You know how after using a Windows PC for a few months it stops being quite so responsive to your clicks? You start seeing the hour-glass more often, it takes longer to boot and log-in, and starting applications that previously opened almost instantly now gives you time to go and make a cup of tea? We call it “Windows-cruft” and it’s universally understood by the Windows community.
I didn’t think that Macs, especially OS X, suffered, but suffer they do. “OS X Cruft” is just as bad as Windows-cruft, and the delays and glitches are just as infuriating. For the third time in as many days I’ve had to hold down the power button on my G5 to switch it off while the spinning beachball of death obstinately refusued to go away. My crime - opening Safari. Or closing safari. Or closing a finder window. Or attempting to click something on the menu, or the dock, or ANYWHERE on the screen!
Sheesh.
“Macs don’t crash.”
“Macs are faster.”
Bull. Time for a rebuild I think…
Indeed, they do suffer from similar problems, usually caused by much the same things. Before going through the the hassle of doing a rebuild you might like to check that the automatic batch jobs that clear out the logs and the like are running properly. Disk permissions can cause problems, so running ‘Repair Disk Permissions’ from Disk Utility can often help a lot.
There are more tips at http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html, including a guide to how to rebuild the OS without having to rebuild the machine.
Not sure about the desktop/ G5 Macs, but my MacBookPro is over a year old now and runs as fast as ever.
You may have downloaded/ installed/ deleted/ etc. a bunch of stuff over time. Backup your various personal work files, as well as the things I’ve listed below, then do a clean install. That ought to bring it back up to speed.
Things to remember to backup before wiping the drive:
Documents folder
Application Support folder (found in compiename/Library)
Mail (found in same as above)
Preferences (found in same as above)
Safari (found in same as above)
Pictures folder (make sure not to lose iPhoto or wherever you save pics!)
Music folder (ditto for mp3s); also save tthe iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library.xml files as they save stuff like play counts and smart lists and so forth.
yayzors for maczors