![]() This feature monitors a slew of performance indicators inside the drive and then determines whether the drive is operating normally. ![]() Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART). To help you keep an eye on your drives’ status, today’s hard drives include Watch Your Hardware Of course, if your hard drive’s hardware is failing, the best directory in the world won’t matter. Like Disk Utility, DiskWarrior requires that you reboot from the DiskWarrior CD, or a different hard drive containing the program, to repair your startup disk. Instead of trying to repair your existing directory, the utility examines that directory, scours your hard drive for files and folders, and then creates a new, optimized directory. If you don’t have that disc or another bootable OS X volume handy, you can also use Safe Mode or single-user mode at startup to repair the directory (seeĪ more-thorough option is to use Alsoft’s $100ĭiskWarrior 4.1( ), which has long been the gold standard for directory fixing. Insert the disc, press and hold down the C key during startup, and then, once you see the Installer window on the screen, access Disk Utility via the Installer’s Utilities menu. If Disk Utility tells you that the volume needs to be repaired, you can do so by booting from your OS X Install disc. Click on the First Aid tab and then on Verify Disk. Launch the utility and select your hard drive in the list on the left. Checking the directory periodically, and optimizing or repairing it when necessary, is one of the best ways to avoid system problems and data loss.Īpple’s Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities) can do basic directory maintenance. This not only impairs performance, but can also damage the directory and make it inaccurate. Over time, the directory-data on your drive that keeps track of exactly where each file is stored-can become fragmented, which means that it’s split into sections across your drive. A good compromise is to install security updates immediately but wait a bit for other types of updates.Ĭheck Your Directory Files are written to and erased from your hard drive by the thousands, or even the tens of thousands, each day. So some people prefer to wait a few days before installing new versions of software-especially OS X updates-to see whether the “early adopters” have any problems. On rare occasions, an update will introduce bugs or incompatibilities. ![]() It monitors and alerts you when new versions of your installed programs become available. VersionTracker Pro makes keeping your software up-to-date easy. A membership with either site ($50 per year for VersionTracker, or $40 per year for MacUpdate) buys you regular e-mail alerts about updated programs, as well as software that tracks updates for the programs installed on your Mac and even downloads the updates for you (see “Track New Versions”). , that maintains a free, up-to-date list of software updates. You can also find out about updates at companies’ Web sites, but if you have lots of third-party programs that don’t check automatically, a better approach is to take advantage of a site, such as You’ll often find this feature in a program’s preferences window (typically accessed through the program name: Preferences menu item). Keep Other Software Current Many third-party programs-Microsoft Office, for example-have a similar feature that automatically checks for new versions and lets you know you when one is available. Software Update can check daily, weekly, or monthly and, if you like, automatically download any updates. Alternatively, tell Software Update to check for updates automatically: Open the Software Update preference pane, click on the Scheduled Check tab, and select the Check For Updates option. If it is, you can choose to install those updates right then and there. Choose Software Update from the Apple menu, and this built-in utility will launch and then check Apple’s servers to see whether any new Apple software is available. Schedule Apple Updates Keeping OS X and other Apple software up-to-date is easy. (Note that updates that provide bug fixes are often free larger updates that provide significant new features may require purchase.) In general, you want to make sure you’re running the latest versions of all your software. Why suffer from bugs that have already been fixed or security issues that have already been patched? Software vendors regularly release product updates that contain new features or quash problems and incompatibilities. (If you use Time Machine, it will take care of scheduling backups for you.) Keep software up to date How Often How much work can you afford to lose? An hour’s worth? A day’s? Back up accordingly. “Easy Mac Backups” for help developing a backup plan. ![]() For more information about how and why you might combine Time Machine with other backup methods, see ![]()
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