Regular Mac Maintenence

[Espnetboy3]

Ok I was reading the February edition of Macworld and it had a whole prevent mac disasters section. There was a few things I had not grasped so well, and was hoping some of my fellow mac rumors asociates would be glad to help. They had listend 7 steps. ? means I would like some help.
1. Verify Prefrences? - plutil in terminal or Jonathan Nathan's Free program Preferential Treatment which I have used and didnt really notice any difference.(Not so sure how the app works)
2. Repair Permissions
3. Delete Cache?- Says its in System:Library:Caches Folder. Do I just go in there and erase the whole folder?
4. Delete Log Files? - Says OSX has maintenance scripts to take care of this, not sure where though. (/Library/Logs)?
5. PreBind - Any 10.3 + OS's automatically optimize or PreBind for you. (Terminal command - sudo update_prebinding -root /) This should be correct as is.
6. Automate Your Maintenance - Unix scripts that rid and clean up cloging files. Run times= daily 3:15am, weekly 4:30am Saturdays and the Monthly at 5:30am on the first day of the month.
7. Smart Stat Indicators - Disk Utility click the top HD in the left hand column. Then on the bottom right you should see Smart status and it should say verified. IF no smart status your computer does not have the technology. If you have smart status but no verification then you should backup and reinstall the os.

 

[yellow]

2. Repair Permissions

Meh. Just do it after you install something that requires an admin password.. otherwise.. as a maintenance? Meh..

3. Delete Cache?- Says its in System:Library:Caches Folder. Do I just go in there and erase the whole folder?

Yes.

4. Delete Log Files? - Says OSX has maintenance scripts to take care of this, not sure where though. (/Library/Logs)?

It does. See #6, otherwise, get a GUI app to help with with it, do it for you, or (to run all 3 at once) open the Terminal and type:

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

 

[Espnetboy3]

Well if you guys are interested OynX is amazing I just used it. By the way yellow thanks for the help but the ? means i dont know how to do it not should I do it. I also already put the terminal command for the daily weekly monthly scripts. Basically OnyX will do everything for you. On this picture should i have it clear or clean anything in the middle section? And on the bottom should I rid of the DS_store files or anything? Thanks

 

[yellow]

The only thing I will say about #1 is, I've been running OS X as my primary OS for almost 5 years now and I've never had to use an app to 'verify' that my preferences weren't corrupt. Sometimes they get corrupt, I trash em and drive on..

By the way yellow thanks for the help but the ? means i dont know how to do it not should I do it.

Maybe I'm missing something?

I thought I answered that for most of them that had a ? in it?

You said:

3. Delete Cache?- Says its in System:Library:Caches Folder. Do I just go in there and erase the whole folder?

I said:

Yes.

Which clearly was the answer to your question, "Do I just go in there and erase the whole folder?"

I would NOT let that app force empty my trash. I will empty it when I'm good and ready. No, don't delete the .DS_Store files. They are VERY small and when you open a folder, they get recreated anyway, so what's the point in deleteing them?

To the rest.. meh.. I don't think it's necessary. You can get caught up in doing all these little tasks to your machine and you know what? Chances are it would run the same if you didn't do any of them.

 

[Espnetboy3]

Yea your probably right Yellow. Thanks for the help. I would have thought more people would have looked at a bunch of ways to upkeep your mac.

 

[yellow]

Yea your probably right Yellow. Thanks for the help. I would have thought more people would have looked at a bunch of ways to upkeep your mac.

IMO it's not really necessary.

I think the keys are, don't mess too much with haxies and UI enhancements (themes) that might compromise the integrity of the OS. Repair permissions after installing things that require a password. Make sure you have at least 25% of your total boot disk space free. Make sure your scripts are able to run once in a while. End of story. That's all the "maintenance" you need.

I think that article was more for the people that are OCD and "NEED" to perform some sort of regular task on their Mac to make them feel like it's running in tip-top shape.