I’ve owned and used Macs since 1996. The ones I’ve owned have been generally trouble-free and given me a lot of good service. As they say, “treat your tools with care, and they will treat you well.” (I’m not exactly sure who said that, but it sounded good, so go with it.)

For the most part, there isn’t much in the way of my routine Mac maintenance. Here’s what I do on a monthly basis:

1. I hose down the insides of my Mac Pro with a can of compressed air.
2. I run Tianium Software’s Onyx to repair permissions, delete caches, and perform system maintenance on my hard drive.
3. I run Alsoft’s Disk Warrior to rebuild directories on my main hard drive. (Worth the $99 if you ask me.)

Every 6 months or so, I run Coriolis’s iDefrag. (costs $30)

Instead of booting up the DiskWarrior CD, I run it from another internal hard drive on my system. The advantage of doing this is DW runs much, much faster.

Whenever I’m prepared to install a new Mac OS, I prefer to back-up my data and wipe my main boot drive. It gets rid of any cruft (unused apps, old preferences, etc.) and generally (I find) makes my system more responsive. Yes, it’s a minor pain in the backside to reinstall all my apps, but I’ve gotten used to it.

My back-up strategy is limited to the external drives I have in my office. I’m looking into backing up my data to the “cloud”, but so far, I’m not sure which service is best for me. I incorporate two different types of data back-ups. One type is via Apple’s own Time Machine. The other is through Shirt Pocket Software’s SuperDuper. Time Machine backs-up on the hour, every hour, and I have SuperDuper scheduled for a full data back-up every night. The advantage of using SuperDuper is that it creates a fully bootable back-up drive.

If you’re running a Mac, I’m curious to know what your Mac maintenance strategy is. Sound off in the comments below.

-Krishna

I’m meticulous about data back-ups, but up until this point all my data has been backed up locally to external drives and DVDs. After hearing a few scary tales of data loss from a few of my art buddies, I decided to get much more serious about my back-up strategy. The only hole in my back-up plan was the most obvious one. What if my studio gets destroyed? I could potentially lose everything. What I needed was a reliable off-site data back-up system.

My initial research a few months back led me to Carbonite and Mozy. Both companies specialize in backing up data to the “cloud”. I’ve heard mixed reviews about both companies, particularly in the areas of customer service and data recovery. So I held off committing to off-site back-ups.

My criterion for selecting an off-site back-up service was four-fold:

1. Ridiculously easy to use: I don’t want to run through hoops.
2. Reliable: back-ups should be smooth and consistent.
3. Data Encryption: I want to protect my data from prying eyes.
4. Longevity: I want a company that’s going to be around for the long haul.

Recently, I came across a new player in the field: Backblaze, which entered the market in 2008. Their pricing was competitive ($5/month for unlimited storage), but more importantly, I’d been hearing great things about their customer service. Like Mozy and Carbonite, they offer back-up solutions for both Mac and PC platforms. I scoured the articles and reviews looking for potential complaints or issues with their service. I even asked folks on Twitter. All signs pointed to positive experiences.

Buoyed by all the positive things I read, I made the decision to go with Backblaze. They seem to have a very passionate and loyal following among techies. Their data center has biometric security, and is on a 24″ raised floor with seismic pedestals. (A veritable Fort Knox.)

With Backblaze, you can retrieve your data via the web for free. You can also optionally choose to have your data burned to DVD ($99) or even a USB hard drive ($189), should you witness data catastrophe. It’s nice to have options.

As far as the program itself: the process of setting up Backblaze was incredibly simple.

1. Download the Backblaze client software
2. Enter an e-mail address
3. Sit back and relax

The Backblaze Mac client software comes in the form of a preferencePane.

After the software has been installed, your data is analyzed. You can choose your billing cycle. You can choose month-to-month for $5/month, or save $10 by going with their 1 year plan, which is what I opted for.

Backing up to the cloud is not an instantaneous endeavor, regardless of which data backup service you choose. Typically, your back-ups happen “behind the scenes”. With Backblaze, you can throttle how much or how little bandwidth you want to devote to your data back-ups. I typically have mine set to the middle during the day. At night, I adjust the settings to give Backblaze full speed.

My first back-up, which consists of 115 GB, will take 41 days, according to Backblaze’s calculation. Incremental back-ups, according to Backblaze’s website, will be fast.

You can also have Backblaze back-up additional drives connected to your machine. You can also choose which files / folders you wish to exclude from back-ups. Setting this option was simple. Backblaze’s Mac client is very intuitive and easy to use.

Backblaze also gives you the option to make a private encryption key, insuring that you, and only you, have access to your own data.

Backblaze also offers you a nice breakdown of all the file types you are backing up.

My initial back-up is far from over. I have yet to test out Backblaze’s restore feature. How is this service? It’s too early to tell, but my initial experience (so far) has been a very positive one.

I’ll keep everyone posted on how Backblaze fares.

-Krishna

I generally find Mac OS X very pleasant to use in my day to day computing. It stays out of my way, allowing me to focus on the task at hand. It’s a really good operating system. But, is everything perfect?

No. Of course not.

No operating system is.

One of my biggest gripes in my day to day use of Mac OS X (most notably Snow Leopard) is when a trashed file refuses to empty from the Trash Can. As a neat freak, I like to keep my Desktop and folder structure pruned and spotless. I always try to delete temporary files on the Desktop (like screenshots or images saved to the desktop) after I’ve finished using them. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Let’s take a specific scenario:

1. Using Command-Shift-3, I capture a screenshot, which is then saved to the Desktop.
2. I compose a new mail message in Apple Mail and include the screenshot as an attachment. I then send the e-mail off to its recipient.
3. Now I try to take the screenshot that’s on the Desktop, drag it to the Trash Can and proceed to empty it.

it’s at this point that I receive a dialog box which says that the file is in use and the Trash Can is unable to empty. The work-around solution for me has been:

1. Close Apple Mail.
2. Empty Trash.
3. Curse Apple for impairing my productivity.

Apparently, I’m not alone in encountering this problem. It turns out there’s actually a utility that will force the Trash Can to empty, by the name of Trash It!, from NoName Scriptware. Trash It! is donation-ware, and does exactly what it says it does.

When you launch Trash It!, you’re presented with a dialog box that has two options. “Just Delete” will do exactly that. “Secure Delete” will delete the files to where you can’t retrieve it (When it’s gone, it’s gone.) You’ll have to enter your administrator password to confirm what you are about to do. And that’s it!

There’s really not much to review in this software. It works well, and – as I mentioned eariler, is donationware (you pay what you think the software is worth, if you find it to be useful.)

What would really be great is if Apple would address the problem in their OS – but in the meantime, if you’re looking for a quick, friendly method of Force Emptying the Trash Can, you can’t go wrong with Trash It!.

-Krishna