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Mr Mushroom · Jan 18, 2005, 09:17 PM

I have had my Powerbook for over 6 months now and absolutely love it and am extremely glad I made the switch from PC.

However I have noticed that the performance has slowed in the past couple of months - little things like taking a couple of extra seconds to open windows or files etc. One of the things that seems to have made the biggest difference is that I was forced to install AOL while I have been traveling recently. Now after years of suffering picking up internet Junk on my PC my normal solution would be to put the Laptop back to factory settings to get it back up to full speed. I got the 2GB of Ram as I wanted the fastest possible situation and now I am dissapointed with my current speed.

My question is:

Is the re-format as straightforward with Mac as it was with PC and is it the best thing for me to do?

All advice much appreciated

Thanks

Kenstee · Jan 18, 2005, 11:43 PM

Originally posted by Mr Mushroom:
I have had my Powerbook for over 6 months now and absolutely love it and am extremely glad I made the switch from PC.

However I have noticed that the performance has slowed in the past couple of months - little things like taking a couple of extra seconds to open windows or files etc. One of the things that seems to have made the biggest difference is that I was forced to install AOL while I have been traveling recently. Now after years of suffering picking up internet Junk on my PC my normal solution would be to put the Laptop back to factory settings to get it back up to full speed. I got the 2GB of Ram as I wanted the fastest possible situation and now I am dissapointed with my current speed.

My question is:

Is the re-format as straightforward with Mac as it was with PC and is it the best thing for me to do?

All advice much appreciated

Thanks

Whoa, not so fast...OSX (with its UNIX underpinings) does need some periodic maintenance. Before I took any drastic measures I would download the utility Cocktail (can get at versiontracker.com) and run all the routines in it (look at the Pilot setting and check mark all the options). Also, you could use MacJanitor but its not nearly as comprehensive.

ibook_steve · Jan 18, 2005, 11:43 PM

It's a common misconception from switchers that you immediately have to reformat the hard drive. This is not the case. There are many things you can try before going to something that extreme. Sometimes simply resetting the PRAM (apple-option-p-r at boot; hold until you hear second boot beep) or resetting the power manager (keys depend on which machine you have; check your manual) can fix many problems. If you still have problems after doing this, you can try doing an archive and install of the OS from your install DVD that came with your machine. Boot up with the disk in the drive holding the c key. After you select which hard drive to install to, click the options button and select archive and install and transfer your user directory. That way you'll have a clean install of the OS and all your settings and files will be in the exact same place. Remember to run software update after this get back all updates that have come out since your machine's shipping OS. One other thing to consider is how full your hard drive is. If it is almost completely full, that can slow performance as well. Try all these things before completely reformatting your drive.

Steve

agentmouthwash · Jan 19, 2005, 08:41 AM

Another thing that I did was turn off some start up items that were on that I didn't know about, If you go into SYSTEM PREF / ACCOUNTS you will see a start up item tab. Turning some of those off will speed up your boot time. Also, make sure you repair permissions in the disk utility at least once a month.

Seagate is going to release a new 100gb 7200rpm hard drive soon. that will speed some things up!

tooki · Jan 19, 2005, 10:15 AM

Do you have a lot of stuff on your desktop (like, hundreds of items)? Get them off (i.e. drop them all into a folder). The Finder doesn't like a cluttered desktop, and will use inordinate amounts of CPU if it has one.

tooki

SpaceMonkey · Jan 19, 2005, 10:40 AM

As the others here have said, periodic maintenance can help keep OS X speedy (though in most cases the most intrusive kinds of maintenance aren't ever required). Before going out and paying for a third party utility, I'd try the simple things described in this how-to article: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...intenance.html

You really shouldn't have to do anything more than what's mentioned there, and it shouldn't be necessary to perform maintenance more than once a month (barring any major software installation/update).