External Hard Drive Strategy

I have a desktop external hard drive for "regular" backing up. But I am awaiting arrival today of a new little portable from OWC that I ordered to carry around with me: their 100GB 7200RPM FW800/400/USB 2.0.
What would be the ideal strategy for using this drive with my 17" MacBookPRO? I am thinking of it as an "emergency boot drive" for potential diagnostics. I do not care to boot to Windows or any other operating system - well, Linux is intriguing...
How would you like to see this drive set up?
Many thanks.
Clint Bradford
17" MacBook Pro Matte 2GB 09/2006   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

Except normally it (Super Duper) erases the whole thing each time so he would have to partition it to backup with Super Duper only to an appropriate partition. The other problem with just using Super Duper to clone is this - if you have issues with your installation and clone it and then have further issues you have a dodgy clone to restore from and a dodgy operating system to restore to.
Advice with 120 GB: Three partitions - Super Duper - just big enough to clone to; OSX, just enough for an install of the OS; and Data for the rest.
Use Super Duper to clone the source occasionally to the Super Duper partition.
Install OSX on the 2nd partition and delete everything but OSX to save size and install Diskwarrior on that partition as well. This will be a diagnostic drive you install nothing - no apps, no haxies no nothing. You boot from it on occasion and update with OSX and security updates but no iLife, no nothing else. It can be very small.
Data goes on the 3rd if there is any room left.
When trouble is afoot and the clone copy may be as whacked as the source drive, boot from the OSX partition to fix and diagnose.
Frankly for the cost of these drives (they do not have to be tiny OWC drives -there are lots of FW drives with lots of room for $100 and up) I suggest more than one- I have an older Promax drive that is just Super Duper for my MacBook Pro. Another Super Duper partition in in each of my G4 and G5 internal drive sets.
I have a LaCie Pocketdrive with OSX for Power PC to boot the G4 and G5 for Diskwarrior and diagnostics. And one for OSX for Intel. My dealer has as well for the same reason. There is a way to meticulously install OSX for PPC and OSX for Intel on one drive on two partitions but it was easier to use 2 drives.
Finally I have a Lacie 8GB USB drive to store the Windows XP HDD image that Parallels creates prior to running Parallels Compressor.
This is on top of 2.5TB of actual backup drives. Drives are cheap , data is often irreplaceable.

Similar Messages

  • External Hard Drive/Time Machine 101

    I was using a 500 GB external hard drive with my MacBook Pro. I cloned my hard drive to the external hard drive, then used the remaining space to store videos, images, etc. When my aging MacBook Pro finally crashed, I was able to boot up the cloned drive and work with it.
    I now have a new MacBook Pro with a bigger hard drive (750 GB, I think). I also bought a 2 terabyte external hard drive (My Book for Mac), planning on doing the same thing - cloning my hard drive, then using the remaining free space to store extra stuff.
    However, I discovered that my new external hard drive is much more sophisticated than the last one. It gives me the option of using Time Machine or automatically copying all my files to the external drive. So I'd like to go back to square one, find out what my options are and figure out the best strategy.
    First, if I use Time Machine to back up my files, will they effectively create a clone that I can boot up? (I've never used Time Machine before.) If so, then I'm thinking I might not partition my new hard drive. Instead, I would just let Time Machine back up my files. If it creates a 1,200 GB clone, then I could copy videos and images to the remaining 800 GB of hard drive space.
    If Time Machine doesn't create a bootable clone, then I'll probably just do what I've been doing - use a program like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my hard drive, then use the remaining space to store graphics. However, I wonder if I could still get by without partitioning my new hard drive. With two terabytes, it seems like it might be more efficient to just leave it unpartitioned and copy things into it as needed.
    Any tips?
    Thanks.

    Time Machine does not create bootable clones. It does not even create a bootable backup. If that's what you prefer then do not use Time Machine.
    If you use Time Machine then you must allocate at least twice as much space for the backups than the capacity of the drive you are backing up. A 2 TB backup drive would be suitable for a 1 TB main drive or smaller.
    If you plan to create a bootable backup, then partition the backup drive with one partition the size required for the clone. Then use the other partition for you additional storage neeeds.

  • How do I combine an old itune library thats on an external hardrive and a newer library thats on a newer computer into 1 library and keep them on the external hard drive so I won't use up all my memory on my newer laptop

    I copied an old iTunes library off my old Toshiba laptop with windows xp and put it on an external hard drive.  I have a newer Microsoft surface pro laptop with windows 8.1.   I have a small iTunes library on my newer laptop.  I want to combine the 2 libraries into 1, add newer podcasts to the combined library daily, but keep it all on my external hard drive, so I don't use all my memory on my surface pro.  I have an older ipod classic that I have all my old library on.  I love it and don't want to stop using it, but want to be able to add podcasts from my 1 library from time to time.  What I usually do is download podcasts for a few weeks then, download them to my ipod.  Haven't done any of this in about a year.  But want to start getting regular with it again.   PS  I'm not very computer savy  Thanks for any help or advice!

    This article explains how to open a different library: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one. The assumption is that the whole library was copied to the external drive from the old Toshiba laptop, not just the media. If that isn't the case make a new library on the external drive in a folder called \iTunes and move the media inside \iTunes\iTunes Media before adding it to the library.
    Once iTunes is using the library on the external drive you can add any content stored on the internal drive to the library by drag & drop or by moving/copying the content into \iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes. Make sure the option under Edit > Preferences > Advanced to Copy files to the folder iTunes Media when adding to library is selected. Once complete you can delete the original copies on the internal drive.
    Should your library contain duplicates after merging see this recent post on deduping.
    If there are ratings, playlists, play counts, or content stored on the iPod classic and not located anywhere else then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
    Ideally you should backup your library to a second drive for security. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested strategy.
    tt2

  • I used an external hard drive for my backups via Time Capsule.  I bought a new computer and I want to transfer all my old fonts over to the new one but when I go into the Font Library from the hard drive backup but my downloaded fonts aren't there?

    I used an external hard drive to back up my computer using Time Capsule before I bought a new one.  I am slowly transferring information fromt he backup to my new computer and I want to transfer over my old font book.  When I go into the Font folder on the hard drive the only fonts that show up are the ones that came stock with the computer not any of the ones I have downloaded over time.  Could they be downloaded somewhere else?

    The answer to that would probably be "Yes." If you don't remember where your fonts were stored, you may want to search your backups for any of the font files you know the names to. See where that takes you.
    Ideally, Font Book and other font managers will temporarily store the fonts you "installed" into the System when you run the OS. When you shut down, etc. they are removed and reloaded on restart. The permanent place fonts reside is where you saved them when or after you downloaded them. I typically create a Resources folder on the root level of the computer and place a Fonts folder there. Then I install fonts from there, and they are available to all users on that iMac.
    Perhaps if you did not have that kind of a strategy, perhaps many of them are still in your Downloads folder?

  • External hard drive which used to be recognised by my new iMac is no longer being recognised?

    I recently bought an iMac. I have an external hard drive which was formatted to my old MacBook Pro. Initially it worked fine on my new iMac, but all of a sudden it is not being recognised by it. Any ideas what I can do?

    The drive is probably probably starved for power. As electric motors age, they can demand more power. Get a powered USB hub and I suspect your problems will go away.
    If you purchase another hard drive for a desktop Mac in the future, consider one that is self-powered. Much less troublesome.
    Some people have reported that, if they reformatted the external drive for Mac (most are formatted for Windows), the existing drive may work without a hub. You can refomat the drive with Disk Utility. Select Macinstosh Extended (Journaled) as the format. This is a great strategy if you do not have to share the drive with a Windows computer.

  • Can I set Time Machine to backup both my hard drive and an external hard drive?

    Hi. I've been working with a lot of family video lately and my internal hard drive has filled up significantly. iMovie doesn't seem to have a good archiving facility like Adobe InDesign which I use at work were all the relevant files are gathered together into one folder. Apple advised me to relocate my movie files to an external hard drive and herein lies my query.
    Is there a way for me to set Time Machine to backup both my iMac's internal drive and the external hard drive that would contain my movie files? I've been using Time Machine for my backups for a few years now, but backing up the external as well has me stumped. If Time Machine could be used then all the necessary file accociations etc would be safely backed up as well - that's why I don't want to have to manually backup the external.
    Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

    7string48 wrote:
    Thanks so much Pondini!!  You just quickly answered a question that none of the Mac people in 3 stores or Apple Care have been able to answer.If you can format it HFS+ (any variation of Mac OS Extended), it will work.  If not, it won't.  
    I'm not too surprised about the Apple Stores, as they don't get much training on Time Machine.  But AppleCare sure ought to know. 
    Oh...what about if the external drive is an array...like a Drobo with it's own proprietary formatting...I guess that would not work...??
    I've never used a Drobo.  A number of folks here have used them as their Time Machine drives, but I don't recall seeing anyone try to back one up with TM, so can't say for sure.  But if you can format it as HFS+ (any variation of Mac OS Extended), it will work.  If not, it won't.
    At least part of the reason is, Time Machine uses the File System Event Store, a hidden log of changes that OSX keeps on each Mac-formatted disk/partition, to figure out what's changed and needs to be backed-up.  See How Time Machine works its Magic for details.
    See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #32 for details and considerations of backing-up multiple volumes with Time Machine.
    However, even if it will work, that may not be your best strategy, depending on your circumstances:
    Since Time Machine keeps copies of things you've changed or deleted, the destination needs to be considerably larger than the data being backed-up.  How much larger varies widely depending on how you use your Mac, but a general "rule of thumb" is, it needs at least twice the space to be able to keep a reasonable "depth" of backups for you.
    If you have a large internal HD, fairly full, plus a large external HD, and the files on the external don't change frequently, you might want to use Time Machine for the internal, and a different app to a different disk or partition, on a different schedule, for the external.  Especially if space is a consideration, you might not need to keep previous versions of files on the externals.  See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #27 for some alternatives.

  • Copying iTunes to external hard drive

    Hi All,
    I am trying to copy my iTunes folder to an external hard drive to transfer to a new laptop.
    I have followed the instruction online, consolidate in iTunes, close iTunes, drag and drop to external hard drive etc.  However, it get to about 3/4 of the way through then comes up with an error stating that a particular song is corrupt.  So I go into iTunes and delete the entire Album which that song is on.  I also search within Explorer within the iTunes folder and the search results keep coming up with the XML file only.  Its like the corrupt song only exists within this file.......strange??  It's driving me insane!
    Can anyone help?
    Thanks!
    Susan

    Your hard drive is probably getting flakey. See this User Tip for a backup strategy. Unlike Windows Explorer when SyncToy finds a file that it just can't copy it records it as an error and then proceeds to carry on with the next operation. For things that matter it is worth trying another couple of runs when the machine/drive has had a chance to cool down, but first make sure you try to copy off everything that matters to you while you still can...
    tt2

  • Need help in adding a folder library (on external hard drive) to ITunes.  Older versions had "add folder to library" option...

    I have an external hard drive that has a huge music library that I wish to make my Library in ITunes.  I have already set the location of the library to the hard drive folder (under Preferences/Advanced).  In the older versions of ITunes there was an "add folder to library" option.  After selecting that option, ITunes would then take a long time to analyze the songs in the new folder and I could then transfer songs to my IPad.  The new ITunes has an "Add File to Library".  I selected *.* to include all artists and songs in the library, but ITunes does not begin to analyze the songs and artists in the hard drive.
    How do you get Itunes to recognize the songs and artists in the new song directory?.  

    As long as you don't have an existing library that is synced with a device or holds oodles of carefully crafted playlists, ratings etc. then...
    Hold down shift as you start iTunes. You should get an option to choose or create a library. Click create, browse to root of the external drive and click save so that your library is say X:\iTunes where X: is the letter of your external drive. All new content downloaded to the library will stay on the external drive.
    See this user tip for a backup strategy.
    tt2

  • Save files automaticly to external Hard drive?

    Is it possible to... Once i have saved my file to my desktop at the same time can i have the file be saved to my external hard drive? also if i ever open the file again and make changes can i get it to automaticly resave it on my external hard drive again. can i do this all with automator?
    Thanks in advance for any help you may provide.
    Ryan

    You can set up your external as a RAID, but it is not a replacement for a backup strategy.
    -mj
    [email protected]

  • External Hard Drives & Online Storage for Photographers

    I would like to purchase new external hard drives and am also looking into online storage websites. I am wondering if some external hard drives are better than others when it comes to storing photos. And would also like recommendation for online storage.
    Are there certain photo saving "rituals" or systems that you would recommend for keeping your photos safe and backed up.
    Lastly, please recommend your favorite portable external hard drives when you are mobile.
    Thank you

    I have two 4TB Drobo's that are my primary storage of my digital files. My Aperture libraries reside on my Alu iMac internal drive (more on this later). My 2008 Aperture library contains about 35,000 images, all referenced to image files stored on a 2nd Gen Drobo. I don't think it is the fastest solution out there, and surprisingly it seems slower than a USB 2.0 transfer. Having said that, when I am actively working in Aperture on a project, I rarely notice a delay. From this I have concluded that I am very slow or at least the speed of the 2nd Gen Drobo keeps up with me.
    As a bit of warning on Drobo. In December, I was keeping my library on the Drobo and it was taking forever to open (5-20 minutes) and eventually the library became corrupted. I rebuilt it and a few days later it become corrupted again. This is the only time I have ever had problems with my libraries. After the second time, I repaired the library and moved it to my internal drive and it has been fine ever since. Also, I noticed that on occasion Aperture would tell me that an image was an unsupported format and NO program would open the RAW file. If I replaced the RAW file from a back up copy, then Aperture was fine and could open the file. I also noticed that there would be stretches of files (5-20) sequentially named, that became corrupted so no program could open them. ( I was operating the Drobo's with Firmware 1.2.2, I think. After considerable discussion with Drobo I upgraded the Firmware to 1.3 and they also replaced the offending case with a new one. After the upgrade to 1.3, I have not had any new events of corruption since upgrading to 1.3. I could readily copy the corrupted file to another drive without evidence that the file was sick.
    But contained in this story is an interesting puzzle. Historically, I was managing backup of my image files by using SuperDuper copying from one WD 2 TB drive to another WD 2 TB drive. In this scenario, the corrupted files would have been copied and my image files effected would have been lost forever. I really don't know how the vault would work in this situation.
    With this thought, I have changed my strategy for backup. I work on the project with the image files residing on the Drobo. Once done, I export the pictures usually to a JPEG format for the client. IF the initial RAW is corrupted, I am warned as to which files could not be exported. If everything goes fine, then I know my primary image files are ok. I then export the project to an another external drive (I all it xxxxxx ARCHIVE) where I keep a separate library and I then import the project into that ARCHIVE library; Once imported I relocate my masters out of the library into my finder based folder system.
    I also generate a temporary project file as soon as I import into Aperture and store that temporary project file on my ARCHIVE drive.
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    Regard, steven

  • IMac 5,1 Backup and extension of hard drive strategy

    I have an iMac 5,1 500 GB, 20-in running Time Machine on a Seagate 1TB FreeAgent. Both have worked great since I got them. I recently decided I needed a more robust backup strategy and also needed to consider extending my hard drive space. After researching this site, CNET, Amazon and others, I narrowed it down to four including LaCie Rugged 1T, WD My Passport Studio 1T, G-Drive 1T and OWC Mercury Elite. I decided on buying two external drives. One is the 1.0TB (1000GB) OWC Mercury Elite Pro High Performance 7200RPM FireWire 400+USB2 Solution, and the other is 2.0TB (2000GB) OWC Mercury Elite Pro 'Quad Interface' 5900RPM 64MB Cache Solution with eSATA/FW800/FW400/USB2.
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    a second clone
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    Partition the OWC 2T such that I can clone the iMac and clone the 1T partition that is hard drive extension, if that makes sense.
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    I implemented the backup plan I outlined above but have experienced an issue I can't resolve. For some reason, the OWC Elite AL Pro 1T will not boot with the FW400 connection even though it appears in the Startup options. I does not appear as an option when I hold the Option key on startup. If I connect via USB, it works fine and boots as expected.
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    Anyone have any ideas as to solution?
    Thanks.

  • External Hard Drive and Time Machine questions

    Hello, I am new here to the forums and I have looked all over for the answers to two questions that I have regarding external hard drives and the time machine feature.
    For some background, I recently had a scare (water spill but luckily I had a keyboard cover on and the entire spill landed on the cover) with my Mid-2012 13" Macbook Pro (2.5Ghz) and due to almost losing all my data I've decided to invest in an external hard drive. However, rather than just purchasing a 500GB HDD to use as an external hard drive, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and upgrade my Macbook Pro as well by investing in the 480GB OCW Mercury Extreme Pro SSD. I'll be using the SSD as my internal drive so the original hard drive that came with my Macbook will serve as my backup external drive. Lastly, I plan to use the external drive solely for the purpose of backing up my MacBook in case something ever happens to my Macbook.
    I am using this guide to help me with this whole process: http://circuitremix.com/?q=content/macbook-pro-solid-state-drive-upgrade-guide-a nd-performance-testing.
    My two questions are:
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    2) After I have cloned everything onto my new SSD and replaced the HDD in my MacBook with it, should I erase everything on my HDD before setting it up with time machine?  I was thinking about keeping the original data on the original hard drive (which would now be my external drive) just in case something goes wrong with time machine but I have read that people recommend solely dedicating the entire external hard drive for time machine backups.
    Thanks in advance!

    Format the new SSD in Disk Utility to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and that will solve question No. 1.
    After formatting, clone the new SSD using Disk Utility>Restore or Carbon Copy Cloner (down load from the Internet).  Test the new SSD and if it performs as expected, do the physical swap.
    Question No. 2.  Erase the Time Machine HDD using Disk Utility and then install Time Machine.  See this excellent website regarding Time Machine.
    http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
    If you want an external boot HHD, get another one and use Carbon Copy Cloner.  This will give you redundancy in backups as well which is a good strategy.  CCC also can update the contents in an incremental manner similar to Time Machine.
    Ciao.

  • Iomega 360 GB external hard drive startup

    How do I install OS X.6 onto my external hard drive? Can I just drag the SYSTEM folder from my intel-based iMac into the external drive?
    I think I may be missing some install OS X CD's -- for the iMac. I have the iMac OSX Install disc 1 -- and -- OSX Install Disc 2.
    Or can I just install X.6 to the extended drive?
    If I do have to install directly to the extended drive, will I have an option to switch drives -- I don't remember having this option.
    Sorry for the mundame questions.

    While technically you could use one dual partioned external HD as a TM and CCC drive that strategy is not wise. That means you would be placing both backups on one drive, if that drive failed you would lose both defeating the purpose of the backups. In that case it is better to get a second external drive and use it as your bootable clone using either CCC or Superduper, that way if either failed you still have at least one backup. BTW for the bootable backup I would recommend getting a Firewire or Firewire 800 drive rather than USB, if your internal drive fails and you need to rely on the external drive to boot and run from a USB drive would be extremely slow and isn't really recommended.
    Regards,
    Roger

  • Time Machine & external hard drives not used daily

    I have a question about Time Machine and external hard drives that I used for storing digital files. I do not need to turn on these drives every day. Or even every week. Is Time Machine going to "forget" them (delete their files from backups) if I don't turn them on regularly? What do I do to make sure they are safely backed up and that they stay backed up even if they aren't turned on every day?

    As I said, then, "Time Machine will simply pick up wherever it left off." Just be sure to properly eject the drive before disconnecting or shutting off.
    The "speed" question is a new one not present in your original post. You can address that in the following:
    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 big should my external hard drive be for me to use Time Machine?

    i am a student and dont have a significant amount of files and that on my computer so how big shuld my external hard drive be?
    I will be using a normal external hard drive so will i be getting the full and the important features out of time machine if i do this?

    There are two questions you should ask yourself:
    1.  How long will it take me to fill up my internal HDD?
    2. How far back chronologically do I realistically expect to have go to retrieve data?
    I submit that in the vast majority of cases, a HDD of the same size as you have in your MBP will be ample.  If things change, adjustments can be made well in advance.  Its the very rare user that will generate multi GBs of data and file changes every session.
    As an example, I have a 750GB HDD in my MBP and a 750 HDD dedicated to Time Machine.  The oldest backup goes back 7 months.  At the rate that I update Time Machine, I expect the Disk to be filled and start deleting old data in about 3 months.  For me, that is more than sufficient.
    There is another aspect of backup strategy you should consider.  I would highly reccomend that you have a second external drive to store your most important files that may be duplicates of those in Time Machine.  All HDD will fail.  You just never know when that will happen.  If your Time machine disk expires, this way you are not left in a calamitious situation.
    Though some of my views may be in the minority, the final decision is always yours.
    Ciao.

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