1.) Stress tests are not necessary. It's not like building your own PC where the numerous combinations can lead to unstable configurations. It's engineered to work out of the box. But there is a hardware test you can run. It comes with one of the disks that comes with the macbook pro. On newer hardware, it can be tested by
pressing a special keys on boot-up.
2.) Any external drive will work but you should stick to firewire. They perform better on Macs as there's less overhead than USB and it's pretty much guaranteed to be able to boot. Make sure the CCC partition is formated as a GUID partition. You'll see the option when formatting in Disk Utility.app.
3.) For most apps, all you need to do is drag the app to the trash. It may leave behind preference files and caches but it has no effect on the system. Remember, there's no such thing as a central registry like there is in Windows. Apps with special installers is another story.
What I use is
Hazel for apps that have no special installers. It has a feature to remove preferences and other support file whenever it notices the app is in the trash but it's main function is to build rules to organize your file system.
Another thing I do is to open up
fseventer for apps I don't completely trust to see what's being installed. It shows all file system events.
The other is to peek into the "/Library/Receipts" folder for apps already installed or the installer package itself. It only works for installers using Apple's installer. To peek inside the receipts packages you can use the quicklook plug-in.
Mothers Ruin Software: Suspicious Package
There are a few apps to remove apps based on what's inside the receipts automatically like
DesInstaller but I don't trust these apps enough to use them.
And of course, look inside any readme files. It usually has instructions on how to uninstall the app but in *most* cases, you don't have to worry about it. The only time I'd be concerned is if the app uses a haxie or the "menu extra enabler" as they inject code into all running apps which can potentially cause stability problems.
double post!! oops!
Linear Mode
