Does anyone have a Mac?

TiTheRev

Well after many an error check/Hardware Test/Utilities repair/command line functions etc... A simple wipe clean and reboot seems to have worked. In the process of putting all the software necessary back on, and will leave it and see. The internet is slower than it was but does connect, any ideas?

Thanks for the help guys I knew a Mac wouldn't just break

Leopard

It's difficult to diagnose what's causing your Internet to run more slowly without knowing what you have installed on your Mac. It's certainly far less likely than a PC to be suffering from viruses - but that's not impossible.

I have always partitioned the hard drives in my Macs.

I put the operating system, applications and utilities into the first partition and keep my data in at least one other partition.

The latter includes my iTunes library, my iPhoto library, my Aperture library and all my other libraries - which the system, by default, places in its own partition unless you instruct it to do otherwise.

That way, you can carry out any maintenance, install upgrades or even erase and reinstall a completely clean system without it affecting your data in any way.

The Mac on which I'm writing this, for example, has a 200 GB hard drive installed internally. Its first partition is 85 GB (of which some 37 GB is currently free). Its second partition is 8.5 GB and its third partition is 650 MB: I use these two to park stuff I want to burn on to (respectively) a DVD or a CD - then I can make a disc image of the entire partition if I wish. The remaining, fourth, partition (92 GB) of this hard drive contains my data.

I'd really recommend doing that - keeping your system and your data separate, in watertight compartments. It's much easier to back up, too.

I replace hard drives every 18 months or 2 years, mainly as a precaution before they fail but partly because I usually, by then, need a drive with a larger capacity! (Don't we all?) I put the old drives (both 2.5" drives and 3.5" drives) into semi-retirement in Firewire enclosures to provide me with additional archives and backups.

Some I re-partition into just one volume with a system or with data only on it. For example, one has just a complete and up-to-date backup of the configured system I am using now (OS 10.5.4). Another has a bare install of OS 10.5.4. Another has a backup of OS 10.5.3 and another has OS 10.4.11 on it. Now that Apple releases buggy upgrades :mad: , it's handy to be able to switch back quickly to a system that was sorted without this losing you any data.

(Of course, I do back up to DVD and CD as archives, but these i usually keep at a number of different premises, for reasons of security.)

I also keep a "Work in Progress" folder on my iDisk, so I can work on a document anywhere, anytime, on any Mac, provided it has an Internet connection. :cool:

If anything goes amiss, I find it far quicker and more convenient to just plug another drive into my Firewire hub to sort it out (or to finish what I'm working on). And, of course, any Mac can boot off a Firewire drive. An Intel Mac can also boot off a USB2 drive but Firewire does have a number of advantages.

I guess what I'm saying here is that if you create partitions and keep backups on Firewire drives, you can sort most things out on a Mac pretty quickly and painlessly unless it's a hardware failure. And Applecare will usually deal with that, if you have extended it to the full three years.

Hope that helps a bit . Good luck!

TiTheRev

Wow, thanks for the essay

My iBook is only 40GB so will have to think on upgrading that, but I do have an external 250GB HDD that has my back up on at the mo. All I have on the iBook currently, is the origional software and have now loaded Firefox on. It's still on OS X 10.4.3 so will update to .11 tonight and any other iTunes upgrades etc. It really is back to bare bones!

With regards to the internet connection, it may be that I need to re-install the BT software for the wireless hub we've got? I got a connection via Wi-Fi but it was missing html details and slow. Hopefully a re-install there will sort that out.

As part of the process I got an extra 1GB RAM at least and learned a whole bunch more about Macs and how cool they are!

almillar

That's great news - one fewer computer on the scrapheap, and obviously some money saved too!
Leopards idea sounds a bit too involved for the casual user I think. I'm used to storing all my stuff on a seperate partition (now a seperate drive) on a PC, but the need to do this isnt really present on a Mac, or to be fair, any more on a PC. All your 'stuff' is in your home folder and easily moved/backed up.
Internet - before you poke about too much make sure you get all the software updates onto your computer again, start wit the big OSX one. The slow internet could just be caused by a very early version of Safari or something. Best of luck.
Alan

TiTheRev

Same wavelength Al thanks for the advice, will be doing the updates tonight and hopefully posting from my shiney new laptop later

Leopard

Running OS 10.4 on a 40 GB drive doesn't give it much elbow room to use Virtual Memory or run upgrades.

Have you considered putting, say, an 80 GB drive in it? Hard drives do wear out and it's better to put a new one in before that happens...

Could be that, one way or the other, the hard drive was the cause of your problem.

Good luck!

TiTheRev

Will have to consider it, there are phones out there with as much HD these days, and my music/photo collection is ever growing! Will use my external HD as a back-up/overflow for now so my iBook drive isnt overloaded. Its a USB connection one, but don't suppose you can do this wirelessly can you?

Bob63

TiTheRev wrote: »

Its a USB connection one, but don't suppose you can do this wirelessly can you?

Yes - just google "NAS". Apple do a nice disk/wireless system called the Time Capsule. If you already have an external USB disk then you can get the same box without the internal disk - the Airport Extreme Base Station.

TiTheRev

cheesy.mike wrote: »

Yes - just google "NAS". Apple do a nice disk/wireless system called the Time Capsule. If you already have an external USB disk then you can get the same box without the internal disk - the Airport Extreme Base Station.

Sweet

Will do some investigation...

TiTheRev

Just out of curiosity, would this do the same job?

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB321LL/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/mac_accessories/airport_wireless&mco=MTA5NDUw