Seeking Mac OS X "Best Practices"

Question

I am looking into a support role within a company that widely uses Apple gear. They seem a bit discombobbulated (disorganized, inconsistent versions, unrealiable backups, etc.)
Is there a concise Best Practices document for the Apple Hardware and the various OS offerings? Web searches aren't providing what I'm looking for.
Thanks up front!
Mtn

Answer 1

It probably depends on what you want to do to get the company’s computers organized. You might try looking at Apple’s manuals:
http://support.apple.com/manuals/
You can also search Apple’s Knowledge Base for known issues with solutions from Apple.
If you have specific questions about how to update the Mac OS on the computers or making bootable backups, or advantages and limitations of specific applications like Time Machine, you can search this forum for a wealth of information. Look to the Top Users (in the sidebar to the right of this) for the most experienced and reliable solutions.
The most general advice includes:
use Disk Utilities from the install disk to Repair Disk and Repair Permissions;
or use a commercial disk repair application (Disk Warrior and TechToolPro are most commonly recommended here);
use System Profiler to check hardware components (TechToolPro also does this);
make sure there are no hard drive errors before updating the OS;
make regular backups: automatically scheduled bootable backup (commonly recommended here is the free Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper, but there are other commercial backup programs that can be purchased);
set up Time Machine to do incremental backups.
I’m sure there are many more, but that might get you started.