Appreciate the wise counsel on misspent $$ on CleanMyMac. Is there any value in having TrendMicro security products onboard?
Thanks
In my opinion, no. OS X, for some time now, has had its own quiet, rudimentary anti-malware process called XProtect. When a new piece of malware is launched, Apple quietly updates the XProtect DATs and it's negated. Mind you, malware for OS X is few and far between, so running a heavy duty, full time on-access scanner is typically more trouble than it's worth, particularly if you are judicious about entering your admin password when prompted. Additionally, if you are in the habit of keeping Gatekeeper turned on (which is turned on by default), then you have very little need for any sort of third party anti-malware solution.
As far as firewalls and the like - here's my take... if your Mac sits on your home network 24/7/365, then it's already protected by your hardware firewall. Assuming your wireless network is encrypted with real protection (WPA/WPA2), then there's little reason to run a firewall for incoming connections. If you occasionally venture outside of your own network, then by all means, turn on OS X's own firewall.
Lastly, if you want to monitor outgoing traffic, I recommend
Little Snitch, which is a long-time favorite of those paranoid Mac users who want to see what applications are talking across the Internet quietly.
Side note on Mavericks-
First time going though install after downloading the 10.9 got the the Big Yellow Triangle saying install failed and HardDrive was irreparably damaged. Shut down my late 2009 macbook pro and when rebooted installed loaded fine and seems totally fine.
My bet is that you have bad sectors and they were allocated out of the partition map during the process. When you re-ran, those sectors had likely been negated and allowed the install. With that said, you definitely want to keep that drive backed up and eventually, consider replacing it. Bad sectors tend to spread over time.
