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improve mac performance

Anyone know of a trusted free, clean up program to improve the performance of my mac?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Mar 10, 2013 7:13 PM

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6 replies

Mar 10, 2013 7:19 PM in response to kalleske

Free? Backup your files. Erase the hard drive and reinstall Lion. Then reinstall your third-party software from scratch. Or try this instead:


  1. Backup your files.
  2. Repair your HDD and permissions.
  3. Boot the computer into Safe Mode then restart normally.
  4. Reinstall Lion.


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion/Mountain Lion


Boot to the Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Repair


When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.


Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive


Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.


When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.


Mar 10, 2013 7:25 PM in response to kalleske

It's not very involved, it just looks that way because it took more than five words. But you asked for "free." And, it is very simple to do. It should solve any problems you have unless you have a corrupted installation of OS X.


You can buy utilities to do some of it, but why pay money if you can DIY?

improve mac performance

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