Prepared for Apple Consultants Network Partners. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups by Joe Kissell. Copyright © 2007. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups Joe Kissell Peachpit Press Take Control Books Prepared for Apple Consultants Network Partners. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups by Joe Kissell. Copyright © 2007. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups Joe Kissell Peachpit Press 1249 Eighth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 510/524-2178, 800/283-9444, 510/524-2221 (fax) Find us on the Web at: www.peachpit.com To report errors, please send a note to [email protected] Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups is published in association with Take Control Books and was origi- nally published by Take Control Books as Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac (ISBN 1-933671-10-6) and Take Control of Mac OS X Backups (ISBN 0-9759503-0-4), both by Joe Kissell and copyright © 2006 by Joe Kissell. Learn more about Take Control at www.takecontrolbooks.com. Copyright © 2007 by TidBITS Electronic Publishing and Joe Kissell Editors: Jeff Carlson and Caroline Rose Project Managers: Tonya Engst and Adam Engst Production Editor: Susan Rimerman Tech Editor: Take Control authors and the TidBITS Irregulars Proofreader: Clark Humphrey Compositor: Jeff Tolbert Indexer: Rebecca Plunkett Cover design: Aren Howell Cover illustration: Alicia Buelow Notice of Rights All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact [email protected]. Notice of Liability The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any per- son or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it. Trademarks Apple, FileVault, Finder, FireWire, iBook, iTunes, iTunes Music Store, Macintosh, .Mac, Mac, Mac OS, Panther, PowerBook, SuperDrive, and Tiger are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services iden- tified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book. ISBN 0-321-49218-8 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed and bound in the United States of America Prepared for Apple Consultants Network Partners. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups by Joe Kissell. Copyright © 2007. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press. Overview Introduction ...................... 1 Quick Start ........................ 7 Chapter 1 Start on the Right Foot.............................................11 Chapter 2 Perform Daily Tasks ...............................................33 Chapter 3 Perform Weekly Tasks .............................................37 Chapter 4 Perform Monthly Tasks ............................................47 Chapter 5 Perform Yearly Tasks...............................................55 Chapter 6 Things You Might Never Need to Do ................................65 Chapter 7 When Apple Releases a New Version of Mac OS X ....................71 Chapter 8 Monitor Your Mac’s Health.........................................75 Chapter 9 Decide on a Backup Strategy .......................................85 Chapter 10 Choose Your Backup Hardware....................................115 Chapter 11 Choose Your Backup Software ....................................139 Chapter 12 Set Up Your Backup System .......................................159 Appendix A Troubleshooting Resources .......................................181 Appendix B Backup Software .................................................183 Appendix C A Retrospect Primer ..............................................191 Glossary ..............................................................217 Index ................................................................ 221 Prepared for Apple Consultants Network Partners. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups by Joe Kissell. Copyright © 2007. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press. This page intentionally left blank Prepared for Apple Consultants Network Partners. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups by Joe Kissell. Copyright © 2007. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press. Contents Introduction ......................................................... 1 Basics .............................................................. 4 Acknowledgments ................................................... 5 Colophon .......................................................... 5 Quick Start ........................................................... 7 Chapter 1 Start on the Right Foot ................................. 11 Install the Latest Version of Mac OS X ................................... 11 Turn On Software Update ............................................ 12 Update Third-Party Software .......................................... 15 Clean Out Accumulated Cruft ......................................... 16 Turn Off Unneeded Login Items ....................................... 20 Create a Backup System .............................................. 22 Run Apple Hardware Test ............................................. 22 Be Sure You Have Enough RAM ........................................ 24 Run Disk Utility ..................................................... 25 Make Sure Scheduled Maintenance Tasks Run ............................ 26 Prepared for Apple Consultants Network Partners. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups by Joe Kissell. Copyright © 2007. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press. vi Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups Install Antivirus Software ............................................. 29 Use a Surge Protector ................................................ 30 Chapter 2 Perform Daily Tasks .................................... 33 Back Up Changed Files ............................................... 33 Download Software Updates .......................................... 34 Chapter 3 Perform Weekly Tasks .................................. 37 Clean Up Your Desktop .............................................. 37 Back Up Everything .................................................. 41 Rotate Backups Offsite ............................................... 41 Use Software Update to Install Apple Software Updates .................... 42 Check for Third-Party Software Updates ................................ 43 Reboot If Performance Seems Slow .................................... 44 Consider Clearing Certain Caches ...................................... 44 Chapter 4 Perform Monthly Tasks ................................. 47 Empty Your Trash ................................................... 47 Use Disk Utility’s Repair Disk Feature ................................... 50 Clean Your Screen ................................................... 51 Clean Your Mouse or Trackball ........................................ 51 Exercise Your Notebook’s Battery ...................................... 53 Chapter 5 Perform Yearly Tasks ................................... 55 De-Dust Your Mac .................................................. 55 Clean Your Keyboard ................................................ 58 Clean Your iSight .................................................... 58 Make Archival Backups to DVD ........................................ 59 Remove Unneeded Files .............................................. 61 Change Your Passwords .............................................. 61 Prepared for Apple Consultants Network Partners. Real World Mac Maintenance and Backups by Joe Kissell. Copyright © 2007. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and Peachpit Press. Contents vii Chapter 6 Things You Might Never Need to Do .................... 65 Repair Permissions .................................................. 65 Defragment Your Hard Disk ........................................... 68 Chapter 7 When Apple Releases a New Version of Mac OS X ...... 71 Buy It!. 72 Buy Take Control of Upgrading to _____ ................................ 72 Make a Fresh Bootable Backup ........................................ 73 Upgrade ........................................................... 73 Chapter 8 Monitor Your Mac’s Health ............................. 75 Use Monitoring Utilities .............................................. 75 Check Your Drives’ S.M.A.R.T. Status .................................... 82 Chapter 9 Decide on a Backup Strategy ........................... 85 Do You Need Duplicates? ............................................