Activities which affect Mac speed and performance

How to know about the reasons which make my Mac slow? Many users like me, ask this question when they experience sluggish Mac. Me too did this and googled for reasons of slow Mac. I found that the unnecessary data and applications(installed accidentally) ,are the major causes of the issue.

The user don't even realize that while he was accessing Internet, his system has automatically updated as per the required status. Such updates fulfills the flaw of the system which boost up the performance. But some times it has negative impact as the memory space gets filled with unwanted files. The memory congestion is one of the factor which slows down the Mac performance.

The concept of multi tasking is a kind of revolution in the computer technology. But, sometimes we open many applications simultaneously and use only few of them. But, unlike the user, system always remember unused applications. Hence it is quite clear that idle applications too engages both memory and processor and decrease Mac performance. The tools like Speech Recognition, Blue-tooth etc., are rarely used but, always remain running in background. It is advisable to disable them soon after the usage.

Outdated or expired applications can also affect the functionality of Mac. License bounded software only allow few features to be accessed by user. But, occupy full space as per the compatibility requirements.

The most crucial factor that affect the performance of Mac is the hard disk space. Many times we keep our hard drive congested with unused, unwanted and duplicate data. Which will defiantly degrade the performance of the system.

Taking backup in external drive is one option to free the hard drive space. But if you want to bypass all the manual activity then try some third party Mac cleaning tool.

For users who are not aware of these techniques, to optimize Mac performance. These users must try some tool for cleaning their Mac drive as manual practices can't help you completely. 
Stellar speedup Mac and Drive Tool box are some really great tools to maintain your Mac health and keep it remain fit.

Speed Up your Mac performance with junk cleaning software

Is your Mac irritates you ? You could speed up your Mac performance by squash extra life out of your older Mac. And I think its better idea too, rather than investing in new Mac machine.

Although there are many points one should keep in his mind while doing practices to boost its speed but, I will focus only on increasing RAM about which users are mainly concerned about.

Increasing RAM:

•  When it comes to enhancing performance of your Mac, in spite of investing money in buying new Mac machine for getting rid off slow Mac, it is recommended to increase your RAM. It is probably the easy way to enhance the performance of your Mac. This also results in reducing the time that system would use memory as Virtual memory when it find less free space available. As today need of memory is increasing so make sure you should have as much RAM as you need or can afford.

• Now, the question arises how one could know that he/she required more RAM. Firstly, you can see the memory usage from Activity Monitor to get an idea about the load your machine is handling. And an easy and good method of determining whether you need more RAM or not, by following the series of steps: 

   

How to determine if you need more RAM:

1. Restart your Machine.
2. Use the computer as you normally would for about 10 minutes, and do whatever like checking mails, etc. But do not play hevy files like video or intensive games -­-­- they can effect the results.
3. Open Activity Monitor apps.
4. Click on the 'System Memory' button.
5. There is one listings reads "Page ins/outs".
6. This has numbers in the format of "1418/8224"
7. The first number is number of page ins and the second number is the number of page outs or it actually tells the number of times the mchine had to use your internal hard drive as virtual memory. So, if page outs are very high, above 3,500, then you could increase your RAM.

So, there is highly demand of one suitable cleaning software, that boost your Mac speed by removing all clutters from your drive.You can download its free trial for getting an idea about the software features.

Comparison between iCloud and google drive

Google has the upper hand when we talk about functionalities. iCloud proved itself as a revolutionary application. But after the launch of Google drive popularity of iCloud degraded. Both iCloud and Google drive are file storage and sync service. Former was released by apple inc. and later by Google. Both the applications allows users to store data on remote server. Despite of various similarities, While comparing we find lots of similarities amongst them. But additional and improved features provided by Google drive precedes iCloud.

• Both offer 5 GB worth of storage, both have the ability to sync pictures, audio/video, and both cost nothing to the user. But iCloud users must require i Tunes for music and photo syncing.
• Google Music allows its users to simply upload and sync any music selected from local hard drives.
• Sharing files publicly is quiet easy in Google drive, also it appends files larger than iCloud.
• Maximum file upload size in iCloud is 25 MB for free user and 250 MB for the paid ones. Where as Google drive allows user to upload file size up to 10 GB and that is for free of cost.
• Major difference between these technologies is the compatibility with mobile platform. iCloud is compatible with IOS devices. Where as Google is about to launch latest version which supports both IOS and Android mobile platform for phone and iPad.
• It is not only the space provided matters in the competition, money also turns the game around. iCloud demands 40$/ year for 20 GB of space where as Google drive just satisfied with30$/yearoffering25GBspace.
  
  Overall after considering all the aforementioned points one can easily conclude the feasibility of Google drive over iCloud. Google is also planning to launch latest version with additional features.

The easy, fast and cheap way to Defrag and Optimize your Mac

I don't remember if Apple had ever provided any defragmentating tool with its OS. Specially after the introduction of HFS+ file system in Mac OS X. Defragmentation of a hard disk drive reduces file fragmentation by reorganizing the fragmented disk files into contiguous memory locations. Ostensibly, a defraged drive performs read/write operation at faster rate than a disk where all the files are scattered about.

Whenever I talk to any Mac expert about the need of defragmentation, the answer I always get is – NO. Actually , the HFS+ file system of this wonderful OS is too smart to handle fragmentaion upto some remarkable level. 
 
The condition becomes little wired with users working with large files. My friend, a graphic designer, is one such user who deals in photos, videos etc. He often faces sluggish Mac behavior which delays his job. There, the built-in ability of Mac fails to manage the fragmentation and needs some external tool to take care of scattered pieces of files.
I suggested him to first download the trail version of Stellar Drive Defrag and analyse the drive . It shown the status of fragmentation as given in fig 1. Next, he bought the application and got his entire drive defragged within no time. It optimized Mac drive and rejuvenated it with prominent increase in performance. 
 
Usually a defragmenting tool consumes little longer to perform the task but the point matters a lot is reliability an security of data it works upon. Stellar Drive Defrag need to create a bootable DVD before defragmenting the boot drive.
By default the OS X adopts the the technology called the “Hot File Adaptive Clustering”. Your Mac moves the files used most frequently, an area on the hard disk that gives you faster access times. Stellar Drive Defrag knows this area and doesn't make any changes in the Hot Zone and leaves them alone.

Caution: The users should note that the defragmentating involves the permanent movement of files in drive so there should not be any shut down during the process else, it may lead to permenent loss of your Mac data.

How regular Backup is related to data recovery

I have gone through many articles or blogs related to data backups and recovery, and most commonly used term I noticed in all articles is “regular backups”. So I analyze this term in depth. Before discussing this term, I would like to discuss facts that shows: how data backups are related to data recovery.

Backup protects your data from loss in the situations of crash, ensuring data safety. If you perform backup of your drive or volume, then it is for sure that you don't need to go for any recovery. As we know “prevention is better than cure”, we should apply this statement here also, in terms of “backup is better than recovery”.

Let me tell you my real life tragedy.That was my first family trip and all my beautiful memories I captured, in my sony camera, i.e video recordings ,pics etc. I had deleted everything from camera in order to make memory free to have some more pics and recordings, after transferring it to my system. But unfortunately I lost my all pics. Than I buy some photo recovery software and these softwares are costly but Unfortunately I have no other solution. Because if data is important than there is no alternative.

If you have ever lost your important file , or ever performed restore a backup than you will got what I am trying to explain you. What will be your condition when after giving hours effort in making presentation, which you will be delivering tomorrow is lost. It happened, when after some time you come back to give a last touch to your presentation, and found that your recent changes are not saved.

It kills you right?

Now let concentrate on the term 'regular backups'. So, what you people understand by taking regular backups. Yes, it is known to all that taking regular backups is important for data safety in order to keep it far from the need of recovery.

Actually today all users, irrespective of the OS they have, know the need of taking backps and cloning their drive, but even then they didn't indulge themselves into such activities. Because people are generally figure out 'backups' as complex,time taken and annoying process.

By saying 'regular' what it means: weekly, monthly, daily, or if whenever you have time? So,what exactly 'regular' means here! Because when you go in depth or focus in detail, you would find that there is always a gap between two consecutive backups. Means in the mean time the changes and addittions you made to the data may be not saved.

So I personaly prefer Stellar drive clone software to clonemac os x.

Create Mac Disk image using Disk utility

I think I don't need to define disk utility and its features to any Mac user. Sometimes people confuse whether to create clone or image for their Mac drive or volumes. So, they just need to clear their concept that both clone and image are meant to backup. From the user's point of view, the only difference is clone are bootable while images are not.

So, creating image is also a way to store files in a Mac. Creating Image using Disk Utility gives you a compressed and encrypted image. So, in order to save your data from unauthorized access, one should create image of their startup drive.

Although it has so many advantages, but images are not bootable.

Before we move further, you should know why it is essential to create image(backup) of drive. And then we will concentrate on the methods of creating image using Disk utility.

No matter which hard drive you are using, its quality or manufacturer, as no one would take responsibility to protects your data from any mishappening.

These are steps of creating Mac disk Image Using Disk Utility:

• Launch Disk Utility application. Located in Applications -­-> Utilities.

• Go to the File menu, and select New -­-> Disk Image.
• Select the volume or drive you want to create image. Then click the Image button shown below in screen.
• Give some name to your new disc image. Then from the Image Format menu, select Compressed(image creaed in compressed form).
• Once your disc image is created, it will appear in left pane in the Disk Utility application. After click once on the image. From the Images menu, select 'Scan image' for Restore.
• If you want to restore a disc image, click once on the image in the left pane of Disk utility. Click to select the Restore tab. Drag the image file from the left pane to the Source location. Drag the particular partition or volume you want to restore to from the left pane to your designated Destination location. Check both the Erase Destination and Skip Checksum checkboxes. Click the Restore button.

I had gone through all these steps, that my friend sent me for my help in this matter, and I succussfully created my first Mac disk image easily. But, as I wanted to create bootable disk so, he advised me to use a third party tool. As per his suggestion, I bought Stellar clone drive which is able to make bootable clone of recovery HD also. I am very thankful to him for his great suggestion for using Stellar drive clone, and it really works superbly. Now I love this software only because it doesn't need any technical expertise, it just works.

How to create copy of mac os x

Making a copy of your Mac OS X is an intelligent decision towards protection of your original installed Mac OS X. Because no one knows, when are you going to get your drive crashed.

You had also heared many news related to “data loss” at home(personal or important data) or in corperate world(broad level). It can happen with anyone,without giving you any warning or chance to save your impotant or running apps,

Although there are plenty of software for recovering your lost data, but anyhow chances of recovery depends on condition of hard drive corruption. And its always recommended by technical experts to take backup of your drive in order to avoid risk situations.

So, these things make you think about 'creating backup or clone of your Mac OS x' to ensure protection against any mishappening with your data. Creating clone of necessary files time to time, is important but, have you ever thought about creating copy of Mac OS X?

My friend Sam is a new Mac user since last month and doesn't know much about cloning or copy Mac OS X and creating bootable copy of your Mac drive. I told him steps (mentioned below) and he got his job done perfectly without facing any problem.

Actually the fact is Apple gives you legally 4 chances to install mac os x on single Apple ID. So, guess what will happen if your original copy of Mac OS X will damaged, will you want to reinstall it again as until tou can't boot your Mac.

And as per recovery HD is concerned there may be chance when it might not accessible, then you could need to have a bootable backup of your OS. So, a bootable copy of Mac OS X is a need not only a safety measure. If you are not aware of why and how to create a bootable copy of Mac OS X, than the guidelines I mention below give you complete picture. So, let take example of creating bootable copy of OS X Lion.

Tutorial to create bootable copy of Mac OS X Lion:

• First Go in Finder and then navigate to /Applications/Install Mac OS X Lion.
• Right click on Downloaded file, go into package and select tab “Show package contents”.
• Open Content folder in new finder window.
• You will find InstalledESD.dmg(disk image) file after Opening shared Support folder.
• Right click on InstalledESD.dmg file.
• Select Copy from pop-up menu.
• Paste it on desktop by select 'paste item' from pop up menu.
• Go Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities)
• Click burn, select InstalledESD.dmg from your desired location and click burn.
• You need an optical disc to do job done and then click burn.