Keeping a Mac sane

[Knastratt]

Perhaps you already know, but reassuring that the Mac keeps going on glitchlessly there are a few known as well as a few not so well known routines.

1) Repair the privilege database after installation of new software. Some even say before. Do it from disc utility or get Cocktail (www.maintain.se/cocktail).

2) Run an application like Cocktail (www.maintain.se/cocktail) every week. It will clean caches, run cron scripts, re-prebind and repair privilege database.

3) Reset PRAM every two weeks. It's done this way: hold down Command+Alt+P+R at start-up. Let the computer restart at least 3 times (you should hear the start-up chime three times) while holding those keys down. Release the keys.

4) Reset NVRAM every other month or after kernel panics or strange behaviours of PCI cards. It will force the PCI bus to reload the drivers. It's done this way: hold down Command+Alt+O+F at start-up. Don't shout out loud- yes it resembles DOS :icon_eek: Write reset-nvram and hit enter. Write Mac-boot and hit enter. (There's also a way of resetting more settings by writing reset-all and after restart writing set-defaults.)

Whenever any problems occur, those are the first steps to recovery.

Way before reinstallment of drivers.

[FajitaTone]

Sticky please!

[malice]

Yes, I will let kenny or Digi take the decision, but it should be a sticky, ad well as tips for keeping a PC sane.

Although that might justify another forum.






















I kid, I kid



malice

[pounce]

any comments about onyx as compared to cocktail? i have onyx on my machines now for the same reasons.

i knew the pram command, not the nvram command, so there's a new one for me. today i have to work on patchbays, so i'll probably do all of this with my computers just for fun.

[maccool]

Just for info, my open firmware reset I do thusly;

reset-nvram (return)
set-defaults (return)
reset-all (return)

the Mac will now restart.

I always used to do this at the start of any troubleshooting with the ol' G3's and G4's, it can do no harm. That said, I don't need to do any of that troubleshooting shit these days. Two years now with this Dual 2.0 G5 and never a crash.

Now that the Intel Mac's no longer use Open Firmware, I just don't know what the equivalent EFI procedure might be.

[Knastratt]

About new procedures on an Intel, there's long time before I'm gonna know. My budget sucks.

But Onyx is as good as Cocktail, that's true.

[Kenny Gioia]

Just for info, my open firmware reset I do thusly;

reset-nvram (return)
set-defaults (return)
reset-all (return)

the Mac will now restart.



Can you explain in more detail?

[maccool]

Can you explain in more detail?
It's doing the same thing that Knas described, I just do it all in one hit. Hold down the four keys Command+Option+o+f at startup (as soon as you hear the startup chime, or sooner) until the Open Firmware command-line screen appears. At the prompt type the following commands (each followed by Return);

reset-nvram (Return)

set-defaults (Return)

reset-all (Return)

When you hit Return the last time the Mac will restart (without having to type Mac-boot)

Resetting PRAM or NVRAM will reset some user-specified Preferences to default settings, one of which is the selected startup volume. During the boot process Open Firmware will look at each attached device in a certain order and after a reset will use the first valid boot volume it finds, which may not be the one specified in your Starup Disk Preferences, in which case you'd need to change that back to the one you want.

[Knastratt]

Yeah, it's actually a simpler way. I think it's ok to edit in the shorter way at the top. Thanks, Mac!

WHAT? Isn't it allowed to edit earlier posts? Ok, maybe the mod on duty can edit in Macs way of resetting the NVRAM instead of mine.

Thx.

[otek]

MacCool,


What are the possible side effects of doing a full reset like that? I haven't had much of a problem myself with Knas's method (which is what I've been doing for quite some time), but is there a risk regarding any of the software, passwords, codes, etc.?

[Knastratt]

No risk! I've done it for years and it has always worked. No side effects whatsoever.

[maccool]

MacCool,


What are the possible side effects of doing a full reset like that? I haven't had much of a problem myself with Knas's method (which is what I've been doing for quite some time), but is there a risk regarding any of the software, passwords, codes, etc.?

No risk that I know of, and I've been doing it for years. Some Preferences get reset to default values, such as the startup volume, and Energy Saver pref's (I think!), but the things which get saved in NVRAM are the things which Open Firmware needs to start up the computer before it launches the OS, so any User-specific things like passwords and codes for applications aren't affected. Memories are fading now but, if I recall correctly, resetting PRAM or NVRAM in OS 9 would reset things like monitor color calibration which was a bit of a pain, but that ain't so any more in OS X. The default boot volume confuses folks sometimes, me included, and I couldn't remember which it is on my G5, so I just did the OF nvram reset to find out, and now I remember why I put my Raptor boot drive in the Upper drive bay! If the boot volume selected in Startup Disk Pref's was on the drive in the Lower bay, then the Mac will restart after the reset using the first boot volume it finds on the drive in the Upper bay, if indeed there is one. If not, it'll keep looking until it finds one, either on the other hard drive, the optical drive, or an attached Firewire drive, and I think it's in that order.

Another thing you'll notice when booted in Open Firmware on a G5 is that the cooling fans will keep speeding up until eventually it'll sound like it's about to take off! It's the OS which controls the fans, and it ain't launched yet, so the Mac plays it safe!

[digiengineer]

All very good suggestions, however I highly recommend Yasu (http://jimmitchell.org/projects/yasu/) (Yet Another System Utility) if you are looking for a simple, no nonsence system utility. Cocktail and OynX (which I also use) are both fantastic programs, but I feel they have some features that can get folks into trouble (like modifying certain features in Safari, network and OS settings). Yasu is so easy to use, my parents run it every week. :Wink:

[Brendo]

WHAT? Isn't it allowed to edit earlier posts?

After about half an hour or so, no.

There's a suggestions thread up in MM's. Back me up.

[Test4Echo]

Ok...I'll go against the stream here....

Where I work, we have some of the best OS X guy's in the country. Highest certification, leading classes for Apple and all that bullshit...

And they say NOT to restore permissions as a regular maintenance. Why? Well you can find some info here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repair_permissions). Check out the links at that page. I'm sure there more info on the net. Our guys says that "Repair Permissions" has become like a mantra with OS X users, but there is no need to do it as a maintenance procedure. In fact it can do more bad than good to the system.

So, do I use "Repair Permission"? Nope, not anymore. This spring we bought a iMac 20" Intel DualCore to our home studio, and as an experiment I decided to just let it run as is. Every update that has been released has been installed to that machine and with no problem. Same with my MacBook Pro I use at work (and sometimes in the studio to), and on that machine I install all kinds of shit, like MySQL, Lasso, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and so on.

The only time the OS X guys nodded in approval was when I defended myself to why I used Onyx on my machine to clear the kernel-cache in order to get the system to get rid of some old MOTU-drivers, before installing new ones. But they said I should do it from the Terminal of course.... :Roll eyes:

Anyhow - it's worth noting that "Repair Permissions" can actually be a bad thing. As to resetting PRAM and all that stuff - have never done it on OS X ever, and I have used OS X in an "abusive" way since 10.2.

By this I'm not saying I don't have issues with OS X from time to time. Of course I have. But they are few, and they are no more now, than when I ran "Repair Permissions" as a weekly maintenance.

Knock on wood...

/Cheers

[M.Brane]

One possible gotcha with the OF NVRAM reset is if you're running a CPU upgrade that patches firmware to boot OS9 (like my Gigadesigns dual 1.6 7447) you'll need to re-run the firmware patch to keep your 9 booting ability.

[Knastratt]

Hey, test4.

I don't get that. Since UNIX (and OS X is a built on a BSD UNIX kernel) rely heavily on read/write permissions of single files there are numerous of situations where the permissions might get altered. If for example the preference file of a certain application loses its permission to write to that file, things are gonna fuck up. Of all computers I've managed that'll happen. On and on.

I know no other remedy of that except repairing the permissions.

You know it when certain functions of a program stops interacting, or the whole application plainly stops working. I wouldn't argue with certified techs though. Maybe I'm a moron. So educate me! :Roll eyes:

Be well - Pär

[binaural turbine]

??? Eh? Wot do I need to do that for?? I've owned a Mac since 2001 and never heard of this, let alone had to do it.

Like the farmer to the barnstormer "Whafo you do that?"

[Test4Echo]

Well, Knastratt

It didn't make sense to me either first, but...now it kind of does. On that wikipage I refered to in my post, there is a link: http://www.unsanity.org/archives/000410.php That page describes the "Repair Permission" thing very well, certainly better than I can...

Your example with preference files used by apps in OS X is a great example of this misconception: As I was told by our guys, and what also the link above says (roughly) - The "Repair Permission" utility doesn't touch any files located in your home directory. And the preference files for apps used by a particular user are located inside his/hers home directory, right? So those are never corrected by this "maintenance task".

Also, far from every file installed on your system can be repaired by Repair Permission, it's just System files installed by Apple, and not even all of them are included in this process, as I understand it. Other factors also play a part in what what files Repair Permissions touches on your system, but I think the link above explain it in a good way.

Oh, btw. I asked one of our OS X guys today about zapping PRAM and other zapping actions as a maintenance task. And he said - "Why?!?!?" and then "Don't!" He didn't have time to explain nor the "Why" or the "Don't", and I have no link to back that up why not to do it here, so... I'll won't go there...for now. :Roll eyes:

/Cheers

[Spock]

I'm not a current MAC driver, I was back in the 68K machine days, but my day gig is UNIX.

You are right UNIX depends badly on file permissions because you don't have privs in UNIX, either you are root or not, and SUID and GUID bits in the access mask mean a lot.

I can tell you what something a like the Repair Permissions is good for.... Years ago we had someone write a poor script. It ran daily as a cron job that did things to the owners and permissions in a data directory. Well one day when the directory got moved the the script started change things from / on down.

This majorly fucked up device files, mail, and all the printer/plotter queues on the system. Having something that would put that stuff back to point where we could login without pain and get the OS basicly working would have saved a lot of time.

Now if you have a filesystem/OS that is randomly flipping permission bits then you have a much bigger problem.

[M.Brane]

IMHO the only time you really need to do an NVRAM rest is if you make a change to your hardware config (internal drives, PCI cards, RAM, CPU).

If your system is stable then you should simply enjoy. If you're having recurring kernel panics, and other bad behavior the first thing I would do is test RAM with Memtest. Bad RAM is more common than most people think, and can really fuck things up.

Disk maintenence is another matter entirely. Keep those drives healthy especially if you flog 'em hard with lots of audio files. Re-initializing periodically will help keep the corruption from setting in as well as using a good utility like TechTool to rebuild the directories. I like the quiet time during disk maintenence/backups. Think of it like de-guassing, and cleaning heads/transports only less physical work.

After running OSX for a little over a year I notice less hard disk problems than with 9. Wether or not this is due to journaling I dunno, but I like it.

[Knastratt]

IMHO the only time you really need to do an NVRAM rest is if you make a change to your hardware config (internal drives, PCI cards, RAM, CPU).

If your system is stable then you should simply enjoy. If you're having recurring kernel panics, and other bad behavior the first thing I would do is test RAM with Memtest. Bad RAM is more common than most people think, and can really fuck things up.

Disk maintenence is another matter entirely. Keep those drives healthy especially if you flog 'em hard with lots of audio files. Re-initializing periodically will help keep the corruption from setting in as well as using a good utility like TechTool to rebuild the directories. I like the quiet time during disk maintenence/backups. Think of it like de-guassing, and cleaning heads/transports only less physical work.

After running OSX for a little over a year I notice less hard disk problems than with 9. Wether or not this is due to journaling I dunno, but I like it.

Sorry but no. I have a sound card that'll HAVE to be reset. My RME stops loading at times. The only remedy is a NVRAM reset. Still, educate me!

[FajitaTone]

how full can your HD be? If I have an 80 GB system drive in my laptop, how much free space is too little?

[M.Brane]

Sorry but no. I have a sound card that'll HAVE to be reset. My RME stops loading at times. The only remedy is a NVRAM reset. Still, educate me!

Does it disappear completely (no show in ASP) or is it just the drivers that take a shit?

If it's just the drivers I'd look at software or firmware problem.

If it disappears completely it could be a hardware issue. Flakey card or slot. It does happen.

Either way it shouldn't be doing that. What do they have to say about it? I've only read good things about RME, but have no personal experience with them.

how full can your HD be? If I have an 80 GB system drive in my laptop, how much free space is too little?

For a boot drive I like to keep it under 50% full. Anything beyond that causes performance issues, and above 75% full you risk file corruption. If you have plenty of RAM (1GB+), and don't do a lot of disk burning you may be able to get away with more since swap, and temp files can take up quite a bit of space, and really thrash the disk.

[Knastratt]

It just stops loading from time to time.

[M.Brane]

I would get in touch with RME to see if there's a firmware update for the card, and/or an updated driver.

My 001 does the same thing occasionally. Cleaning the contacts on the cable helped, but it still does it once in a while after the Mac has been idle on the login screen. A simple restart gets it back, and it never drops out when in use.

There are so many variables in play with this DAW shit it's amazing it works as well as it does. I recently aquired a P4 running XP, and Sonar 5. The more I play with that thing the more I love my old FrankenMac G4/001. Maybe it just doesn't like being surrounded by Macs. :Razz:

[Knastratt]

Maybe it just doesn't like being surrounded by Macs. :Razz:

They're picky bastards! No. Snobby.

I can live with it. It only occurs once a month. And the NVRAM reset is the remedy.

[nobby]

Yes, I will let kenny or Digi take the decision, but it should be a sticky, ad well as tips for keeping a PC sane.



Optimize and defrag?

[digiengineer]

Optimize and defrag?

It depends on what you mean by "optimize". Clearing caches? Sure. Repairing permissions? There seems to be some controversy about that, but its saved my ass more than a few times. Anything else programs like Yasu, Cocktail, or OnyX does I don't see a problem with (except for resetting trusted applications, that's just annoying).

As for defragging... I've NEVER defraged a drive in OS X. YMMV, but drive fragmentation has not been an issue for me.

I'll post some of my suggestions on keeping PCs sane after the tryptophan wears off later this weekend.:Wink:

[nobby]

It depends on what you mean by "optimize". Clearing caches? Sure. Repairing permissions? There seems to be some controversy about that, but its saved my ass more than a few times. Anything else programs like Yasu, Cocktail, or OnyX does I don't see a problem with (except for resetting trusted applications, that's just annoying).

As for defragging... I've NEVER defraged a drive in OS X. YMMV, but drive fragmentation has not been an issue for me.

It's never been an issue for me either. I just do it because people who supposedly know more than I do suggested it.

For what you pay for a mac, it should

A) never need any maintenance at all and

B) mow your lawn without being asked.


I'll post some of my suggestions on keeping PCs sane after the tryptophan wears off later this weekend.:Wink:

Is that some sort of hallucinogen :Wink:

[seagate]

B) mow your lawn without being asked.

Working on an Applescript that does just that (and rebuild your permissions)!!!

:lol:

[nobby]

Working on an Applescript that does just that (and rebuild your permissions)!!!

:lol:

It doesn't need my permission to mow the lawn, just a full tank of gas.

Can I get an upgrade for raking leaves? Shovelling snow?

:Thumbsup: :)

[seagate]

It doesn't need my permission to mow the lawn, just a full tank of gas.

Can I get an upgrade for raking leaves? Shovelling snow?

:Thumbsup: :)

So, you want the lot and super size it too?

:icon_eek:

[M.Brane]

Make sure when you write that script that you include picking up the dog shit first.

[seagate]

Make sure when you write that script that you include picking up the dog shit first.

:lol:

[otek]

Make sure when you write that script that you include picking up the dog shit first.

That's only included in the SUP (Seagate Upgrade Plan), which costs 400 bucks a year. Better get it, or you won't even get support for the lawnmowing plugin you bought.

Good news is, with the SUP you get a discount for the Mulchenator auto-compost plugin.

Meanwhile, try the demo - it's full-featured, but it turns the sprinklers on every five minutes.

[seagate]

Meanwhile, try the demo - it's full-featured, but it turns the sprinklers on every five minutes.

Lots of complaints from Australian users on that one with the Water restrictions and all...

Suckers...

:Twisted:

[Knastratt]

It depends on what you mean by "optimize". Clearing caches? Sure. Repairing permissions? There seems to be some controversy about that, but its saved my ass more than a few times. Anything else programs like Yasu, Cocktail, or OnyX does I don't see a problem with (except for resetting trusted applications, that's just annoying).

As for defragging... I've NEVER defraged a drive in OS X. YMMV, but drive fragmentation has not been an issue for me.

I'll post some of my suggestions on keeping PCs sane after the tryptophan wears off later this weekend.:Wink:

The HD with the OS X system on it should NEVER be defragged. It defrags itself when necessary. Defragging it can ruin it. Added drives for music and stuff should be defragged from time to time.

[seagate]

The HD with the OS X system on it should NEVER be defragged. It defrags itself when necessary. Defragging it can ruin it. Added drives for music and stuff should be defragged from time to time.

Got any offical Apple links that verify this bold statement?

[digiengineer]

Got any official Apple links that verify this bold statement?

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

That's the official word from Apple. Like them, I recommend cloning your system HD (using Carbon Copy Cloner), erasing or reformatting the system drive, and restore your data using the clone; I do this once a year on all my client systems.

As far as de-fragmenting audio (or video) drives are concerned, drive and data management has been vastly improved in OS X to reduce fragmentation. Also, you should regularly backup, archive, and wipe audio and video drives on a regular basis (at least once per month or gig-by-gig). Storage is cheap, so there really is no excuse not to.

[seagate]

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

That's the official word from Apple.

That doesn't really verify Knastratt's statement...

Might just mark this one as an Urban Myth. :lol:

[digiengineer]

That doesn't really verify Knastratt's statement...

I wasn't trying to, I was just passing on some information. I'll leave it to Knastratt to defend his statement.

[seagate]

I wasn't trying to, I was just passing on some information. I'll leave it to Knastratt to defend his statement.

:Thumbsup: :Wink:

[Knastratt]

There has been remarks in the "official press" (read: MacWorld and derivates) from the cradle of OS X. I've seen it over and over. But while investigating (thanks Seagate for pointing out. I really don't like to propagate urban myths!) - I've found this: "Unix systems don't need defrag since they take care of that internally" (stated in lots of web pages).

But OS X is NOT being a true UNIX system (just built on a BSD UNIX kernel) falls somewhat between the chairs. I've found the very same document as "digienginner" and I no longer exactly know what's right or wrong.

Some peeps think Norton or Tech Tool will do the work. My OS X technician is outta town. I'll try to get in touch. If anyone have a clue - enlighten us.

Ignorance isn't bliss - ignorance will slow work flow!

Be well - Pär

[Skwaidu]

Cheers to Knatsttratt, maccool and others! I just recently had some troubles with my G5 and found that some of the things mentioned in this thread I knew jack about... Seemed to help, at least for now. Thanks!

[gbacklin]

Well here is my regimen that I do for a number of personal reasons.

System Drive:

I completely wipe my system quarterly, that being reformat with zeroing the drive. It takes a while, but I either do it before going to bed, or before a good meal ;)

Reason:
a) forces me to back up things.
b) my own logic on the matter of hard drive life and magnetism.
- When you install onto a hard drive, the drive head goes over a certain spot. Now if you use a program frequently you are making the head go over that same spot a lot of times. This over time will put more action on that spot more than other spots on the drive. This may result in bad sectors, leading to premature end of the drive. By wiping the drive and reloading the software there is a good chance that it will not reside on the same spot, thus distributing the wear and tear on the drive, thus a longer life.

Data Drive:

I completely wipe this drive also with zeroing before each project, along with the drive life reason mentioned above, I just feel better with a completely clean drive. When the project is over, I back it up and wipe to be ready for next project.

I have never defragged a drive on my Mac, for there is no reason for me to do so.

I have a desktop and laptop that are identical installations, so if by chance a system drive goes, I have an immediate backup plan.

I also keep a copy of my project on an external firewire drive so that if I lose my data drive, there is not a huge loss, only current changes. I make a copy after each mixing session to keep loss at a minimum. This actually saved my ass once. I had just captured a live solo vocal recital and as I was packing up my mics, I was making a copy of the session to another external firewire drive. When I got back home and proceeded to begin working on the recital, I heard that awful clack-clack, meaning the drive was gone. I tried a few tricks to revive the drive, but to no avail. I went to my firewire and kept my fingers crossed. Whew, my recording was intact.

Take Care,
Gene

[seagate]

I have never defragged a drive on my Mac, for there is no reason for me to do so.

Erasing a drive and reloading your software is the manual way of defragging, so yes, you do defragg your drives...

[Spock]

Wow, defraging drives that's a big can of worms.

The problem is just because an OS is *NIX or *NIX based doesn't tell you anything about the filesystem, and this is where things get funny.

You have UFS, HFS, VxFS, and many more. And then those that also know how to read and write NTFS and FAT. On the early systems with UFS/HFS each virtual block of the file was explictly mapped to a logical block on the partition. So if you queued up a big read, the kernel had to lookup the mapping for each block, and then pass all these seperate reads on to the driver. The driver/disk should have re-ordered the reads to avoid too much head movement, so this ended up being not too bad. Also most applications didn't do big sequential reads, so it didn't matter much. Newer filesystems map chuncks of blocks, so if a file is defraged, only one mapping entry is needed, to just point to the start of the file. Helpful for reducing CPU overhead on accessing larger files and good for super large reads.

What I have seen is the best thing is not so much to defragment the files, but defrag the free space so that large chuncks are always available. You only get into problems with this when file get created, extended and then delete, leaving little holes all around the place.

This is one reason on *NIX that it can be best not to put everything into one big filesystem. Split out /tmp, /var, /usr, /home. /tmp will get all kinds of things written and then deleted, this of course on *NIX where /tmp is a real filesystem.

[gbacklin]

Here is another article from Apple...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668


You probably won't need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X. Here's why:

Hard disk capacity is generally much greater now than a few years ago. With more free space available, the file system doesn't need to fill up every "nook and cranny." Mac OS Extended formatting (HFS Plus) avoids reusing space from deleted files as much as possible, to avoid prematurely filling small areas of recently-freed space.

Mac OS X 10.2 and later includes delayed allocation for Mac OS X Extended-formatted volumes. This allows a number of small allocations to be combined into a single large allocation in one area of the disk.

Fragmentation was often caused by continually appending data to existing files, especially with resource forks. With faster hard drives and better caching, as well as the new application packaging format, many applications simply rewrite the entire file each time. Mac OS X 10.3 Panther can also automatically defragment such slow-growing files. This process is sometimes known as "Hot-File-Adaptive-Clustering."

Aggressive read-ahead and write-behind caching means that minor fragmentation has less effect on perceived system performance.

For these reasons, there is little benefit to defragmenting.

[Baddo]

...
System Drive:

I completely wipe my system quarterly, that being reformat with zeroing the drive....


Why zero the HD? What do you gain by doing that?

[M.Brane]

Writing zeroes to a drive will map out any bad blocks. With modern drives the advantages of doing this are arguable. Drive technology has improved significantly in the last few years.

The best plan has always been to backup your data. That way if something does go wrong your ass is covered. There's really no excuse. Storage is cheap these days.

It's also a lot easier to simply restore from a .dmg than to babysit all those installers.

[Bryson]

No mention of Disk Warrior?

[seagate]

No mention of Disk Warrior?

DW doesn't do de-fragging, hence it's abscense...

It's also highly unlikely that anyone doing the quarterly reformat and start again thing would need DW.

I use it, as well as TechTool Pro, then again I fix Macs for a living... :Wink:

[digiengineer]

No mention of Disk Warrior?

Again, disk and data management in OS X has vastly improved to the point where Disk Warrior is rarely needed. Except in situations where someone accidently pulls a firewire drive without unmounting and it dings the directory, I don't see much use for it in regular maintenance anymore.

As always... YMMV

[seagate]

Again, disk and data management in OS X has vastly improved to the point where Disk Warrior is rarely needed. Except in situations where someone accidently pulls a firewire drive without unmounting and it dings the directory, I don't see much use for it in regular maintenance anymore.

As always... YMMV

+1

I don't use it unless there is a problem...

[dumbass]

What I've found;

Depending up the OS version, drive/firmware/primary applications used determines the effectiveness of resetting the permissions, defrag, OF Reset and PRAM.

10.3 and earlier; PRAM and OF reset helps more on general usage boxes... not seen too much need/use on 10.4... with two exceptions.

Those exceptions Microsloth Office and Quark 6

When the box goes wooby, (which they will!) the only thing that set's em' straight is to reset permissions, zap the PRAM and reset the OF.

Other than that DW and Tech Tool pretty don't do shit, IME, unless you have a 10.2 (and earlier) drive that wigs. Then TT is about the only thing that seems to get the drive to get kick started enough to handle resetting permissions.

YMMV

[seagate]

YMMV

It does... :lol:

[Meverylame]

Again, disk and data management in OS X has vastly improved to the point where Disk Warrior is rarely needed. Except in situations where someone accidently pulls a firewire drive without unmounting and it dings the directory, I don't see much use for it in regular maintenance anymore.

As always... YMMV

Try and tech a few hip hop studios computers. Disk Warrior becomes a close friend.

[vocalnick]

I've resided on both sides of the PC/Mac debate (debacle?) at various times, and it's actually a really refreshing change to see Mac users admitting that their machines require care and maintenance. BMW drivers never try to claim their cars don't need oil & coolant, so why so much denial that Apple's machines might benefit from the odd bit of preventative maintenance?

Anyway, no-one doing that here, so I digress :)

As a PC guy, I've become used to the "format & reinstall" dance from the Win95 days. XP is a lot more robust, but I still have a fairly regular regimen of re-establishing a clean system. Thankfully, there are plenty of options for disk imaging these days, and I can have a sparkly new installation with a DVD insert and about 5 keystrokes.

Of course now I've just changed DAW software, I'm going to have to build another image... sigh.

[M.Brane]

Your always going to have those who just drive the thing 'till the wheels fall off. I try to take good care of my stuff though even if I do flog it pretty hard.

I find DAW maintenance a lot less labor-intensive than tape machine maintenance, and you can actually do other stuff now too due to multitasking. No more staring at progress bars.

For those of us who like to experiment the cloning/restore utilities are a big time-saver. I hosed my whole PT install experimenting with different versions of Core Audio the other night. In under an hour it was right back where I was before I started. Just enough time to grab some dinner.:Coolio:

Never did get those damn games to work right with CAD though. Oh well that's what the monitor mode button is for I guess.:Roll eyes:

[digiengineer]

Try and tech a few hip hop studios computers. Disk Warrior becomes a close friend.

I made my name tech'ing computers in L.A. rap studios/sessions for 7 years. :lol: DW fell off the map with v.3 on OS X, v.4 seems to be nice, but I'm still not convinced it's needed as badly as it was in OS9.

[cajonezzz]

I didn't read the whole thread, but one thing that's been keeping ME sane is to use SUPER DUPER on a regular basis, like once a week, to clone my studio drive.

I just pop a raw drive on my wiebtech drivedock, and do an "erase and clean copy" of the whole drive.

I have been doing the repair permissions on a regular basis as well... but no pram zapping. Is that really a good thing to do?

[seagate]

I didn't read the whole thread, but one thing that's been keeping ME sane is to use SUPER DUPER on a regular basis, like once a week, to clone my studio drive.

I just pop a raw drive on my wiebtech drivedock, and do an "erase and clean copy" of the whole drive.

Even with this method I'd still recommend using DiskWarrior on your volumes to make sure there's no underlying problems.

I have been doing the repair permissions on a regular basis as well... but no pram zapping. Is that really a good thing to do?

Repping perms regularly is a good idea, but I wouldn't bother with the pram unless you have a problem...

[archtop]

I'll give you some rep for that perm.

I mean, damn, what lift , body and shine.

[James Wilsey]

I'm kinda new here, but I manage a couple of hundred macs on a daily basis. I've learned a few things about keeping them running.

If you don't have Disk Warrior, get it now. It fixes directory problems that are the cause of many ills. It does this by looking at all of the files on the drive, and creating a new optimized directory- it does not patch a bad directory like some utilities, which generally leads to more problems.

It also optimizes the directory, so all of the records are in order, and not fragmented. Do not use any other software to repair drive problems.

If you defragment a drive, there are a few utilities. I like Drive Genius.

I keep a small firewire drive with a system and utilities installed. Makes it easy and quick to boot from the firewire drive, and fix any problems. If you want to repair problems on a boot drive, it has to be unmounted. Booting from an external drive makes it possible.

Carbon copy Cloner (freeware) is a great tool. You can make exact bootable clones of your boot drive. If you need to roll out several computers, install software on one, and clone the rest over. If you need to move your boot drive to a different physical disk, you can clone it over instead of installing from scratch. I've used it hundreds of times and it is flawless. It's also handy for making bootable backups of a hard drive.

Pay attention to how you partition drives. The first partition at the top of the drive is about 20% faster than the very end of a drive. The outside of a platter spins faster (in one revolution) than the inside, just like a vinyl record.

It's a good idea to create a second user account for troubleshooting. A lot of problems stem from user preferences, and testing from a second user is sometimes a good way to pinpoint problems.

If you maintain your boot drive, you absolutely will not need to wipe and reformat it every six months.

[seagate]

I'll give you some rep for that perm.

I mean, damn, what lift , body and shine.

U watch too many ads on tele...

:lol:

[theom]

If upgrading a pt hd rig from 7.1hd to 7.3hd would you suggest using carbon copy cloner to make a system disk clone on an external firewire drive first?
I was considering physically changing out the drive with a new one and shelving the 7.1. but then I will need to reinstall EVERYthing from scratch. not fun.
Is there a better cloner out there than ccc?
Why not a regular disk image?

the system is a ppc mac 4proc g5.

[M.Brane]

I think if the drive is more than a couple years old I would replace it, and save the old one as an off-site backup. You can always dupe the current system onto the new drive first to save you all the reinstall steps.

Speaking of duping/cloning systems etc. you may want to read this:

http://blog.plasticsfuture.org/2006/04/23/mac-backup-software-harmful/

Very enlightening.

[theom]

I think if the drive is more than a couple years old I would replace it, and save the old one as an off-site backup. You can always dupe the current system onto the new drive first to save you all the reinstall steps.

Speaking of duping/cloning systems etc. you may want to read this:

http://blog.plasticsfuture.org/2006/04/23/mac-backup-software-harmful/

Very enlightening.


Thanks for the link.
It appears superduper is the safest bet for backup.
on my list to buy.

Does this seem right for back up pt7.1HD sys drive before upgrading to 7.3HD?

1. Install new sata drive in open sata slot internally in G5 (same size drive)
2. Disk Utillities to format new drive. Name?
3 ??? Do a wipe all write all zeros on new drive to map any bad blocks?
4 use super duper to clone sys drive to new drive, (Is there a disk name conflict here?)
5 remove original sys drive off site.
6 move new cloned sys drive to 1st sata slot.


I dont have superduper yet so I may be missing an imaging step here right?

Is it better to clone to an external FW drive first, then clone back to new internal sata?

[seagate]

Sounds about the right to me...

The name of the drive can anything you like during the procedure as long you rename it to what the original drive was called as your last step.

If you don't do this, a lot of badly written apps will have problems finding their support files...

[M.Brane]

Actually you can download the free version of SD to do a simple clone. If you want the additional features you'll have to cough up the $20-some bucks for the full version. That's still quite a bargain though considering.

I like to give a fresh drive a good workout before I put into everday service so I recommend writing zeroes. This can take a while on a large drive though, and you don't really have to do it. If a drive is going to fail due to a defect it's most likely to happen early in it's life so I like to give 'em the ol' "stress test".

You can never really have too many backups IMHO so you might want to do the FW thing too so you have an easily bootable backup.

[Tommy Fobia]

They're picky bastards! No. Snobby.

I can live with it. It only occurs once a month. And the NVRAM reset is the remedy.

Hahaha! A 'haunted' G4/Protools rig in a room I sometimes use promptly crashes when a colleague of mine mentions anything to do with Sonar or Intel... It the worst maintained room I ever have the 'pleasure' of using on occasion.

[theom]

What about pace AND cloned drives?

I successfully cloned out HD rig main drive btw.
It took more time than I expected. zeroing the drive took a bit.
Then the actual transfer was equally long, no big deal, I know now what to expect.

The sys booted fine from the drive. HD opened a session, everything seems great.

Still waiting to start the upgrade from 7.1HD to 7.3HD.

This rig has no Waves plugs at all.
The other hd rig here (7.1HD) has fully licensed 360 bundle, ssl bundle, and 1 S1 imager.
360 and ssl are ilok authorized.

S1 was purchased as a single plug and is only available from waves as a disc authorization.

What should I expect after cloning this system drive?
I was planning on shelving the old drive and running the new drive as the main drive. re-naming the drive identically to the original.

1. Will the waveshells still point to the right waves plug in folder?
2. Am I correct that the ilok auth will be fine for ssl and 360?

3. I assume the disc auth will know the hardware changed
and will want to verify or re-auth the one waves disk auth plug (the S1 imager)
I need info on what happens at this point with the S1 and for that matter any other disc authorized plugs.

With valid WUP can I contact them with my original serial # (I think they have that anyway in my waves profile) with another challenge response I get a couple right?. Will I have to pay for a new full auth?

4. Are there any other disc authorized plugs That are particularly tricky to re authorize?

This whole update from 7.1HD to 7.3HD is serious. I just want to know what to expect.

Thank all of you so much for your time.

[M.Brane]

Sorry, but I don't do Waves so I can't help you much with that.

Unless they are writing something to NVRAM a good clone with Super Duper should do the trick as it copies everything from the original drive. Unless they are comparing drive info somehow.

If they are writing something to NVRAM an Open Firmware reset would result in having to re-authorize. I've never heard of that happening, but that doesn't mean it hasn't.

[Audio~Geek]

I just saw this in my rss feeds from Sweetwater:

It Still Pays to Zap Your PRAM!
04/17/2008

You might think that the Mac's OS X operating system is the most stable thing in a universe that's anything but stable. Yeah, it is, but that doesn't mean you should forget some of those great old tricks you used to use when your Mac misbehaved using System 9. One example is zapping your PRAM. You remember: You hold down the Apple + Option + P + R keys. Okay, it really would be easier if you had three hands, but it can be done. While holding down those keys, power up your Mac and wait for it to chime three or four times. Don't panic if it doesn't happen right away, as there's a lot most Macs have to do to prepare to actually power up completely. Once you have heard the final chime, let it boot up as normal. This is a useful thing to do if you're experiencing some odd behavior that Disk Utility doesn't seem to notice or want to fix (it's not perfect, after all). It's also something you should do every once in a while. You don't wait for your car to fall apart before changing the oil, do you? Consider this the Mac equivalent of changing your oil. Maybe even do them both on the same day. Remember: A healthy Mac is a happy Mac, making you a happy Mac user!


I have no idea if that's BS or not but I thought I'd share anyhow. I'm not even a mac user (nor do I care to be)

[Bob Olhsson]

When you had a crash in the real Mac system it took the whole machine down. With system neXt only the application crashes. What little experience I've had with system neXt is that applications crash more often but people have the illusion it is more stable because the machine doesn't need to be rebooted.

[seagate]

When you had a crash in the real Mac system it took the whole machine down. With system neXt only the application crashes. What little experience I've had with system neXt is that applications crash more often but people have the illusion it is more stable because the machine doesn't need to be rebooted.

Fixing Macs for a living, I'd have to disagree with you.

X is far more stable than 9 ever was.

Most problems are fixed by either rebuilding permissions or deleting plists unlike the countless hours spent with 9 trying to find the elusive extension that was causing a crash...
Troubleshooting pesky fonts which took down a system was another fun activity that no longer happens.

As for apps crashing more in X, sorry, I just don't see it.

I had far more work with OS9 than I have now... :Cry:

[danbee]

On repairing permissions.

http://daringfireball.net/2006/04/repair_permissions_voodoo

[seagate]

On repairing permissions.

http://daringfireball.net/2006/04/repair_permissions_voodoo

Fails to explain why it does appear to fix odd little issues...

[M.Brane]

Repairing permissions only fixes permissions issues (documents/apps not opening). I don't remember the last time I had one of those. It doesn't hurt anything to run it except for the waste of time.

It's not a panacea.

[seagate]

Repairing permissions only fixes permissions issues (documents/apps not opening). I don't remember the last time I had one of those. It doesn't hurt anything to run it except for the waste of time.

It's not a panacea.

plists, ktext files & others are affected by this as well so there is a little bit more to it than just simply "documents/apps not opening".

Not an engineer, but I'm pretty sure a program that can't load it's libraries or whatever due to permission issues isn't going to play nice....

[M.Brane]

Those things are owned by the system/root.

When I get any bad behavior I boot into SUM, and run Applejack in auto mode to check/clean the system out. Part of what AJ does is repair permissions, but it also first runs fsck to repair any disk issues. It also verifies plists, and cleans out cache/swap files.

It does all this in less time than it takes to run Disk Utility because it doesn't have to load the GUI.

[seagate]

Those things are owned by the system/root.

Which is why I alway run the perm repair in terminal as sudo

When I get any bad behavior I boot into SUM, and run Applejack in auto mode to check/clean the system out. Part of what AJ does is repair permissions, but it also first runs fsck to repair any disk issues. It also verifies plists, and cleans out cache/swap files.

Applejack is fine if it's your machine, but you can run all that stuff in SUM by hand anyway, just a bit more typing. Generally I only boot into single user if the machine doesn't boot at all.

It does all this in less time than it takes to run Disk Utility because it doesn't have to load the GUI.


See above...

[danbee]

Fails to explain why it does appear to fix odd little issues...

Maybe it does fix odd little issues. The article is referring to running is periodically as a maintenance task though.

If you're not having problems, don't bother running it :)

[jord]

Fixing Macs for a living, I'd have to disagree with you.

X is far more stable than 9 ever was.

Most problems are fixed by either rebuilding permissions or deleting plists unlike the countless hours spent with 9 trying to find the elusive extension that was causing a crash...
Troubleshooting pesky fonts which took down a system was another fun activity that no longer happens.

As for apps crashing more in X, sorry, I just don't see it.

I had far more work with OS9 than I have now... :Cry:

+1 on this!!!

I find I have to support Macs far less with OS X! As for crashing, I hardly see it as well.

jord