Do You Have to Do Maintenance On MacBook?

I have always been a Window user, and I am used to run the utilities that come with window such as disk defragment and disk clean up. Since I have so much trouble with my HP laptop, my brother decided to give a MacBook Air since I do lots of writing.

I have the MacBook Air for a little over two months, and I feel weird not being able to clean out the disk or do the defragment! So I am wondering if it is necessary to do maintenance on Apple products, and is there a way to do it?

 

I've a friend who has a MacBook and as far as I know he doesn't do much to it in terms of maintenance. But maybe you should check this link out: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2014/08/11/5-macbook-maintenance-tasks-you-should-perform-regularly/

 

Wow, thank you for the link, and I've bookmarked it to go back to now and then. The only thing that worries me is CCleaner as I have heard it contained loads of bloatware. I used it on my HP laptop, and I believe over a period of more than a year, this also has caused my HP laptop to stop working properly as it is only two years old. I am not certain, but more like suspicious of CCleaner usage on it!

 

I used CCleaner in the past in older computers, and you are right, it does come with a ton of bloatware. I haven't uninstalled on the new laptop for the same reason. I think after a while CCleaner fills your PC with more junk than it actually cleans. That is why I just try to do most of the cleaning myself.

 

I am not going to installed CCleaner on my MacBook, because from the experience I have with my HP laptop, I don't want to kill my MacBook too.

It worked at first and I love it when it makes my laptop runs a bit faster, and now it does nothing and I can't even defragment my hard disk drive on my HP.

 

@IcyBC So... you really think it was CCleaner the one who killed your laptop? I'd not doubt it. Some software seem to do more bad than good Did you tried reinstalling Windows? And see if that improved things at least a little?

 

I believe it did! I was able to defragment my hard disk drive before CCleaner was installed and it took my hard drive to 0 defragment. Now, it sat at 6% even after I tried everything else. I haven't re-installed window yet and saving money to take it to people who know what they are doing. I will tear my hair out since I don't know much about computer.

 

Not really. I do the occasional virus check, but they always come up clean, and I'm careful about what I download anyway. The most 'maintenance' I ever have to do is relegated to deleting stuff off of my hard drive, as my laptop slows down considerably once its memory reaches, say, sixty percent capacity or more. Use common sense with downloads and don't load up on heavy files and your computer should take care of the rest on its own, most of the time.

 

I only download what is required or necessarily for the laptop to function! I don't download music, movie or game. With this new MacBook, I am even more careful, and paranoid about everything that asked me to download.

 

You'll probably be safe, then. Honestly, as long as you're judicious about what you download, you shouldn't have much trouble with a Mac.

The only time I've had a Mac out and out fail was because I let it overheat too much. The cooling fans on Macs aren't that amazing, especially if you start running programs that are graphically-intensive or otherwise eat up a lot of RAM, and you really need to let them breathe. I didn't, because I was stupid and used a pillow as a laptop desk, and eventually the connection between the hard drive and the laptop got fried. Pretty much borked the whole unit. So, yeah, let your poor system breathe every now and then and you should be fine.

 

Thank you for this warning! I have just noticed that my Mac gets hot, including the keyboard, when my Flash player is turned on because of some sites required it for my work. It is odd that this happened I thought. So for most time, I have to tick it off.

 

Yeah, it almost seems random which programs will set off your Mac's fan and cause the whole thing to overheat. Usually it's Chrome or graphic-intensive games that do it for me, but occasionally some little program I've got open will randomly turn the whole laptop into a rattly noisemaker as it tries to cool down.

You can try just shutting your laptop for a while and letting it cool down like that, as well, though there's no guarantee it won't start to heat up again once you start working.

 

I have spent two days reading on different sites about CCleaner, and the general advise is just to use it to clean your computer and don't temper with any other part of that software. It can mess your laptop up especially if you use their registry cleaner section. You don't need to do that.

As for my HP laptop, it is resting peacefully in the corner of my desk now but I need to resurrect it once I have enough money saved I have so many photos on that laptop that it will hurt my heart to loose them.

 

@IcyBC Do you know ''Spybot: search & destroy''? I think it's almost the same as CCleaner. Actually the older version of that software was so much nicer than the newest one, it prevented softwares from messing up with your registry entries by asking you if you wanted to allow it or not. I'd recommend you that one, but sadly the newest version doesn't do that. I hope you can save those photos, I don't know what I'd do if something bad happened to this laptop... all my life is in here!!

 

Get yourself an external portable hard drive and keep everything on that! I did this every month with my HP laptop until the last couple of months when a family member was in the emergency hospital. I didn't have time to transfer what I have in the laptop to the extra hard drive.

Here is another dilemma: I still have that external hard drive, and it is for window. Now I am using the MacBook, it is not compatible! Such is life

 

@IcyBC I still need to buy a portable hard drive I need to save some cash for that though, I've been planning to buy one for a while, but it seems there is always something more important. and at the end of the month after paying everything that must be paid I am left with a few dollars left, lol. What brand is your external HD? And so sorry to hear that

 

You and I both on the financial front! I am too saving money, if that is possible, to buy an extra hard drive to keep my stuffs from the Macbook on that. The best part of our dilemma is that we know how to priorities straight

 

I worked in a school for 12 years that was exclusively Mac. We has several generations of iMacs, MacBooks, and Macbook Pros. I can count on both hands the amount of times I needed to call for service on these computers. And thats 12 years of use by five to ten year old children! These computers are beasts. Unless there is a defect when you buy it, Apple computers will not fail you. Of course it is always good to do basic maintenance like backing ups and updates, but thats more to keep the system fresh and modern and so you have all your files if you choose to upgrade.

 

This is good to know and thank you! My sisters and their families are Apple users and they said that they had have no problem at all after many years now.