OSX Maintenance

Alan Maughan · May 29, 2011

Hi Guys,

Im running an iMac with OSX 10.6.7

Ive had the machine about a year now and the performance is now really slow. I was told by the Mac store not to install any security/anti-virus etc when I bought it.

At start up it takes about 3 mins or more and I can hear the machine searching away for ages.

Can anyone suggest what programs I can run to find out what my problems are are?

bobtomay · May 29, 2011

It depends - is the startup the only thing that is acting this slow?

Head into System Preferences - Startup - select your OS X disc and reboot - reboot a couple of times and see what change that makes in your boot time.

Alan Maughan · May 29, 2011

Thanks for the quick reply Bob.

Its not just start up, things just seem much slower overall. Ive recently bought the latest 13" Macbook Pro and it seems so much quicker.

Ive also just realised that the Firewall has never been activated. I would really like to run some programs that could check up on the overall health of my iMac and check for any nasties that may be in there.

schweb · May 29, 2011

Many member ask the question about viruses and malware on the Mac and in addition to using the search function at the top of the forum, you'll find almost all your answers here:

Official Antivirus, Malware, and Firewall FAQ

bobtomay · May 29, 2011

Start with the suggestion above. I've seen that item take a minute plus off boot times.

Next up:
What do have loading at startup?
Check in Sys Pref - Accounts - Startup
Remove anything you don't need/want there.

Then try Onyx.
Make sure you download the Snow Leopard version - pass on the beta version.
I usually recommend starting with Onyx on the Automation tab and checking off everything under Maintenance and Cleaning.
Macs do require a little maintenance from time to time, but nothing like what you did on your Win machine. Most folks probably should not need to run the cleaning function of Onyx more than once every 3-6 months.
I only run it when I notice some slow down.

Next, how full is your hard drive? That is, what size is the drive and how much free space do you have left. My typical recommendation is if you're hitting 15% free space, sorry, you're going to notice your system running slower. Personally, I see mine slow down at 30% free space. If you're hitting 15-20% free space, imho, it's time to dump stuff off that drive or upgrade the drive size.

Alan Maughan · May 29, 2011

schweb said:
Many member ask the question about viruses and malware on the Mac and in addition to using the search function at the top of the forum, you'll find almost all your answers here:

Official Antivirus, Malware, and Firewall FAQ

Thanks for this.

Alan Maughan · May 29, 2011

bobtomay said:
Start with the suggestion above. I've seen that item take a minute plus off boot times.

Next up:
What do have loading at startup?
Check in Sys Pref - Accounts - Startup
Remove anything you don't need/want there.

Then try Onyx.
Make sure you download the Snow Leopard version - pass on the beta version.
I usually recommend starting with Onyx on the Automation tab and checking off everything under Maintenance and Cleaning.
Macs do require a little maintenance from time to time, but nothing like what you did on your Win machine. Most folks probably should not need to run the cleaning function of Onyx more than once every 3-6 months.
I only run it when I notice some slow down.

Next, how full is your hard drive? That is, what size is the drive and how much free space do you have left. My typical recommendation is if you're hitting 15% free space, sorry, you're going to notice your system running slower. Personally, I see mine slow down at 30% free space. If you're hitting 15-20% free space, imho, it's time to dump stuff off that drive or upgrade the drive size.

I couldnt see anything in start up although I know I have Skype which does this.

My hard drive is just under 50% full.

Ive downloaded OnyX and am running it now. Thanks for your help Bob, I will report back soon.

Alan

Alan Maughan · May 29, 2011

Thanks also for your help schweb.

thurstmw · May 29, 2011

Slow down like this is also a sign of impending drive failure. Make sure you have a good back up and check your smart status in disk utility.

lifestyles · Jun 12, 2011

Smart status is fine in my case. But it still takes more than 3 minutes for boot up even after a complete repartition, erase or whatever and a fresh snow leopard install. Particularly if software update is done, then the delay is more. Activity monitor does not indicate anything wrong. So i guess some machines have these problems without any particular reason. In my case i have run onyx, Tech tool pro and Tinker Tool system. All of them say that the tests have passed but the screen remains blue for a long time when you restart. I am sometimes just fed up.