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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > What is the best free application for cleaning the Mac?

What is the best free application for cleaning the Mac?
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Ron K
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Jul 11, 2011, 04:32 PM
 
I am now in the long overdue process of cleaning up my iMac since I will be transitioning to a notebook without the same capacity. I am on a site now called maccleaners.org. There are several different products offered, but there seems to be some variation in what tasks they perform. I would appreciate any advice as to what to select. There is no mention of price, so far, but anymore I am wary of downloading free programs from the internet. Thanks ahead for your advice.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jul 11, 2011, 04:54 PM
 
Don't.

Go through manually and move stuff out of your home folder onto external drives.
     
Ron K  (op)
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Jul 11, 2011, 08:37 PM
 
Thank you. I am in the process of doing that, at least temporarily storing data on to DVDs. I want to know more about flash drives as being a secure place to store data. How long is the productive life of a flash drive? I have 3 back up WD hard drives, one for Time Machine and the other for periodic full system, bootable back-up. But I am downsizing to a 13" MBA for traveling and intend to take along some light weight storage drives. I know you are a believer in SSD, but short of that (due to the expense) what do you recommend?
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jul 11, 2011, 09:17 PM
 
Oh no, I'm not a believer in SSD. That is, I'm sure we'll all be on SSD or equivalent at some point, and I'm greatly looking forward to that day. But we're not there, yet.

For now mechanical hard drives' capacity-per-dollar ratio is unbeaten, and certainly burning DVDs is almost ludicrously expensive (if you factor in the time you need) to make buying a 1TB drive for $60 a no-brainer. (Two, actually - one for backup.)
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jul 11, 2011, 09:20 PM
 
Here is a pretty detailed list of analyses on SSD failures and failure rates:

15-inch MBP (HD options) - Ars Technica OpenForum
     
Ron K  (op)
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Jul 11, 2011, 10:52 PM
 
As I understand from what is being said here is that SSD drives are not only very expensive but not particularly reliable. With no moving parts, I expected better. If one follows the links here, 15-inch MBP (HD options) - Ars Technica OpenForum, there is more disturbing news to follow. I really like the "idea" of the 13" WBA and thought the SSD was an advantage. But now I am concerned that I may be sacrificing reliability for weight, in which case I would have to reconsider a MBP at greater weight and expense. Does anyone have data on the SSD reliability in the MBA?
If it is not already obvious, I actually know very little about the hardware, and this is after owning Macs for 18 years. I have been so absorbed by the technical data I must process in my CAD programs that I have had no time left over. That is why I have always purchased a Mac, for their reputation of compatibility and performance. So, now that I have been unemployed for 2 years because of the recession, I finally have some time to at least learn some fundamentals. Therefore the kindness of you forum members is much appreciated.
( Last edited by Ron K; Jul 11, 2011 at 10:53 PM. Reason: misspelling)
     
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Jul 12, 2011, 12:50 PM
 
It seems SSDs have a "bathtub curve" of failure - either they fail early (less than 3 months) or they fail very late. This indicates to me that the testing procedures are not developed enough yet, but such testing is different from different manufacturers. As I haven't heard that Apple's SSDs have a high failure rate, I suspect that Apple buys from manufacturers that focus more on that early testing that extreme performance.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Ron K  (op)
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Jul 13, 2011, 09:46 PM
 
Thank you all for your kind advice. I am more encouraged not to purchase the MBA when it come out; hopefully soon.
     
CharlesS
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Jul 13, 2011, 11:25 PM
 
Don't listen to these guys. I bought an SSD for my MacBook Pro about a year ago, and I've been extremely pleased with it. The speed difference is nothing short of astonishing. How to solve the space issue? Here's a simple solution: you've probably got a bunch of stuff on your hard drive that you don't use that often — video files for TV episodes purchased from iTunes are a common culprit that often takes tons of space. Just take the hard drive out of your current machine, put it in a $15 USB enclosure (or a $70 FireWire one), and put your less-used stuff on that. Problem solved!

Ticking sound coming from a .pkg package? Don't let the .bom go off! Inspect it first with Pacifist. Macworld - five mice!
     
besson3c
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Jul 13, 2011, 11:53 PM
 
I clean my Mac with liquid Tide.


Does Windows 7 still require "cleaning"?
     
tooki
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Jul 18, 2011, 07:49 AM
 
When I saw the title of this thread, my answer was gonna be "A microfiber cloth and a little water!"
     
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Jul 18, 2011, 06:14 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
I clean my Mac with liquid Tide.


Does Windows 7 still require "cleaning"?
Most of what those cleaning apps do is just reset the registry to its default settings. The bigger issue of winrot - the accumulation of incompatible versions of DLLs - is still there, I believe, and MS doesn't appear to think it's up to them to fix.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
   
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