Cleaning up files etc. on my MacBook Pro

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Level 1

10 points

Cleaning up files etc. on my MacBook Pro

I'm fairly new to a Mac and am wondering how I should clean up files etc. on it? Previously on my Windows PC I would use the disk cleanup facility, use CCleaner every so often and occasionally defragment the hard drive. What's the equivalent on a Mac running the latest OSX? I secure empty trash, clean up my cookies and empty the cache frequently but don't know if I should do anything else (can you defragment a Mac?). Is there an equivalent to CCleaner for Macs? (I've looked at Clean My Mac but you need to buy it if you want it to do much)

Many thanks

MacBook Pro 2.26Ghz/4Gb RAM/500Gb HDD, Mac OS X (10.6.4), iPhone 3Gs

Posted on Jun 25, 2010 7:05 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

JoeyR

Level 6

8,305 points

Jun 25, 2010 7:10 AM in response to HavanaNights

Maintenance is a good utility:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/16790/maintenance

OnyX does everything thing that Maintenance does, plus some more in depth system features:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11582/onyx

There is no registry (thank God) in OS X, so you don't need to worry about that (which is one of the handy features in CCleaner for Windows). You typically should not worry about fragmentation in OS X either. There are different schools of thought on this topic however.

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Answer 2

CT

Level 7

23,987 points

Jun 25, 2010 7:38 AM in response to HavanaNights

Many knowledgable people advocate the use of maintenance software, but I would say that many of us never use anything. It depends upon what kind of things you do with your machine, I guess, but the OS pretty much takes care of itself. Personally, I use my MBP extensively at work and at home and have yet to need any third party software to manage my machine. Occasionally I might run Disk Utility and verify the disk and, after software installation, repair permissions. But that's about it.

charlie

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Answer 3

Jun 25, 2010 2:27 PM in response to HavanaNights

Looking at your specs, it appears you have one of the older MBPs (i.e. pre April 2010). You'd be surprised how much quicker your MBP will run after a clean install of OS X. This can be done every 6 months or so.

Using Snow Leopard, insert the OS X Install Disc and select "Utilities" from the on screen menu. When the computer has restarted choose "Disk Utility" from the menu bar and erase the HD. After the erase has finished install OS X as normal. You can restore from a Time Machine backup during the set-up process.

There a many step-by-step guides showing exactly how to do this. Just google "Snow Leopard erase and install".

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