Sleep

Nevermore · Oct 25, 2008

I have read here that I should leave my iMac on so that various scripts can run from time to time to keep the system maintained. I also read about Onyx here so I downloaded that. My question is can I put my iMac to sleep? Will the scripts "wake it up" so they can run? Will a scheduled Time Machine wake it up (I have downloaded Time Machine Assistant, again because of a tip read here)? Or do I just leave it alone?

Is there a reason (other than energy conservation which is a good reason!) for putting it to sleep?

Mjc.americor · Oct 25, 2008

Usually i just leave my iMac on till it falls asleep. In your energy saver settings you can adjust the time that you want it to fall asleep after. Usually it will wake the HD up but the screen will remain black and asleep. If there are scripts running the hard drive will stay active but the rest of the computer will continue to sleep.
Hope that I could have helped.

bad.heron · Oct 26, 2008

Nevermore said:
I have read here that I should leave my iMac on so that various scripts can run from time to time to keep the system maintained. I also read about Onyx here so I downloaded that. My question is can I put my iMac to sleep? Will the scripts "wake it up" so they can run? Will a scheduled Time Machine wake it up (I have downloaded Time Machine Assistant, again because of a tip read here)? Or do I just leave it alone?

Is there a reason (other than energy conservation which is a good reason!) for putting it to sleep?

I am not sure if you can wake the mac for certain activities but you can run the maintenance scripts manually using the terminal

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/maintscripts.html said:
Using your Admin account, you can execute all three maintenance scripts at once, as follows:

1. Launch Terminal, in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder.
2. At the Terminal prompt, type the following, exactly as written:
1. sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
3. Press Return.
4. Type your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.

All three scripts will run in sequence. There is no visual feedback while the scripts execute. You will know they are completed when the Terminal prompt returns.

You can also run the scripts individually. For example, to run just the daily script, you would type the command:

* sudo periodic daily

in step 2 above.

Hope this helps.

Nevermore · Oct 26, 2008

Thank you

for the replies. Appreciated! Not sure I have the guts to try terminal yet...

bad.heron · Oct 26, 2008

If you don't want to use the terminal there is a free app which does the same thing called MacJanitor

Nevermore · Oct 26, 2008

Thanks again

I think Onyx does this too and I use that. It was also free.

shfle · Oct 26, 2008

Yes Onyx can perform these tasks, so you can set them off manually whenever you like, if you put your Mac to sleep or shutdown at night etc.