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Our lives get busy and cluttered, filling up with tasks, meetings, work and well, life. So do our computers, filling up with documents, emails, movies, pictures and life.
All of this information gets stored on your computer’s hard drive and like in our own lives, if they don’t get a break, checkup and clean out every now and again they have a greater chance of breaking down.
So what steps can you take to improve your hard drive’s health and to make sure it’s not having a hard life?
Is your desktop a mess? Are there documents living on the first level of your hard drive?
Maybe you’re the kind of person who continually searches for that matching missing sock. If you are, your hard drive shouldn’t share your fate.
Minimise the clutter on your desktop by filing away your documents, music and movies into the folders in your user directory. In addition to being nice and tidy, these folders are also, by default, locked away from other local or network users. You should also cleanup the first level on your hard drive. Typically there should be about four items there, System, Library, Applications and Users.
Can you remember what is still tucked away in your downloads folder? Do you happen to have multiple copies of .dmg, .pkg or other installers laying around? Once you’ve installed that piece of software or dragged the contents of that .dmg file to the application folder, there is often very little need to hold onto these delivery systems.This is also a good time to clear out any old, old, old movies, documents or files you no longer use.
If you have an archive hard drive with it’s own backup, or another archive system in place, then now is the time to utilise it.
A good rule of thumb is to keep at least 10% – 20% of your total drive capacity empty for caching and other system processes.
Like your regular doctor visits (just to make sure all your limbs are still attached), your hard drive needs regular checks too. Without them, the life of your hard drive may not be as long and prosperous as you once hoped.
Check for i/o errors in Console (Found in Applications -> Utilities)
Console keeps track of all your computers log files. Select “All Messages” in the Log List on the left hand side.
In the search field in the top right corner of the window enter “i/o” (without quotation marks). If the main window appears empty your hard drive is in the clear.
If not, it would be a good idea to make a backup of your machine, and get someone to have a look at it.
Disk Utility (Found in Applications -> Utilities)
The next tool in the utility folder to look at is Disk Utility. Open it up, select your hard drive from the left hand side (Probably labeled “Macintosh HD).
Select ‘First Aid’ then click the “Verify Disk” button.
Disk Utility will check the drive and will notify you of any errors.
If any errors are flagged with either of these tests, it’s a good idea to get a technician to have a look. They will be able to ensure that your data is backed up properly before moving to repair options.
As always, ensure you have a good, solid backup method in place. Recovering data from a backup is always preferable than attempting a recovery from a failing or failed drive. It’s a good move to verify your backup drive in Disk Utility every now and again too.
Haven’t got a backup? It’s recommended you start a backup routine asap.
A functional backup system will help in not only a disk failure but can help in case of theft, fire, accidents and sometimes even deletion of files.
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Back up your machine today.
If it’s all too much and you don’t know where to start, don’t worry. Mac Aid are more than happy to help you out. All you need to do is get in touch with one of our friendly staff.
Note: Did you know Mac Aid can offer you a monitoring solution that will track Hard Drive capacity? It notifies us of most major hard drive errors, as well as reporting on RAM, Malware, Network errors and will even keep track of your Time Machine Backups.
This will allow Mac Aid to fix and/or advise on most issues before they present as major problems.
Want to know more? Get in contact with one of our Technicians today.
In the last few weeks, Apple has been striving to release some exciting new products and upgrades.
For those of you who may have not heard, here are some quick recaps on Apple’s exciting releases.
Apple announced that the Apple Watch will be available in Australia April 24.
According to Tim Cook (Apple’s CEO), “Apple Watch begins a new chapter in the way we relate to technology and we think our customers are going to love it,”
The Apple Watch is not only a watch to wear on the wrist, but can also interact with the world via third -party designed apps specifically designed for those on the go.
For example, you can add a physical dimension to alerts and notifications. Gentle taps can be felt on your wrist when receiving incoming messages. You can also connect with friends and family with the Apple Watch. Examples are sending a tap, sketch or even heartbeat. Those options let your loved ones know you’re thinking about them. At any time of the day.
With integrated health monitoring, you can also see your daily progress towards fitness goals, as well providing customised reminders to help you achieve said goals.
The Apple watch comes in 3 models (Watch, Watch Sport, and Watch Edition) and will be available in 2 sized faces (42-mm or 38-mm).
Prices vary from $499 (Watch Sport) – $17,000 (Watch Edition).
Apple also revealed it’s new model MacBook. Long gone is the little white plastic unibody MacBook. These new thinner and lighter models are available in gold, silver, and space grey aluminium finishes.
The new MacBook has a 12-inch Retina display, the new Force Touch trackpad, USB-C port (for file transfer, video out and charging) and a newly designed battery.
This model machine is now the thinnest and lightest Mac ever.
Equipped with a full size keyboard, this machine would be ideal for uni students or photographers who travel around and require something for presentations.
The Apple MacBook is currently unavailable for ordering, though should be released shortly.
Models vary from $1,799 to $2,199.
Along with the exciting news of new releases, Apple has also updated already existing machines.
Apple updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, giving it the all new Force Touch trackpad, bumped up Intel Core processors and Intel Iris Graphics 6100. The flash is now faster, and the battery life will now last just that little bit longer.
The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs also got an upgrade.
Intel Core processors, Intel HD graphics cards and Thunderbolt 2 have been added to these models.
Faster flash has also been added to the 13-inch MacBook Air.
These updates make these already awesome machines, even better for everyday use.
Apple have released updates to their range of iPads, Mac Minis, and added a new top of the line iMac 27″ to the fleet.
iPad Air 2;
Apple’s flagship tablet is now thinner, sporting a faster CPU, graphical performance and WiFi all while maintaining the 10 hours of battery life of the previous model. The camera has been updated considerably and the display has a new anti-refelective coating for reduced glare. Finally, the new version has Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint sensor found on the iPhone 5s and above.
iPad Mini 3;
Apple’s mini tablet received a much more modest update with quite simply the addition of the Touch ID.
It pays to note that the iPad Mini 2 with Retina and even the iPad Mini (first version) are still available, and now, at lower pricing than before.
Both new versions of the iPad are available in the gold colour like the iPhone.
Apple have finally updated the humble Mac Mini with faster CPU’s, fast WiFi and better graphics. They also have received a slight price drop making for a very reasonable $619 entry price.
The pick of the bunch has to be the 2.6Ghz version which benefits from a better CPU, likewise a much stronger graphics option and additional storage for $869 inc GST.
Another note, you can no longer upgrade the RAM in Mac Mini’s anymore.
Like the 21.5″ iMac and Macbook Pro Retina and Air machines, the RAM is soldered, inhibiting a later upgrade.
Be sure to think about the intended life of the machine and spec the RAM suitably.
If you feel unsure, feel free to get in touch – we’re more than happy to advise and supply a suitable machine.
Apple have release a 27″ iMac with a Retina 5K display – an IPS technology display with 5120-by-2880 resolution. Other changes include Thunderbolt 2 ports, an updated AMD Radeon R9 graphics options, and a 3.5Ghz quad-core i5 processor with the option for a 4.0Ghz i7.
This beast of a machine is starting from a very reasonable $2999 inc GST and is available now.
Apple’s new version of OS X dubbed Yosemite is available now!
For those who are excited and ready to install the new operating system, a word of caution.
Install carefully.
Before you proceed, make sure you have a recent full backup of your machine. Not only is it handy to have your files, but it’s a load off your mind if the install goes wrong.
Also during the install process, make sure you read the options carefully.
During the install, there is the option to enable Apple’s ‘File Vault’. This locks your files away and makes it extremely difficult for people to access them if your install does happen to go awry.
Our suggestion is to leave ‘File Vault’ alone during the installation of Yosemite. If for some reason you require it enabled, do so after the installation is complete.
The below image is what File Vault looks like.
iOS 8.1 is available
iOS8.1 tidies up a lot of the features that Yosemite boasts and of course, is the first full point release of iOS 8 since it’s release only a short while ago.
LaCie have made a few exciting announcements this month with the addition of Thunderbolt 2 drives, great for those with a current Mac Pro, and larger capacity drives across the range.
LaCie’s 2BIG, 5BIG, and Little Big Disk all sport Thunderbolt 2 connectivity now – this may seem a little ahead of the times as there’s only one Mac available with Thunderbolt 2 presently, the Mac Pro. However these drives are backwards compatible, making them a good buy for any forward thinkers who may make use of the connectivity in the future.
LaCie Fuel wireless drive; the 1TB Mobile drive (2TB model coming in May) with up to 10 hours of battery life, can also be connected and used as a USB3 drive. Multiple iOS devices can use the Fuel wireless drive for media such as streaming movies and music as well as standard storage.
Additionally LaCie are now offering larger capacity drives, including a stunning 5TB single disks, in the following ranges;
– Mobile: 2TB Porsche Design P’9223 & P’9220 Mobile USB3.0, Rugged Triple, Rugged Thunderbolt + USB3.0 and Rugged Mini.
– Desktop: 5TB single Disk – d2 Quadra, d2 Thunderbolt + USB3.0, 2Big & 5Big Thunderbolt
For any questions or pricing requests, get in touch today..
On April 3rd, Apple celebrated the iPads 4th birthday.
Since its introduction in April 2010, Apple has gone on to sell nearly 200 million iPads in five generations. A lot of work for a span of 4 years.
And clearly, they sold for a reason. Not only are they more portable than a laptop, but they are ridiculously easy to use, and you can do just as much with an iPad as you can with a computer.
Congratulations to Apple for their success with the tablets, and we can’t wait to see what they do with them next.
And speaking of iPads, as of mid March 2014, the 9.7 inch iPad with Retina display has replaced the iPad 2 as the most affordable iPad on the market. The fourth-gen iPad features the amazing Retina display, the A6X chip, speedy Wi-Fi, HD camera and more, all while delivering 10 hours of battery life. iPad with Retina display comes with the new iOS 7 software, which is bursting with extras and improvements such as Control Centre, Notification Centre, Multitasking, and AirDrop just to name a few.
iPad with Retina display are available for purchase in either white or black, and start at the retail price of $449 for a 16GB Wi-Fi only model.
iPad with Retina display can also be purchased in 32GB, 64GB, & 128GB models.
Password Security
There’s never been such a good time to talk about Password security as there is now, even more so after the news this last month of the major security flaw that had been exposed in OpenSSL by the name of Heartbleed.
Heartbleed, very briefly:
Heartbleed was an exploit in OpenSSL (makes data secure of the net – you’ll see HTTPS or the little lock in the address bar) that means anyone that knew of the exploit, may have been able to grab bits of information including user names, passwords, credit card info etc..
Software websites and services have moved very quickly to patch this exploit and have implored their users to change their passwords for affected services AND any other service that may have used that same password.
The internet went crazy with advice and opinions many of which, at the time, may have been incorrect. It didn’t affect the entire web. There’s no point changing a password unless the website or service is patched and most likely you haven’t been targeted.
In any case, for precautionary reasons, users of the affected services are definitely best to change their passwords, in all affected places, as above. Now’s a good time to use a good password.
Oh btw, affected services included, but weren’t limited to:
Facebook, IFTTT, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google/Gmail, Yahoo, Amazon, Dropbox, Soundcloud, GoDaddy, Etsy, Minecraft.
What is a good password?
Tell you what is not a good password.. password. This is obvious. Also not good? your date of birth.
A good password is typically featuring mixed characters, numbers and symbols, and is 8 characters and longer. It’s also unique to the service or website.
For example, this is a good password: k*zTYjhI$440
Not easy to remember though right?
Most likely you’re familiar with websites increasing their password settings over time; Apple is a good example here. Often these requirements for change alone force us to make something that is suitably secure, and potentially unique at that point.
Good Password policy:
Many of us are prone to using one password across many websites and services – it’s simply easier that way, but secure? No.
If one of these services were to be compromised, just as many have due to the Heartbleed exploit, then the rest are too.
Therefore the suggestion here is to diversify. The more passwords you have, the more difficult it is to be affected, or rather for an attacker to use of set of credentials.
An ideal scenario would be a suitably secure password unique to each website or service however it’s easy to imagine how this would become unmanageable quickly. Read on..
Password Manager
Something to consider here may be the use of a password manager. Indeed this Heartbleed dilemma may well motivate you to get one more than ever – it has done so with some of our staff.
A password manger helps to keep track of all those complex passwords you should have or are about to change, and can even make the process of changing them easier. They serve as a password repository with very secure encryption and typically local-only decryption. This means only you can access the data on your machine with your password.
The one key thing though – that machine, and your password needs to be secure. That’s to say that you need passwords on your machine, in fact all devices (but you were doing that right?) and the one password for 1Password, Lastpass etc, is a secure password, again, that is unique to this service. The sell here is that this is last password (or one password) you need to remember. Get it?
There are a few option out there, but we’ve narrowed it down to three you may want to consider: 1Password, Lastpass and iCloud Keychain.
We will try to keep it short here also, so if there’s any more questions, we’re happy to field them, but you may want to check out the vendors website.
1Password
1Password is a great and very popular example of a Password Manager done right. It has droves of features all neatly presented in a tidy application for Mac OSX and even iOS. For the price of the application you get local password encryption and browser integration. Likewise for the price of the iOS App you get syncing across devices providing access everywhere.
1Password is a pay per App per version model which doesn’t require an annual subscription. Some may like the pay once model and only time will tell if it works out being more dear than those below, but 1Password certainly is the cream of the crop here in terms of password managers.
More: https://agilebits.com/onepassword/mac
LastPass
LastPass has most of 1Passwords features but is bundled differently; there’s no specific app but there is the browser integration that makes the service so easy to use and responsive. It’s a also free for it’s basic features which for many cover your needs, but if you’re after iOS compatibility, then you’re after their premium service which is $12 a year.
More info: https://lastpass.com
iCloud Keychain
iCloud Keychain means to provide the same kind of solution as 1Password and Lastpass including having multiple devices in sync. Keychain has been around for a decent while now (introduced in Mac OS 8.6) and is well known in the Mac world, however iCloud Keychain was only announced last year and released as part of iOS7 and Mavericks. In other words, it’s a free service for those who have compliant devices.
If you use, or switch to a password manager then read this,
Cult of Mac ran an article on how you can use 1Password to simplify the password changing process in the wake of the Heartbleed exploit. Similarly they continue on to show how you can use iCloud Keychain to do the same thing.
Click here to read it:
http://www.cultofmac.com/274110/10-minute-password-update/
Finally, if you have any questions or concerns then get in touch. We’re using a combination of the above tools within this office and are more than happy to help with the change of and rollout of new passwords, or the implementation of a password manager.
