Onyx VS Cocktail VS Tinkertool System

Alberto R Air wrote:
Well, up to now you're the only who told me to use an utilities software. Anyway, I read you use it only once a week, confirming the view of other users that Mac doesn't need ongoing maintenance.

Alberto,

I certainly know many Mac users who don't do any maintenance or use only those available in the OS when needed and the Mac is just fine. I prefer to do regular housekeeping. There are however a few things that the experienced users here will all agree on. First, backup your data. Second, make sure you maintain enough free space on your boot drive. The OS and apps need the free space to use as virtual memory. Activity Monitor> Memory (in the Utilities Folder) can show you how much RAM and free space is being used. Third don't load up your Mac with every third party app or add on that catches your eye on the internet. Make sure the third party software version is compatible with the version of OS X you are using.

Check out the page linked below for a very helpful guide to Mac troubleshooting and maintenance:

http://www.gballard.net/macrant/osx_troubleshooting.html

(Oh, by the way his rant at the bottom of the page goes back to when Snow Leopard was first released -- a rocky period that is behind us)

For the past 5 years since starting to use OSX I have had all 3 of those utilities. I have used Onyx once, to re-index Spotlight. As mentioned elsewhere they are useful for dealing with specific issues, otherwise you shouldn't need to run any third-party maintenance tools. Do occasionally check your drive with Disk Utility, and do buy an external hard drive that is the same size as your internal drive so you can back up your files.