Be sure to run it in Administrator mode, as this will allow it to see inside folders belonging to other users on that machine-which is often where large, abandoned files such as iTunes libraries lurk. It will allow you to very quickly drill down into the heaviest folders and files with a highly intuitive interface. ID-Design’s WhatSize is the program you want when your user’s drive is full but he or she can’t figure out why. It’s part of Mac OS X in the Utilities folder of the Applications folder, or you can simply choose Apple Menu->About This Mac->More Info. Want to see what kind of RAM is in which slots? Not clear if a USB device is being recognized? System Profiler is your friend, giving you a window into much of what’s under the hood of a Mac. You’ll need to start them from a USB external drive or pull out the internal drive. Two recent laptop models lack a FireWire port, so you can’t use FireWire Disk Mode with those. Again, if you see a grey Apple, power off and try again. To choose which drive you start up from, hold down “Option” as you turn on the Mac until you get to the graphical boot chooser. It’s also handy in the other direction: you can put your own Mac into FireWire Disk Mode and start up the user’s Mac with it-which can help determine whether a problem is related to software or hardware. Then, attach a FireWire cable from the user’s Mac to your own and the user’s drive becomes available to you on your own computer (very useful, for example, for running either of the previously-mentioned tools). (If you see a grey Apple, power off the Mac and try again). All you need to do is hold down “T” while you turn the Mac on, until you see a FireWire icon on the screen. This means that when you need to run diagnostics on a drive, you don’t need to pull it out. One Mac hardware feature which is especially adored by Mac geeks is the ability to access the internal hard drive(s) directly, bypassing the operating system. The author of Carbon Copy Cloner also distributes useful tools for deploying customized installations across networks, and his Web page has a plethora of useful information. Otherwise, it performs a file-level clone, preserving all file metadata and access permissions as appropriate. If you’re copying between drives of the same size, you can perform a block-level clone for an exact replica. You see where I’m going with this: when you’re upgrading a drive or rescuing a failing one, Carbon Copy Cloner is the tool you want. It will clone one Mac drive to another, making sure the target is bootable. Distributed as honor-system shareware, it lives up to its name. You can also start up the user’s Mac from the DiskWarrior CD but it takes a very long time and won’t work on the newest Macs.īombich Software’s Carbon Copy Cloner is another fantastic tool. The best way to use DiskWarrior is to run it on your own laptop, connected to the user’s Mac via FireWire Disk Mode (which I’ll get into in a minute). If you remember Norton Disk Doctor from the DOS days-where a simple program magically just seemed to fix everything-that’s DiskWarrior now. I cannot describe how many times DiskWarrior has made a drive boot, made a lost directory reappear or otherwise saved the day. If you do not have this in your organization, stop what you’re doing and order it. (Note: I’m an enthusiast of several of the products below, but I am in no way affiliated with any of their vendors.)Īn absolutely indispensable utility is Alsoft’s DiskWarrior. What follows are the tools and tips I use regularly to keep Macs running smoothly. This time out, I want to share with you some essential tools and techniques which will make your job easier and which will help you better support the Mac users in your enterprise. In my first article, I talked about how Macs are increasingly popping up in the workplace, posing a challenge for Windows-oriented IT support professionals. Macs are no strangers to corrupted hard disks, failed RAM, network connection issues and so on. Mac OS X may be a bit different than Windows, but both systems share plenty of problems in common. It’s no different on the Mac side of the fence. It goes without saying that every IT pro has a toolkit at the ready-the hardware, software and knowledge necessary to diagnose and resolve issues.
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