Mount Mac volume | How to mount volume in Mac Lion

How to repair or mount unmounted Mac volume in OS X Lion ? A query I was searching for, a few days ago. It was the end of September 2012 when I was creating presentation on my Mac with OS X Lion. All of sudden the power went off causing an unintentional shut down of my Mac.

After an hour or two, when I restarted my machine, it shocked me. There was no volume at desktop. It was very pathetic because it was going to kill my efforts of many hours. Technically, I grade myself 1 out of 10. After consulting a friend I came to know about disk utility – an inbuilt tool to take care of diks related issues.

There, all the three volumes out of four were visible except the one I was working upon. It was shaded and renamed in some ridiculous manner. Technically, it got unmounted. As per my friend's suggestion, I selected the volume and clicked “verify disk”. Got an error message in red and then I tried to fix the problem by clicking “repair disk” but all in vain. Unfortunately, it didn't work and raised my tension to a new peak.

Now, formatting the volume was the last solution left with me but, it was risky because it could have deleted all my data in it.

After too many hits and trials I found another third party tool – Stellar Drive ToolBox. It has Volume Repair to fix verification and permission related issues in Mac disk. When I run the mudule, it fixed the issue in one go.

I am not so techie to explain all the 12 features of this tool but want to thank the Stellar Drive ToolBox mounting my Mac volume without data loss.

For details Visit : http://www.drivetoolbox.com/volumes-repair.php

Optimize Mac by defragmenting Mac Drive

Usually we implement simple methods to make their Mac run faster by clearing the cache, clutters and cookies from it. But, even doing so we find no improvement in the speed. So, after trying these basic troubleshooting methods at the end we got nothing but frustration. At last users call their technicians or friends and share their slow Mac issues with them. As a result, as per the suggestion of experts they perform disk defragmentation to speed up their Mac which gradually enhance performance. So, defrag Mac drive helps to enhance performance of your Machine.

Fragmentation:

Fragmentation of files can happen when numerous files are created, deleted and modified by users with the passage of time. For example downloading or creating files on daily basis. After some time user delete these files thinking that it will save space for more work. But simply deleting files and emptying the Trash does not meant that we get all the occupied space. The remaining of various deleted files in different sectors of drive can significantly slow down the performance of the machine.

Disk Defragmentation:

Note: The first thing one should do before reinitializing, upgrading and updating process is to take backup copy of all vital file.

This is to ensure that no important files will get deleted during such operations.

Defragmentation Need?

When you own a Machine, you have to pay attention to process like defragmenting your hard-drives, updating anti-virus, installing and enabling firewall for protecting it from unauthorized access and optimization. Actually users who are new to Mac, thought that they need not worry about optimization practices. Because Mac has built-in HFS+ file system which somehow avoid file fragmentation only up to 20mb sized. And Mac has maintenance routines that run periodically.

So, don’t get confused on whether we need defragmentation in Mac or not. As it is quite clear that we need to do defragging if files size is larger than 20 Mb.

Third party tool for defragmentation:

Today we’re delving into the topic of defragmentation in Mac, and I have experience of Stellar Drive Defrag software and it works more efficiently and smoothly. Although there are plenty of software for defragging Mac drives but I suggest this one because of its unique features and interactive interface. This utility also defrag boot volume by creating bootable dvd of that drive.

This software also let you know your drive temperature or status.

Optimize Mac Performance using Utilities

Like every operating system Mac also requires maintenance to remain as brand new. As after time usage, Mac too slows down and it results in decrease performance.

Every advanced machine also requires some sort of maintenance to run smoothly. Your Mac may be laced with the most recent technology, but without proper care, its performance is bound to decrease.

It is a common problem on the parts of almost every Mac user that their machine gets slower over time. If there is no virus/malware infection or you are not running out of disk space, then such slowing down of Mac is due to fragmentation of files.

Though according to Apple, Mac performs defragmentation to some extent, still Mac machines gradually go slow because of fragmentation. As Mac does not provide any disk defragmenting option in it, you need to take the help of a good Mac disk defrag utility to do the job.

Sometimes, Mac users get surprised following the slowing down of their Mac. Even with the same RAM, processor speed and enough disk space, the Mac gradually becomes slower. Users find it extremely difficult to perform their regular day to day operations, such as opening/shifting/copying/deleting of files and running applications. Especially, in such conditions, the games or applications with high resolution graphics either hangs in the middle or quits unexpectedly. The entire computer usage becomes extremely irritating, making Internet browsing almost horrible.

If there is no possible corruption in the disk, then the most probable reason behind your slow Mac is severe fragmentation of files in the drive. Whenever you save a file in your Mac hard drive, the operating system searches for a contiguous memory chunk, which is either equal or greater than the size of the file.

This is the way, every file is saved, unless there is no contiguous free space left in the disk. Similarly, when you delete a file from the disk, a memory chunk gets freed in between two files.

After several instances of file deletion and creation, the free space of the hard drive gets severely fragmented. When the hard drive has been already fragmented and you try to save a file to the disk, the OS does not find any contiguous memory chunk. As a result of this, the file is broken into multiple logical pieces and saved at the available free spaces.

Now, when you try to perform any operation on such a fragmented file, the OS requires more time to load and execute the operations. This is the reason, your Mac appears slower than before. Unfortunately, in your Mac, there is no visible option to defragment the fragmented drive and thus you need to take the help of a good disk defragmenter to bring back your good old speed.

Benefits and steps to make a common HD for multiple OS

In which way, you can make single drive compatible in both Mac and window. In other words, you can say how can you make possible to access your window files on your Mac machine and vice versa.
So, in order to get it in detail you must have basic knowledge of file system/formats.

You can share an external drive between Mac and windows by formating your drive by using any of the following file formats given below:-

a)FAT or FAT32(windows old format)
b)NTFS(windows new format)
c)HFS (OS X Extended journaled) (Mac format)
Criteria/issue one can decide to format their drive in order to achieve compatibility between Mac and windows.

1.File size limitation issue:

Firstly taken Fat32 known as win old format, which has 4GB max file size limitation while NTFS and HFS have no file size limitation.

2.Read/write Access issue:

• FAT32 is read and writable on both Win/Mac.
• NTFS readable on both mac/win, but writable on Win only.
• While HFS is read/writeable on macs only.
  
  Now from the above mentioned points we got that FAT32 is the only choice to format drive. Beside its limitationn of file size of 4gb maximum,so for small size files one can format their drive in FAT32 .
  
  Means if you don't have bulky videos you can choose FAT32 format. But often our system having large sized files and for that you should select HFS format. As HFS have no file size limitation but it read/writeable on macs only. Inorder to make it accessible on windows too go for HFS Explorer.
  
  I want to suggest you something that there is no need to go for third party tool even if you want to format your drive using HFS . Using HFS Explorer to read/write on windows.
  
  And if you want to format your external drive using NTFS , then use NTFS-3G to read/write on Mac.
  
  If one want to use common external drive then it is suggested to format your external hard drive either in FAT or FAT32 file or in exFATformat, it will allow your data to read and write in both OS.
  
  In multi-operating systems ex-FAT(Extended File Allocation Table) is best, but it doesn't mean that this don't have any disadvantage. ExFAT have no issue regarding file size but with when we compare speed it somehow slow while transferring files. Most of the times it irritates by consuming much time. Although we can select between these two according to our prior on file size or speed.
  
  But in short it is appropriate to use these formats in respective conditions:-
  

  • If transfering files from Win to Mac , choose NTFS.

  • If transfering files from Mac to Windows, choose HFS .

  • If transfering two ways use either.

  
  Otherwise you can create partitions on your hard drive to have multi operating system to use separately.
  
  NOTE: Before going to do formating your drive it is important to make clone of your hard drive with some suitable software which having support on different formats(like NTFS, Ex- FAT, MBR etc.) I found Stellar Drive Clone 2.5 version capable for the above mentioned constraints.

Alternate of Auslogics boostspeed but for My Mac

Is there any software similar to Bootspeed but for Mac ? When I searched for the best tool to speed up my computer, I got Bootspeed but unfortunately, this program is designed for PC only.
Millions of Mac users like me, lose the taste of fast Mac after few months of usage. Some Mac owners find their old Mac not compatible with today's software and thus get a slowing Mac. But, that is not the only reason of a sluggish Mac because a number of users having a brand new Macbook, also face this irritating situation.

When the OS calls an application, it uses free space, as a resource, to run the program. Researches reveal that lack of free space on drive, could be a major cause of a lethargic Mac. In Windows, an inbuilt drive cleaner is available for removing temp files and all unnecessary stuffs from the hard disk. Bootspeed is another helping tool from Auslogics to help users to get rid of such unnecessary files. In Mac, there is no such built-in tool available to cleanup Mac drive. So, they can think of using Stellar SpeedUp Mac to speeding up Mac by regaining free space.

This tool is capable to scan, segregate and delete those files which are unnecessary for users. The users can set the preferences of this tool based on following criteria. 

Fig. 1

• General – The fig. 1 above can give you a brief idea about all the general settings related to type of files to be scanned and removed from your Mac.
• Folder Search – One can search for a specific folder and set the preference for both the options – Speed Up Now and Clean My Mac.
• Languages – User just need to select those languages which is not required.
• Files – This is designed to avail users to select files based on file type and size. Also, user can select to delete the duplicate files.
• Scheduler – One can schedule the task of cleaning Mac drive either daily, weekly or monthly.
• Ignore List – Its very easy with this tool to ignore a particular folder while scanning the drive.

So, its not astonishing to state that you have the best Mac cleaning software in your hand.

Help me to speed up my Mac | Increase my Mac speed

The most prominent reason of slow Mac is accessive amount of data on hard drive, consuming too much of memory and processor effort as well. Here in this post, we are going to discuss tips to increase Mac speed.

Tip 1 Use Mac drive cleaner to regain free space: Regardless of size of drive, it fills up with the passage of time. Normally a user keeps his each and every stuff wheteher photos, files, videos or installed applications or music files. Thus, all sorts of files accumulate in drive and lessens the amount of free space. Such issues can be resolved with regular checkup and deletion of irrelevant or unnecessary data from Mac drive. Mac drive cleaners like Stellar Speed Up Mac can help you to get rid of such useless applications, duplicate file (whether its a media file or any other text file), cache and system logs.

Tip 2 Keep monitoring activity monitor: Activity Monitor shows you the list of processes and CPU consumption in percentage. Please make sure that the CPU consumption do not fall below 20% to 30%. because it may delay other processes and slow down overall performance. Through activity monitor, you can also quit the applications consuming too much memory.

Tip 3 Trim your start-up list: If it takes too much time for your Mac to start then please check the list of startup items and trim to only those which are necessary for you. Go to Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items.


For more tips visit: www.SpeedUp-Mac.blogspot.com

Software to Clone Mac OS X – Cloning Backup

While working on our Mac machine we come across various situations or heard news of critical data loss or inaccessibility to data. There could be many reasons for this, like it can be accidental deletion, crash, bad sectors in hard drive or can be physical damage to hard drive etc. So, any instance can cause data loss because these are quite accidental and it is impossible to avoid them completely.

Therefore, users have to take precaution in the form of taking regular backup of their vital data because recovering all lost data is not always possible. Recovery also depends on things like status of drive etc. And waiting for losing data and then recovering it by using some recovery software is not a good idea. At the time of data loss, situation really gets to your nerves, when something worse happen to your backup drive . Suppose while doing some work your Mac corrupt and fail to boot. There is Recovery HD available to boot your Mac machine. But what if it also refuses to boot? So, it is always good to make a bootable clone of your Mac OS and Recovery HD.

Cloning is an inventive technique to create an exact sector by sector copy of Mac drive/volume/partition etc. One can also make the image of Mac drive and it can be saved at a safe and desired location, so that one can used them whenever required to restore lost data back.

However Time Machine is an adroit solution for taking backup. It is a feasible tool used for making clone and for taking incremental backups for basic or small file system. But in order to get advanced features of making bootable clone of Mac drive and recovery HD as explained above, you should go for third party software like Stellar Drive Clone. By having a Mac cloning tool, one can immediately create a cloned copy of their Mac drive, once you get any sign of failure. One need not to be tensed about your deleted data, as it can easily be restored from the cloned image.

Stellar Drive Clone software usually offer three main tabs. One can make clone of the whole Mac drive or selected volume, and other can make image of the selected drive/volume and the third 'Restore' restores your drive. You can copy Mac OS X and can also create bootable clone using this tool. This software also support SSD , which I will explain in my upcoming blog. It is pretty useful and easy to use application to clone Mac drive/volume. It has interactive GUI which provides advanced features with ease of usage. It is beneficial to have a bootable backup of your Mac drive as it minimizes downtime and expense of Machine.