The most important factor in maintaining any computer and keeping it running efficiently is proper maintenance. Fortunately, MAC computers are very easy to maintain and keep organized since everything is stored under acentral user library.
Here are three easy tips to get optimal performance from your MAC.
1. Check your hard drive and make sure there is no damaged or corrupted data. The easiest way of doing this is by using the built-in Disk Utility tool, which is located in the Disk Utility folder. You can access it in one of the following two ways:
- Option 1: Open Finder from your dock at the bottom of the screen, open the Applications folder, open the Utilities folder, and Disk Utility will be one of the many options provided.
- Option 2: From the Go menu at the top of the screen, select Utilities from the drop down menu. Once Disk Utility has been opened, you can select the Macintosh HD icon on the left pane (Macintosh HD is the default name of the hard drive unless it is changed to a custom name).
After selecting your hard drive, click on the Verify Diskoption on the right pane, which should be 1 of the 3 available buttons to select. This process should only take a few minutes and will scan your hard drive for any detected data that is damaged or corrupted.
Once the scan is done, a message will state that Macintosh HD (or your custom hard drive name) appears to be ok (in green), or that it needs to be repaired (in red). If you get a green message, it means that no corrupted data has been detected. A red message means that the disk needs to be repaired using the installation disk or by booting to recovery mode depending on the version of MAC OS that you are running. Do yourself a favor, call the Tech Helpline if this happens.
2. Take care of the product: Keep your computer in an environment that is neither too hot nor too cold, as it may result in multiple performance issues. Also, keep your computer in areas that do not have a large amount of humidity, as it could result in minor or critical water damage.
3. Do a Parameter Reset (PRAM): This resets your memory every few months or so. To do this, shut down your computer and then restart it holding down the following keys on your MAC keyboard: “Command, Option, P, R”. Once you hear 2 startup chimes, you may release all 4 keys then let your computer startup regularly. Don’t be afraid to do this. It won’t affect your files.
MAC computers are known to have a very low percentage of computers that get viruses due to most viruses being designed for Windows platforms, so using the built-in MAC firewall is more than enough to keep your computer protected.
Contributions to this article were made by Richard Gordon, Tech Helpline Technical Analyst.
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