About Macs: More Troubleshooting & Performance Tips

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Macs Macs Basics Reviews Tips & Tricks From Tom Nelson, your Guide to Macs It's the first day of Autumn here in the Northern hemisphere, and the falling leaves are a gentle reminder that it's time to tackle some modest repairs and chores around the house and yard, before the onset of winter. And it's not just the house that needs a little work. Any season is a good time for Mac tuneups and repairs. So, this week we feature two simple performance tips and a troubleshooting tip to keep your hard drives in good shape. We also tell you how to fix your hard drives, when you forget to keep them in good shape. While you relax and read through this week's tips, I'm off to start raking the leaves. If only I had an iRake... Using Disk Utility to Repair Hard Drives and Disk Permission Disk Utility, one of the many applications included with OS X, allows you to work with your hard drives. You can use Disk Utility not only to erase, format, and partition a drive, but also to repair problems that may crop up from time to time. Disk Utility's First Aid feature provides two unique functions. One can help you repair a hard drive; the other lets you repair file and folder permissions... Read more How Can I Repair My Hard Drive If My Mac Won't Start? When a Mac fails to start up normally, one of the common troubleshooting practices is to verify and repair the startup drive. A startup drive that is experiencing problems is likely to prevent your Mac from starting, so you may find yourself in a catch 22. You need to run Disk Utility's First Aid tools, but you can't get to Disk Utility because your Mac won't start... Read more Mac Performance Tips: Avoid Animated Desktops This Mac performance tip is an easy one: Stay away from animated desktops, at least most of the time. Sure, animated desktops are fun; I even recommend a few for various holidays. But in general, if the desktop is moving around while you're trying to get real work done, it can be both distracting and a power drain... Read more Mac Performance Tips: Close Your Browser This tip is all about browsers that don't work quite the way they should. And as far as I can tell, that includes many of them. I tend to keep my browser open all day, because I'm constantly opening and closing web pages, doing research, keeping up with the news, checking the weather forecast, even playing an online game or two. Ideally, this isn't a problem. When I close a page or tab, the browser should release any memory it reserved. But this isn't an ideal world... Read more Macs Ads Troubleshooting Mac Hard Drive Recovery Mac OS X User Mac 10.4 Tiger Featured Articles How to Perform a Clean Install of Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 Before You Buy an External Hard Drive Mac OS X Startup Keyboard Shortcuts Review: 2010 Mac Pro Review: Magic Trackpad Troubleshooting Apple Mail and a Dimmed Send Button   More from About.com Is it a Cold or the Flu? Knowing whether you have a cold or the flu can help you treat your symptoms more effectively. More> Concerned About Your Drinking? This short quiz can help you identify whether or not you have a drinking problem. More> This newsletter is written by: Tom Nelson Macs Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Sign up for more free newsletters on your favorite topics You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Macs newsletter. If you wish to change your email address or unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2010 About.com   Mac News & Events Apple Security Update Fixes Vulnerable AFP Password Verification Adobe Announces Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9 for Mac Hands Off!: Tom's Budget Software Pick Advertisement