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TICKET ARCHIVE -> ibook 12 inch Mac os X
G3User - Jul 13, 2006 - 10:41 am
My sister has an iBook, 12", running 10.4.7 . Processor 1.33ghz, 512 mg ram built in.
IT's always been pretty fast and run fine, but it's slowed up considerably of late.
There is definitely enough HD space, i think anyway. There's like fourteen gigs free. Can you tell us what to do in terms of utilities/maintenance in order to get it working normally again.
Try to suggest something native to the mac oS, because it's a laptop from school, and she can't install any new programs. Thank you.
IT's always been pretty fast and run fine, but it's slowed up considerably of late.
There is definitely enough HD space, i think anyway. There's like fourteen gigs free. Can you tell us what to do in terms of utilities/maintenance in order to get it working normally again.
Try to suggest something native to the mac oS, because it's a laptop from school, and she can't install any new programs. Thank you.
skapp - Jul 13, 2006 - 1:37 pm
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 called Macaroni 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.
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 significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Deja Vu (Shareware)
4. SuperDuper (Commercial)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
If you cannot install third-party software as suggested above, then there is very little maintenance you can do other than occasionally repairing the hard drive and permissions. You need something to force running the maintenance scripts unless you want to leave the computer running throughout the early AM or manually run the scripts via the Terminal.
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.
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 significant):
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Deja Vu (Shareware)
4. SuperDuper (Commercial)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Freeware)
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
If you cannot install third-party software as suggested above, then there is very little maintenance you can do other than occasionally repairing the hard drive and permissions. You need something to force running the maintenance scripts unless you want to leave the computer running throughout the early AM or manually run the scripts via the Terminal.
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