05-24-2011, 12:03 PM

Hi guys, I am pretty new to the Mac "maintenance" scene and have a few questions in regards to clean-ups etc. I have had my Macbook for about 2 years now; I got the 13" Aluminum, 2.4ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2gb ram, 250hdd. I have not needed to do any kind of maintenance because the notebook has been running pretty good. I try and keep my HD somewhat free of large files and videos that could take a lot of space.

I have noticed lately that it takes a long time to boot up in comparison to a few months ago...now it takes about a minute from 30 secs or so. I also hear the dvd drive make two noises at start-up instead of one before (not sure if this is an issue). Are there any specific things I should do to clean-up the system? or maybe applications out there that help? I am pretty savvy as far as PC clean-up, doing the defrag, temp files, etc....but kinda clueless as to what to do with my Mac. Any help is greatly appreciated.

05-24-2011, 02:01 PM

You can defrag if you want but it is usually not needed with macs. They don't provide a defrag utility I don't think so you would have to go third party.

The main thing that I have noticed slowing down boot times on macs is people have begun to install bootcamp or previously had bootcamp on the machine and decided to go back to just mac. In this case many people dont re select the boot drive so on startup the computer is looking to boot off a drive which is not available slowing it down quite a bit. If this could be the case go to System Pref and then startup disk and select your main HDD.

05-24-2011, 02:15 PM

Have a look at a maintenance utility called Onyx.
Titanium's Software • Download

Make sure you download the correct version for your OS.
Many members here use this tool with positive feedback.
I run Onyx a couple of times per year.
Do a bit of research on Onyx ( or ask away here ) and give it a go.

After 2 years, you might need a bit of maintenance

Cheers ... McBie

05-24-2011, 11:29 PM

CleanMyMac is the best software that i am proudly recommend. try that and you will not regret. Im have been using it for 2 years and can not find any software that replace that. it easy to use, just 1 click to clean all the trash or unuse file in your mac. in addition, that fast and very reliable.

05-25-2011, 07:35 AM

Originally Posted by thanhdao

CleanMyMac is the best software that i am proudly recommend. try that and you will not regret. Im have been using it for 2 years and can not find any software that replace that. it easy to use, just 1 click to clean all the trash or unuse file in your mac. in addition, that fast and very reliable.

guess it's a personal preference (and luck) but i'll try and save others by linking you to this pages:

CleanMyMac - The Bad

Clean my Mac app slowed down my new mbp?!!

Should I use cleanmymac?

CleanMyMac deleted system files

CleanMyMac Application Question

the last link by the way, was started by me. and there are a lot of people in this forum (and other forums as well) against this app. i decided to never use it and uninstall the day i read all the real reviews.

if you're not the tech savvy as i am, i'd suggest Titanium's Software - Maintenance. The same maker of Onyx. It's much simpler to use than Onyx. There's even a help guide to assist and explain to you before you clean your system using Maintenance.

So far i haven't read any bad reviews about them.

Lastly, two things i learned in this forum:

1.) It's always nice and research first before doing anything to your system. People here are very knowledgeable and are happy to help to the best they can.

2.) If it's not broken, it ain't need fixing!

Cheers!!!

05-25-2011, 07:57 AM

Avoid Clean My Mac like the plague, that software is garbage and the company that sells it has some shady practices.

05-25-2011, 02:48 PM

Hehe, thank you so much for the responses, peeps! I shall definitely look into Onyx or Titanium. After 2 years I have only done basic clean up of files and whatever the logs are that clean up at like 3am and 5 or whatever.

05-25-2011, 03:20 PM

MainMenu 1.7.4 is the same as Oynx but a lot easier to use in my opinion. I bought the upgraded version.
Dont upgrade this .v as it will upgrade to the paid .v and you will need yo re- download it. Once up and going BatchTasks>Configure Tasks> check all except Spotlight_Reindexing and Remove .DS_Store Files and once done Execute . . ..

Cheers