Kappy's Personal Suggestions About Mac Maintenance
Os 10 8 5 free download - Apple Mac OS Update 8.6, Apple Java for OS X 10.7/10.8, Apple Mac OS Update 9.0.4, and many more programs. DiskWarrior now ships on a bootable flash drive instead of DVD. If you plan to rebuild the directory of your startup (built-in) disk, you need to start up from another disk capable of starting up in OS X 10.5.8 through 10.13, such as the DiskWarrior Recovery flash drive or your Mac.
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utility is: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior for defragmentation of older drives, disk repair, disk scans, formatting, partitioning, disk copy, and benchmarking.
Four outstanding sources of information on Mac maintenance are:
1. OS X Maintenance - MacAttorney.
2. Mac maintenance Quick Assist
3. Maintaining Mac OS X
4. Mac Maintenance Guide
Periodic Maintenance
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) See Mac OS X- About background maintenance tasks. If you are running Leopard or later these tasks are run automatically, so there is no need to use any third-party software to force running these tasks.
If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced after Tiger. (These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.)
Defragmentation
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive except when trying to install Boot Camp on a fragmented drive. But you don't need to buy third-party software. All you need is a spare external hard drive and Carbon Copy Cloner.
Cheap and Easy Defragmentation
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive. You will use Carbon Copy Cloner to create the backup and to restore it.
1. Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the
external one.
2. Boot from the external hard drive.
3. Erase the internal hard drive.
4. Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not depressed or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the upward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the
mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the
drive in DU's status area. If it does not say 'Verified' then the drive is
failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be
reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the
DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the
drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
(Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait
until the process has completed.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
1. Open Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Select the Source volume from the left side dropdown menu.
3. Select the Destination volume from the left side dropdown menu.
4. Be sure the Block Copy button is not selected or is ghosted.
5. Click on the Clone button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.
Malware Protection
As for malware protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. Starting with Lion, Apple has included built-in malware protection that is automatically updated as necessary. To assure proper protection, update your system software when Apple releases new OS X updates for your computer.
Helpful Links Regarding Malware Protection:
1.Mac Malware Guide.
2. Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware
3. Macintosh Virus Guide
For general anti-virus protection I recommend only using ClamXav, but it is not necessary if you are keeping your computer's operating system software up to date. You should avoid any other third-party software advertised as providing anti-malware/virus protection. They are not required and could cause the performance of your computer to drop.
Cache Clearing
I recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, Mountain Lion Cache Cleaner 7.0.9, Maintenance 1.6.8, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc. Corrupted cache files can cause slowness, kernel panics, and other issues. Although this is not a frequent nor a recurring problem, when it does happen there are tools such as those above to fix the problem.
If you are using Snow Leopard or earlier, then for emergency cleaning install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. (AppleJack works with Snow Leopard or earlier.)
Installing System Updates or Upgrades
Repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand.
Update your backups in case an update goes bad.
Backup and Restore
Having a backup and restore strategy is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your computer. Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. You can never have too many backups. Don't rely on just one. Make several using different backup utilities. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Get Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. Format thumb drive mac os x. Synk Pro
6. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance and backup and restore.
Always have a current backup before performing any system updates or upgrades.
Final Suggestions
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space. Avoid installing utilities that rely on Haxies, SIMBL, or that alter the OS appearance, add features you will rarely if ever need, etc. The more extras you install the greater the probability of having problems. If you install software be sure you know how to uninstall it. Avoid installing multiple new software at the same time. Install one at a time and use it for a while to be sure it's compatible.
Additional reading may be found in:
1. Mac OS X speed FAQ
Free Diskwarrior For Mac
2. Speeding up Macs
3. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
4. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up
5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines
6. Five Mac maintenance myths
7. How to Speed up Macs
8. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
Most if not all maintenance is for troubleshooting problems. If your computer is running OK, then there isn't really a thing you need to do except repair the hard drive and permissions before installing any new system updates.
Aug 28, 2013 2:58 PM
Using DiskWarrior 5.2 while started (booted) from High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina or Big Sur.
What you need to know (Click here for the summary)
1) Apple File System (APFS) disks (typically a macOS 10.14 Mojave, 10.15 Catalina or 11.0 Big Sur Startup Disk) are recognized but ARE NOT able to be rebuilt by DiskWarrior 5.2. Click here to learn how to identify an APFS disk.
2) Click here to join the Mailing List to be notified of progress regarding Apple File System (APFS) support and updates to DiskWarrior.
3) Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) disks can be rebuilt as before.
4) The Startup Disk of Macs are automatically converted from Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) to Apple File System (APFS) when installing or upgrading to macOS 10.14 Mojave, macOS 10.15 Catalina or macOS 11.0 Big Sur. Only internal SSD drives are converted to APFS by macOS 10.13 High Sierra.
5) External drives are not automatically converted to Apple File System (APFS). Your Mac OS Extended external drives can be rebuilt as before.
6) DiskWarrior 5.2 is compatible with macOS 10.13 High Sierra, macOS 10.14 Mojave, macOS 10.15 Catalina and macOS 11.0 Big Sur when rebuilding Mac OS Extended external drives.
7) DiskWarrior 5.2 now runs within macOS 10.14 Mojave and macOS 10.15 Catalina Recovery.
8) The Preview application in DiskWarrior can now copy files to APFS disks when recovering data from a failing Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) disk.
9) Numerous minor updates were made to accommodate additional security measures in macOS 10.14 Mojave and macOS 10.15 Catalina.
10) To rebuild Time Machine disks in macOS 10.14 Mojave, macOS 10.15 Catalina and macOS 11.0 Big Sur, DiskWarrior must be given “Full Disk Access” from within System Preferences. Otherwise, they can be be rebuilt from macOS Recovery or the DiskWarrior Recovery flash drive. Starting with macOS 11.0 Big Sur, Time Machine disks can be formatted as APFS and cannot be rebuilt. Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) Time Machine disks can be rebuilt under Big Sur.
The following applies only when running an installed copy of DiskWarrior from within macOS 10.13 High Sierra, macOS 10.14 Mojave, 10.15 Catalina and 11 Big Sur; not when booted from the DiskWarrior flash drive or macOS Recovery.
11) Due to the ever enhancing security of macOS you might need to first 'Allow' the system extension portion of DiskWarrior to be loaded on your Mac. The first time you launch DiskWarrior 5.2, the system extension might be blocked. You will only need to allow the system extension once.
Follow the instructions in the System Extension Blocked message to allow the DiskWarrior system extension software to be loaded. Open the Security & Privacy System Preference and click the lock and then click the Allow button.
Quit DiskWarrior, reboot your Mac and launch DiskWarrior again. Screen capture on mac using windows keyboard.
Click here for a step-by-step video guide on installing DiskWarrior 5.2 in these newer versions of macOS.
What's in the works
The next major release of DiskWarrior (DiskWarrior 6.0) will include the ability to rebuild APFS disks. Apple released a majority of the APFS format documentation in June of 2020 . Our developers are now using this documentation to update DiskWarrior in order to safely rebuild Apple File System (APFS) disks.
Using DiskWarrior Recovery Maker 1.4.
What you need to know
1) DiskWarrior Recovery Maker 1.4 is compatible with macOS 10.14 Mojave and macOS 10.15 Catalina. You will need DiskWarrior 5.2 to run DiskWarrior from a recovery flash drive created while running macOS 10.14 Mojave or macOS 10.15 Catalina. Creating a 10.14 or 10.15 recovery flash drive will not allow DiskWarrior to rebuild APFS (Apple File System) disks.
2) An extra step is needed to create a DiskWarrior startup recovery flash drive on an iMac Pro, late 2019 Mac Pro, a mid-2018/2019 MacBook Pro, late-2018 / mid-2019 MacBook Air or a late-2018 Mac mini. These 4 Macs are equipped with Secure Boot via Apple’s T2 Security Chip. By default, Secure Boot does not allow starting up from an external disk such as a DiskWarrior recovery flash drive. Also by default, Secure Boot prevents the creation of a macOS startup disk except for those created using Apple's Installer.
To create and use a DiskWarrior Recovery disk for Macs with Secure Boot, it will be necessary to change the default Secure Boot and External Boot settings using the Startup Security Utility. The Secure Boot setting will need to be changed to Medium Security or No Security. Alsoft recommends Medium Security. Additionally, the External Boot setting will need to be changed to Allow booting from external media.
Please follow the instructions found on Apple's web site using the following link to make the needed changes.
Notice: Creation of, or start up from, a DiskWarrior recovery flash drive will fail if the above steps are not taken.
Didn't read all of the above? At least read this summary:
Diskwarrior Download
1) DiskWarrior 5.2 is compatible with High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina and Big Sur when rebuilding external Mac OS Extended disks.
2) Your external drives (including Time Machine Volumes) can be rebuilt as before.
Diskwarrior
3) The Startup Disk of Macs are converted to APFS (Apple File System) when installing or upgrading to macOS 10.14 Mojave, macOS 10.15 Catalina, macOS 11.0 Big Sur or macOS 10.13 High Sierra (High Sierra only converts internal Solid State Drives (SSD/Flash).
4) APFS (Apple File System) disks ARE NOT able to be rebuilt. Click here to learn how to identify an APFS disk.
5) In Mojave and Catalina, Time Machine disks cannot be rebuilt with DiskWarrior unless DiskWarrior is given “Full Disk Access” from within the Security pane of System Preferences. Otherwise Time Machine disks must now be rebuilt from macOS Recovery or the DiskWarrior Recovery Flash drive. Starting with macOS 11.0 Big Sur, Time Machine disks can be formatted as APFS and cannot be rebuilt. Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) Time Machine disks can be rebuilt under Big Sur.
6) The next major release of DiskWarrior will include the ability to rebuild APFS disks.
7) Click here to join the Mailing List to be notified of progress regarding Apple File System (APFS) support and updates to DiskWarrior.
Updating to DiskWarrior 5.2 and DiskWarrior Recovery Maker 1.4.
1) A free updater is available for owners of DiskWarrior 5.0 and 5.1.
2) The updater will replace the DW partition on the DiskWarrior flash drive. The updated flash drive will contain DiskWarrior 5.2 and DiskWarrior Recovery Maker 1.4.
3) The updater will also update any installed copy of DiskWarrior 5.0 or 5.1 that is located in the Applications folder.
4) The updater will also update DiskWarrior 5.0 or 5.1 that is located on any attached DiskWarrior recovery flash drives that were created with earlier versions of DiskWarrior Recovery Maker.
5) Click here to download the combo DiskWarrior 5.2 and DiskWarrior Recovery Maker 1.4 updater.
6) Click hereto download the standalone DiskWarrior Recovery Maker 1.4 updater.