MAC MAINTENANCE

The information below is in reference to the article “Essential Mac Maintenance” written in the July 2008 issue of Macworld. I have also added information from other articles I have found to be useful.


POWER
I guess first things first. Make sure you are plugging your investment into a surge protector and not just a power strip. Buy an uninterrupted power supply and don’t go cheep on this one or you will regret every squeaky penny you spent. Make sure it has phone and Ethernet protection and whatever else you might be plugging into your computer.

Links: apc.com, tripplite.com


MEMORY
If you want your computer to run in tip-top condition, make sure you fill it full of ram. This will allow for you to run multiple applications at once. Especially if your running high end applications that require lots of memory.

Links: crucial.com, macsales.com


TROUBLESHOOTING
A great way to help you trouble shoot problems is to create a user account that is strictly used for this type of situation. This account would be without third-party applications and plug-ins and used only to perform routine maintenance or to isolate problems.




CREATE A BOOTABLE DISK
Be sure to create a backup copy of your existing, error free, hard drive daily. So in case of an emergency you will have a way to get your Mac back the way it was. Also consider creating an external bootable hard drive by installing your OS X software on it. Be sure to take care of your install disks by storing them in a safe location.

Links: bombich.com, shirt-pocket.com, klsecurity.com


KEEP GOOD RECORDS
Its important to keep good records of serial numbers, registration numbers, software licenses, model numbers, specifications and features, purchase dates, etc. just in case of reinstallations or when you need technical support. Keeping this information in a central location would allow for easy access and help prevent long down times when the time presented itself.

Links: macworld.com/3553, macworld.com/3554


BACK EVERYTHING UP
If your not, you had better start. Back up all personal data to two separate external hard drives. Redundancy is the key. You might even think about archiving that backup and storing it offsite. This would help prevent possible down time if your computer was stolen or destroyed. In addition, create a clone of your hard drive daily.

Links: macsales.com, seagate.com, g-technology.com