HELP with MAinteinence... and Cleaning

[mbopy22]

Hi I just bought an iBook G4 brand new. With all the basic configuration 512mb RAM, 40Gb HD, etc.

What would you recommend me to do and use to clean up space?

I´m new on this SIDE of computers.. I´ve been using PC since like forever (I did not know that I was so unhappy… jejej until I got my Mac) so I´m use to defrag, and scandisk and all that…

What would be the equivalent for Mac?

Any programs that you would recommend?

I´ve read aboun MacJanitor, ONYX and OSYX?

Which one should I use? Where can I find it? And most important HOW DO I USE IT?

I'm asking this because the other night while I was downloading something, my fu... dial up conection whent crazy, and my whole dock just freeze.. it whould do the magnification effect.. I had to restart the computer again it look kind of slow..

Sorry for all the questions that I know are sore of stupid ones but as I said, I died and was born again on Oct/30/05 when I bought my iBook!!! Which I love by the way!

 

[Lacero]

...I´m use to defrag, and scandisk and all that... What would be the equivalent for Mac?

Diskwarrior. However, I rarely if ever needed to use it.

You can leave your Mac on overnight so the cron scripts kick in automatically at around 4am-5am where it performs disk maintenance.

You can force this operation anytime by opening Terminal and typing in sudo periodic daily weekly monthly. Enter your password to begin the process.

Run Disk Utility to repair permissions whenever you are installing new apps and maybe monthly to keep everything in check.

 

[poolin1243]

ill second diskwarrior, or for that matter drive genius. also remember in safari to emty your cache every week or two i guess.

 

[Eniregnat]

I´ve read aboun MacJanitor, ONYX and OSYX?

Which one should I use? Where can I find it? And most important HOW DO I USE IT?

What Lacero posted is good, though I bet your not a command line kind of guy. The three programs you listed, MacJanitor, Onyx etc. are basicly just really advanced scripts that do the listed sudo commands. I would go with Onyx as it is still being updated. It is a good app/script and will keep you from the command line.

As for Diskwarrior, I have only needed it when a disk crashed. It's a good program- Techtools does it for me also.

I might make the suggestion, get some more ram. Aside from that, a good case and perhaps a spare battery, you should be good to go.

 

[mbopy22]

Thanks for the repplies people!!

Eniregnat you're right I'm not a command kind of guy... I'm a total analfabet in what matters to computers.. I hope I can change that with my Mac, that is because since PC's are so complicated and full of crap I never wanted to learn a lot of how they work and how make it work... But with Mac is a total different expirience.. this is just an adiction.. I can sit in fron of my computer for hours (by the way I live in front of a computer all day long at the office, but is a F$#%@%@ PC)

I have 2 good cases, and I'm planning on adding 1gb more of Ram before Christmas..

Lacero & Eniregnat could any of you give me more clues on how to do what you recommended?

Another question I read in other post that sometimes the Dock Freezes. Thas has happen to me while I was downloading something, and it exactly happen when I used my expose to see the whole desktop and then nothing will work anymore... I mean Itunes was still playing but the rest was frozen, including the dock that freezed and the magnification did not work...
Is this normal? is there any patch for it?