How to Keep Logic Pro and you Mac Working Like New

[cynetmedia]

Hi friends,

 

I have read a lot of post where people complain about Logic's performance or on other forums about their Mac having problems. Often these complaints end with - and im ready to leave this platform / application because it does not work.

 

There are a few tips I would like to suggest to help keep your machine running like new all the time.

 

1. Create a toolkit system to work on your main machine so you can do diagnostics and repairs regularly (once a month if your so inclined). This toolkit system should be a bare bones OS X system with you tools on it.

 

There are several ways to go about this depending on your machine (G4, G5 / Intel).

For my personal setup I re-partitioned my MacBook Pro internal hard drive with iPartition ( http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php ) so I have my main hard drive with Logic / Live etc & and a second partition with my tools of choice to repair and maintain any problems. My toolkit consist of the following but feel free to substitute your tool of choice where applicable:

 

iPartition - for changing / partitioning my drives if necessary internal or external.

iDefrag - to defrag the hard drive on a regular basis. (very important!)

Disk Utility - for repairing permission, making and restoring copies of my drive.

Super Duper - also used to create exact bootable clones of any drive.

 

If you are on a G5, G4 or below machine or you dont want to create an extra internal partition use an external firewire drive for your toolkit. If your on an Intel machine you can use any USB drive for a toolkit system.

 

2. I really cant stress this enough Defrag Your Drive! Im sure there will be arguments saying its not necessary but if your doing Audio or Video work the drive can become fragmented easily. Use your tool of choice Techtool Pro, iDefrag, etc. but just do it.

 

3. If your having little problems after a software install, heavy session or any other disk intensive task use Disk Utility to repair your disk permission. Many times this will fix small quirky problems.

 

4. Keep a copy of Onyx ( http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html ) or a similar tool on your Main / Logic system so you can run the Daily, Weekly & Monthly Scripts and make minor tweaks to the system.

 

5. If your doing audio or video production try to keep your system free of helper apps. and unnecessary system modification apps. The only thing I run on my Logic system is Quicksilver everything else like menu bar extras etc are all off. OSX runs amazingly smooth if you keep to the basics.

 

6. Create a bootable copy of your working system regularly to make sure you can restore if disaster strikes. Super Duper is great for this kind of thing but you can also do this with Disk Utility as well. The main advantage to using Super Duper is the smart update function which dramatically cuts down your backup time by updating only the changes you have made to your system since the previous backup.

 

This advice is not to be taken as the end all be all advice for working on your system but I have used it for several years now and I never seem to have any of the problems I see frequently in forum post. Hopefully this will help some one keep their system running like clockwork. Its worked for me so I just wanted to share the method with you as well. Sorry if this advice has already been posted here.

 

Happy 2008!

 

(p.s. Sorry about the double post - firefox hick up )

[BoogieLP8]

Good stuff man thanks

[Jobkey]

really cool tips, thanks.

[Culljosh]

I got this I liked a little more then onyx.

 

CleanMyMac:

http://macpaw.com/

 

Its well worth it.

 

Cheers.