Questions regarding OS X

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a ronin

Gawd
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Jan 29, 2003
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I'm finding myself increasingly finicky about the performance of OSX. Prior to migrating, I was routinely formatting/installing WinXP every few months because it felt to run faster that way. I'm doing the same with OS X though much less frequent. Two things I've come across which I would appreciate some insights on.

1) Keychains. It's very convenient to have it in the operating system itself rather than just the browser. Is there a way to back this up so I can individually install it next time I do a format? I don't like to backup my previous installation; I prefer to format and discard any remnants of the old for the new.

2) Is there anyway to make an image of OS X from the 2-disc setup they provide with the MBP? I takes close to an hour to "prepare" for the installation when you set things in motion and close to 2 hours after everything is said and done. I don't know if it's the fact that reading the optical disc is slow or what. Would be easier as well to dispense with the DVDs and keep them in a safe place.

Thanks and have a nice day.
 
Well, you could use something like Carbon Copy Cloner right after your fresh install.

But honestly I can't think of why you would go through this. Are you leaving you Mac on over night every once in a while so it will do it's background maintenance?
 
valve1138 said:
Well, you could use something like Carbon Copy Cloner right after your fresh install.

But honestly I can't think of why you would go through this. Are you leaving you Mac on over night every once in a while so it will do it's background maintenance?
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I'm new to OS X. Are you referring to defragmentation or is there something more specialized in OS X's maintenance regiment?
 
I really don't see a point in formatting and reinstalling the operating system on a Mac. Are you sure you're not just forcing yourself to believe the machine runs faster?
 
B. W. said:
I really don't see a point in formatting and reinstalling the operating system on a Mac. Are you sure you're not just forcing yourself to believe the machine runs faster?
Click to expand...

I've recently been getting a lot of latency with my mouse (MX Rev.) and had Logitech ship me a new one, only to discover it only happened when I hooking the MBP to an external display. That said, I did have a lot of junk instlaled; mostly Pro applications for testing. Mind you, these applications were not running in the bakcground, merely taking up harddrive space. In any event, I did a fresh install and so far have no experienced the mouse lag. That's a tangible difference if there ever was one. I also have a new MX Rev. on its way.
 
You can backup your keychain files. They should be in your user library keychain folder. Make sure to run the repair command from the keychain utility first so you are backing up a known good keychain.

The Mac install can be slow for two common reasons:

1. You are not bypassing the DVD verify. This can be painfully slow, I always skip it.
2. You are having trouble reading the disc, either due to the drive or the disc itself. This can massively prolong the time for the install.

There's nothing wrong with doing a reinstall now and then if there's a good reason. Perhaps you've made changes and are experiencing crashes/freezes, etc. You should not need to reinstall with any regularity.
 
I've migrated my existing user account and all my applications through three Powerbooks / Macbooks now without a reinstall.

I do have a backup made with Deja Vu though.
 
Might I suggest you get a CHEAP firewire external drive kit and 10gb drive or something?

That way, you can isntall the full copy of OSX on the drive, boot up in target disk mode (hold option+t I believe, before you see the gray apple at startup) and initialize the drive while moving the contents of the FW drive over.

That's how I re-format mine :)
 
Don't forget to install F@H and join the [H]orde :)

Those Mac Core Duo's crunch workunits like no-ones business. It's scary how powerful and fast they are.
 
Macs don't actually run faster when they're newly formatted. Mostly, they just run faster on new user accounts, because there's no crap starting on log-on. Also, more free disk space means less fragmentation. If you want to keep Mac OS X running as fast as it is when newly installed, just do the following:

*Make sure to AT ALL TIMES have at least 10% and a minimum of 10 gigabytes of free hard drive space. Don't drop below this. If you're creeping close, get rid of stuff you don't need.

*Make sure you don't have too much starting when you log on to your account (System Prefs -> Accounts -> Login items).


Don't reinstall.



2) Is there anyway to make an image of OS X from the 2-disc setup they provide with the MBP? I takes close to an hour to "prepare" for the installation when you set things in motion and close to 2 hours after everything is said and done. I don't know if it's the fact that reading the optical disc is slow or what. Would be easier as well to dispense with the DVDs and keep them in a safe place.
Click to expand...
If you disable enough of the extras (like iLife stuff, printer drivers, etc), disc 2 is no longer needed.
 
I don't believe HFS+ suffers from fragmentation as much as FAT16/32 or NTFS.
 
vraa said:
I don't believe HFS+ suffers from fragmentation as much as FAT16/32 or NTFS.
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It doesn't, but it still happens. And when the amount of free hard drive space drops below a certain threshold, the automatic defragmentation stops.
 
Oh it HFS+ becomes fragmented just as much. At work we have computers with up to 50000 fragmented files.:p
 
aznx said:
Oh it HFS+ becomes fragmented just as much.
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HFS+ getting as fragmented as FAT32? You have GOT to be kidding. If you manage to get HFS+ significantly fragmented, you must've treated it so poorly that it would've caused FAT32 to start breaking down completely.
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
HFS+ getting as fragmented as FAT32? You have GOT to be kidding. If you manage to get HFS+ significantly fragmented, you must've treated it so poorly that it would've caused FAT32 to start breaking down completely.
Click to expand...

Auto defrag is only available to files under 20mb I believe...
 
Arcygenical said:
Auto defrag is only available to files under 20mb I believe...
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20 or 30, can't remember. But that has nothing to do with it; HFS+ is a better format than FAT32 regardless of the defragmentation that's built into Mac OS X (it's not an HFS+ feature; it's a Mac OS X feature).
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
HFS+ getting as fragmented as FAT32? You have GOT to be kidding. If you manage to get HFS+ significantly fragmented, you must've treated it so poorly that it would've caused FAT32 to start breaking down completely.
Click to expand...

Yes they come out pretty bad. What's unbelievable about that? These computers are under heavy use but the HDs don't even get filled up maybe 50%. Also they are on 24/7.
 
aznx said:
Yes they come out pretty bad. What's unbelievable about that? These computers are under heavy use but the HDs don't even get filled up maybe 50%. Also they are on 24/7.
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Well I don't know what's causing it for your machines. Besides, 50,000 fragmented files doesn't sound unreasonable. It really depends on how many fragments they're divided into.
 
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