Maintenance and general clean up

[Doonz]

So coming over from the PC world what tips are the for regular maintenance and support... Thing in PC-speak like defrag, scandisk, dumping cookies and temp files, updating and removing old programs... What w ould the equivlent be for maintianiing a MAC... How do I go about assisting a user who just say it seems like my MAC is "slowing down" I can troubleshoot the problems but I am not sure how to respond when asked what should do to my MAC requlary, monthy, ect.

Any ideas... also are there programs out there that are a requirement for a MAC tech to have in his/her arsenal or at his/her disposal??

Thanks

 

[CalBoy]

Mac OS X is pretty self-sustaining so you won't have to do much.

As for programs, I recommend getting iStat Pro (Dashboard widget) because it's great for seeing certain stats easily.

Coconut Battery is always nice (tells you how much "health" your battery has-only for notebooks o/c).

 

[Raid]

So coming over from the PC world what tips are the for regular maintenance and support... Thing in PC-speak like defrag, scandisk, dumping cookies and temp files, updating and removing old programs... What w ould the equivlent be for maintianiing a MAC... How do I go about assisting a user who just say it seems like my MAC is "slowing down" I can troubleshoot the problems but I am not sure how to respond when asked what should do to my MAC requlary, monthy, ect.

Any ideas... also are there programs out there that are a requirement for a MAC tech to have in his/her arsenal or at his/her disposal??

Thanks

General maintenance on a Mac isn't that complicated. Unix runs cron scripts that take care of most of your needs, but if you want to keep an eye on things try Macaroni which handles regular maintenance for Mac OS X, including repair privileges process. It's automated for the most part but you can choose to run it whenever you want. It also has a language localization feature (that gets rid of the extra languages you won't need)... don't know if that feature works on Leopard though.

Check it out, I'm happy with it.

 

[S600MBUSA]

For maintenance, I'm a fan of Onyx (the link is for the Leopard version, look toward the bottom of the page for earlier versions). It verifies the start-up disk, allows you to repair permissions, clear out various caches, delete obsolete items, etc.

Also, a program called Preferential Treatment will check preference files for corruption.

Most agree that processes like disk defragmenting are generally not necessary on Macs.

 

[Canerican]

I second ONyX

 

[pilotkid]

I second ONyX

I also use ONyX, its really a great thing to have. I've used it almost since day one of having a mac, I didnt know they finally had a version for leopard though, I'm still using the version for 10.4...i'm installing the new one now...its taking forever, gotta love downtown denver internet...

 

[~Kat~]

So, I would assume it's much better than Yasu?

 

[darwinian]

OnyX. I use iStat nano for monitoring but iStat menus is a staple of my monitoring. Some prefer MenuMeters still.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

What do you guys run in Onyx, specifically?

 

[madfresh]

What do you guys run in Onyx, specifically?

Cleaning and maintenance(permissions/scripts).

 

[adrake86]

I herd to run the disk utility after updates not sure if this helps or not. I came from pc to mac thinking I would have to run software to keep it running smoothe but you don't it is just some concept that I couldn't grasp. No adaware or spyboy S&D for the mac!

 

[valereee]

onyx?

I tried OnyX...very strange...as soon as I opened it, it recommended I scan the startup disc. Once it was finished with that it kept asking me for a password. Since I'd never set one up in OnyX, I didn't have the right answer.

 

[mac2x]

It wants your administrator password.

 

[Tyler23]

I tried OnyX...very strange...as soon as I opened it, it recommended I scan the startup disc. Once it was finished with that it kept asking me for a password. Since I'd never set one up in OnyX, I didn't have the right answer.

it wants your administrator password.

it checks the start up disc and repairs permissions. to operate it, you'll have to (or it will for you) close other apps. then you can use it to clear caches, logs, etc. and to run other forms of maintenance.

 

[bmcgonag]

These guys hit it right on the head. Onyx will ask for your admin password. It will run a SMART scan of your HDD to look for problems, and as you progress through all the 'tabs' of the program interface, you can select which items to run. Read about each if you are unsure, then look online for more help if you are still unsure.

As you run items it may occasionally reboot your computer as well. So I wouldn't try to run any other applications, nor do you want a server running on your mac that has active access enabled, or your users maybe cut off for a bit.

 

[scooterguitar]

I herd to run the disk utility after updates not sure if this helps or not. I came from pc to mac thinking I would have to run software to keep it running smoothe but you don't it is just some concept that I couldn't grasp. No adaware or spyboy S&D for the mac!

WHat specifically should you run in disk utility?

 

[Azathoth]

Disk Utility -> Repair Permissions is something that needs to be done on occasion.

I also need to sudo chown root:admin /. sometimes to prevent DSMOS from hanging at boot.