Mac Maintenance and HDD updates/upgrade

I just spent a few days doing lots of maintenance on a few Mac's.
Cleaning up, optimizing and replacing one HDD for a new larger one.
So I thought I'd share what I do with my Mac's to keep them running happy and having my data safe should there be problems to those of you 'Mac-ites' out there.
1st.
I install and use Onyx on all my Macs and those I maintain. It makes maintenance a BREEZE.
With Onyx you can do just about everything you need to do on a regular basis to keep clutter down and errors away.
Get it here.
Check out the AppCleaner application to completely remove applications – OS X installs often put files into many other directories than just the applications folder!


I was going to go into some detail of the other steps I do such as removing unnecessary start-up items and removing unused apps but it looks like the folks at LifeHacker.com and those at Tested.com also have some good in depth articles on how to manually do nearly everything you can do in Onyx.
[I still find Onyx to be fantastic and easiest though, it allows for scheduling and has a much more 'user-friendly' interface.]
So to save the time of me just re-statating what Gina Trapani of LifeHacker has already said just go here.
Or read this article at Tested.com


As always make sure you have a good backup before you start messing with system settings!
And for backups most know I believe in Images(Clones).
Imaging or cloning is the procedure by which you create a backup that is identical to a bootable system either to another internal or external drive. This is the ultimate backup! Should your drive fail you can just 'pop in' your cloned drive or 'restore' that clone to a new drive and your are up and running.
Good description here

Now to backing up and/or updating of a hard drive.

This is actually a very simple process that can be done without any 3rd party software on OSX!
I'll explain how to do that in a moment.

Whether you are installing a brand new larger hardrive like I just did or making a clone to and external drive the directions are the same. [except of course if it is just a back up clone you won't be 'changing the start up disk']

For the Easiest Way to Clone:
Use SuperDuper Mac Drive Cloner:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
The application is freeware/shareware. Meaning to use the clone function it's free but to use the advance scheduling features you will have to purchase a license. The call is yours.
I have always found it very worthwhile to own and support great utility software.

Now the no 3rd party software route.
You can do as I have done many times use OS X's own clone/restore utility!

You insert the MacOS X 10.4 install disk, boot from it, select Disk Utility from the Start menu, and choose the volume of the new Mac.
Then use the Restore tab, drag and drop the old drive as the source, and the new one as the target, and press the button.
Et voila!
After copying, just make sure that your new hdd (the clone) is set to be the start up disk.

You can then boot the new Mac with an exact clone of the old one.

Here’s how to use Disk Utility to clone and backup your hard drive in a little more detail using an install disk:
* Fire the Mac OS X disk that came along with your Mac.
To do this, insert the CD or DVD into your Mac, and hold down the C key while your Mac restarts.

[if that doesn't work try these options:
# Restart your computer and immediately press the Option key. Icons for all available startup volumes will appear. Click the one you want to boot from, and then click the right arrow button to complete the startup process.
# Restart your computer and immediately press Cmd-Option-Shift-Delete. You must press all the keys at once. The computer will start to boot from the CD or DVD drive. If there isn't a bootable disc inside the drive when you begin the reboot, the computer will attempt to boot from another partition or drive. ]

* Go ahead select your language. Don’t worry: You’re not installing Mac OS X again - this is just what you have to do to get to Disk Utility. When the menu bar appears, select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
* When Disk Utility opens, you’ll want to select your source. This is the hard drive you want to clone and/or backup. After you have a source, select the Destination. This is the hard drive you want to save the backup image to. * Click Restore and you’ll end up with a perfect copy of your hard drive.



Restart your computer and you’re good to go!

That’s it……

Peace and happy computing.....