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drspock · Dec 4, 2002, 02:42 PM

I just bought a new 1ghz sd tibook (which should be here any day!) and I have been following the forums and reading back posts enough to have a feel for the hardware issues I will be dealing with, but I am new to Macs (nothing since an old performa actually). I am a pretty competent PC user (net adminning will do that for you), but completely inept with Macs. My question, then, is twofold. First, what basic maintenence should be performed, and how regularly? On a PC this would be stuff like defragging, file and directory clean up, registry cleaning and the like. What is the Mac equivalent? Second, what are the tricks of the trade? Keyboard shortcuts, keys to hold down during boot and stuff like that. I figure this is the right group of people to ask, as you are all the most knowledgable Mac gurus I know.

Thanks for the help, even if it is just a shove towards some articles (I don't mind reading, I just don't know the Mac community well enough to even look in the right places)

Peace
Ben

photoeditor · 03:46 PM

To boot from CD, insert the CD before you shut down the computer, then when you restart it, hold down the C key.

If the computer seems to be acting oddly, purge NVRAM/PRAM, hold down the Command (that's the apple logo key next to the spacebar with the little squiggly cloverleaf symbol on it as well), option, P and R keys together as you boot up, until it chimes for a second time. Shouldn't need to do this too often

On OS X, when you install new software, it's a good idea then to boot from the System CD and run Disk Utility, and then "repair permissions."

Run Disk Utility periodically (every few weeks) for its repair disk feature as well.

Remember to check System Preferences to make sure the firewall is activated when you get your computer. (this is, rather illogically, located in the Sharing control panel in System Preferences)

And get a good third party disk utility that can do a few more things than Apple's Disk Utility. Norton Utilities with full OS X support right now, or DiskWarrior 3 when it gets released in the next couple of months (we hope).

That's about all I can think of right now.

I think you will really enjoy the computer. Welcome aboard!

euphras · Dec 4, 2002, 04:11 PM

If you don�t run your machine 24/7 go for "MacJanitor" since your system is a Unix-derivative and needs to get rid of such stuff as logfiles etc in a daily/weekly/monthly matter (when the machine is running 24 h it does those task on it�s own (at 1.30 AM).
Disk fragmentation is not a big problem because (i was told so) unix has a far superior file storage system (in comparison to Windows) and unless your HDD is really fed up, fragmentation does not occur in such large amounts
(i also have a 6100 PPC running OS D1-7.5 and i never did defragmentice nor did i a clean install of the OS (in fact this machine is running on it�s first installed OS since 12/1994 and is still in use (nowadays as a file server and for backup purposes)))

Pat

drspock · Dec 4, 2002, 04:33 PM

I have heard a lot about "classic" mode. What is the difference between switching to classic and booting into OS 9, and how do I do either?

thanks

seanyepez · Dec 4, 2002, 04:46 PM

Originally posted by drspock:
I have heard a lot about "classic" mode. What is the difference between switching to classic and booting into OS 9, and how do I do either?

thanks

OS 9 was yesterday's OS. OS X is able to emulate OS 9 to run certain programs that haven't been ported to Apple's latest operating system. Launch a 9 application with Classic installed and Classic will launch itself. If you want to try 9, go ahead and select it as your operating system in the System Preferences' startup disk menu.

I wouldn't recommend using 9 as your primary operating system, though. I used to like it, but it lacks two-button/scroll mouse support without the addition of third-party applications like USB Overdrive and doesn't allow for very good multitasking.

parsec · Dec 4, 2002, 04:49 PM

Originally posted by drspock:
I have heard a lot about "classic" mode. What is the difference between switching to classic and booting into OS 9, and how do I do either?

thanks

"Classic" refers to when OS 9 is emulated within OS X. It allows you to run programs that are only available under OS 9 without having to reboot. You can more or less seamlessly switch between Classic and native X applications this way
You can also boot directly into 9, by either holding down option when the machine is starting up
(I'm not sure, but this may only work if 9 aka Classic is installed on a separate partition from X)
or going to System Preferences -> Startup Disk (under X)
Or Control Panels -> Startup Disk (Under 9)
Both available under the Apple menu at the upper left.
The main reason for booting directly into 9 is if a program needs to access hardware directly (e.g. sound recording software, printing to old printers, etc.) or if there are some kind of glitches when working with a program under Classic mode.

I hope that's all correct.

Also, for a shove towards some articles, check http://www.macosxhints.com regularly

CheesePuff · Dec 4, 2002, 05:28 PM

I would say, don't bother with Mac OS 9. When you get your PowerBook, put in the disc labelled Mac OS X and restart with the 'c' key down. And then erase the hard drive and install OS X 10.2 only.

Plus I always reformat my drve when I get a new computer.

DaedalusDX · Dec 4, 2002, 06:48 PM

Originally posted by euphras:
Disk fragmentation is not a big problem because (i was told so) unix has a far superior file storage system (in comparison to Windows) and unless your HDD is really fed up, fragmentation does not occur in such large amounts

Hmm... i'm not so sure about that. Mac OS X uses basically the same file system that Mac OS 9 and earlier use... HFS+.

HFS+ is definitely not immune to disk fragmentation, and i would imagine under OS X, fragmentation is more of an issue than in OS 9... The OS is in charge of virtual memory, so it hits the hard drive for swap whenever it needs more memory than you have...

i've found that moving the swap file to a separate partition helps this (moving it can be a complicated operation in itself), but regular disk defrag is still a good idea in OS X.

Art Vandelay · Dec 4, 2002, 06:54 PM

BTW, Classic does NOT emulate Mac OS 9. It provides a separate memory space for Mac OS 9 to run natively within OS X. Virtual PC emulates, Classic does not.

drspock · Dec 4, 2002, 06:59 PM

At some point I saw some kind of boot menu in OS X where one could select any of a number of choices, OS 9, OS X, something else too...Any idea what that might have been?

Art Vandelay · Dec 4, 2002, 07:22 PM

Originally posted by drspock:
At some point I saw some kind of boot menu in OS X where one could select any of a number of choices, OS 9, OS X, something else too...Any idea what that might have been?

In OS X, it's the Starup Disk pane in System Preferences (found in the Apple Menu).

In OS 9, it's the System Disk control panel found in Control Panels (found in the Apple Menu).

goMac · Dec 4, 2002, 08:03 PM

Originally posted by drspock:
At some point I saw some kind of boot menu in OS X where one could select any of a number of choices, OS 9, OS X, something else too...Any idea what that might have been?

The other choice was for network startup. If you have a machine running Mac OS X Server, you can set up virtual disks on the server, and start up from one of those virtual disks on a different machine on the same network. This is called NetBoot.

iBorg · Dec 4, 2002, 10:48 PM

Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
BTW, Classic does NOT emulate Mac OS 9. It provides a separate memory space for Mac OS 9 to run natively within OS X. Virtual PC emulates, Classic does not.

I haven't studied this issue at any length, but if it's not an emulation of OS 9, but rather OS 9 running natively, why are there many applications which cannot be run in Classic, and must instead be run after rebooting in OS 9?

No flames, please! I'm trying to learn how this works!

iBorg

Vond · Dec 5, 2002, 12:59 AM

Originally posted by iBorg:

I haven't studied this issue at any length, but if it's not an emulation of OS 9, but rather OS 9 running natively, why are there many applications which cannot be run in Classic, and must instead be run after rebooting in OS 9?

No flames, please! I'm trying to learn how this works!

iBorg

I'm not 100% sure on this since I'm a recent switcher and I don't even have Classic on my machine in recent installs, but it would make a lot of sense if it had to do with direct hardware access. I do know from the Windows world that this is the reason old DOS games don't work in anything that runs the NT kernel - because it forbids direct HW access.

I'm sure that Classic doesn't involve your Processor enmulating another processor though.

That's why it's not fair to compare VPC on Mac's performance to VMWare on PC. VMWare (just like Classic) uses "processor virtualization" to directly pass the low-level calls to your full-strength processor, whereas VPC has to emulate all the low-level functions of an x86 chip.

PeteWK · Dec 5, 2002, 04:14 AM

Originally posted by iBorg:

I haven't studied this issue at any length, but if it's not an emulation of OS 9, but rather OS 9 running natively, why are there many applications which cannot be run in Classic, and must instead be run after rebooting in OS 9?

No flames, please! I'm trying to learn how this works!

iBorg

Basically, (I say that because my knowledge is fairly basic) what you have is OS X actually running OS 9 as a software program like Word or Powerpoint. Then whatever app you have is run from there. So as opposed to the processor being emulated as in VPC, as has been stated, just another program is run.

How it does that and also runs another program within OS 9 is just PFM.

PeteWK