apple just include them with their computers? Does Apple think it is unnecessary, or what?
I talked to Apple and they said there wasn't any maintenance except maybe repairing the disk permissions every now and then, but then why are there all of these programs that do other stuff?
Click to expand...

There are more specialized tools for maintenance (Norton Utls, TechTool Pro) that did wonders under OS9 but with OSX they cause more trouble than good so my advice is to stay away.

Also from my experience i can tell you that the majority of problems are hardware related (bad RAM, PCI conflicts, failing HDD). Keep this in mind so that you know were to look for if you encounter a problem, repairing permissions or clearing logs will not do anything to help in case you are having kernel panics - after all thats why we try to do maintenance, to avoid these crashes. As grapes911 said do NOTHING unless there is something wrong. How cool is that? :cool:
 
Coheebuzz said:
There are more specialized tools for maintenance (Norton Utls, TechTool Pro) that did wonders under OS9 but with OSX they cause more trouble than good so my advice is to stay away.

Also from my experience i can tell you that the majority of problems are hardware related (bad RAM, PCI conflicts, failing HDD). Keep this in mind so that you know were to look for if you encounter a problem, repairing permissions or clearing logs will not do anything to help in case you are having kernel panics - after all thats why we try to do maintenance, to avoid these crashes. As grapes911 said do NOTHING unless there is something wrong. How cool is that? :cool:
Click to expand...
I love it!
 
BiikeMike said:
Excuse the NewB Questions, but what exactly does reparing disk permissions do?
Click to expand...
Basically, it does exactly what it says. Every file has permissions associated with it. They tell who can read, write, or execute the file. You may have trouble running an app if you don't have the correct permissions to run it. Repairing Permissions makes sure the correct permissions are set.
 
How do I repair disk permissions? And this is all that's necessary? I was told to also delete printer drivers and extra languages, which I did. Does Disk Utility do anything?
 
rye9 said:
How do I repair disk permissions? And this is all that's necessary? I was told to also delete printer drivers and extra languages, which I did. Does Disk Utility do anything?
Click to expand...
You can use Disk Utility to repair permissions. Open Disk Utility > Select your drive > First Aid > Repair Permissions.
 
BiikeMike said:
Excuse the NewB Questions, but what exactly does reparing disk permissions do?
Click to expand...


Technically?

It reads the Bill Of Materials (BOM Archive) in the contents of the receipts in /Library/Receipts. It compares the current permissions of files/directories that appear in the BOM to what the BOM tells disk utility what the permissions should be. If they differ, permissions are repaired.

How often should it be done? The only time that permissions are generally (able to be) changed are when an installer asks for an admin password. If you install a buncha things that ask for admin passwords, like OS updates and security updates? Repairing the permissions is a good idea.

Please note, permissions repair doesn't decend into the /User folder, so permissions repair will never help incorrect permissions on anything in /Users.
 
Maintenance with Techtool 4.1.1 and "bundle bits" errors

I often run "sudo sh /etc/daily (and weekly and monthly) via Terminal as my Macs will sleep at night. I just bought Techtool Pro 4.1.1. and it seems this is a nice hardware/OS diagnstics and repair program. They said this version of Techtool runs native on OS X and is compatible with Tiger.

When I run Techtool from the CD (stat with pressing C), it prompted me there minor errors on "bundle bits" in finders and other. It seems it refers to those icons which connect to the actual files or application. Is it common to have this type of error on OS X? Both my Ti PB and iBook showed the same errors when I ran Techtool.
 
YS2003 said:
I often run "sudo sh /etc/daily (and weekly and monthly) via Terminal as my Macs will sleep at night.
Click to expand...

If you have Tiger, then there's no need. As when the Mac wakes from sleep, it will run any appropriate scripts as needed by launchd (the replacement for cron).

Otherwise, this is what "periodic" is for:

sudo periodic daily (weekly monthly)
 
Quick question aside from the original.. for my own benefit:

I have an external HD and it's currently formatted for ms-dos... I'd like to update it and format it to Journaled for Mac... if I move all the files, say about 100 gigs worth of stuff, to my Mac Hard Drive, format the external, and then move it all back... will this cause my internal to become fragmented and run slower? or is there an app that will defragment this? or will it defragment itself once all the files are off there?

Sorry for posting in a replied thread but I figure what the hell.
 
keithbennis said:
Quick question aside from the original.. for my own benefit:

I have an external HD and it's currently formatted for ms-dos... I'd like to update it and format it to Journaled for Mac... if I move all the files, say about 100 gigs worth of stuff, to my Mac Hard Drive, format the external, and then move it all back... will this cause my internal to become fragmented and run slower? or is there an app that will defragment this? or will it defragment itself once all the files are off there?

Sorry for posting in a replied thread but I figure what the hell.
Click to expand...

If you are running OS X later than 10.3, IIRC, there is built in automatic defrag. You really shouldn't have to worry about it. I think that it may only apply to the boot volume though, so if you are copying to a secondary drive... well, you still don't have to worry about it because you are copying complete files and then removing them completely. There is no fragmentation occurring. :)
 
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