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How to Clean Mac Hard Drive?

Mac OS X is a product of Apple Inc. It is widely known for their operating system that is simple compared to the complex Windows platform. But like any other hard drive, the Mac itself can get slower with a lot of files and applications stored on it. Here are simple steps to clean Mac hard drive to free up some disk space and make Mac run faster.

  1. Backup the hard drive: It is important to do this in order to protect all important files from accidental removal and deletion. This is the first thing that anyone should do when cleaning the Mac hard drive. Use other external and portable hard drive such as CD, DVD or flash disk and save all your important files.
  2. Empty the Mac OS X to trash bin: Every item that is deleted on Mac is place in the Trash. As time goes by, all these files will accumulate and can even take up the hard drive space. So it is wiser to clean out the Trash bin and empty the trash. You can do this by navigating through the Finder options and then select Empty Trash from the top down menu choices.
  3. Archive files that are not frequently use: Archiving files will gather all multiple files and folders into a single file and compress the file size. This will reclaim disk space in the process. You can choose from documents, pictures and other files and then fight click on each and choose the Archive options form the menu. Once compress, create a backup copy in other external devices and delete the files in the Mac OS X drive.
  4. Run third party applications to delete unnecessary files, cache and logs: All of these will only consume your hard disk space. You can use programs such as Cocktail, Monolingual, MacKeeper and others to scan the Mac OS X for any unused programs and remove them all.
  5. Uninstall unused application and all its associated files. Once of the reasons for cluttered Mac OS X hard drive is due to unnecessary applications that are installed in the system. Simply click the Applications options and drag and drop applications to the trash bin. However doing this will not completely remove its widgets, preference pane and others. You can select from the wide variety of third party applications that will remove and uninstall applications and all it’s related from out in your Mac system.
  6. Defrag Mac hard drive: This can help a lot to improve the performance of Mac hard drive. It will reorganize all the files into one location for faster access. This can speed up the processes in the system.

It is important to clean Mac hard drive once in a while to speed up the process, clean cluttered hard disk and free some disk space. Before you begin cleaning and clearing out all the unnecessary applications in your Mac hard drive be sure to back up every important files that you have because you might have a clean hard drive but lost all the important files that you have.

 

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As you will notice over time, your Mac becomes slower unlike the first time you used it. If this happens this is the right time to clean up Mac hard drive. So get started doing it. But before you perform cleaning routines to your Mac make sure to backup all important documents in the hard drive to other external devices because you might end up having clean hard drive but looking for all your piece of files all over again.

Looking for the things that keeping your Mac slow: The first thing that you can do is to launch the Activity Monitor at the Applications then click Utilities. It will show you a list of applications and other processes that is happening in your CPU and memory. Look for the applications that are hogging most of the CPU time. If there are applications that you don’t need take note of it and if there are applications that are taking long to run then quit it and restart the Mac for an immediate solution.

Clean up the Startup list: Look for applications that are found in the startup menu and what these that you don’t need are. Just click the System Preferences, then Accounts and the Login Items tab. There are a list of applications and select the minus tab for apps that you don’t need anymore.

Uninstall unnecessary files and all its related files: Go over to your Application folder and remove apps that you don’t need anymore. Just a thought, in doing this might not speed up your Mac but eventually will reclaim hard drive space. But before you drag and drop applications to the trash, it is advisable to use third party uninstaller programs where it can completely remove applications and all its associated files. You can choose from AppTrap, AppDelete, AppZapper, MacKeeper and a lot more.

Do some routine maintenance: What’s good about Mac is that you can perform routine maintenance without the need for any extra software. Just run the Disk Utility that is found under the Applications then Utilities. This will verify and repair the disk permissions. This can take a longer process so better do it when the system is idle. But you can choose other third part software that can already perform detailed maintenance to your Mac.

Reclaim hard drive space: While you are performing cleaning procedure to your Mac, determine first what really is taking up all the Mac space. There are other utilities that allow you to view your hard disk and all the unnecessary files that are stored on it. You can even defrag your Mac hard drive to reorganize all your files and bring back the Mac performance on top shape.

If you intend to clean up Mac hard drive, there are a lot of possible steps that you can do about it from removing unnecessary applications to running other routine maintenance tasks. You can also use other third party applications that will make the process a lot easier but before you do so always back up your important files and folders.