Macs generally just work. That’s not just a marketism, but something that every Mac user enjoys! When compared with some other operating systems (and as a Linux user as well as Mac I don’t just mean Windows!) OS X is a fairly robust system when it comes to keeping it running. However, like more or less anything to do with software it’s wise to set aside some regular time for maintenance.
We use and really like a very good utility called Onyx. It’s perfect for a quick once a month blast through all those usual disc check, permissions repair, cache clear type etc type tasks!
Of course you could always wait until you have problems before sorting them out. However, as well as for help in performing regular maintenance tasks, we’ve found that it is a great help in cleaning up a multitude of problems. So much that it’s the first tool we generally use when something goes wrong. For some of the more obscure issues we’ve come across in Support we’ve had a lot of successes fixing problems with OnyX by running the regular tasks. We like it a lot.
Onyx is a free utility you can download from:
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html
The most useful functions are;
a) In the “Maintenance” section, execute the “Permissions” option.
b) In the “Cleaning” section, execute cleaning of all the “Caches”.
I, and most of the rest of the MacVector team, generally run through these once a month or so on my our Macs. Be aware that upon startup it generally runs a disc check. You might as well go grab a coffee whilst these are being run, as even your favourite sequence analysis tool may struggle to perform!