How to Regain Hard Drive Space on Apple Mac?

Working with an organized Mac drive is completely time saving and yields better results. Everybody wants to clean up Mac drive from unwanted junks and duplicate data rather buying a brand new external drive. Most people have 128GB or 256GB flash drives to store the memorable events such as photographs, music, videos and games. They start using the drive upto the maximum level after keeping 30GB free space on hard drive. If the left free space on drive is less than a limit then OS X may start to slow down and will scramble for accessing the large files.

If you are in the spree of cleaning Mac drive then firstly, figure out the causes, eating up the disk space unnecessarily. Although Mac provides Activity Monitor to demonstrate the graphical representation of hard drive but freeing up the disk space manually by searching and removing the applications and support files is not as easy as it seems like copy-paste.

If you are thinking like others that 'where's the space gone on my Mac' then here are the few tips to clean up Mac and free up hard drive storage spaces.

• Free up Hard Drive Space by Emptying Trash

The first and the best way is to clear the Trash area by right clicking on the Trash icon from the dock. Click on the Empty Trash option from the pop-up window to remove the files, existing over there.

Trash icon in dock

• Free up Hard Drive Space by emptying iPhoto Trash

Although iPhoto has its own trash to keep the deleted photos. Open iPhoto and click on Trash from the left sidebar. Empty Trash option will be highlighted in the top right side and to allow the removal of photos from iPhoto Trash. Click OK.

iPhoto Trash

• Free up Hard Drive Space by emptying iTunes Files

iTunes application manages a lot of music files independently. Try to remove old iOS iTunes update files and reclaim lost gigabytes Mac HDD space. Generally, people select the apps, which needs to be deleted and press Delete key from the keyboard. Don't forget to empty the trash by clicking 'Move to Trash' button prompted after clicking and pressing CTRL button together.

message prompted after deleting iTunes

• Secure Empty Trash

If you want to delete a locked file then it will deny from moving to Trash folder. At this stage, you can use Secure Empty Trash option by right clicking on Trash icon and holding Command key. If you delete any item from here then it will be removed without taking care of its use by Mac OS X. you can choose this option by Finder menu tab.

secure empty trash

• Delete Large Applications & Files

Hard drive space can be regained by deleting large files that are not in use. The best place from where you can start your search is from Movies folder. Simply drag any unwanted item into the Trash. Once you moved these items to the trash. Don't forget to empty the Trash. You can sort the items by Size to view the apps taking so much drive space. Though it is time consuming activity but very worthy to obtain the unnecessary occupied disk space.

• Clean up Downloads Section

We download tones of applications and music files from App store and we hardly use twice or thrice in a quarter. Remove the bunch of stuff downloaded from the online stores, no longer needed. Moreover, if you are a frequent file exchanger via Email then In the Finder, choose Go -> Go To Folder, and then paste or type ~/Library/Mail Downloads—select everything in the folder that appears, and then move the lot to the Trash.

By and large, after following all the above tips, removal of unused video versions, unused iOS backups and update files and Syncing with Dropbox also make a huge difference in getting the hard drive space. Give it a try and feel the difference.

Causes And Solutions to Accelerate & Speed up MacBook Pro

Our MacBook does some very important and creative things for us, but at times, when it gets slow down, it creates a frustrating situation in our minds. MacBook Pro is one of the high-speed computers from Apple, it is usually very fast, but it could be slow down because of several reasons. If you are also one of those users who are looking for a proper ways to speed up their MacBook pro, here are some issues with the solutions:

Disk Space: Disk size is the main factor for system slow, as it is responsible for all the data that is available on the computer. If the disk size is full or little less space is available then the system becomes automatically slow. To resolve this, always delete your unused files and keep some free space on the disk.

Random Access Memory: RAM is also a reason of slow MacBook. As the RAM stores the recent used files and folders in it, so increase the size of the RAM speedup MacBook pro.

Bad and Damaged Sectors of Hard Drive: This is also a major cause of bed performance of MacBook pro. You can repair your disk by accessing the 'Repair Disk Permissions' feature, available in Disk Utility in Utility folder. This process will decrease this issue.

Multi-Tasking: Running multiple processes in one time can be a cause of slow system. You should stop the unnecessary programs, so that CPU does not have to allot resources to multiple the programs.

Data Fragmentation: It is also a reason of system slow. When we save any file, CPU starts looking for an empty space to store it; and if the available space is very small, it save the file to multiple locations. Because of this, at the time of file search, CPU has to start looking for the file in to multiple locations and the system automatically gets show down. You can use software for Mac Drive Defrag to resolve such type of issue. These software excellently improve the speed of the system, and allow you to even schedule defrag hard drive at a regular interval of time. 

 

slow Mac speed

Reinstall Mac: If you have tried all above methods and still you are not able to increase the speed of your Mac, then format it and reinstall a fresh Mac OS in your MacBook pro. At times, some issues can only be resolved by formatting process. Format the volume of your Mac and install a new OS; it will automatically improve the speed of your system.

Remove Number of Logins: Having more number of logins can also be a reason of slow speed of MacBook Pro. Login items are a type of programs that automatically run at the time of login. To remove these items you can obtain Access option and stop login items from account menu on system preferences.

All the above methods are usually enough to improve the speed of MacBook Pro. However, some users may not be able to perform all of the actions or they do not have much time to apply multiple methods to check the reason of slow MacBook Pro. To resolve such situation there are many software available that can perform above actions automatically by just an installation process. Users just have to install these software and they will get a proper solution for their MacBook. It is very hectic to identify cause of the issues and perform actions accordingly. For those users who always looking for a single solution to speedup their MacBook Pro, these software must be the first choice. These Mac speedup software automatically delete all unwanted files, junks files, duplicate file, etc. by just an installation process.

Uninstalling Mac Applications : The Basics

Mac applications come as a package and can be easily removed by just dragging to trash. Many users think that the entire associated files are deleted and need not to care about anything but that is not the case. Application create preference files which are stored in /Home/Library/Preferences/. Although, these files do not interrupt other applications but they do occupy some space in disk and the volume goes increasing with time.

Do you know how to go to library folder in Mac?

Click Go > Go to Folder type ~Library

Sometimes applications may have uninstaller too, which removes the application. In some cases the uninstaller can be invoked by customizing during the installation process.

Some applications may store these files in /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder. You can see there if the application has created a folder. These can be deleted manually from Applications Support folder. Again, they are nothing but space occupiers once the application is trashed.

Some applications may install a Startupitems or a Log In item. These are usually installed in the /Library/StartupItems/. You can delete these items from the list by following the path Accounts icon -> LogIn Items tab. Select the item from the list, you want to remove and click the "-" (minus) button.

Do you know what are daemons?

I am not describing daemons here but mentioning the way to delete them. Follow  /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Library/LaunchDaemons/.

If you want to see it the application has installed any other files then the best way is to search with finder. You can search for application name or developer name. Unfortunately, the Spotlight doesn’t search into certain folders. In such cases you need to go for some third party applications like Stellar SpeedUp Mac.

Some applications install items to determine if it is already installed. This is called a receipt which is stored in the /Library/Receipts/ folder. We must delete these items to which usually are stored with ".pkg" extension.

There are many utilities that can uninstall applications. Here is a selection:

·       Stellar SpeedUp Mac

·       AppZapper

·       Automaton

·       Hazel

·       CleanApp

·       Yank

·       SuperPop

·       Uninstaller

·       Spring Cleaning

Defrag Macbook with Stellar Defragmenting software

Like many other Macbook users I used to think that my Mac can never get slower and can never be infected by virus attack. But, my idea didn’t remain so.  My Mac started slowing down after 3 years and it was becoming pathetic to work with it.

I searched online to fix the issue but, didn’t get any workable answer. My cousin, who is a Sr. developer at Microsoft, shared his knowledge with me and suggested to find some defragmenting software for Macbook.

As everyone knows there is neither such built-in application for the task nor is suggested by Apple. According to Apple, Mac HFS+ file system is smart enough to handle file fragmentation.

But, still I wanted to give a try and continued my search for some third party tool. I got Stellar Drive Defrag in its latest version ie; 3. It shows option to defrag either a volume or a single large file.  On selecting my bootvolume, it shows fragmented files, which was very shocking. 

Stellar Drive Defrag

I did nothing but defrag my volume and restart the machine. This time I can see my Macbook working like it used to, a couple of years ago.

Pros: Very clear and precise interface to perform with effective results.

Cons: Takes little longer at large volumes

Recommendation: Can be recommended to Mac users who have tried every possible solution to to fix their slow Mac.

How to check and remove garbage in my Mac

When our Mac starts slowing down, we start thinking about upgrading RAM, OS X defragmenting etc.. But, there are some smart Mac users who know the actual cause of this fall in speed. Here, we are discussing the same.

Before we jump into the technical frames of the issue, imagine a home with 3 rooms and 6 members living for last 5 months, where all the doors and windows are shut. All the necessary items like food, vegetables, clothes, newspapers, magazines etc. can be taken in but no waste is allowed to throw out. How will you define the picture? – “Messy and Unbearable”.

The same scene can be painted for ours too. It happens when we keep installing applications, storing same photos, movies and videos in different volumes (in the name of creating backups) and never care about those cache and binary files, stored in every corner of Mac disk. These unnecessary files eat too much space and thus resources to bring the performance down.

So, it goes quite obvious that like our homes, our machine also needs cleaning. We must monitor the applications, cache files, duplicates being stored in our Mac. Here is the list of files which Make Mac messy.

1.     Useless applications
2.     Universal Binary files
3.     Cache
4.     Language files
5.     Duplicate data
6.     Log files
7.     System Junks
8.     Useless large files

How to remove this garbage from Mac drive? 

Although the task can be done manually but, up to some extent only. Smart users do this Mac cleaning task with Stellar Speedup Mac. This tool is the perfect choice for removing all types of unnecessary files in just few clicks. It scans your disk thoroughly and lists the files to be deleted. You can have a look of them before removing them permanently.

Here are some screenshots of Stellar Speedup Mac v3.0 showing different features of the best Mac cleaning application.

So, if you are struggling with slow and sluggish Mac then this is the perfect time to install the trial version of this tool and check for amount of space that can be cleaned, gaining speed of your machine.

How to improve Mac startup | Minimize Mac startup Time

My Mac has very slow startup and shut down which irritates me a lot. Everyday in the office I struggle with my slow Mac and get scolded for late project delivery.

Do you share the same feeling? Is your Mac also suffering from sluggishness?  Here we are disclosing some very helpful and practical solutions for this problem.

1. Replace HDD with faster SSD
An SSD (Solid State Drive) can bring a perfect improvement to your Mac speed since it avails Mac to read more data (files) than a simple HDD (Hard Disk Drive).  The random access time in SSD is about 0.1 ms as compared to 5 to 10 ms for HDD.  It simply means faster loading of files and faster booting. Those who have recently bought their Macbook need not to worry because it already comes with SSD.

Please note that SSD is not a cheap solution and costs more than HDD. Although upgrading hard drive is not easy in Mac but it increases speed to a very noticeable rate.
 
2. Another method to add speed to Mac startup, is to remove all unnecessary fonts installed on Mac.
Application -> Font Book Right-click and select Remove <font> or Remove <font> Family
The method demands attention otherwise there may be a loss of essential system fonts.
 
3. Remove login items which you don’t need
One of the simplest ways to get your desktop more quickly is to remove processes, which get launched automatically at startup.  Actually this practice will make your desktop appear more quickly once you’ve logged in as normal.
•    Go to System Preferences and select Users & Groups
•    Select user name in the left hand window pane and the Login Items button on the right hand side
•    Remove the items which you don’t need, from the list and prevent them from running

4. Disconnect the peripherals
Its good to disconnect the peripherals when you they are not in use. It’s necessary because checking updates and other processes can delay the startup of your Mac.  Disconnecting these unused devices becomes more important when they are not working properly.

Problem not solved?
If you are not satisfied with these solutions and still facing the same irritating situation then you need some specified software for this task.

Stellar SpeedUp Mac is the perfect match for this task. It cleans your Mac drive and creates free space to be used by OS and thus improves its performance.

Which items does Speedup Mac remove?
With the passage of time there accumulates plenty of unnecessary items, which kill free space and bring down the overall speed of machine. Stellar Speedup Mac scans the Mac disk for these unnecessary items and removes them permanently from the disk. Here is the list of file types, which can be cleaned with tool.

•    Cache files
•    Log files
•    System Junk
•    Trashes & Leftovers
•    Manage extensions
•    Universal Binaries
•    Language files
•    Duplicate files
•    Large files

No other option is as successful as Speedup Mac to give rocket speed to your Mac. Many users have tried it and found their Mac running as they were on day 1. We recommend you to try the application before you buy it. Visit: http://www.stellarspeedupmac.com

How Auto-Defragmentation Occurs on Mac OS X based Computers

As far as fragmentation is concerned, Windows users have an upper hand because of the inbuilt ‘Disk Defragmentation’ tool that is used to improve the performance of computers when they come across an unusual state of gradual performance downfall. On the other hand, Mac machine lacks such a tool in Disk Utility (i.e. the Mac inbuilt disk management toolbox, found at Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility).
 
Disk Utility is helpful in some cases like fixing corruption in a volume and/or its permissions, drive partitioning tasks, and more. However, when it comes to carry out defragmentation on Mac, Disk Utility is helpless. Mac users believe that the ‘so-called’ excellent Mac machine they are using does not come across any such issue, which also is a statement of Apple Inc. Well, hard drives do undergo fragmentation, no matter which computer they are installed on. Even Mac machine experiences performance downfall issues due to fragmentation.
Auto Defragmentation of Mac
 
According to Apple’s statement, Mac machines do not experience fragmentation since they are smart enough to deal with it automatically. The statement indirectly points to the HFS+ file system that is used to format the hard drive installed on the Mac machines. In fact, the HFS+ file system scans each file being opened for fragments, and then defrags it automatically, if necessary. However, the criteria is applicable only to the files below 20MB of size. Therefore, the users himself has to defragment Mac files above 20MB of size, which obviously requires a commercial defragmentation tool.
 
How Fragmentation Occurs
The term ‘fragmentation’ is associated with the algorithm that a computer operating system implements to save data on the hard drive. On Macintosh based computers, the HFS+ file system is assigned the task to allocate a block to each file saved by the user, where the term ‘block’ refers to a small region of the space on the hard drive, which is intended to store a file individually as well as efficiently. However, a number of blocks contain free spaces due to implementation of an inefficient block allocation algorithm.
 
The free or leftover space in a block on the hard drive is termed the ‘fragment’.
On the other hand, when a large file is saved, Mac file system breaks it into a number of segments, and then these segments are stored individually in multiple blocks on the hard drive. The blocks occupied by the segments of a file are linked to each other logically. However, the inefficient block allocation algorithm fails to store these segments contiguously. Consequently, the file segments are stored in multiple blocks non-continuously.
 
Imagine a large file is stored on the Mac. Undoubtedly, since the size of this file is larger than that of the storage blocks available, the HFS+ file system will break the file into segments of smaller sizes. Consequently, some of the filled blocks contain free space because of their smaller size, while many ones are filled efficiently. The state of the hard drive caused when free spaces are present inside the filled regions of the hard drive is termed as internal fragmentation.
 
As mentioned above, the HFS+ file system is responsible for blocks allocation on the hard drive on Mac machines. Macs often come undergo inefficient utilization of the blocks when a poor storage allocation algorithm is implemented. Consequently, the segments of a file are stored non-contiguously. In such a state, the unfilled blocks are available outside the allocated region though. However, they fail to store files because of their smaller size. Such a state of the hard drive is termed as external fragmentation.
 
Since the HFS+ file system cannot store large files in the available blocks, it breaks all such files into segments, and then stores them. In this state, the segments of the files are scattered; and it is thus, termed as data fragmentation.
 
Defragmenting Mac Drive
“Defragmentation refers to a mechanism to rearrange the blocks of the hard drives in a logical order in order to reduce the response time of data, thereby dealing with the fragments appropriately.”
 
Disk Utility in Mac OS X is able to fix disk related problems; however, it lacks defragmentation tool. In order to be able to deal with fragmentation, you must have a commercial defragmentation tool. However, the developer – Apple denies for any such requirement for Mac systems, as the HFS+ file system itself is able to deal with fragmentation in an efficient manner. For this, it scans each file thoroughly for fragments when it is opened. In case a file is found as highly fragmented, it defrags that file automatically. However, the files it scan and defrags automatically not more than 20MB of size, which means the users need to defragment Mac file that are above 20MB of size.
 
Mac OS X does not allocate recently emptied blocks to save new files. In fact, it shifts all such blocks backwards in order for henceforth allocation. This minimizes the odds for fragmentation to occur. Also, it adds all frequently accessed files to hot file zone, which makes all these files available again at a much faster rate.
 
As discussed earlier, the HFS+ file system on Macs defrags the files automatically when they are opened. However, it does not mean that all files meet the required criteria with no failure. In fact, the size of the fragmented file can be up to 20MB of size in order to be defragmented automatically by the HFS+ file system. In other words, Macs OS X is not able to defrag large files (such as movies, Mac applications, and HD videos), and therefore requires professional defragmentation tool.
 
You can download a defragmentation app from the Internet, as this not only enhances the performance of your Mac system considerably, but optimizes the free space as well. However, make sure the application you use is reliable and you have proper information about how it is used to defrag the Mac drive. If you do not, then you must go through the software user manual. Or else, consult the experts for required help of any kind.

Simple ways To Clean up OS X Mavericks

OS X Mavericks is too smart to keep itself clean and speedy. But, there comes a stage when it needs to be maintained manually. There are many manual tips, which can bring speed to your slow Mavericks.
Here, I am with 5 most powerful tips to speed up Mavericks. But, if you are in great need of cleaning your Mac drive in just few clicks then jump directly to point 6.

1. Verify and Repair Permissions

Do you know what permissions are? Actually, it’s a set of information, associated with each file on your Mac, which tells the operating system what users and applications can access that file. If permissions face any problem or mismatching then it may cause issues with loading applications, email and even logging in.
You can verify permissions via Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility > Verify Disk Permissions.
If you find issues with permissions in Mavericks then click Repair Disk Permissions.

2. Verify and Repair Disk

After permissions, it’s the time to see if there is any problem with your disk. You can both verify and repair Mac disk with disk utility. Before you run the utility on startup disk, you need to boot your machine externally. We use this process when the disk goes unresponsive to experience some major issues.

3. Use Maintenance Scripts

How about running some scripts to maintain your Mac? You must know that your Mac is a UNIX-based system and there run some scripts s to clean up logs and temporary files, usually between 3:15 AM and 5:30 AM. Your Mac misses the chance if it is in sleep mode during this time. In such cases you need to run the scripts manually via terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal).
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

4. Keep your Desktop Clean

Sometimes a cluttered desktop may be a reason of a slow Mac OS X. A desktop full of icons makes folder system slower. Cleaning desktop brings a noticeable improvement in its speed sometimes, equivalent to the sum of all other maintenance tasks.

5. Manage Mac Login Items

What are login items in my Mac? Have you ever asked this question to yourself? Basically, these are the programs that get loaded automatically when you startup your Mac. It’s recommended to have a short list of login items, which can be cut down at System Preferences > Users & Groups.

6. What to do if manual tips are worthless?

If the Mac maintenance manual tips, mentioned above, are not working then you must go with some Mac cleanup tool. There is no built-in application to scan and trash useless items from your Mac. So, a move to third party tool like Stellar SpeedUp Mac, will be an intelligent decision.

What Stellar SpeedUp Mac does?

This Mac cleaning application scans your hard drive / specific volume for all the useless data like duplicate files, cache, leftovers, language files and universal binaries and removes them permanently. It creates free space in your Mac disk to avail memory resources to OS.

Wish you a very speedy Mac OS X  ……..