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I am pretty noobish when it comes to the capabilities of apple computers, so I have a few questions...I hope you guys can help! I tried posting this in the appropriate mac forums, but they are truly disappointing. No one gives more unbiased and knowledgable advice than head-fiers!
Anyway, just a few questions:
1. I got my macbook pro used but in minty condition. I want to run some stress tests on it to make sure everything is working as beautifully as the outside reflects. Are there are any stress tests your reccommend? I don't have the protection plan yet so no tech tools for me. What do you guys suggest?
2. Do you guys have reccomendations for external harddrives? I don't plan on running time machine, but want to partition it to have one for carbon copy cloner, and the other partition for music and media. The drive won't just be a back up but will be actively accessed regularly/daily for these files (because my hdd is a small 120gb for my data). I want something in the 500gb-750gb area, and something pretty to round out my desktop.
3. How the heck do I uninstall programs permanently?!
Thanks guys. I know you will come through for this confused noob!
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. Apps with special installers is another story. What I use is Hazel. 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.
One 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 and see what the installed app did. 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.
This had put me in somewhat of a more defined direction instead of being completely lost. Faster response time than other mac forums. Wouldn't expect less.
Juniperlater: I am interested in iomega FW800 of somesort because of the aesthetics, but I am wary of the fail rate. Of course no harddrive manufacturer is immune to failure, but I hope to find a hdd that is reliable even being accessed often. And when I did a google of xbench, I saw the site and it looked ideal to me, but further research reported strange numbers for users in comparison with their benchmark values. I will read some more about that.
dvessel, or anyone..does the original install disk contain the hardware test? or is that just a tiger install? (my mbp came with tiger and a leopard drop in).
Thanks for the tidbit about CCC. I need to keep an eye out for that when I get my new drive. Time to do more researching!
There is some weirdness when people report the numbers b/c users can kill all processes other than xbench and get higher scores.
As for the iOmega, I haven't read all the reviews - you may have something. I personally have a SIIG enclosure + a Western Digital hard drive. It is beautiful and very nice in the performance dept.
AppZapper is not necessary, but often finds files you would miss if you weren't using it to uninstall. Use the trial and see what you think. It is a very pretty piece of mac software. I got it in a software bundle for what amounted to $5.
2. I am very pleased with LaCie discs. I bought a 500GB one about 5 years back, and it have been a pleasure so far. Still run great.
FireWire 800 is a big bonus, since its about twice as fast as USB 2.0 and FireWire 400.
3. Drag and drop to the *.app to the Trash. Deleted the corresponding .plist file (usually located in ~/Library/Preferences/) to remove its preferences as well.
I'm not sure which disk it's in. It will not be in a retail disk. It's either the original installer or a second disk. I forget but it'll be labeled as a "hardware test" disk or something else obvious.
The GUID partition table I mentioned is for Intel based Macs as I'm sure that's what you have. PowerPC is different.
And one more thing, if you get a eSATA adapter, that **** moves even faster than FW800. Here are some benchmarks on an external stripped RAID. ExpressCard/34 SATA host adapter for MacBook Pro I'd be so on that if I needed the speed.
And congratulations on the Mac.
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My current external harddrive is a 750GB samsung F1 in an external enclosure made by vantec that is esata and usb 2.0
Since you have MBP definitely look for FW800 and if you can spend the extra money and need more insane speed go for a esata card that fits in your expresscard slot.
Its a horse a piece for premade or enclosure+hdd, some enclosures have little quirks, and likewise some premades die often.
The seegate freeagent series is quite nice, im not sure if there is firewire 800 though.
Also, looking at FW800 drives on newegg lots of them are quite expensive for their size and there arent a whole lot of them.
A semi decent eSata card would cost about 30 bucks so you may be able to save on an enclosure with usb fw400 and esata and use esata for speed when you need it and can have the card and FW400 other times.
On the external hard-drive My Book Studio by Western Digital is nice
and a lot quieter than my 320 Lacie and cheaper per gig. They also make
a passport that is nice for portable use which will be my next purchase.
A semi decent eSata card would cost about 30 bucks so you may be able to save on an enclosure with usb fw400 and esata and use esata for speed when you need it and can have the card and FW400 other times.
Any of the cards that are only one port wide (or two ports stacked on top of eachother like = not like --) should work fine in your macbook pro.
All I can say is ... wow.
the e-sata business is totally new to me, so my mind is blown haha.
Would you reccomend this type of set up for me who wants to use an external drive for all media? I guess the speed of the e-sata is what is going to make the set up run more smoothly.
New to mac: A few questions!
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