Defrag and clean-up

Hey how do i defrag my macbook hd and do a disk clean-up?
thanks

Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.0 is now Intel Mac compatible. TechTool Pro provides additional repair options including file repair and recovery, system diagnostics, and disk defragmentation. TechTool Pro 4.6.1 is Leopard compatible; Drive Genius is similar to TechTool Pro in terms of the various repair services provided. The current version, 1.5.1, is Intel Mac compatible.
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.
OS X automatically defrags 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. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems.
I would also recommend downloading the shareware utility TinkerTool System that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old logfiles and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency 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 commandline. Note that presently AppleJack is not compatible with Leopard.
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.
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. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. PsynchX 2.1.1 and RsyncX 2.1 (Freeware)
6. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware - 3.0 is a Universal Binary)
7. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
The following utilities can also be used for backup, but cannot create bootable clones:
1. Backup (requires a .Mac account with Apple both to get the software and to use it.)
2. Toast
3. Impression
4. arRSync
Apple's Backup is a full backup tool capable of also backing up across multiple media such as CD/DVD. However, it cannot create bootable backups. It is primarily an "archiving" utility as are the other two.
Impression and Toast are disk image based backups, only. Particularly useful if you need to backup to CD/DVD across multiple media.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at www.versiontracker.com and www.macupdate.com.

Similar Messages

ZZXC the problem started when I defraged and deleted cookies

Ok I figured out that I can access my hotmail from internet explorer. Which is very lucky as I have paid to hear a lecture and the ticket number was in my account . The problem started just after I had defraged and cleaned out my cookies. Which was your suggestion to blank screen when trying to access hotmail .. So before I touched the clean out the cookies working fine. Then no access. I tried turning the computer off leaving it for an hour, coming back on ... Nothing no access at all with Firefox. But like I said ok in internet Explores.. This makes no sense to me. I am not technically minded . but I do know how to clean out my cookies and defrag my machine .
So thank you ZZXC for your time and thank you for trying to solve teh problem but no luck .. Still have the problem. I tried to reply to you using the same page as your solution but it will not let me do that.

"Clear the Cache": Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Offline Storage (Cache): "Clear Now"
"Remove the Cookies" from sites causing problems: Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Show Cookies"
If clearing the cookies doesn't help then it is possible that the file ''cookies.sqlite'' that stores the cookies is corrupted.
You can rename (or delete) '''cookies.sqlite''' (cookies.sqlite.old) and delete '''cookies.sqlite-journal''' and '''cookies.txt''', if they exist, in the [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox Profile Folder] in case cookies.sqlite got corrupted.
See [[Cannot log in to websites]] (Remove corrupt cookies file) - See also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Websites_report_cookies_are_disabled (Other Solutions)
Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode]] to check if one of your add-ons is causing your problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Tools > Add-ons > Themes).
See [[Troubleshooting extensions and themes]] and [[Troubleshooting plugins]]

I think my iMac got virus on my iMac through opening an email from Facebook on Safari, anyone knows how to do a complete erase and clean up of the iMac?

I think my iMac got virus on my iMac through opening an email from Facebook on Safari, anyone knows how to do a completely erase and clean up of the iMac?

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 a visit to: OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney.
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.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Repair the Hard Drive - Lion
Boot from your Lion Recovery HD. 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.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the 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 and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Restart your computer normally and see if this has helped any. Next do some maintenance:
Suggestions for OS X 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.
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 Lion 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. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems. For more about malware see Macintosh Virus Guide.
I would also 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.
For emergency 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. There is no confirmation that this version also works with Lion.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand.
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. Data Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. SyncTwoFolders
6. Synk Pro
7. Synk Standard
8. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or 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:
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, 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.

Best program to defrag or clean up macbook pro

My macbook has slowed down significantly and I'm looking for a way to defragment or clean up unneeded files to increase performance.

How full is your hard drive?
Be afraid of FileVault if you are approaching capacity.
How much RAM do you have?
Create a new user account, log out of yours and back into the new account, see if things change.
The OS typically takes care of fragmentation.
Joe

Opening and cleaning a Macbook Pro (retina 2012)

I have had my MacBook Pro retina for more than 2 years, without cleaning the insides yet
I have used it extensively, many hours every day, and there has been periods of daily smoking
Should I just order a screwdriver set (pentalobe?), open it and clean the fans etc.?
I assume warranty is already expired.
But will opening and cleaning it be complicated or risky business? I'm good with electronics, but Apple uses small and delicate screws/parts etc.
Should I use a swab, compressed air container, or will a vacuum cleaner do? (metal/plastic head; static electricity)

Mow.gli wrote:
Should I just order a screwdriver set (pentalobe?), open it and clean the fans etc.?
I would. I open up my MBPs without fear. I suggest that you place it on a large surface with a clean towel underneath. That way you can slide it around without damage and when you drop a screw, it will tend NOT to bounce away.
I assume warranty is already expired.
Yes, unless you purchased Apple care which extends it to three years.
But will opening and cleaning it be complicated or risky business? I'm good with electronics, but Apple uses small and delicate screws/parts etc.
Should I use a swab, compressed air container, or will a vacuum cleaner do? (metal/plastic head; static electricity)
I do not consider it risky if you use patience and a little common sense. You may also need a #00 Phillips driver and possibly a Torx driver. Check the iFixit.com web site for disassembly instructions for you model and appropriate tools. That way you will have an idea what to expect. Swabs with a non-residue electronics cleaner and compressed air are good ideas. A vacuum cleaner should be used very judiciously.
Ciao.

How do you combine mutable iphoto libraries and clean up duplicates

how do you combine multiple iphoto libraries and clean up duplicates

If not the only answer is the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager -http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - and maybe duplicate annihaliator -http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/18748/duplicate-annihilator
You must have IPLM as stated - you may also need DA depending on how thing go with the merge
LN

HP LaserJet Pro 200 color MFP M276 - new - Device error and Cleaning cycle issues

HP LaserJet Pro 200 color MFP M276 - this is a new printer a friend purchased at Staples. It connects WiFi okay and prints when prompted to but it then does a "Cleaning" cycle after every print job. It also displays "Device Error" at the same time. It has been powercycled as instructed and the error continues to reappear and the "Cleaning" cycle continues as well after each and every print job. My friend paid Staples to set up this printer to a new Acer Laptop and D-Link router he also purchased before he brought them home. He was told everything works fine .. they lied .. Laptop and router have no issues .. just the printer. The Laptop sees the printer okay and software is installed without issue. Any ideas why the "Device Error" and "Cleaning" cycle after every print job is happening? He is on the verge of taking the whole outfit back as Staples has not assisted him and instead directed him to download the manuals from HP. Any suggestions are appreciated

Have you tried a hard reset on it? I know you said you power cycled it, but a hard reset is sometimes different than what some people consider a power cycle.
Follow these steps to perform a hard reset on the printer.
1. Press the Power button to turn on the product.
2. With the product turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the product.
3. Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.
4. Wait at least 15 seconds.
5. Plug the power cord back into the wall outlet.
6. Reconnect the power cord to the rear of the product.
7. If the product does not turn on by itself, press the power button to turn it on.
Try that out and let me know if it helps.
Best of luck,
Kyle
-------------How do I give Kudos? | How do I mark a post as Solved? --------------------------------------------------------

HT1414 I have the iPhone 4s. I have tried restoring my phone and cleaning out the ports, but I still cannot hear music or my videos playing. This happened after I did the last update on my phone. Is there anything else I can do? This is really irritating.

I have the 4s. I have recently restored my settings and cleaned out the ports. I still cannot hear my audio for music or videos. My volume on the side of the phone does not work either. Everything workds in the setting menu. It is not a speaker issue because the ringtone works when people are calling and I can listen to the different ringtones as well. My notifications and text message audio does not work. My phone does not say that it is on a dock. When I try listening to music, the volume adjustment appears, but it is gray and unusable. Everything works when headphones are in plugged in and when it is on the dock. This started with the last iPhone update. What else can I do... this is becoming very frustrating.

Hi shanny202.
Really strange problem you have there. I have a few questions though.
Please try again and try to make the phone as a new without restoringen with you iCloud-data or backup-data from iTunes. Maybe it is something wrong with the data (strange).
Anyway, i think you should call Apple Support or visit an Apple Store, don't forgot to make a Genius Bar reservation.
You locate the nearest Apple Store here: http://www.apple.com/retail/storelist/
And here is Apples phone numbers around the world for support: http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

How can I wipe my hard drive and clean install Mountain Lion?

Hi I have a 21.5 inch mid 2011 iMac running Mountain Lion, I want to wipe my hard drive and clean install Mountain Lion. I dont want all my stuff back, just photos and music, the rest I'll reinstall my self. I also dont have a exteranl harddrive. only two USB's one 2 GB and the other 8 GB. How do I do this? And I dont want to pay for mountain lion again. Thanks!

I made my partition and am currently reinstalling mountain lion to put on my flash drive. I'm using Lion disk maker 2 thats compatible with mountain lion. I'm doing it right, correct?

Recommnded BBP_GET _STATUS_2 and CLEAN _REQREQ_UP intervals

Hi,
What is the recommended intervals to schedule BBP_GET STATUS2 and CLEAN REQREQUP reports?
Thank you,

Hi,
BBP_GET_STATUS_2 - For Every 20 mins
CLEAN_REQREQ_UP - For Every 2 mins
RSWUWFMLEC - For Every 5 mins (TO send offline approval mails)
Hope this will help.
Thanks
Venkatesh P

Bridge crashes on start up, is there a way to do a clean install or properly troubleshoot? (Literally just uninstalled and cleaned computer of Adobe products and reinstalled Design and Web Premium and bridge still crashes..)

Bridge crashes on start up, is there a way to do a clean install or properly troubleshoot? (Literally just uninstalled and cleaned computer of Adobe products and reinstalled Design and Web Premium and bridge still crashes..)
Here is the crash report:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Bridge.exe
Application Version: 5.0.0.399
Application Timestamp: 4f5ec62d
Fault Module Name: Bridge.exe
Fault Module Version: 5.0.0.399
Fault Module Timestamp: 4f5ec62d
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 003209fa
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.4
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409
If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Have you tried to reset preferences? And no you do not have to start Bridge to do this.,
Hold down the Ctrl key and start Bridge. You should get a reset window with 3 options. Choose all 3.

Why is my mac so slow i have cleansed and cleaned it is a 2010 mac mini i5 but it runs like a 20 year old pc i have only had it for a few months and it was straight out of the box

why is my mac so slow i have cleansed and cleaned it is a 2010 mac mini i5 but it runs like a 20 year old pc i have only had it for a few months and it was straight out of the box

I'm thinking that you have a > Mac mini (Mid 2011) - Technical Specifications because the 2010 model's only have Core 2 Duo processors and the 2011 had the first i5 processor.
2 GB of RAM is the minimum requirement for Mountain Lion, but it's hardly enough to really enjoy doing anything else.
see > Memory and Free Installation Guides for Apple Mac Mini
Plus I don't have any problems running Mountain Lion and a load of App's on my 2010 Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM.

I have a Gotality Heart Monitor accessory and my iPhone 4 is not reading it. I restored the phone and cleaned out the 30 pin jack and still no luck. Any suggestions without going to a apple store. Thanks

I recieved a gotality heart monitor accessory and my iPhone doesn't read the accessory when attached to phone. The accessory works on my friends iPhone 4, so the accessory works. I restored my phone and cleaned out the 30 pin jack and still no luck. Any suggestion without going to the apple store. Thanks.

A reset may help. Tap and hold the Home button and the On/Off buttons for approximately 15-20 seconds, until the Apple logo reappears. When the logo appears, release both buttons.
No content is affected by this procedure.

9.2 and clean HD.

Well, lucky me: I picked up in garage sale $99.00 iMac G3, Graphite version. NO DISKs. And it had 9.1 on it. Also CD burder. Great for kids.
I took advice on this board and picked up an Mac OS 9.2.1 disk (white, with the big gold '9') on it. I sucessfully upgraded to 9.2.1. Next thing, I guess, is get to highest version of 9.2.?? (which I could maybe use some help with if anyone can point me to link here).
BUT MY Q: I could not figure out how to use the 9.2.1 disk to do a complete clean resintall of the HD. Do I need something else? I wish to erase all the prev. owners stuff, and start with a minty fresh and clean HD, with 9.2.X.
how to do??
AND: if I do this, will it include a browser so I can log on? It occured to me, that a totally clean install might leave me with no applications to get on the web!
Jon

Hi, Jon -
Q: I could not figure out how to use the 9.2.1 disk to do a complete clean resintall of the HD. Do I need something else? I wish to erase all the prev. owners stuff, and start with a minty fresh and clean HD, with 9.2.X.
Provided that disk is a full-install disk (there were a few OS 9.2.1 update-only disks shipped with white labels & gold 9 - as I recall, those came with one of the early retail OSX packages, perhaps OSX 10.1) you should be able to do that.
The full-install retail OS 9.2.1 Install CD (in North American English) has an Apple part number of 691-3334-A - that number can be found underneath the text block on the left side of the label.
To do a thorough erase of the drive -
Boot to the CD (insert it, restart, immediately press the C key, keep it held down until you know it has started to boot to the CD; be patient - it takes a lot longer to boot to a CD than to a hard drive). Then run Drive Setup - it can be found in the Utilities folder on the CD. Select zero-all-data from the Initialization Options item in the Functions menu, then click the Initialize button.
This will take a while - about one hour per each 10GB of drive size.
Select Mac OS Extended as the format when asked.
Using Drive Setup
To install the OS -
After the drive has been wiped, and while still booted to the CD, run the installer program on the CD - Mac OS Install. Follow the prompts and accept the default installation.
<hr>
If you do not want to erase everything on the drive, you can do a Clean Install of just the OS instead. A Clean Install will remove nothing; it will install a brand new, 'clean' System Folder, will rename the old one to Previous System Folder, and (in this instance) will not do much else.
Article #58176 - Mac OS 8, Mac OS 9: Performing a Clean Installation

How to defragment and compact free space in Intel based iMacs?

Hi. I had some problems with the OS, so I decided to re-install it. After that I deleted a lot of Stuff I don't really need. Now I have big blocks of free Space in my hard drive and I think that make do an annoing noise. I tryed "iDefrag" but this software just let me do a very normal quick Defrag.
iDefrag says that in order to compact free space, I have to unmount the volume from a different one with the System already installed on it...or from a CD.
I tryed using my FW drive. But it doesn't work as I spected.
So, How can I boot iMac from a CD or DVD in order to run iDefrag and do that "defrag and compact free space".
Thank you

Licht,
Nope, and I wouldn't even try the Norton method. It is fraught with difficulty and can leave you in worse shape than you were before. Best to clone twice and erase, and restore. That's much safer. Here's my FAQ on backing up which includes how to clone:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
For bigger files than Mac OS X defragments on the fly which I mention earlier in the thread, I've found using a separate scratch partition that I can erase with Disk Utility when I'm done creating content and want to create new content that is video or audio works best. The only time Mac OS X experiences fragmentation is with large video files.
I've also found keeping your hard disk at least 10 GB free helps a lot.

Defrag and clean-up

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