URGENT!- ibook slowing down, NEED HELP BADLY

Question

Good day.
When I bought my ibook, i upgraded the RAM of this right away. i added a 512MB RAM. I was happy with the way it was performing. After a few months, i decided to buy an externat 40GB hard drive because i found the internal hard drive too small and love downloading song and shows over the internet. after a few months, i noticed that my ibook slowed down. before, the "beachball " would seldom appear. now it appears alot. i just noticed that my ibook has really slowed down. i admit, i download a lot. but all these downloads go straight to the external hard drive. the files that i save in the internal hard drive are only excel, word, and pwerpoint files. very small. anyone can help me? is there something that i can use to speed up my ibooks performance? what should i do? is there such a thing as defragment (just like the one of a pc).

Answer 1

Hi Michaelgnm,
Welcome to Apple Discussions
Try verifying and repairing permissions (Knowledge Base Document #106712 on Troubleshooting permissions issues in Mac OS X). Do you notice you slow during certain times. An example would be working an file from your external hard or using iPhoto. How much hard drive space do you have on your internal hard drive? You may want try deleting programs that you don't use (on my iBook I don't use Garage Band, iDVD, etc). Maybe freeing up some space can help speed things up.
A great program to show you exactly what is on your computer is WhatSize.
If you are going to use WhatSize to delete any files/programs/applications, please be careful and make sure you know exactly what you are deleting and if there are any repercussions. WhatSize will show you files that you would not normally see; they are referred to as "invisible files". These invisible files are hidden from the users view because they would clutter the desktop and they hold vital information that if corrupted or deleted may cause problems. Please make sure you know what you are doing!
Have you deleted files that you don't use; like for my iBook, GarageBand. I use GarageBand on my iMac because it is much easier and faster, so I deleted it on my iBook. Have you tried the "erase install method"? The reason for doing this is because Mac OS X installs all the necessary fonts, languages, drivers, etc that people all over the world my need, by default. This tends to take up some room that you might want to get rid of (make sure first what you don't need and need). You erase and install your system software (Knowledge Base Document 301270 About Install Options w/ Mac OS X 10.4), and when installing, do a custom install. This way you can install the languages, drivers, and applications you want. The same technique can be done with iLife.
Do you using any "pro" applications (Adobe Photo CS, Aperture, etc)? You may want to try using a program like OnyX to run some maintenance scripts.
I hope that helps,
Jon
Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All), Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook, G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more...  Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..