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Level 1

8 points

MacKeeper

Perhaps this has been discussed before but I posted about a slow running computer yesterday and I thought more discussion might be helpful to me as well as others.

The first response I received had a link to MacKeeper which I followed and installed on my computer. Long story...short. MK scanned and alerted me that I had a couple of critical issues so I ran the clean up only to be alerted that everything would be "cleaned" if I purchased the software. The software threw my default browser out of whack so that FaceBook and YouTube were no longer working properly. Luckily another forum poster gave me a link to clean MacKeeper off my computer. It's amazing how insideous this sofware was but I finally got things back to normal. Here's the catch...my computer has stopped hanging/buffering on videos which was the main complaint I was orginally having. Moral...MacKeeper can't be all bad?

This episode prompted more questions for me.

1. I was always told that with a Mac I need not worry about viruses/malware. Is this a falicy? If it is then, is there a reliable, hopefully freeware solution to optimizing my compters performance?

2. My computer is two years old and I've had no problems...because of that I have neglected setting up Time Machine. Now I will certainly turn it on but in trying to do that the first dialog box that shows up is asking about not detecting my wireless connection? I'm confused since my wireless internet connection is working just fine. Also I don't see what that has to do with backing up my computer.

Seems like I had more questions but that's a start....

Thanks

Posted on Dec 29, 2011 4:57 PM

21 replies

Dec 31, 2011 4:46 AM in response to Rusty K

TM backups go on ion the background and usually are not noticed unless you look at the little circle-arrow with clock face hands in it on the upper right side of the screen, where it shows your WiFi fan, Bluetooth, etc. When that starts going around it is updating. Uses some resources but not a lot.

Turning it off and on, if that works for you, is a viable solution...whatever works and meets your needs. Important thing is to get a fairly recent backup incase things go badly for the hard drive.

Happy New Year, Rusty.

Rusty K Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 31, 2011 7:28 AM in response to cricketernot

cricketernot,

Great link thanks. I've got it saved.

Rusty K Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 31, 2011 7:32 AM in response to Ralph Landry1

Ralph,

I think I'll let TM do it's own thing and see how that goes. I'm a lttle worried that my external isn't big enough (500G) since I do audio however, I'm not doing those large files every day. We'll see...Thanks and a Happy New Year to you as well.

Rusty K Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 1, 2012 9:57 AM in response to Rusty K

I'm beginning to understand now how TM works but I did think of one last question. If I leave my computer on and just put it to sleep at night, my external HD also stays on. I'm used to ejecting and unplugging it when it's not in use. Has anyone experienced a break down/crash of their external? I assume that TM would alert me if this should happen but I'm wondering if these newer more compact external HD's also function well when on all the time.

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,102 points

Jan 1, 2012 10:23 AM in response to Rusty K

Leave it connected, the TM continues when it can.

Jan 1, 2012 2:19 PM in response to Rusty K

A lot depends on the external drive and control...mine sleeps when the computer sleeps so it spins down and doesn't use a lot of power. TM doesn't back up all the time, only backs up what has been changed. When it fills the allocated drive space it will start over-writing old material so it cannot try and exceed the space available.

MacKeeper