Backup, restoring, formatting info

Troubleshooting if a OS X reinstall is necessary

When one is considering a OS X reinstall, it usually means they can't find a specific cause for a issue or series of issues or instability and thereby think that just reinstalling everything will resolve the problem which it will most certainly could, but may not be required to expend that much effort. Not only that, it may not work in your case at all if your problem is in your very own files.

So starting from easiest to hardest you should try steps in this order, save yourself a lot of work and perhaps cure a minor issue quickly.

1: Disconnect backups, backup files if possible

Disconnect any auto-mated backup, including TimeMachine, auto-updating clones, auto-backup software during this period. If you haven't made a backup of your data (like Music, Documents, Pictures, Movies) now is a good time to do that to a external data / storage drive. Disconnect all drives/devices to prevent accidents or other issues from interfering with your judgement. Return to as close to "out of the box" as reasonably possible, with few wireless devices as possible. Always keep a wired mouse and keyboard handy.

1.5 Update your web browser plugins

Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight epecially. For Lion only, Java is now a external plugin. Search "Apple support" for the Java plugin.

2: Perform a Safe Mode boot

Simply hold down the Shift Key while booting, this will disable kernel extension files that programs install upon booting and only use the ones Apple uses. This is especially effective when you boot a Mac and it results in a Grey Screen or "you must restart" (aka "Kernel Panic")

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455

What you do after this is update your third party programs (or uninstall them using their uninstaller to remove their kext file-s from your System/Library/Extensions folder) that have are perhaps causing your issues.

Problems with kext files usually occurs after a OS X Software Update, so if your in a mission critical environment, it's perhaps best to tread slowly and not update all your machines at one time.

3: Reset the SMC and PRAM

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

4: Grey Screen, Black/Blue Screen, Flashing question mark issues etc.

If you do a Google search: apple support + [issue above] you can easily locate a support document Apple publishes themselves for you to read. Apple updates these support documents and sometimes discontinues some, some are old. Check the revision date to see if it pertains to your system. I could link to them, but because they change it's not as effective as doing the search and determining for yourself.

Ask for help on the forums, be detailed about your issue, the hardware you have, the operating system and the programs you use. We can't see your machine, we only know what you tell us.

5: Check with Disk Utility next

Run the following: In your Applications/Utilities folder Disk Utility > Repair Permissions (ignore the long list, things were changed permanently) also Verify Disk (if this gives a issue, it's a cause for concern, please mention it in the ASC forums for assistance).

If you have a issue after Verifying Disk, you need to (for 10.5 and 10.6 users) hold c and reboot off the 10.5/10.6 OS X installer disk and look for Disk Utilities and Run > Repair Disk (this can only be done while booted off another medium, why it's only "Verify Disk" before).

Once can also run Disk Utiliy > Reapir Permissions from the OS X install disk or Lion Recovery Partition as well if OS X won't boot.

If your on 10.7 Lion as there are no disks, hold command and r keys to boot into the Lion Recovery Partition and perform the same steps with Disk Utility on the OS X Lion Partition. (FYI: a partition is a separate area on the physical drive that appears to the computer to be another one, thus allowing multiple operating systems to be booted from the same drive.)

Hopefully that will resolve your issue, if not or even if it does, bring it to the forums for advice as it could be a sign of further trouble like a failing drive and you will need advice what to do next.

6: Check with OnyX

OnyX is a excellent part of the troubleshooting process, it's initial checks need to be performed and any warning in that regard brought to the forums for advice before proceeding any further.

Your next step is sort of a "nuke the site from orbit" approach by deleting all the computers cache files, which can become corrupt and cause instability. Since one really can't tell which one is causing the issue, the entire lot is allowed to be rebuilt in one massive stroke. So run ALL the cleaning and maintenance steps, you can cancel the in between reboots, but you MUST reboot when finished using OnyX or the cache files are not rebuilt. After rebooting your computer is going to act a little slow, but later return to optimum performance and hopefully your issue would have been resolved.

OnyX doesn't hurt your machine or files or programs, just allows the operating system to rebuild the cache files and perform maintenance tasks. It's not specifically a performance technique, although cleaning and resetting the caches with a reboot can increase the computers performance because whatever was causing the slowdown in the caches is now removed. You don't need to perform OnyX as part of any ritual or routine, OS X is pretty good at handling it's own maintenance.

OnyX also has the ability to check for corrupt preference files under the Verify tab. Corrupt .plist files problems exhibits themselves as programs failing to remember your settings or refusing to launch or hanging. Run the check to show only the corrupt ones and ask on the forums how to proceed to remove those .plist files usually in your Users/Library/Preferences folder (now hidden in Lion) but some are also located in System as well. So it's best to ask or you can use the free Easy Find to locate and delete the file, reboot and relaunch the program, the .plist file gets rebuilt. Again, be careful here as you can remove a essential system file if your not careful.

OnyX can be downloaded free from MacUpdate.com or visiting the Titanium Free developers site, be sure to use the version matched to your operating system version.

(Note: AppleJack is a another troubleshooting program, except it runs in Single User mode, aka a command line, has to be preinstalled ahead of time before problems occur. Benefit here is by holding Command S, you get to run it BEFORE the operating system loads. Works excellently for 10.5/10.6, but it hasn't been updated yet for Lion 10.7, although reports say everything works except the repair permissions portions. It can be found on MacUpdate.com and on Sourceforge.)

7: Create a new user account

2: Create a new user in the System Preferences > Accounts and log into it and use it for awhile, does your problem continue? If not, it means that your issue is localized to the other user account, if you can't find the problem/cure specifically, then consider copying the contents of (Music, Documents, Pictures, Movies, not Library) from the problem user account to the new user account via the ~/Users/Shared folder.

When your personal files are in the new user and you are using them there, does your problems return? If so, it's likely something wrong with your files themselves, which you will have to narrow down to the specific one.

8: Application reinstall

3: If your problem continues even in the other user and isn't a user file issue, then that usually means it's a something more global, works across multiple user account's. This could mean a bad program in the Applications folder, or one that starts it's self automatically (look in your log in items in System Preferences > Accounts)

Your next step would be to reinstall all your third party programs, the overwrite may clear the issue up. If you have purchased iLife separately (verses the free version that comes with a new Mac) , reinstall it from disk or redownload it from the AppStore by holding option key and clicking on Purchases. Overwriting the program doesn't overwrite your files, but may overwrite the settings you made in those programs. Also be sure to test the programs in both users.

Note: Some bundled Apple programs can be reinstalled by simply running the installer on the OS X disks that came with the computer. However some like PhotoBooth can only be resinstalled along with the entire OS, unless your willing to extract them manually using the program called Pacifist from CharlesSoft. You likely can avoid having to do that by following the next step.

9: Data recovery drive

If your at this stage, and before you stick that disk into the computer or hold command r to boot into Lion Recovery Partition, you likely need to consider making a "OS X Data Recovery Drive".

This is for those of you haven't managed to get a copy of your files off the computer yet. It can get very hairy after this point if you don't have a backup of your data. Basically your going to use a new external drive to format and install OS X onto, allowing you to hold option and boot off of it to attempt to get a copy of your files off first before doing anything.

So review the steps earlier and the pictures provided to do that first. Having your data safe is of the utmost importance, TimeMachine isn't always best course, have your files easily accessible on a normal storage drive so you can hook it up to any computer (Mac, Windows or Linux).

If you can't create or make a data recovery drive, don't have a backup of any kind, or not confident in proceeding PLEASE seek the assistance of qualified data recovery professionals as everything can be replaced except your data. A few hundred dollars (or even a few thousand for platter level dissection) is nothing compared to losing several thousand man hours of files, or songs or pictures you took on vacation.

10: OS X overwrite

What this does is overwrites the present OS X install with the version that is on the install disks or gotten via the Lion Recovery Partition. Again, make sure you have a copy of your data (Music, Doc's, Pictures and Movies) off the computer before proceeding or make a OS X Data Recovery Drive to assist you if OS X won't boot or run correctly to do it normally.

Key is to match the OS X version. 10.5 disks with installed 10.5, 10.6 disks with 10.6 installed, 10.7 Lion Recovery with 10.7 installed. After using the disks, you need to immediately Software Update to get to the current version, unless the issue you are having occurred after a Software Update, then perhaps it's best to get online and ask questions before applying the updates.

OS X overwrites the installed version with the one you have, it doesn't touch your files or third party programs, and may or may not (depending upon what's on the disk) also overwrite your free iLife bundled on the disks.

Note that your going to perhaps get a older version of iLife than the one installed as it could have been updated via Software Update, so unless a Software update is causing your initial issue, you need to run Software Update immediately afterwards to update iLife (and other Apple bundled programs) to the current version.

The methods for OS X overwrite are mentioned in the above:

Restoring OS X 10.5 10.6. 10.7 - simple overwrite OS method

11: OS X "fresh install"

The most drastic of all steps, this method first mandates that you have a copy of your files off the boot drive first (to a storage drive, not TimeMachine!), because everything is going bye bye. And the reason you don't want to depend upon TimeMachine is because whatever screwed up your machine has likely also screwed up TimeMachine, not mention the restore problems that occur (especially if your reverting to a earlier OS X version)

TimeMachine is a rotating image backup of your boot drive, it can become totally corrupt eventually from a prolonged issue or even malware as it deletes the old as it makes more recent copies of the new. Apple is always thinking forward and not considering your needs to perhaps revert to a earlier OS X version so restoring TM files to a earleir OS X version likely won't work all that well or won't be allowed. So TM isn't always the best solution for a fresh install. If you can TM restore and it works, by then all means do so, as it's a lot less work than a "fresh install". Use the easy method if you can, but keep your options open in case the hard method is the only way to get what you need done.

The object with a "fresh install" is your only going to save your user files (Music, Documents, Pictures, Movies) and the rest, including the operating system, programs etc. will be erased, the boot drive reformatted, the OS installed and updated, third party programs installed from fresh sources and finally (in case of malware a anti-virus scan on the backup files) returning the files back to the computer.

Instructions for 10.5/10.6 and 10.7 can be found above labeled

Restoring OS X - 10.6 "fresh install method"

Restoring OS X - 10.7 - wipe and install

The Restoring OS X 10.7 (new drive, total reformat method) is for the rare cases of a drive replacement, corrupt GPT or a major partition reformatting of the drive where all partitions, including the hidden Lion Recovery Partition, has to be rebuilt/replaced.

About secure connections HTTPS

HTTP is unencrypted, sent in the open type transmissions between your computer and the website your visiting, it's subjective to being monitored or intercepted by various means, WIFI, LAN, tap, ISP etc.

HTTPS means a secure connection, that the transmision is encrypted back and forth from the website to your computer, so no one in between can watch you.

This is a important necessary function for using bank sites and other sensitive sites where you can't have snoopers in between watching your traffic and intercepting your passwords or business.

Always look for the HTTPS in the URL when on sensitive sites or other sites to know if your buisness and actions can be monitored by outside sources and don't enter sensitive information unless you see that HTTPS sign.

You can request a HTTPS session from most websites and a lot deliver such a connection if requested, but if all elements on the website can't be encrypted, like some content is from another site and can't be encrypted, then it defaults to HTTP which isn't encrypted.

If you want to use HTTPS as much as possible, you need a automatic feature to do it for you.

Install Firefox (check your plug-ins while your at it) and the HTTPS Everywhere add-on.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/

https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

What this will do is request a HTTPS secure connection from every web site you visit automatically, if it can't be HTTPS, then it defaults to HTTP automatically.

This way your traffic is as secure as possible from people "sniffing" your Wifi traffic, or local area networks like in hotels, coffee shops and whatnot that may be recording all your unencrypted traffic to gleam valuable passwords and information to impersonate you to your bank to gain a new password or access your accounts in other places.

Of course HTTPS is no match for the government which can tap the Internet itself and has all the keys, but it does lock out nearly all the criminals, snoops, marketers and other types who are selling your information and Internet traffic.

These Apple Support forums will provide a HTTPS secure connection. 🙂

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3358920?start=15&tstart=0

So will Wikipedia, YouTube, Goolge and many many others, it's usually sites with advertising, web bugs and trackers that can't because, they are watching you. 😉

I got a new Mac with Lion, where's the OS X boot disk?

My machine came with OS X Lion 10.7,

I want to have bootable Lion DVD like Snow Leopard 10.6.

If your machine came with Lion, you cannot make a bootable DVD.

You cannot purchase Lion in the AppStore to make one via the tricks that 10.6 users can from the installer.

You can't even use a Lion boot DVD made on another Mac that can, because the Lion AppStore download is tailored to each machine with specific hardware drivers.

What is needed is a third party program that can take a current Lion install with it's hardware drivers and make a clean bootable DVD of it, no such program exists that I know if, although such a thing does exist on Linux for Linux.

About your Lion recovery options:

OS X Lion has two partitions on the drive standard (actually three with hidden EFI and four if you have Bootcamp), one is the Lion OS X Partition and the other is the Lion Recovery Partition. (hold command and r keys down while booting to access)

The Lion Recovery Partition is the only way to download a fresh copy of Lion from Apple's servers, the other method is to buy a $69 Lion USB Thumb drive.

If you think this is a not a bright idea that Apple doesn't provide a free, included copy of OS X Lion with each new machine on a inexpensive thumb drive, please vent your opinions here, perhaps they will realize their mistake as not everyone has a fast, strong and stable Internet connection or restricted by bandwidth caps by their Internet Service Provider, and it's very unfair to target these people for another $69 for something they have no control over.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

You CAN make a Carbon Copy Cloner of your Lion OS X Partition to a blank external Disk Utility formatted, 1 Partition, Option: GUID Partition Table Format: OS X Extended (Journaled) powered drive which is "hold the option key bootable", but doesn't contain the Lion Recovery Partition and isn't required to boot the computer.

You CAN make a Lion Recovery USB key using the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant from Apple, which copies your present Lion Recovery Partition to the USB (1GB+) formatted the same GUID and OS X Extended (J) as a external drive clone above. This is essential to have if you intend to replace your hard drive to place the Lion Recovery Partition back on, to be able to download a fresh Lion copy.

You CAN hold option key and boot from the Lion Recovery USB which will allow you to install the Lion Recovery Partition, which will then allow you to either install Lion into the Lion OS X Partition or "reverse clone" Lion from a "hold option key booted" external drive clone.

You cannot clone TimeMachine, Filevaulted or Bootcamp Windows partitions (well you can with Bootcamp, it's not going to boot if you do)

Refer to all the previous posts and especially the Lion Recovery pictures in this thread how to accomplish the above tasks.

Windows computers have been shipping with a recovery partition for quite some time now, except with that it actually contains Windows and all the hardware drivers and included software from the PC vendor, unlike what Apple does which makes you log in with your AppleID to download a fresh copy of OS X Lion then visit the AppStore to download (and fight) for your free iLife suite. Surely with Lion only taking 4.7 GB on a standard DVD there is plenty of enough room on these new huge storage drives to contain a full verison of Lion in the Lion Recovery Partition on new Mac's.

jsphones wrote:

imac late 2009 model with all original grey disks for 10.6.4 and ilife disks.

it says OS X can't be installed on.......

The iMac late 2009 originally came with 10.6.1 machine specific disks.

Those 10.6.4 disks are for Early 2011 Mac's amd are machine specific versions, they have different hardware drivers is why you can't install OS X with them.

You need to get the 10.6.3 white retail disk from Amazon or elsewhere, Apple just stopped selling them a few days ago. Those have the correct drivers for your model of Mac.

You might try calling Apple and see if they will sell you the 10.6.1 machine specific grey/black disks for that Mac, if not you'll have to find the 10.6.3 white disks online and they don't come with the free iLife like the machine specific disks do.

Once you have installed 10.6.3 and upgraded to 10.6.8 via Software Update, you can use Pacifist from CharlesSoft to extract the iLife programs from the 10.6.4 disks you have, since you own the disks your entitled to using the software.

And when I bought the machine, it has 10.7.3 I think was installed on that.

I suspect it might be because of downgrading, because someone told me that EFI partition is not letting it downgrade.

When you erase 10.7 c or option key booted from the 10.6.3 disk, you need to select the entire drive on the left side, (select the drive makers name and size) then that will catch the hidden EFI and Lion Recovery partition, reset your GUID partition table back to 10.6.3 specifications.

How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6

BTW this thread is rather old and can't be edited, since this Apple Support has implemented User Tips, which is better.

https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

By the way, this thread is old and outdated.

Please see my User Tip on the subjects discussed here as they are more current and editable.

https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents

Quick Whole Drive Format Guide

• Copy off all your data off the target drive that is going to be formatted drive to another drive and disconnect other drives if possible not to make a mistake.
• Open Disk Utility in the Applications>Utilities folder
• Select your target drive drive on the far left, should have the drive makers name, a ID perhaps plus the word "media" (slightly intented names are "partitions" on that media)
• Click the Partition Tab, click the big box and click 1 Partition
• If you want a Mac only drive (can be booted from with a OSX) > Option: GUID >format OS X Extended (Journaled)
• If you want a Mac/PC drive (for over 4GB sized files) > Option: MBR > format exFAT
• If you want a Mac/PC drive (for the most compatibility with other devices, w/Win XP, but only under 4GB sized files) > Option: MBR > format MSDOS (aka FAT/FAT32)
• Give it a name and click Apply.

Mac's can't format or write to NTFS or EXT drives without extra software.

You can also search Microsoft for a free exFAT download if you have Win XP.

Correction:

One can make a "hold the option or c key bootable" Lion boot DVD with a factory Lion Mac following these combined directions.

However it's been mentioned that OS X boot disks won't boot off some external third party optical drives.

One will need a blank external GUID OS X Extended (aka: "JHFS+") formatted drive and standard 4.7GB DVD(s)

Step 1:

It's very easy to use the Mac App Store's smarts to our own advantage and gain access to a copy of that hardware specific OS build. Here's what to do:

1. Boot the hardware you need an image for from the Recovery HD by holding Command-r at power on time.
2. Plug in a JHFS+ formatted external disk.
3. Select the Re-install OS X Lion option and target the external disk.
4. Once the Installer finishes downloading, simply shutdown and unplug the disk.

Now when you mount that external disk you will find a directory named Mac OS X Install Data on the root. Inside of this folder is the elusive, hardware-specific, InstallerESD.dmg image that you can feed to SIU or any other imaging tool of choice. Having this installer will now allow you to build out re-deployment images for all of your hardware until rollup installers are available.

http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=getting-lion-installers

Step 2:

Inside the Contents folder that appears you will find a SharedSupport folder and inside the SharedSupport folder you will find the “InstallESD.dmg.” This is the Lion boot disc image we have all been waiting for.

1. Copy “InstallESD.dmg” to another folder like the Desktop.
2. Launch Disk Utility and click the burn button.
3. Select the copied “InstallESD.dmg” as the image to burn, insert a standard sized 4.7 GB DVD, and wait for your new Lion Boot Disc to come out toasty hot.

http://eggfreckles.net/notes/burning-a-lion-boot-disc/

Some afterthoughts after that massive brain dump. 🙂

Always try to leave yourself with a way to get online and get assistance. Unexpected issues always popup, it's good to have some thing else to option boot from to be able to download and use software, burn disks, format drives etc. Keep your options open as much as possible. Stay connected to help.

If you like to experiment, don't do it on your only machine, don't void your warranty by opening a machine not designed to be opened by the user, or if it is, break or change things inside that are outside of what Apple covers. (some machines the RAM, storage and are fine, MacPro can also change the video card and add other cards internally.)

Lion Recovery Partition has the web browser Safari and after getting online, you can come here. But to log in and post you need to know your Apple ID and password.

Lion Data Recovery Drive creation in Lion is the same way as it is in Snow Leopard, but you Command r boot into the Lion Recovery Partition to format the blank external drive and install Lion, then option boot from it to access the troubled Lion OS X Partition and remove files. The Lion Recovery Partition is too small and not designed to hold or transfer files, perhaps that will change in updates to perform this vital function.

Setting up a wifi router

there is really only one secure way left to make sure your not hacked. WEP and WPA are both cracked. A too small of a password is easily brute forced by new graphics based cracking software and worldwide botnets.

1: Update your router firmware. For Airport it's easy, just use Software Update and/or update in Airport Utility.

2: WPA2 (AES) Personal easier (or Enterprise)

3: 2 - Random 20+ letter, number, character, symbol, case passwords. One for the Admin use of the router only, kept off the machine and locked in a safe, the other for Internet Access only used on all devices. A password this strong will take until the next Big Bang to crack, perhaps a quarter of that as technology improves. Certainly not in your lifetime.

4: MAC address filtering and invisible networks are no match for hackers. Don't bother.

5: Rotate the Internet Access password to keep people you don't want back on, from coming back. Once they have the password it's logged permanently into their machines. They could delete it, but most don't know they can or won't.

Make bootable copies of your Snow Leopard install disks here.

http://www.walterjessen.com/make-a-bootable-backup-snow-leopard-install-disc/

Make a bootable Snow Leopard USB here

http://www.maciverse.com/install-os-x-snow-leopard-from-usb-flash-drive.html

Lion bootable DVD's and USB.

If you can download Lion from the AppStore, make bootable DVD's and USB's here BEFORE you install Lion, else Option click on Purchases and try to download again.

Only works on the same machine as far as I know at this time.

Bonus here is you don't need no stinking Internet. 😉

http://eggfreckles.net/notes/burning-a-lion-boot-disc/

http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/

http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/08/make-a-bootable-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-installer-from -a-usb-flash-drive/

Proper CD/DVD protection

keep your cds/dvds in hard jewel cases in a cool enviroment out of the sun and heat, not in film or paper sleeves that are prone to decomposing onto your data or small grains of sand and dirt scratching the bottom platters. Keep the bottom free of your naturally oilly fingers, clean with a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol and a very fine cloth, polish to a shine. Never place the bottom on a hard surface or slide them so they scratch.

Performance

Looking to increase your computers performance?

If your problem and slowdown just recently occurred, then your likely looking at some sort of software issue or networking issue problem. Post it to the forums for a answer.

If your computer has just been slowing down for a long time and you want to speed things up then this is the right post for you.

First thing to remember, that all parts of the computer must be fast in unison in order to have a fast computer. Computer hardware itself has certain bus and SATA speeds and you can't exceed that by putting other hardware in that's faster, the machine can't handle it so ti can only use the pipes it's has.

Graphics

If your interested in 3D games and video graphic performance, then you need to buy hardware more suited to stronger video card performance to begin with, with it's own processor (called a GPU) and it's own onboard memory.

Intel has been making their CPU's (central processor unit) with built in integrated graphics, meaning the CPU is actually doing double duty as a graphics processor. Apple in their higher end computers also adds a dedicated graphics card and uses graphics switching if the CPU gets overloaded it goes to the dedicated video card. A user with a machine like this can choose to turn off the switching in Energy Saver, thus use the dedicated graphics all the time. Drawback of this is it uses more battery power, however if your on battery only part time and most of the time on power, it could work for you to keep your performance up.

To give you a idea of graphics performance this is the latest line up of the MacBook Pro

13" Integrated graphics only - Cinebench score 11

15" 2.0 Gh - integrated graphics + light dedicated graphics card - Cinebench score 18

15/17" 2.2/2.3 Ghz - integrated graphics + high performance graphics card - score 30

http://www.cbscores.com/index.php?sort=ogl&order=desc

So ideally, if your really interested in graphics performance for 3D games in more of a competitive fashion, you need to get a Windows tower where you can switch the graphics card, make tweaks and so forth. It's because there are more people on Windows, means that there are more buyers of newer video cards that come out. So naturally video card advances are going ot come out first on Windows.

Casual gaming on a Mac is no slouch, the 2.2 Ghz MBP 30 point score is very impressive for a laptop, but no laptop is a match for a desktop as it has better cooling, more power and a larger case design to accommodate.

Your box specs

Ok, what about your box right? What can you do?

Well first you need to learn all about your machine. I recommend you download the free version of MacTrackerand look up the specifics of your hardware.

The compare those hardware specs, of the CPU and GPU (if you have one) against this performance chart site here (note if you see a M it usually means "mobile" like the 6750M)

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Compare your box specs to the currently selling hardware specs Apple has. Apple doesn't always make it easy, you may have to consult Wikipedia and the current Intel processor line up to decipher exactly what hardware has what. You do this comparison to see if it's worth even bothering to upgrade your current hardware or not so you can stay up to date with current software. After all you don't want to install the next operating system and programs only to find out your machine is crawling like a drunk in the gutter.

When you use MacTracker, look at the RAM your machine can hold and use, sometimes it's MORE than what Apple specifies in their manual. This could be a nice performance bonus, especially for 64 bit processor machines.

RAM can be added by the user for most machines without voiding the warranty, as long as you don't break anything and of course follow anti-static guidelines use the right tools and procedures. There are plenty of places to buy RAM, just make sure the specifications match, you watch videos or pictures to see how it's done, and don't buy cheap quality RAM or you'll be sending it back again and again. The wear and tear on your machine will come to haunt you. So increasing the RAM will assist in making the computer faster.

Storage speed

Next you need to look at your storage. A lot of laptop drives come with 5,400 RPM drives, some say it's less draining on the battery than 7,200 RPM drives. Guess it's up to you to decide if you can handle a little less battery life in exchange for better performance. SSD drives, although very fast, are very expensive in larger sizes. You need to have a computer with faster SATA 6 to take full advantage of the SSD's speed. If you have a SATA 3, well then it's not going to be as fast as it could be, you might decide the larger capacity 7,200 RPM drive is more economically friendly and closer matches your machines speed and usage.

Most Mac's today only come with about 4GB of RAM and most people don't use all that, so lets say 2GB on average for a slightly older machine, that's not much to be loading into RAM from a SSD, so it's not really realizing the benefit all that much because programs and files are still pretty small.

Now if one was transferring 500GB, a SSD could likely due it in 30 minutes compared to 60 minutes for a 7,200 RPM drive. So how many times does one really do that? And since SSD's need what's called "wear leveling" as they can't handle too many writes in one location, transferring large files back and forth off a SSD will wear it out prematurely. So at this time a SSD makes a better OS and program drive where things don't change too often, more than a storage drive where huge files transfers are common. Perhaps later when the price comes down a lot they can become disposable, but right now they are astronomical per GB compared to standard hard drives. But if your looking for speed, SSD is your choice.

Another note is SSD's cannot be securely erased, it's because allowing something like that would wear it out. So your stuck locking your drive up using performance robbing Filevault, which you do know the industry as a whole has to give access to paranoid governments. A product from cellebrite, does just that for mobile devices with SSD's. So to be able to truly scrub a drive, you need to stick with a hard drive.

Clone and reverse clone method

First off, do not do anything unless you have another backup of your data safe off the machines your intending to do major software changes too. Cloning back and forth is just a performance enhancer, it's not a cure for a issue with your software or hardware.

Cloning back and forth is not for SSD's, nor is cloning for Filevaulted or TimeMachine drives.

Following the steps above for your operating system, cloning the OS X partition to a external drive, hold option booting from it, then erasing the internal OS X partition (not the whole drive in most cases) and reverse cloning does wonders to optimize and defragment your boot partition/drive hard drive .

The way hard drives work is they are faster up front where data is written first to the outter tracks, rather than near the bottom inner tracks which are much smaller and thus slower as the heads have to move more often to access data.

So as long as the cloning software is copying files according to the alphabetical order of the files and folders on the root directory of the drive, Applications get written first and Users folder, which is subjective to the most change, is written last so it doesn't disturb the placement of the Applications or System folders as much.

Of course over time, (a lot) this performance can be lost, so a clone and reverse clone can be done again and the same thing occurs.

Fresh install method

Following the "fresh install method" in my earlier post. For hard drives only and not SSD's.

1: Backup persona data

2: Erase drive

3: Install OS from grey disks for free iLife, then upgrade to next OS version. Else install OS.

4: Software Update fully.

5: Install Programs from fresh sources

6: Return performance robbing user files last.

7: No TimeMachine restore, no migration or setup assistant.

Router performance

Wireless N, try different channels as you may be using one too close to your neighbors or getting more interference from appliances. Keep the leechers off with a strong encryption and password as outlined earlier.

CORRECTION

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Restoring OS X - 10.7 - wipe and install

1: Backup your user files via drag and drop methods of your User folders (Music, Documents, Pictures, Movies etc) regardless to a data drive as outlined above, as the problem you may be having could be more serious, like a hardware or firmware issue. Disconnect all other drives.

2: You have two options depending upon if your Mac had Snow Leopard previously. If it did, then you can go the above Restoring OS X - 10.6 "fresh install method" and then make a clone, then update to Lion via the AppStore with a very strong, reliable, fast Internet connection.

3: Your Mac has (previously was "came with") OS X Lion, then you hold Command r and boot into Lion Recovery Partition, get online, use Disk Utility to Erase (and Zero if needed) the Lion OS X Partition, then quit and simply reinstall Lion from the menu.

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original instructions wrongly implied that only factory installed Lion Mac's have a Lion Recovery Partition, when in fact Mac's upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard also have a Lion Recovery Partition to reinstall Lion.

My bad. 🙂

Exactly, first rule of backups

Maintain two separate hardware backups of your data at all times.

Now I've got a pretty large 750GB internal drive, which I've learned to keep well under 50% filled for maximum performance, so that other 50% is essentially going to waste, when I could use it for a alternate boot.

I could set up another partition and auto-clone software to clone Partition A to Partition B, just for mobile emergencies where I can't drag my external clone around.

However I only get software protection, not hardware protection, if the hard drive dies, I lose both partitions with all my valuable data, so for this case I would have to have 2 1/2 backups, two external drive clones and a cloned partition.

The cloned partition doesn't count as a complete backup as it's only offers half the protection.

Lot of people fall into that trap because drives are huge and their data is small, so they partition a external drive and put TimeMachine on one and a clone on another, only to lose both to malware, a corrupted partition map, dropping it, power spike, drive failure or some other calamity.

Drives are cheap, data is expensive and sometimes irreplaceable.