Sluggish Mac is a very common issue | How to deal with slow Mac

Mac is a revolutionary operating system which offers completely new work environment to the user. It encompasses various aspects of artificial intelligence that makes Mac superior to its competitors. But every great invention has some weakness which effects its performance. Like any other system, Mac is also bounded by various factors that creates hurdles in smooth work flow of Mac users.

Let us discuss some of the factors which result in sluggish nature of Mac. The most common web browsers used nowadays are Firefox and safari. These web browsers have huge capacity to store names and address of previously visited sites. With the passage of time the list grows larger and larger. This particular activity slow down the performance of Mac OS X. Hence it is advisable to clear cache at regular interval of time. 

 

Also user should keep in mind that it is not necessary to open files in memory intensive programs. For example opening of an image using Photo-shop rather than simple image viewer. Such type of memory intensive programs captures the memory and inhibits other vital programs to make use of it.

Most of the user customize their desktop in-order to make it look attractive. But in return they are incapacitating the performance of their system. The applications like random wallpaper change, customized clock, calenders consumes lots of memory space and acquire unnecessary attention of CPU. It means there is a need to minimize number of widgets.

Some attractive function causing your machine slow:

Many users use some software that update their desktop settings or background automatically on regular basis. This includes changing wallpaper by picking itself from the stored files folder or from download folder.
Such functions are good way for your computer looks as it seems to be very attractive, but the truth is that such applications consume a lot of the memory of your machine in order to be able to work.
And this again brings your system slow. Hence it is important to remove such applications that seems to be attractive but affect your system speed and hence performance. Deleting such app save your time and space too.
Another such attractive program that do the same with your Mac OS X is use of animated desktops. However, animated icons and wallpapers might seem like fun and are certainly a great way to bring new life to your computer screen, but these adversely affects the operating system and hence degrades performance.

For more details visit: http://www.stellarspeedupmac.com/speed-up-your-mac.php

Cloning and Imaging are two reliable technology for your Mac protection

In order to protect your Mac it is necessary to have a bootable clone and image of your Mac disk. If you are not familiar with bootable clone, let me explain it to you with an example. Actually clones are bootable while images are not. Clone of your boot volume, with which you can boot your Mac, is called bootable clone. 
Example: In case of drive failure if you have bootable clone of your Mac disk then you can boot your Mac using this clone.

There are many cloning software available in market like Stellar Drive Clone, CCC, SuperDuper etc. Software like Stellar Drive clone facilitates you to boot your Mac. 

 

Another important technique to discuss is “imaging” which was adopted by many Mac users for avoiding situations like:

• Data loss due to drive failure,
• Volume corruption
• Accidental deletion due to human error
• Partition loss etc.
  
  

Among the cloning software mentioned above, only Stellar Drive clone is one that is capable of creating image of your Mac drive. So, we can say it is a cloning and Imaging software. Because a good imaging software not only facilitates you in image creation, but also lets you to restore it to regain all your data.

Using this software you can create an image of the boot partition (partition of your Mac drive having OS) by using its one of the advanced functions i.e creating image using minimal system. It creates your bootable image quickly because it just take default applications with OS. User can save the image at his desired location including other volumes, network drive, external drive etc.

Having an updated clone of your boot volume you can recover to that state if you needed. You just need to store your image at destination slightly higher than in size of source drive. In order to be able to revert or recover your Mac to original state you have to burn your boot volume image to a DVD.

Salient features of this software:

• Supports SSD
• Give support to ExFat formatted drives, FAT32, MBR scheme
• compatible with Mountain lion(from 10.3 to 10.8 version of Mac OS X)
• Bootable clone and image, copy DVDs also

Easy to use drive cleaners to clean up hard drive

It has been asked by both Mac and Windows users about how to cleanup drive. If you are working with machines with drives that frequently get full and prompts message for low disk space then it’s time to take a look at following solutions. Actually, the problem of slow performance is faced at both the ends ie; Mac and Windows.

Drive Cleaning Applications

1. MS Windows “Disk Cleanup”

Disk Cleaner is the built-in disk cleaning tool to clean up temporary Internet files, Windows temp files, copy of program files, emptying the recycle bin, removing optional Windows components and applications you no longer use, and deleting all but the most recent restore point. The best part of the tool is that it can compress certain files that have not been accessed for a set period of time. Although its a free tool with easy to use features but it is too slow at performance.

Disk Cleanup

2. Stellar Speed Up Mac for Mac OS X

There is no built in cleanup tool in Mac OS X but the problem of accumulating useless extras, retains in Mac also. It is important to mention here that the OS uses disk memory temporarily to serve an application. The unnecessary files and applications consume memory in disk and thus keep the necessary resources engaged which ultimately delays a process. So, one can speed up Mac by deleting useless data from Mac drive and creating some free space. Stellar Speed Up Mac is the best suitable Mac cleaner for this task with an extremely easy to use interface and fast performance. The application removes the following types of unnecessary items from your drive.  

• Cache files
• Log files
• System junks
• Trashes and leftovers
• Manage extensions
• Universal Binaries
• Language files
• Large files
• Duplicate files

Suggestion: Almost every computer user knows that adding RAM can add speed to his machine but its not a pocket friendly solution. So, it is suggested to adopt the method of optimization which is feasible, affordable and safe way to speed up computer performance.

How to delete Mac Recovery HD using Disk Utility

Recovery HD is 650MB hidden partition in your drive. Recovery HD of your Mac is useful in situations when you are unable to boot your Mac. In such situations you can boot your Mac using your Recovery HD. As you know Recovery HD is provided with Mac Lion and later versions so, while cloning its advisable to clone your Recovery HD too.

In-spite of many advantages, sometimes it becomes necessary to delete it in order to protect your Mac from unauthorized access.

You can only ignore this if you are a single user, otherwise its a compulsion. Because, while accessing Recovery HD using cmd+R keys during startup, you will notice that Recovery HD boots up your Mac without asking for password.

So, anyone can start your Mac regardless of password protection, and can reset your password further. And one can access your personal and confidential data through Recovery HD access. It is essential to delete this recovery partition after making clone of Recovery HD into some other drive.

In this video, steps are given for deleting Recovery Partition from your Mac using Disk utility.

Why Clone your Mac data before upgrading your drive

What if you lose all your important files while upgrading to new drive or switching to another Mac. So, its necessary to clone your entire Mac drive before doing any upgradation. Cloning refers to creating an exact copy or replica of your hard drive. Using bootable clone of your Mac drive you can boot your Mac in case your drive fail to boot or crashed.

Now, we will discuss various reasons of making clone and image of Mac before going through any upgradation process. Yes, you can also create image of your Mac drive and can restore it in future.

Cloning Mac drive is needed in following situations:-

• When Switching to another Mac machine
• While migrating Mac data to another drive
• While upgrading hard drive and swaping old drive with new one.

Problem comes when you have lots of data such as pictures, audio and video files, software, movies etc, documents, pdf files etc on your current hard drive. So,in these situations also you need to upgrade your drive to a new and faster like SSD with larger storage capacity.

Why you need to Clone your Mac:
Now, if you decide to replace or upgrade your Mac drive in order to expand its current storage capacity and performance.Cloning is the best approach that you should do to accomplish everything efficiently without worrying for the risk of losing data. It lets you create a copy of your old drive to some external drive and could help you to test applications before copying them to new drive.

However, some other prominent reasons to clone mac hard drive are discussed below:

Hard Drive corruption and Failure
If you notice that your hard drive produces repeatedly clicking noises while booting your Mac and also at the time of working on it. Such behaviour indicates that it might crash or fail to make all the data totally inaccessible. So, in such cases, cloning becomes a paramount precautionary step to protect your data.

Therefore, you should create clone of your hard drive and restore it on a new hard drive.

Less free space available
Our habit of storing everything in drive, squeezes the amount of space in few months and reduces the available resources for processes. It brings our Mac to a slower pace.

The efficiency of a machine, either its a Mac or a PC, is inversely proportional to the amount of data stored in it. So,you can't get fast performance unless have more than 20% free space on your drive. So, you should move to some larger drive and maintain adequate amount of free space.

In this situation, you should clone your current hard drive so that you can have a backup of your data if you needed anytime.

Now, come to create bootable clone of your drive using third party application like Stellar Drive Clone. It enables you to create bootable clone of your Mac disk that helps you to boot your Mac when your drive crash. It support to SSD also.

Enhance your Mac speed by defragging files of your Mac

We all love our Mac machine and therefore taking care of its performance is our responsibility towards making it perform like first day. But do you really feel that your Mac behaves in the same way as before. Most of you have answer 'NO'.

Even after proper cleaning of unwanted applications and files like cache, duplicate etc we unable to get that flawless performance like day one. This is all due to 'fragmentataion'.

Fragmentataion of files is the process that ccur automatically in your Mac drive as the time passes. Because there is no such inbuilt utiity in your Mac that prevents your files from being fragmented.

Mac has HFS+file system that can minimize fragmentation upto 20MB file size only. So, one should notice that OS X checks for files having more than 8fragments in order to defrag it.

For user having various large files on his Mac drive like video clips, audio files etc require to have some third party application for defragmentation of Mac files.

For details one can refer to following link for defragmenting his Mac drive.

http://www.stellardefragdrive.com/

Below video will give you a quick understanding of defragmentation in your Mac and at which extent fragmentation can harm your Mac performance. 






 

Clone your Mac OS X or not? Scenarios and applications for Mac cloning

Cloning your Mac drive is required or not? This question has been raised in many of us mind because Mac has an inbuilt tool time machine. But, you should know that Mac doesn't has any cloning software.

Although time machine is good at its work of creating incremental backups and scheduling but it unable to provide 'bootable clone'. You need to create clone of your Mac disk while upgrading your Mac or switching to another Mac machine. There are many cloning applications available in market for cloning. But, the important task is to choose suitable applications among all that clones your Mac in an efficient way.

Below video explains you in detail, how cloning is important and in which scenarios it works as boom.

It also helps you to decide which tool is best for you to clone your Mac HD.

Should I clone or Copy Mac before Mac OS X upgradation

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By the end of 2007, on 26^th October, when Mac OS X leopard was released by Apple Inc., it was really a big day for Mac users. I was also in a hurry and excited to experience its 300 enhancements and new features over its predecessor Tiger.

But, before upgrading it to leopard I have made a copy of all my documents, files, applications etc. to the external drive and then erased the current Mac drive. After that I was ready for upgrading my Mac to OS X leopard and that I have done successfully. I enjoyed lots of new features of leopard like new improved automator, boot camp, iChat, iCal, Photo Booth,Quicklook, TimeMachine, Spotlight,user interface etc.

Everything was right except that,my copied applications are not running. Although my files, video,songs all are easily accessible but not apps.

Its really terrible for me because I had approx 30 apps out of which I purchased twelve and downloaded ohers. And this was really painful to loose all my apps. Then I realized that just copying is not enough as it is, so in order to make it executable we need to create clone of our Mac drive.

When I shared this with my friends I came to know some more worst that my friends suffered. And that is there drive got crashed during upgradation and they loose all of their data and OS all of sudden. Then we all get back to search for finding ways from internet inorder to protect our Mac from the same.

After working for hours we get to know that cloning is the optimal solution for the problem we have faced. So, in future before doing activities like upgradation, partitioning, swithching machine its essential to clone Mac drive.

Data is never safe on your machine, so we must take regular backups. But, is it sufficient to take backup of your Mac using Time Machine? Although, Mac backup utility 'Time machine' is great but can't give you bootable clone. So, you have to depend on some third party utility for creating bootable clone of your drive.

And that is the most compelling reason of using cloning method not copying or backup.

Now, I have Mountain lion and I cloned my drive regularly (twice in a month) using Stellar Drive Clone software that I found really awesome. It supports my new SSD also and can clone ExFat formatted files, MBR and Fat32 also. This utility creates bootable clone of your Mac drive and Recovery HD. It is easy, fast, reliable and can create image of my Mac drive in few clicks only.

Cloning tools Vs Time Machine and where cloning excels over TM backups

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Increasing competition and rapid growth in business world brings the need of higher security of data. So, it becomes necessary to pay attention towards its security along with integrity of data. Clone refers to an exact replica of your source drive. While backing up is simply copying your drive.

Data stored on your hard drive can lost anytime.Therefore, it is always required to keep a backup of your data to avoid accidental data loss.

Cloning is a reliable method to keep your data secured against any loss. So, cloning your Mac drive ensures data security. 

 

So, Cloning and backup method are crucial in order to get rid of such data loss risks. Experts recommend to take regular backup and clone of your Mac using some optimal and reliable tool.

As far as Mac users are concerned, usually they perform cloning by some third party tool or backup their data using inbuilt Mac utility - ‘Time Machine’.

Now, if we compare cloning using tools and time machine backups: we find both are good at their point of action. As Time machine is free built in Mac utility so it is obvious that it have certain limitations as compare to third party cloning applications. But, it would be great to understand that how they benefitates users and how cloning excels over Time Machine(TM).

Now, let’s discuss about the cloning.

Cloning lets you create a bootable copy of your Mac disk, that offers you to boot your Mac in case when your drive corrupt or crash. Cloning can be performed on another internal partition/disk, partition of the internal disk or external partition/disk.

Cloning beneficiate over time machine in the following ways:

• If your hard drive get crashed, you can boot and run your system using your bootable clone without letting your work stop. Since, clone copy all your installed applications and saves you to reinstall them again on destination drive.
• You can access your clone on any machine by copying it or connect it with some other system but with time machine it is not possible. Time machine backup is not accessible in any other drive until and unless it has same configuration as old machine, because everytime it requires time machine without it you can't access backup created by it.

Although‘Time Machine’ is great in providing incremental backups and simple to use application but such features really don't matter when it comes to performance and efficiency. 

 

Below are some cases when Time Machine lacks:

• When data is restored from Time Machine disk, it requires user to restart the computer since the backup is not validated.
• If your backup drive is about to full and you attempt to take backup again using TM, it automatically deletes your old backup inorder to keep this new one without giving you any warning message.
• If you wants to move your backup from one machine to another, it complicates the process because it includes editing system files.
• If multiple Time Machine backup disks are attached to machine Time machine get confused. 
   

Because of these limitations users generally find Cloning more better than Time Machine backup.

But. for getting effective results, cloning must be done in an efficient manner by using an adroit cloning software program. There are many Mac cloning applications, I prefer Stellar Drive Clone because I am using it since two years. This applictaion let you create bootable clone of Mac drive and Recovery HD. It allows you to create image of Mac drive or selected volume.

For more details visit: 

Mac problems regarding cloning and backups and their solutions by expert

As we know that Mac is highly efficient operating system. It has several advanced functions that make it different from others. Even though we face problems in Mac. Many issues can be avoid by proper understanding its functions and working. But, some can't avoidable are data loss. 

So, in the below video there are answers to many of your questions like time machine is enough for your data protection against loss or not?

How Cloning excels over time machine backups?

What is Imaging, how it can help to restore your Mac?

What are the best and easy to use Mac cloning tools?

We generally faced problems in file formats while cloning any drive or volume. Because mostly Mac software give support to HFS+ file system only, while in case of multi boot Mac you may need to clone your window partition of Mac. But, can do this because of FAT32, MBR or ExFat file formats of Window partition.

You can create clone of your window partition of Mac using software Stellar Drive Clone. This application allows you to give bootable clone facility as well as image of your Mac disk. This software supports SSD also and give support to ExFat formatted files, MBR schema, Fat32. So, I think you must give few minutes to clone Mac hard drive in order to protect your precious data.

Protect your data from losing by Imaging your Mac disk

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You might be afraid of losing your vital data (personal and confidential data) during upgradation. Imaging or cloning are two reliable technology to ensure your data protection.

Although Macs are the securest operating system against virus attack and similar vulnerabilities but, we often face situations where Mac is susceptible towards failures and corruptions, that leading to data loss. So, you can't avoid such failures or situations but can be on safer side by backing it up.

Lets discuss about Imaging process:

Imaging is a process of creating an exact copy of drive on some other drive. So, it ensures data security from losing and enables you to restore whenever required.

Imaging refers to a replication process that creates a exact copy of your drive or volume.

Now, lets concentrate on how to create image of your Mac drive and respected volumes using inbuilt Mac OS X free Disk Utility located in (Applications-> Utilities folder). Disk Utility application enables you to create image (.dmg) file of your Mac OS X drive by which you can restore your Mac and specific volumes.

It is easy to use application, in which user just need to drag and drop his source and the destination drive under Restore tab from the left-pane of disk utility interface into its respective boxes in the right-pane. Moreover, when needed users can restore this image file to regain their data using Disk utility.

 

Disk utility is great tool of Mac but it can't create clone of your drive. But, there is another free Mac backup inbuilt utility available in your Mac that is 'Time machine'. Backing up your data is important to maintain your data availability and maintenance but backup using TM can't give you bootable backup.

In my coming blog I am going to explain cloning in detail and applications that performs both cloning and imaging.

Reasons why my Mac slow|How to Speed up my Mac

Slowing down of mac is a very common issue. Every now and then we use to see huge amount of queries raised in forums and blogs, regarding mac performance. Most of the time it is the user who neglects certain points while working on his mac machine, resulting in sluggish nature of mac.

During such conditions the novice user gets worried and start searching technically proficient person to tackle his system’s issue. But, if user follows correct and preventive steps then he can rectify the issue on his own.

First of all user needs to understand that with due course of time every system needs maintenance. It is like a refreshment process, which rejuvenate the machine and makes it like new one.

There are various reasons that can result in slowing down of your Mac machine. One of the most common and undetectable reason is presence of Unused applications. It must be noted down that for flawless performance of Mac, system should provide 512MB of RAM.

And multitasking has it’s own negative impact, user opens too many application simultaneously which resultantly degrades the speed of your Mac.

Another unrecognized reason for slowing down of Mac is unused application in system preferences. Various applications like Internet sharing, Blue-tooth, gps are rarely used but they engage RAM constantly.

The presence of outdated software like anti-virus, pirated applications can also result in slowing down of Mac. Due to updation these software occupies too many space which effects Mac performance.

Above discussed are few reasons that effects your Mac performance by slowing down its speed. If user keep above mentioned points in mind then he can enhance the life of his Mac system. But there still numerous reasons that can make your Mac sluggish for that purpose it is advisable to the user to go for third party tool. Like:-

There are some unwanted files like log files, cache files, duplicate files,universal binaries etc that get accumulated after a while and keeps on increasing day by day. You need a third party software for cleaning all these clutters from your Mac. There are many softwares in market but the cheapest and most reliable is Stellar Speedup Mac. Its cost is $29 and can clean your entire drive or specific volume as per your choice.

For details visit:http://www.stellarspeedupmac.com