How to speed up a mac
How to speed up a Mac.
More information is required to begin addressing your question, much more. What specific model Mac Pro are you using? (Apple) menu > About This Mac...
Whatever you do, do not download or install any product claiming to magically "clean up" or "speed up" or "optimize" your Mac. Without exception, they will do the opposite. If you already did, you found the problem. Fix it.
If it is only Web browsing that seems to be slower than it used to, that is often the result of such sites becoming ever more demanding of hardware and bandwidth. Short of paying for faster Internet service, buying additional memory, or a faster Mac, there is little you can do to cope with such so-called progress.
If you are experiencing general slowdowns or "freezes" unrelated to Internet activity, the problem may be related to your computer or the software you installed and is something you may be able to fix, or at least improve. Aside from hardware failures and software that you install, including OS upgrades, there is no reason that your computer should not work precisely the same as it did when it was new.
Without a more specific description it is difficult to provide specific guidance. Read the following to determine if something may apply to your concern:
General Mac maintenance: Tips to keep your Mac in top form
General purpose Mac troubleshooting guide: Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Creating a temporary account to isolate user-specific problems: Isolating an issue by using another user account
Memory limitations: Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used
Identifying resource hogs and other tips: Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime, affect performance, and increase heat and fan activity
To identify potential hardware problems: Apple Hardware Test.
To resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance, use Disk Utility.
Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode
Similar Messages
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How to speed up my mac book pro
hello
Ive noticed my mac is a bit sluggish lately when it comes to opening apps or loading pages on the web. I was wondering if there was anything i could do to help speed it up?
cheers!The link in Eric's reply (the blue text) contains the repair instructions. Click his blue text.
You may be confusing RAM with hard drive space. RAM are the modules inside the computer that offer temporary sotrage. The hard drive is permanent storage. If the hard drive is too full, that can slow the computer.
To check for a full hard drive, hightlight (single-click) your hard drive's icon on the Desktop, then do the keyboard combo command + i to get the numbers you need. You'll see something like this:
The number for "Available" should be at least 15-20 percent of the number for "Capacity." Otherwise the system is struggling to perform its memory management tasks.
Too may items on your Desktop can also slow performance. If you have over about 250 items, it could crash the computer. If you have a lot of stuff on the desktop, make a few new folders on the desktop and drag stuff to them. If you have 100 icons on your desktop (not counting the hard drive icon or those for optical sicks like CDs or DVDs) and and manage to drag everything into two folder, what was 100 becomes two. -
Problem description:
My mac is running very slow and seems to always be on like i hear it buzzing constantly
EtreCheck version: 2.1.3 (106)
Report generated December 16, 2014 at 11:49:46 PM EST
Hardware Information: ℹ️
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac12,2
1 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core
4 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 0/DIMM1
empty empty empty empty
BANK 1/DIMM1
empty empty empty empty
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
AMD Radeon HD 6970M - VRAM: 1024 MB
iMac 2560 x 1440
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 3 days 21:50:38
Disk Information: ℹ️
WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0 disk0 : (1 TB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 998.97 GB (555.85 GB free)
Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked
Core Storage: disk0s2 999.35 GB Online
HL-DT-STDVDRW GA32N
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
LaCie LaCie Hard Drive USB 2 TB
disk2s1 (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 32 KB
Tekhnoir (disk2s3) /Volumes/Tekhnoir : 2.00 TB (547.64 GB free)
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. iPhone
Western Digital My Book 500.11 GB
TRAUMA (disk3s1) /Volumes/TRAUMA : 500.11 GB (476.42 GB free)
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Mac App Store and identified developers
Adware: ℹ️
Geneio [Remove]
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/Library/Extensions
[loaded] at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch (4228 - SDK 10.8) [Support]
Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️
[killed] com.apple.AirPlayUIAgent.plist
[failed] com.apple.CallHistoryPluginHelper.plist
[failed] com.apple.CallHistorySyncHelper.plist
[killed] com.apple.cmfsyncagent.plist
[failed] com.apple.coreservices.appleid.authentication.plist
[failed] com.apple.EscrowSecurityAlert.plist
[killed] com.apple.recentsd.plist
[failed] com.apple.sbd.plist [Details]
[failed] com.apple.scopedbookmarkagent.xpc.plist
[failed] com.apple.xpc.loginitemregisterd.plist
Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[failed] com.apple.AssetCacheLocatorService.plist [Details]
[failed] com.apple.awdd.plist
[failed] com.apple.ctkd.plist
[killed] com.apple.icloud.findmydeviced.plist
[failed] com.apple.ifdreader.plist
[failed] com.apple.nehelper.plist
[failed] com.apple.periodic-daily.plist [Details]
[failed] com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist [Details]
[failed] com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist [Details]
[killed] com.apple.tccd.system.plist
[failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist
[failed] com.apple.xpc.smd.plist
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[running] at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent.plist [Support]
[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist [Support]
[running] com.amazon.sendtokindle.launcher.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[running] at.obdev.littlesnitchd.plist [Support]
[failed] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Support]
[running] com.fitbit.galileod.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.perion.searchprotectd.plist [Support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.spotify.webhelper.plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist [Support]
[invalid?] uk.co.markallan.clamxav.freshclam.plist [Support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
Fitbit Connect Menubar Helper UNKNOWN (missing value)
iTunesHelper ApplicationHidden (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.4.4.2 [Support]
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 [Support]
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 25 Check version
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
searchExt-1 [Cached]
PalMall 1.1 [Installed]
Trovi Search for Safari [Installed]
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player [Support]
Flip4Mac WMV [Support]
Java [Support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Skip System Files: NO
Mobile backups: OFF
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 998.97 GB Disk used: 443.12 GB
Destinations:
Tekhnoir [Local]
Total size: 2.00 TB
Total number of backups: 113
Oldest backup: 2012-01-04 20:09:16 +0000
Last backup: 2014-12-17 04:48:13 +0000
Size of backup disk: Adequate
Backup size 2.00 TB > (Disk used 443.12 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
5% WindowServer
1% mds
0% fontd
0% ocspd
0% AppleSpell
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
314 MB iTunes
271 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
150 MB Safari
69 MB mds_stores
52 MB Finder
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
661 MB Free RAM
1.47 GB Active RAM
825 MB Inactive RAM
1.03 GB Wired RAM
23.52 GB Page-ins
455 MB Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Dec 15, 2014, 03:02:06 PM discoveryd_2014-12-15-150206_henrys-iMac-2.crash
Dec 15, 2014, 12:16:57 PM discoveryd_2014-12-15-121657_henrys-iMac-2.crash
Dec 15, 2014, 05:31:48 AM discoveryd_2014-12-15-053148_henrys-iMac-2.crashso i did the adware check and the fit bit uninstall disabled little snitch and ran the report again any more suggestions ..I'm going to be away from the computer until the evening, Justin T Im gonna try that when i return home.
thank you everyone for your suggestions
Problem description:
slow mac
EtreCheck version: 2.1.4 (107)
Report generated December 17, 2014 at 9:51:16 AM EST
Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.
Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac12,2
1 3.1 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core
4 GB RAM Upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 0/DIMM1
empty empty empty empty
BANK 1/DIMM1
empty empty empty empty
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
AMD Radeon HD 6970M - VRAM: 1024 MB
iMac 2560 x 1440
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.10.1 (14B25) - Uptime: 0:21:51
Disk Information: ℹ️
WDC WD1001FALS-403AA0 disk0 : (1 TB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 998.97 GB (546.67 GB free)
Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked
Core Storage: disk0s2 999.35 GB Online
HL-DT-STDVDRW GA32N
USB Information: ℹ️
Western Digital My Book 500.11 GB
TRAUMA (disk3s1) /Volumes/TRAUMA : 500.11 GB (476.42 GB free)
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
LaCie LaCie Hard Drive USB 2 TB
disk2s1 (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 32 KB
Tekhnoir (disk2s3) /Volumes/Tekhnoir : 2.00 TB (539.24 GB free)
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/Library/Extensions
[loaded] at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch (4228 - SDK 10.8) [Support]
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[running] at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent.plist [Support]
[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist [Support]
[running] com.amazon.sendtokindle.launcher.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[running] at.obdev.littlesnitchd.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist [Support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.spotify.webhelper.plist [Support]
[invalid?] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist [Support]
[invalid?] uk.co.markallan.clamxav.freshclam.plist [Support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper ApplicationHidden (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.4.4.2 [Support]
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 [Support]
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 25 Check version
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
searchExt-1 [Cached]
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player [Support]
Flip4Mac WMV [Support]
Java [Support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Skip System Files: NO
Mobile backups: OFF
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 998.97 GB Disk used: 452.30 GB
Destinations:
Tekhnoir [Local]
Total size: 2.00 TB
Total number of backups: 108
Oldest backup: 2012-01-04 20:09:16 +0000
Last backup: 2014-12-17 09:36:09 +0000
Size of backup disk: Adequate
Backup size 2.00 TB > (Disk used 452.30 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
4% WindowServer
3% backupd
2% mds
1% mds_stores
0% ocspd
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
335 MB com.apple.MediaLibraryService
228 MB iTunes
159 MB Google Chrome
155 MB Safari
148 MB mds_stores
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
33 MB Free RAM
1.66 GB Active RAM
1.64 GB Inactive RAM
914 MB Wired RAM
3.97 GB Page-ins
113 MB Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Dec 17, 2014, 09:30:07 AM Self test - passed
Dec 15, 2014, 03:02:06 PM discoveryd_2014-12-15-150206_[redacted].crash
Dec 15, 2014, 12:16:57 PM discoveryd_2014-12-15-121657_[redacted].crash
Dec 15, 2014, 05:31:48 AM discoveryd_2014-12-15-053148_[redacted].crash -
My MAC pc seems to be working slowly - how to speed it back up?
How to speed up my MAC pc?
First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.
There are a few other possible causes of generalized slow performance that you can rule out easily.
Reset the System Management Controller.
If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane.
Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any.
Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
If you're booting from an aftermarket SSD, see whether there's a firmware update for it.
If you have a MacBook Pro with dual graphics, disable automatic graphics switching in the Energy Saverpreference pane for better performance at the cost of shorter battery life.
Otherwise, take the steps below when you notice the problem.
Step 1
Launch the Activity Monitor application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the icon grid.
Select the CPU tab of the Activity Monitor window.
Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.
Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.
Select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?
Next, select the Disk Activity tab. Post the approximate values shown for Reads in/sec and Writes out/sec (not Reads in and Writes out.)
Step 2
If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.
Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Activity Monitor. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Select the 50 or so most recent entries in the log. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). You're looking for entries at the end of the log, not at the beginning.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. That should be easy to do if your extract is not too long. -
My Mac has gone really slow since upgrading to Mavericks. Any suggestions as to how to speed things up again?
First, back up all data immediately unless you already have a current backup. If you can't back up, stop here. Do not take any of the steps below.
Step 1
This diagnostic procedure will query the log for messages that may indicate a system issue. It changes nothing, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|find tok|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|timed? ?o' | tail | awk '/:/{$4=""; print}' | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key.
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the command will produce no output, and the window will be empty. If the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window) has anything in it, stop here and post it — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the TextEdit window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.
Step 2
There are a few other possible causes of generalized slow performance that you can rule out easily.
Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any.
Reset the System Management Controller.
Run Software Update. If there's a firmware update, install it.
If you're booting from an aftermarket SSD, see whether there's a firmware update for it.
If you have a portable computer, check the cycle count of the battery. It may be due for replacement.
If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane. See whether there's any change.
Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
If you have a MacBook Pro with dual graphics, disable automatic graphics switching in the Energy Saverpreference pane for better performance at the cost of shorter battery life.
Step 3
When you notice the problem, launch the Activity Monitor application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the icon grid.
Select the CPU tab of the Activity Monitor window.
Select All Processes from the View menu or the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.
Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for User, System, and Idle at the bottom of the window.
Select the Memory tab. What value is shown in the bottom part of the window for Swap used?
Next, select the Disk tab. Post the approximate values shown for Reads in/sec and Writes out/sec (not Reads in andWrites out.)
Step 4
If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.
Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Activity Monitor. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Select the 50 or so most recent entries in the log. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combinationcommand-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). You're looking for entries at the end of the log, not at the beginning.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. That should be easy to do if your extract is not too long. -
starting Mac book pro become very slow about 4 minutes. How can I speed it?
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utility is: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior for defragmentation of older drives, disk repair, disk scans, formatting, partitioning, disk copy, and benchmarking.
Four outstanding sources of information on Mac maintenance are:
1. OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney.
2. Mac maintenance Quick Assist
3. Maintaining Mac OS X
4. Mac Maintenance Guide
Periodic Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) SeeMac OS X- About background maintenance tasks. If you are running Leopard or later these tasks are run automatically, so there is no need to use any third-party software to force running these tasks.
If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced after Tiger. (These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.)
Defragmentation
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive except when trying to install Boot Camp on a fragmented drive. But you don't need to buy third-party software. All you need is a spare external hard drive and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Cheap and Easy Defragmentation
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive. You will use Carbon Copy Cloner to create the backup and to restore it.
1. Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the
external one.
2. Boot from the external hard drive.
3. Erase the internal hard drive.
4. Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not depressed or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the upward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the
mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the
drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is
failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be
reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the
DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the
drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
(Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait
until the process has completed.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not selected or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.
Malware Protection
As for malware protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. Starting with Lion Apple has included built-in malware protection that is automatically updated as necessary.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection:
1. Mac Malware Guide.
2. Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware
3. Macintosh Virus Guide
For general anti-virus protection I recommend only using ClamXav, but it is not necessary if you are keeping your computer's operating system software up to date. You should avoid any other third-party software advertised as providing anti-malware/virus protection. They are not required and could cause the performance of your computer to drop.
Cache Clearing
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache files can cause slowness, kernel panics, and other issues. Although this is not a frequent nor a recurring problem, when it does happen there are tools such as those above to fix the problem.
For emergency cleaning install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. (AppleJack works with Snow Leopard or earlier.)
Installing System Updates or Upgrades
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Backup and Restore
Having a backup and restore strategy is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your computer. Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Deja Vu
3. SuperDuper!
4. Synk Pro
5. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance and backup and restore.
Always have a current backup before performing any system updates or upgrades.
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space. Avoid installing utilities that rely on Haxies, SIMBL, or that alter the OS appearance, add features you will rarely if ever need, etc. The more extras you install the greater the probability of having problems. If you install software be sure you know how to uninstall it. Avoid installing multiple new software at the same time. Install one at a time and use it for a while to be sure it's compatible.
Additional suggestions will be found in:
1. Mac OS X speed FAQ
2. Speeding up Macs
3. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
4. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up
5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines
6. Five Mac maintenance myths
7. How to Speed up Macs
8. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X -
How to see the file transfer speed on a mac
Hi, I'm kind of a beginner with a Mac, I have worked on windows for all this years and now I have a small dilema. Can someone please tell me how you can see the file transferring speed on a mac. When you copy and paste from one drive to another, or from time capsule to my mac, etc a dialog appears showing you a progress bar and the time remaining. I would also like to see the speed of the transfer. Is it posible to see this variable?
In windows - vista when you copy or paste a folder from one location to another in the file transfer pop-up you can see the speed of the transfer.(You must press the more details arrow on that pop-up). Does Leopard has any configuration for this kind of information.
I will try iGet and write here my feedback. -
My Mac (1 yr old) has slowed down. How to speed it up?
First, back up all data immediately, as your boot drive might be failing.
Step 1
This diagnostic procedure will query the system log for messages that may indicate a hardware fault. It changes nothing, and therefore will not, in itself, solve your problem.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator. I've tested them only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'Channel t|GPU D|I/O|nspace-h|n Cause: -' | tail | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the command will produce no output, and the window will be empty. If the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window) has anything in it, stop here and post it — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the TextEdit window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.
Step 2
There are a few other possible causes of generalized slow performance that you can rule out easily.
Reset the System Management Controller.
If you have many image or video files on the Desktop with preview icons, move them to another folder.
If applicable, uncheck all boxes in the iCloud preference pane.
Disconnect all non-essential wired peripherals and remove aftermarket expansion cards, if any.
Check your keychains in Keychain Access for excessively duplicated items.
Boot into Recovery mode, launch Disk Utility, and run Repair Disk.
If you're booting from an aftermarket SSD, see whether there's a firmware update for it.
If you have a MacBook Pro with dual graphics, disable automatic graphics switching in the Energy Saverpreference pane for better performance at the cost of shorter battery life.
Step 3
When you notice the problem, launch the Activity Monitor application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Activity Monitor in the icon grid.
Select the CPU tab of the Activity Monitor window.
Select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected.
Click the heading of the % CPU column in the process table to sort the entries by CPU usage. You may have to click it twice to get the highest value at the top. What is it, and what is the process? Also post the values for % User, % System, and % Idle at the bottom of the window.
Select the System Memory tab. What values are shown in the bottom part of the window for Page outs and Swap used?
Next, select the Disk Activity tab. Post the approximate values shown for Reads in/sec and Writes out/sec (not Reads in and Writes out.)
Step 4
If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out this step.
Launch the Console application in the same way you launched Activity Monitor. Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Select the 50 or so most recent entries in the log. Copy them to the Clipboard (command-C). Paste into a reply to this message (command-V). You're looking for entries at the end of the log, not at the beginning.
When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some personal information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting. That should be easy to do if your extract is not too long. -
How can I read the internet speed in a MAC?
How can I find the INTERNET SPEED in a MAC?
You typically use a free Internet Speed test. It does an upload and a download from a known site, bypassing certain configuration problems. Just do a search to find a dozen services eager to test with you (in exchange for the Ads on their pages).
Do not pay for this service, and DO NOT accept any CR@P they suggest you download to "fix" your speed. They cannot tell from outside whether you have problems, and none of the things you can download ever makes anything better.
If using Wi-Fi, one generally finds that the Wi-Fi part of the connection is the limiting factor. -
Very slow processing. Any ideas of what to do? Deleted cookies already.
Get a faster model.
If you can add more RAM, that's a start. Also, a faster hard drive if you can replace the hard drive. Then see:
Kappy's Personal Suggestions About Mac Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utility is: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior for defragmentation of older drives, disk repair, disk scans, formatting, partitioning, disk copy, and benchmarking.
Four outstanding sources of information on Mac maintenance are:
1. OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney.
2. Mac maintenance Quick Assist
3. Maintaining Mac OS X
4. Mac Maintenance Guide
Periodic Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) See Mac OS X- About background maintenance tasks. If you are running Leopard or later these tasks are run automatically, so there is no need to use any third-party software to force running these tasks.
If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced after Tiger. (These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.)
Defragmentation
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive except when trying to install Boot Camp on a fragmented drive. But you don't need to buy third-party software. All you need is a spare external hard drive and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Cheap and Easy Defragmentation
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive. You will use Carbon Copy Cloner to create the backup and to restore it.
1. Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the
external one.
2. Boot from the external hard drive.
3. Erase the internal hard drive.
4. Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not depressed or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the upward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the
mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the
drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is
failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be
reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the
DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the
drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
(Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait
until the process has completed.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not selected or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.
Malware Protection
As for malware protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. Starting with Lion, Apple has included built-in malware protection that is automatically updated as necessary. To assure proper protection, update your system software when Apple releases new OS X updates for your computer.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection:
1. Mac Malware Guide.
2. Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware
3. Macintosh Virus Guide
For general anti-virus protection I recommend only using ClamXav, but it is not necessary if you are keeping your computer's operating system software up to date. You should avoid any other third-party software advertised as providing anti-malware/virus protection. They are not required and could cause the performance of your computer to drop.
Cache Clearing
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner 7.0.9, Maintenance 1.6.8, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache files can cause slowness, kernel panics, and other issues. Although this is not a frequent nor a recurring problem, when it does happen there are tools such as those above to fix the problem.
If you are using Snow Leopard or earlier, then for emergency cleaning install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. (AppleJack works with Snow Leopard or earlier.)
Installing System Updates or Upgrades
Repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand.
Update your backups in case an update goes bad.
Backup and Restore
Having a backup and restore strategy is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your computer. Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. You can never have too many backups. Don't rely on just one. Make several using different backup utilities. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance and backup and restore.
Always have a current backup before performing any system updates or upgrades.
Final Suggestions
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space. Avoid installing utilities that rely on Haxies, SIMBL, or that alter the OS appearance, add features you will rarely if ever need, etc. The more extras you install the greater the probability of having problems. If you install software be sure you know how to uninstall it. Avoid installing multiple new software at the same time. Install one at a time and use it for a while to be sure it's compatible.
Additional reading may be found in:
1. Mac OS X speed FAQ
2. Speeding up Macs
3. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
4. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up
5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines
6. Five Mac maintenance myths
7. How to Speed up Macs
8. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
Most if not all maintenance is for troubleshooting problems. If your computer is running OK, then there isn't really a thing you need to do except repair the hard drive and permissions before installing any new system updates. -
How do i adjust iTunes playback speed on my mac ?
How do i adjust iTunes playback speed on my mac (OSX 10.10.2) ?
I'd like to play podcasts at 1.5x, without running them through a separate script.I have not see mention of any way in iTunes itself.
Changing playback speed in iTunes - https://discussions.apple.com/message/11432266 - primarily for audiobooks but if you read the whole thread there is mention of ways to do this with other media.
You can also look into stand-alone applications such as AmazingSlowDowner. -
Just a heads up for my fellow Mac users.
"How do I defrag my mac?"
"You don't need to, ever. It does it automatically."
"But it's running really slowly..."
"Repair permissions or something. Defragging is not necessary on a mac."
Techtool pro is now defragmenting my mac. Looks like the job's going to take about 4 hours. I thought I'd give everyone the truth about this while waiting (on a different computer obviously)
The truth is, Apple's defragmenting system ***** BALLS. It has two massive, massive flaws which I feel people urgently need to be made aware of.
#1: It only defragments files up to 20mb. If you're a movie producer, a songwriter, a photographer, or anything which involves working with many massive files, the built in defragmenting program WILL NOT HELP YOU IN THE SLIGHTEST.
#2: It only defragments FILES. Free space is ignored, which eventually causes absolutely hrrendous problems.
Let me give you an analogy here. Imagine your mac's hard drive is a bookcase with lots of books on it.
File fragmentation is when it can't find a gap in the bookcase big enough for the entire book, so it breaks the book into pieces and srotes them in different gaps.
Space fragmentation is when there are gaps all over the bookcase, instead of all the books being pushed to one side so there's a long gap elsewhere.
Apple's built in defragmenting program will only fix the first problem - and even then, it will ignore any book bigger than 20 pages long, if you have bigger books which are broken up, you're screwed.
Why is space fragmentation a problem? It's a problem because it directly LEADS TO file fragmentation. If there is a large block of free space all in one part of the disk, then an entire file can be written to it. However, if there is no single free block big enough for the file, it HAS NO CHOICE but to fragment it.
So basically you might have 5 GB free and want to save a 2GB imovie project. That's cool. But what you may not realize is, the biggest single area of free space is only say 600MB. Others are around 300 and 400. Therefore the file MUST be fragmented into all these different areas, which wouldn't be necessary if all the free space was in one area of the disk.
But apple's built in tools don't do anything about this, at least not in Tiger. PErhaps this has been fixed in later installations but I'm almost certain the same issues exist in leopard.
Your only option is to buy a defragmenting program. I know this ***** but believe me, this IS something you NEED to do if your activity on your laptop involves disk space - intensive projects. I'm using TechTool Pro which has been recommended to me as hands down the best. It has a number of other functions as well, right now I'm only using the defragmenting tools but it has others for repairing damages disk sectors and other mantainence tools. There are other programs such as iDefrag out there as well.
Why am I telling you this? I'm telling you because I experienced mind numbing frustration trying to get answers from the Apple community. Google it or ask the question yourself and you will most likely be whacked in the face with the intro to my post here - "You don't need to, it's not necessary, macs do it themselves, blah blah blah"
Even worse, Apple's own webpage on the subject is nothing short of a disaster. It basically says "You PROBABLY don't need to defragment, unless you work with large files." That's it. You'd expect it to have an extra section saying "If you DO happen to work with large files, here's what you do" but no such section exists. It basically says "You don't need to defrag most of the time, and on the rare occasions when you do, well, too bad, you're screwed."
I urge everyone to heed this or they will be tearing their hair out at how slow their mac has become and the fact that no one will offer any meaningful advice other than the standard, generic, "Repair permissions" - the Mac equivelant of "have you tried turning it off and on again".
My disk is at 99% fragmented free space. NINTEY NINE PERCENT. In other words, although I have 25GB of free space, there was not a single contiguous block on the entire machine. I had almost 5,000 fragmented files as well, mostly imovies. Defragmenting got this down to about 300.
The defrag job is taking more than 4 hours and will probably go on to take a lot longer than that. This machine has been slowly grinding to a halt over the last 3 years and now I know why.
Please don't listen to anyone. Get yourself a defragmenting folder, and email Apple to tell them it's just not good enough to give their customers half assed answers and inadequate basic maintainence tools. Mac OS X must literally be the only operating system out there where something as basic as defragmenting is not only almost impossible to get answers on, but actually costs money to fix once you DO get answers.
As customers, we should not accept this any longer. I intend to spread the above message far and wide.
I LOVE Apple. I've always been "a mac" and I always will be. This in no way a mac bashing post or a windows endorsing one. I wouldn't switch back to windows if you gave me a million euro.
But sometimes even the best developers can royally f*ck up. This is one of them.
There is no readon people should be forced to put up with this crap. Absolutely no reason at all. I've had 3 months of crappy performance with no official explanation whatsoever.
Apple if you're reading this: I love your products. I'm a loyal customer. People are more forgiving than you think, speak up, admit you dropped the ball, and DO something about it in your next updates to Lion and whichever versions of Leopard you are still actively maintaining.
There's no shame in admitting when you're wrong. The shame is in hiding behind false promises and walls of silence.
--Loyal customer, but feeling rather betrayed by all this.The old rule of thumb was to keep 10-12 GB free. Any lower than that and you will start to have trouble. I was very close to that for a long time and never had any complaints. Now, Lion "encourages" 20% free space (on my newer 250 GB drive) so I try to keep it with more than 50 GB free.
Do you still have the original memory in that machine too? The metal plate you have to remove in the battery compartment also provides access to the RAM. Your machine will take 2 GB of RAM, possibly 3. You definitely want to max that out too.
Regardless, you definitely need a new hard drive. When Apple switched to PC components, they had to take a quality hit. These 2.5" notebook hard drives are not very reliable. I'm surprised your hard drive hasn't died by now. I usually get a new hard drive with every major OS upgrade. A $ 50 investment every couple of years is no big deal.
Unfortunately, you (and I) suffer from being an early adopter in 2006. Those 32-bit machines only accept 2 GB RAM (maybe 3) and are only 32-bit so they can't be upgraded to Lion. Because of this limitation, you won't see as dramatic an improvement as you would with a 2007 machine. If you run more than a couple of applications, your hard drive is always going to have to be doing some VM work. My 2006 machine has even lost its bluetooth. I gave it to my brother. My very similar 2007 Macbook is still running great.
So, you must get a new hard drive because your old one is likely on death's door. If you don't have at least 2 GB - get it. If you can't afford a new machine, you might want to consider an SSD. That might help mitigate your RAM limitations. You can spend from $ 100 to $ 350 and get a dramatic speed improvement. -
Is there a way to speed up a Mac (similar to de-fragging on a PC)? Mine has gotten slower and slower over time.
When memory/disc comes close to full would that have an effect on performance? How should I determine what programs/software to remove and free space?Things You Can Do To Resolve Slow Downs
If your computer seems to be running slower here are some things you can do:
Start with visits to: OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney;
The X Lab: The X-FAQs;
The Safe Mac » Mac Performance Guide;
The Safe Mac » The myth of the dirty Mac;
Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Boot into Safe Mode then repair your hard drive and permissions:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions Pre-Lion
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the Utilites Menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD disk icon and click on the arrow button below.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
For situations Disk Utility cannot handle the best third-party utility is Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible.
Note: Alsoft ships DW on a bootable DVD that will startup Macs running Snow Leopard or earlier. It cannot start Macs that came with Lion or later pre-installed, however, DW will work on those models.
Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or later and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
See these Apple articles:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
About file quarantine in OS X
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
Troubleshooting Applications
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX, Mavericks Cache Cleaner, or Cocktail that you can use for removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache, log, or temporary files can cause application or OS X crashes as well as kernel panics.
If you have Snow Leopard or Leopard, then for similar repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. Applejack does not work with Lion and later.
Basic Backup
For some people Time Machine will be more than adequate. Time Machine is part of OS X. There are two components:
1. A Time Machine preferences panel as part of System Preferences;
2. A Time Machine application located in the Applications folder. It is
used to manage backups and to restore backups. Time Machine
requires a backup drive that is at least twice the capacity of the
drive being backed up.
Alternatively, get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files. For help with using Time Machine visit Pondini's Time Machine FAQ for help with all things Time Machine.
Referenced software can be found at MacUpdate.
Additional Hints
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space.
Add more RAM. If your computer has less than 2 GBs of RAM and you are using OS X Leopard or later, then you can do with more RAM. Snow Leopard and Lion work much better with 4 GBs of RAM than their system minimums. The more concurrent applications you tend to use the more RAM you should have.
Always maintain at least 15 GBs or 10% of your hard drive's capacity as free space, whichever is greater. OS X is frequently accessing your hard drive, so providing adequate free space will keep things from slowing down.
Check for applications that may be hogging the CPU:
Pre-Mavericks
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Mavericks and later
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the View menu. Click on the CPU tab in the toolbar. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Often this problem occurs because of a corrupted cache or preferences file or an attempt to write to a corrupted log file. -
What is the best and easiest way to speed up a Mac-MINI?
What is the best and easiest way to speed up a Mac Mini without adding memory?
I'd tried to reply yesterday to your question but for some reason it didn't go anywhere and I got a red message box in the Discussion post area with "error." After trying three times, including log-out, clear cookies from browser (and history) and back in, I still was unable to add my post with links to resources for your Mini, here. And the last time I tried that, the copied text also went missing as I found it gone after considering to make a Text document of it, for later posting.
Anyway, the http://iFixit.com site has guides on how to replace RAM in the computer you have. Note there are different models shown and from what I remember, yours is the last 'old look' Mini with an optical drive. The model after that is thin, a 2010 model with slot in front for discs; the next one has no internal optical drive.
RAM specs: 2 - 204-pin PC3-8500 (1066 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM (replace pair) up to 8GB total. Best price would be an online vendor of repute, once you know about what they sell for, you could ask a local mac expert if they could get you a better than retail price. I get ram from OEMPCworld and shipping is about $1. including insurance to my post office box, priority or 1st class. At about half retail. Crucial (website) offers parts, too; and so does OWC (other world computing).
In addition, I recommended checking into the build specs and quality of the OWC (esales) site for external enclosures with their own power supply, for hard disk drive; for storage and bootable clones on different partitions. And see about Bombiche Carbon copy cloner, it is a commercial product now, not donationware. I've used it successfully to make competely bootable clones on a suitable external HDD (drive should have own power supply, too) A 750GB HDD in a self-powered enclosure that can boot Mac OS X from a clone, is a good start on backing up your upgraded OSX in a way you can clone it back into an empty, wiped or new HDD inside the computer; and it can run from the external. You can't necessarily use a TimeMachine that way.
This should be your Mini -- check other indicators to be sure:
http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Mini_Model_A1283
A serial number lookup site such as the one I end up using because I had it bookmarked is OK: http://www.powerbookmedic.com/identify-mac-serial.php & also have mactracker http://mactracker.ca
Anyway, before I time out or exceed post content(?) This is not all I meant to write before.
Good luck & happy computing! -
Add speed on a mac book pro 10.6.8
add more speed to a mac book pro version 10.6.8
passat1,
which model MacBook Pro do you have, how much RAM is installed in it, what capacity internal disk does it have, and how much free disk space is available on it?
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