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stupid question from a converted PC-er

B

brunseye

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 2, 2005
2
0
Hello... I have 2 silly questions for you Maccies... I just bought a Powerbook G4 to do video editing on. I love the computer but would like to know:

-is there a keyboard shortcut that will enable me to shut the computer down or do I always have to mous up to the apple?
-is there a way to defragment my drive?

Many thanks!
 
re. stupid question

Thanks for the quick reply. Two stupid follow-ups:

-yes, I can close the lid, but if I'm on battery power and not using the computer for an extended period of time, I'd like to shut it down. I take it there are no shortcuts?

-that's interesting to know re. defragging on the fly. But my files aren't normal... they're HUGE because I'm doing video editing (and I understand that the problem is exacerbated by that type of work). Is there another way to manually defrag?

cheers,
k
 
Power button - Return = turn off

Power button - 'S' = sleep.

Close lid = sleep.

No need to turn your PB off. Just put it to sleep. It's not like a windows machine, where this introduces instability issues.

I haven't turned my PB off in two years. It either sleeps, or I restart.

Amaze your windows friends. Pull out your PB, open the lid, and start working about 4 seconds later. They'll be stunned. I get questions all the time: "Did that start up that fast?" "No, it's an Apple, I never shut it down."

I don't close the lid on mine if possible, because the keys touch the screen ever so lightly, and mark it up. It's cleanable, but I'd rather not bother.

As someone said above, don't bother defragging your hard drive. Not worth the time. The risk of losing data far outweighs any gains that you might get - and I don't know of anyone that has gotten any gains from defragging.
 
Here's what Apple say about defragging
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

And here's a very indepth article about HFS+ drives and file fragmentations. one of the scenarios is a PB used for video edithing.

http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/apme/fragmentation/

There are some disc utility tools out there that allow you to defrag your drive. Tech Tool Pro and Drive 10 are 2 of them but they are $98 and £70 bucks respectively. Here's a new cheaper tool - iDefrag (http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag-2.php)

I haven't had to use any of them so can't really recommend. Good luck
 
OS X will defrag files up to 2GB on the fly. Are your files larger than that?
 
cmvsm said:
OS X will defrag files up to 2GB on the fly. Are your files larger than that?
Click to expand...
I think that is 20MB on the fly.

The PB will only use power to do the blinking light when it has is lid shut. It doesn't use the much power. My iBook sat over night, from 5:40 last night till 7:30 this morning, with the lid closed and it only lost about 3% of its charge. I even took it on a 2 day weekend without using it and it barely lost a charge. Booting up the computer is what takes the most energy, but starting from sleep, it takes less time to get to the OS, so less power to get back to a running state where you can start working again.

Probably the two things I can say about maintenance is Repair Permissions after doing any installation that asks for your Admin password. Found here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/89736/

And MacJanitor to run Unix Cron jobs. Yes, OS X is Unix and uses some of the tools that Unix uses to keep itself in tip top shape. If you leave your mac on over night then these will run automatically, but if you want to do it yourself, then MacJanitor can make the process very easy.

Also, www.versiontracker.com is a great place to find out about software. Type in a description of what you want the software to do, and it will show you the programs that do it.
 
brunseye said:
-is there a keyboard shortcut that will enable me to shut the computer down or do I always have to mous up to the apple?
Many thanks!
Click to expand...
Apple+alt+control+eject.
 
Ctrl-Alt-Cmd-Eject will shut down the machine, and Ctrl-Cmd-Eject will restart it. These are two of my favourite shortcuts.
 
varmit said:
And MacJanitor to run Unix Cron jobs. Yes, OS X is Unix and uses some of the tools that Unix uses to keep itself in tip top shape. If you leave your mac on over night then these will run automatically, but if you want to do it yourself, then MacJanitor can make the process very easy.
Click to expand...

Or just open the Terminal and type:

sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

(Or any combo of "daily", "weekly" and/or "monthly" that you want to run)

Read periodic man page.
 
varmit said:
And MacJanitor to run Unix Cron jobs. Yes, OS X is Unix and uses some of the tools that Unix uses to keep itself in tip top shape. If you leave your mac on over night then these will run automatically, but if you want to do it yourself, then MacJanitor can make the process very easy.
Click to expand...
Why waste time with MacJanitor when it can be done automatically?
 
varmit said:
I think that is 20MB on the fly.

The PB will only use power to do the blinking light when it has is lid shut. It doesn't use the much power. My iBook sat over night, from 5:40 last night till 7:30 this morning, with the lid closed and it only lost about 3% of its charge. I even took it on a 2 day weekend without using it and it barely lost a charge. Booting up the computer is what takes the most energy, but starting from sleep, it takes less time to get to the OS, so less power to get back to a running state where you can start working again.

Probably the two things I can say about maintenance is Repair Permissions after doing any installation that asks for your Admin password. Found here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/89736/

And MacJanitor to run Unix Cron jobs. Yes, OS X is Unix and uses some of the tools that Unix uses to keep itself in tip top shape. If you leave your mac on over night then these will run automatically, but if you want to do it yourself, then MacJanitor can make the process very easy.

Also, www.versiontracker.com is a great place to find out about software. Type in a description of what you want the software to do, and it will show you the programs that do it.
Click to expand...


Yes....I forgot the zero...20GB on the fly!!!
 
bubbamac said:
Amaze your windows friends. Pull out your PB, open the lid, and start working about 4 seconds later. They'll be stunned. I get questions all the time: "Did that start up that fast?" "No, it's an Apple, I never shut it down."
Click to expand...
In all fairness, there are a lot of Windows laptop users that rarely shut down either. A co-worker on a ThinkPad only reboots every month or so. Older laptops, earlier versions of Windows did this poorly; but most any new laptop will handle sleep just fine.
 
jsw said:
In all fairness, there are a lot of Windows laptop users that rarely shut down either. A co-worker on a ThinkPad only reboots every month or so. Older laptops, earlier versions of Windows did this poorly; but most any new laptop will handle sleep just fine.
Click to expand...


True
I never used to shutdown my Compaq desktop. The only problem with windows is that you need to reboot it every two days to keep the performance up. It starts filling its memory up with junk from the moment you switch it on. I've my powerbook on for months at a time (sleeping at night :D ) without rebooting and hardly noticed any slow down!

Just in case you didn't already know... Macs rule! :cool:
 
mfacey said:
Just in case you didn't already know... Macs rule! :cool:
Click to expand...
Well, a brief glance at my posts around here would show I agree. :D I just want to make sure we're not making claims a Wintel fanboy could jump all over. ;)
 
I'm still relatively new to macs (about three months) so I still find myself doing things just because of habit with my pc... I usually put my computer (iBook) to sleep when I go to sleep but it took my forever to stop shutting it down and turning it on in the morning. Now, when I bring it back and forth to my classes I find that I turn it off then put it my bag and off I go... should I be concerned about leaving it in sleep mode while carrying it around with me? From what I've been reading it is actually better to just leave the computer on all the time (whether it be is use or in sleep mode) does that hold true when transporting it? Oh, also, sometimes when I go to sleep I prefer to leave my MSN or my BitTorrent on, putting it to sleep disconnects the two (or at least I think it does) so when I do that I just turn the brightness of the screen all the way down so that it is off and then leave the lid open... could this casuse a problem? I wouldn't think so but then again, I'm not entirely sure...
Just looking for some help, thanks!
 
There is no problem with you transporting the computer when it's sleeping.

Closing the lid or manually sleeping does indeed kill any network connections.

Just dimming the screen and leaving it running doesn't hurt it.
 
JonHimself said:
From what I've been reading it is actually better to just leave the computer on all the time (whether it be is use or in sleep mode) does that hold true when transporting it?
Click to expand...

Moving it more than a few feet while it's actually fully on and *not* sleeping is not such a good idea, because the hard disk is running and so more vulnerable. But yes, sleep is just fine. I don't really turn my iBook off at all, I just reboot it once in a while....
 
mkrishnan said:
Moving it more than a few feet while it's actually fully on and *not* sleeping is not such a good idea, because the hard disk is running and so more vulnerable. But yes, sleep is just fine. I don't really turn my iBook off at all, I just reboot it once in a while....
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's one thing I'm working on training my kids to do: ALWAYS close the computer when you carry it around. They're so often tempted to haul the thing upstairs with the lid wide open. Funny, because it's easier to carry closed, and it wakes up in no time. But these are people who throw dirty socks on their bedroom floor 6 inches away from the laundry hamper.
 
JonHimself said:
I'm still relatively new to macs (about three months) so I still find myself doing things just because of habit with my pc... I usually put my computer (iBook) to sleep when I go to sleep but it took my forever to stop shutting it down and turning it on in the morning. Now, when I bring it back and forth to my classes I find that I turn it off then put it my bag and off I go... should I be concerned about leaving it in sleep mode while carrying it around with me? From what I've been reading it is actually better to just leave the computer on all the time (whether it be is use or in sleep mode) does that hold true when transporting it? Oh, also, sometimes when I go to sleep I prefer to leave my MSN or my BitTorrent on, putting it to sleep disconnects the two (or at least I think it does) so when I do that I just turn the brightness of the screen all the way down so that it is off and then leave the lid open... could this casuse a problem? I wouldn't think so but then again, I'm not entirely sure...
Just looking for some help, thanks!
Click to expand...
When the Mac is in sleep mode, it is completely off. Just that when you open it back up, or wake it, it doesn't have to wait to go though the full boot up to get to OS X and to start working. So it is safe to travel with it in sleep mode, I have been doing it for 3 years will my iBook, no problems what so every. I have even put my iBook though the xray machine at the airport while in sleep mode. Leaving the lid open donesn't cause a problem when turning the back light down or off. I would suggest maybe letting the laptop do it automatically in the Power Settings in the System Preferences to turn off your screen after a certain amount of time.
 
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