If you upgrade a Mac to an SSD drive – having good management of your files is important where you use an additional drive or drives to have capacity for your photo, music, video libraries, etc.  With the relatively small sizes of SSD drives, they can fill up with data fast; but the performance benefits of SSD are undeniable.

If you’ve been following our blog since the beginning, we’ve given several tips on relocating these types of files off your internal storage on onto external storage solutions. Today’s modern operating systems make this pretty easy.

For those audiophiles out there, an iTunes library can quickly become an overwhelming size.  Back in March, we showed you how to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive such as the Mercury On-the-Go Pro.

Photography enthusiasts will also find their pictures taking up more and more hard drive space.  You can also move your iPhoto library to an external drive to keep your primary drive lean and operating at top speeds.

My basic rule of thumb to follow is to keep the Operating System and your applications themselves on the main, internal hard drive while storing the files, documents, pictures, movies, music, etc. on the separate drive.  By doing so, you can even use a 64GB SSD for boot and application performance benefits WHILE maintaining access to extensive file libraries that can’t all fit onto an SSD.

Check out OWC’s full selection of SSD Drives and External Hard Drive Solutions to find the fit that’s right for you.

Every now and then, you may find that your startup seems slower than normal or that some things are just not working the way they used to. When that happens, it is usually best to be proactive, rather than putting it off until the problem potentially gets worse. There are numerous things that can cause problems with your Mac, both hardware and software. When working with computers, it pays to not only have a physical toolkit, but also some good software tools to help with various situations. Having the right options at your disposal can help save time, which most people do not seem to have enough of.

One great little maintenance utility you can use is Onyx. Onyx takes several important maintenance tasks and puts them all in to one easy to use package. Even better, though, this software is free! more…

It’s a fact the files we work with on a day-to-day basis are getting larger. As digital cameras grow more advanced, so do the sizes of the pictures they take. Music is now available in near-pristine, lossless formats and movies are now are in high-definition video with multichannel soundtracks. Then, there are the various applications themselves, many of which can take up multiple gigabytes. All this data takes up space and before you know it, your hard drive is maxed out.

When you find yourself in this predicament , you have three options: clean out some accumulated files, get an external storage solution to move files to and provide more storage capacity, or use our free instructional videos to put a higher capacity drive into your machine.

Cleaning out older files isn’t really a viable option. Eventually, your drive will continue to fill and you’re back to square one.

Transferring older and/or duplicate files to an external drive is often the easiest route to take and we make that option simple with Plug and Play solutions for Macs and PCs. Unfortunately, if you’re highly mobile and using a MacBook or MacBook Pro, carrying around that extra drive and the connection cables (even with a bus-powered pocket-sized drive like the Mercury On-The-Go Pro) adds a few more things to pack and keep your eyes on.

Which brings us to upgrading your Mac’s internal drive. While the thought of “opening the hood” on your machine sounds daunting, it’s actually very straightforward with our instructional videos that walk you through the process.

After upgrading your internal drive, transferring your data over from your “old” drive to a new, faster, larger one is just as easy when using Migration Assistant in conjunction with a fresh install of OS X. To show you how to get it done, OWC Chris has created step-by-step instructions in our Tips & Reviews archives.

And when you’ve got everything up and running with all the data you had from the previous drive, we even make it easy to retask that “old” drive, by either putting it into an external enclosure or using it with one of our Voyager hard drive docks. If you choose the enclosure route, we may even have an installation video to show you how to do that too!

It doesn’t get any easier than OWC for the tips, tools, and products you need to get more from your technology investment.

In case you haven’t heard, Apple has acknowledged that there is a bug in Snow Leopard that can be rather devastating to your data. All the data in your Home folder has the potential of disappearing if:

1. you installed OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard over an existing installation of  OS X 10.5 Leopard.
2. you had a Guest account enabled in Leopard, which got brought over to Snow Leopard AND
3. you logged into your Guest account under Snow Leopard.

Damage Control

If all of those three pieces of the puzzle fit together, you may find yourself logging into your main account only to find all your data is gone.

Unfortunately, there’s no quick and simple way to get your data back—you’re going to have to restore from your backups.

By far, the easiest method is to do a full restore from the last time you had all your data. If you clone to an external, simply boot to that drive and clone back to your Mac.

If you use Time Machine, it will take a little longer. You will need to perform a fresh install of OS X on your machine, then choose to import information from your latest Time Machine backup with an intact System folder.

Don’t have a backup? Your data may be lost in the Snow.

Prevention

The first step to avoiding data loss—from this bug or from others—is to establish a backup strategy NOW. Seriously, I mean it…large external drives are dropping in price rather rapidly, so there’s no real reason for not having a complete solution.

The next thing to do: disable the Guest account. Unless you routinely have people temporarily logging onto your computer, leaving the Guest account active at this point is kind of like having a hand grenade sitting on the kitchen table—you’re not going to use it, but if it is accidentally activated, you could be in a whole world of hurt.

To disable the Guest account, go to the Accounts preference pane. You will need an Administrator password to unlock the pane. Once unlocked, select the “Guest Account” option and make sure the box to allow guests to log in is unchecked. Then, close the Preferences window.

Theoretically, if you go back in and re-check that box, you should be able to use the Guest Account normally. However, until an update is released that specifically deals with this issue, doing so is asking for trouble. If you absolutely need to have people logging into your machine, your best bet will be to create a managed (non-admin) account for them.

Simply unlock the Accounts preference pane as described above and click the “+” button on the left. Name the new account whatever you want and don’t give it a password. Make sure that you uncheck the box that allows that account to act as an administrator. Now you have an account that will behave similarly to the Guest account, except when the user logs out, it doesn’t erase their (or your) files.

Repetition

I’m going to say it again, simply because it’s so darn important: make sure you have (and use) a backup strategy. In the light of hardware failures, accidental deletion and now the OS itself threatening your irreplaceable data, failure to have one (or more) backups of your crucial data is an invitation to disaster.

We’re continuing  our diligent work here at the OWC testing lab benchmarking every machine compatible with Snow Leopard and should be ready to start posting some of the results soon.

In the meantime, however, we found some great nuggets of information that we’d like to share!

For our latest test, we took two machines in which the most memory that can be installed was 2GB, maxed out their memory, and checked the performance gains that installing a faster hard drive can provide.  The results were quite impressive!

The Contenders:

The original 2006 MacBook 13″
1.83GHz Core Duo running OS 10.6.1

The 2004 iMac G5 20″
PowerPC 1.8GHz running 10.5.8

Heres what we found:

• The Photoshop Action Test measures the time (in seconds) it takes to execute a custom action script comprising of 47 commonly-used, memory-intensive processes on a 21 megapixel image using Adobe Photoshop CS4. It is designed to represent an average photo editing session of a graphic artist. No other processes are running in the background besides those that keep the machine itself running. This is pure, linear computing where every available resource is on hand for the one test running.  Lower times are better.
• Our Stress Test is a variation on the Photoshop Action Test where the test is performed while iTunes is playing music with the visualizer running. This test adds one additional program to represent that additional light computing we do on the side in real life. With the Visualizer on, the resource draw on the machine is not limited to processor power and memory but to the video card and memory allocated for video as well. Lower times are better.
• The 16 Program Launch test simply measures the time (in seconds) it takes for 16 common programs* from OS X and iLife to open simultaneously.  Lower times are better.
• The Boot Time Test is exactly what it sounds like – the time it takes to boot the machine.  Again, lower times are better.

Considering the investment that a new Apple computer can cost, it makes sense to get all you can out of the machine you have before taking the plunge.  Installing a Solid State Drive can certainly extend the retirement date of your existing Mac for a fraction of the cost of a new computer.

A month ago today, Apple released OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Coincidentally, my MacBook Pro arrived right around that same time. I took advantage of having a “pristine” system and installed Snow Leopard on it immediately.

Looking back on the last month, things went surprisingly well. One by one, I added new apps and utilities to my system, making sure to check their compatibility as I went. Fortunately, most of the programs I use every day were already 10.6-compatible. My only major losses were iStat Menus and iSync compatibility with my Palm Centro. Luckily, iStat was updated soon after the 10.6 release, and I’ve got some good leads for Palm compatibility, so I’m 99% good to go.

Sure, even a month in, there are some mild annoyances – I lost the use of the full drivers for my home printer. Sure, the Gutenprint drivers work, but they just aren’t the same. I haven’t even tried scanning anything, but I’m relatively certain that it will be an exercise in futility. However, as both the printer and the scanner are 7-8 years old, I really can’t complain a whole lot – they have far outlasted my expectations for $20 at a garage sale.

As far as “whiz-bang” new features, there really weren’t any, though adjustments to things like Image Capture, Exposé, Time Machine, QuickTime, drive and file size reporting and a number of other things were welcome changes.  While, normally, simply tweaking the system for better performance/compatibility might be considered as a “service pack,” what the Snow Leopard naysayers seemed to have missed in calling it that is the whole shift in the system’s focus.

This is the first “Intel Only” version of OS X. It cut out a lot of the older, bloated PPC code, resulting in a much smaller installation. On top of that, they’ve added easier implementation of support for multi-processor apps as well making the system 64-bit capable on hardware that supports it. While this may not be all that useful at the present time it certainly opens the door for things becoming faster as applications are rewritten to take advantage of this technology.

So what is all this saying?

Effectively, what I’m saying here is that, despite a few hiccups at the beginning, Snow Leopard is certainly heading in the right direction. There are a few missing pieces here and there, but nothing that I found to be insurmountable. Further updates, both on Apple’s part and those of software developers, will continue to improve the experience.

A month into the process, I’d say that unless you either have a machine that won’t support it or you rely on one of the applications not yet supported, it is an upgrade well worth your time and money.

I’m a recent Mac convert and loving every minute of it. Do I feel ashamed for ignoring the Windows-based units that are now collecting dust at home? A little bit, but thankfully the guilt is short-term.

I’ve been having a great time reading comments from Mac users about their experiences with Snow Leopard. It’s even more interesting to hear all the chatter about Apple’s first OS update 10.6.1, made available less than two weeks after releasing Snow Leopard. Some users have called the OS release “pointless” due to the lack of new features. Others, wanting to keep their OS up-to-date, have willingly embraced the update.

What’s in the update?

Apple suggests that users update to 10.6.1 because it offers “general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.” The update itself fixes a Mail issue, includes a more recent version of the Flash plug-in for Safari and provides device updates for modems, printers and DVD drives. For more details, see the full summary of 10.6.1 fixes from Apple.

Newbie says what?

I’m a glass-half-full guy and tend to focus more on positive benefits. Although some users have criticized this release as a knee-jerk reaction by Apple to offset product launch shortcomings, I personally think is sends a clear message that they take security seriously.

Generally speaking, it appears that a number of users are reporting improved performance and bug fixes after applying the update. The good news is that if you are running newer software it is unlikely that you will experience compatibility issues since most applications that work on Mac OS X 10.5 will also work in 10.6. It’s important to note that not every program has been tested and in some cases it’s up to the user to determine which applications still work. For example, Adobe decided to test Creative Suite 4 for compatibility on Snow Leopard without any mention of supporting CS3. What’s a CS3 user to do? Some are running CS3 on 10.6 without any issues; others are frustrated while teetering between waiting for a fix or upgrading to CS4.

When it comes to discussing hardware and software support under a new OS, I feel it’s all about shared liability – if the OS includes radical changes, some programs will not work or may require an update. If the developers do not test their software with the new platform or offer an alternative solution, they risk alienating loyal users.

It’s been at least a month since I’ve booted up a Windows machine at home and I am certain that there are countless updates, security patches, service packs and bug fixes are waiting for me. The decision to install the single point revision to SL seems easy compared to my previous life of daily Windows updates.

I’m also a marketing guy and understand Apple’s desire to release Snow Leopard early to meet customer demands. At some point you have to release what you have to the masses in order to address real-world application issues and improve the overall user experience.

The 10.6.1 update may not address every issue that has been logged, but it’s a quick step in the right direction. If you are having a problem and don’t find it resolved with this release, be sure to let Apple know via Apple’s feedback page for Mac OS X.

Since Snow Leopard’s release a couple of weeks ago, there have been several reports of various optical drives being unable to read the installation DVD. There have also been reports of these same drives being unable to read other DVDs, as well.

What the heck is going on here?

There have been reports of some “bad” copies of the Snow Leopard installer disc, which would explain some of the instances. A trip to your local Genius Bar or a call to Apple customer service can usually resolve that issue.

There are, however, a number of instances that were not resolved simply by using a different disc. In these cases, the optical drive stopped being able to read DVDs at all. In a large amount of the cases shown on the Apple Support discussion boards, it seems that many of these computers were infrequently used, so it is quite likely these were cases where the optical drive was bad or on the verge of failing, but infrequent use made diagnosis difficult. Interestingly, almost all of the drives having these problems were the stock drives that came with the computer.

So what can we do?

Usually, if your drive stops reading media, that’s a good clue that the drive needs to be replaced. If your Mac is still under AppleCare, then you should be covered. However, for those past the warranty and don’t have AppleCare, you’ve still got options.

1. Set up another Mac (running OS X 10.5 or later) to share its optical drive with the afflicted computer. While designed for the MacBook Air, this should work with any Mac. Though it is probably the least expensive method (as song as you have a second Mac) it is also frightfully slow, as it has to transfer all the data across your network.
2. Replace the optical drive with a new one. If you had AppleCare, the main resolution would be to replace the drive itself. So, why not do it yourself? Other than the SATA slot-loading drives found in the latest models (which would still be under warranty, anyway), OWC has replacement internal optical drives for a wide array of Macs. The drives aren’t the only thing, though. We also have instructional videos that walk you through the process of replacing the optical drive for many Mac models.
3. Use an external optical drive. This is a fairly good option for slot-loading machines – especially iMacs and Mac minis – since you can get optical drives with faster speeds and features that may not be available on a slot-loading drive, such as Blu-ray disc burning (sorry, still no BD movie playback, yet) and and Lightscribe labeling. OWC has a number of external optical drives available, all of which are bootable and will work with your Mac.

Don’t let a failing optical drive stop you from enjoying the benefits that upgrading to Snow Leopard provides. With our wide array of optical drive solutions and technical information, OWC can help get you on your way with a minimum of effort.

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard came out on Friday, and there’s been quite a big hullabaloo about the fact that – by default – Apple’s new OS boots into 32-bit mode on almost all Macs, with the only exceptions being the 2008 and 2009 XServe.

Before we gather our pitchforks and torches to go surround One Infinite Loop, let’s take a step back and take a look at a few points that people seem to keep missing.

1. 32-bit mode enables compatibility. At this point, we’re still in transition. While most, if not all, of Apple’s kernel extensions (KEXTs) are all 64-bit, there are still many third-parties that have yet to catch up. If the kernel was set to 64-bit, then all the 32-bit KEXTs would not load, thus “breaking” many third party utilities and peripherals.
2. Snow Leopard can run 64-bit applications. Even though the kernel itself is running in 32-bit mode, most of that which we use every day are 64-bit apps. Apps like Safari, Mail, iCal, and – most importantly – the Finder itself, all run in 64-bit mode. About the only Apple apps not running in 64-bit are the iLife apps, which will likely see an update soon. 64-bit versions of third-party applications though, such as Photoshop, will also be released over time from their respective vendors.
3. 64-bit isn’t the only speed boost. While a lot of attention has been paid to the 64- vs. 32-bit difference, Snow Leopard has a number of new technologies that will also help speed things up. Two such examples are Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL. Grand Central Dispatch will make it easier for developers to utilize multiple processor cores – something the vast majority of Intel Macs have. OpenCL allows applications to use the power of the GPU in your computer. While only a few cards are currently supported, it is entirely possible that others will be added to this list in the future.
4. Snow Leopard is about the future, not the present. A more accurate way to describe Snow Leopard is as a transitional release. It provides a solid framework for developers to incorporate the above-mentioned technologies as they update their applications. Once they do, there should be an increase in efficiency. As more and more drivers are converted over to 64-bit, then the need for the 32-bit kernel will reduce. At that point, we may see an official utility to switch 64-bit mode on/off.

Until the point we have nothing but 64-bit compatible KEXTs, though, a 32-bit kernel with the capability of running 64-bit applications seems to be a reasonable compromise. Since the Finder and many of the other Applications we run are 64-bit, we will see a speed boost from that, even though the kernel is 32-bit. Once everything else is updated to 64-bit, I would not be surprised if an official option to more permanently enable the 64-bit kernel emerges.

While, personally, the potential compatibility headaches are enough to keep me with the default 32-bit kernel on my MacBook Pro, I realize there are still many out there that want to try and wring every last bit of performance out of their machines (I know, I’m usually one of them) who will insist on booting their systems to the 64-bit kernel. So, in case you haven’t already found out how to do it, I’ll give you a couple of options.

• The easiest way to do it is to hold down the 6 and 4 keys at startup and release them when you reach the login screen or desktop. However, this will revert to 32-bit on restart unless you hold down 6 and 4 again.
• For a little more control over which kernel you use (allowing you to make booting to 64-bit a little more “permanent”) you may want to check into Startup Mode Selector. It’s a free application (though donations are accepted) that lets you set which kernel you want to boot with. If you’re going to go this route and boot to 64-bit “permanently,” I highly recommend you read the accompanying information on the author’s Web site.

Sometimes, when I feel the urge to tinker, I poke around the various “resource bundles” of applications on my Mac. Its not always a smart thing to do (which is why I always work on a copy) and very often, there’s not much interesting in there besides some icons and a couple of code fragments that aren’t very interesting.

Sometimes, though, you find something incredibly useful. While poking about in the latest version of Safari, I came across a document that lists out the various keyboard and mouse shortcuts.

If you have Safari 4 installed, you can view it by entering this URL into your address bar (or just right-click the link and open it in a new window…) -  file:///Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Resources/Shortcuts.html

While most of these shortcuts are old hat for many Safari users, it was nice to have all the combinations listed out as a reference. I later found out that you can also access this page if you have enabled Safari’s Debug menu. This can be done by using any of a number of Free/Shareware Safari add-ons or by entering the following command in Terminal

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

(thanks to Mac OS X Hints for this tip.)

While the Debug menu may be useful for programmers and the like, there really isn’t too much that’s useful for the rest of us, outside a couple of amusing “party tricks” (ooh… transparent windows…) and the aforementioned shortcuts list.

What I find much more useful is the “Develop” menu. This is another menu that’s disabled by default. It’s easy enough to turn on, though.

1. Go to the Preferences in Safari.
2. Click on the Advanced tab.
3. Check the box next to “Show Develop menu in menu bar.’

In this menu, you’ll find a bevy of tools that will prove useful from time to time.

If you have a page that’s refusing to load via Safari, you can choose to open it directly in another browser you have installed by using the “Open Page With” selection. Similarly, if there’s a site that “requires” a particular browser even though there’s nothing “browser-specific” about it (banking sites are notorious for this), you can change Safari’s “User Agent” string by selecting the “required” browser from the list.

One of the features I use frequently is the Web Inspector. This multi-tabbed interface allows you to check out the source code, images, scripts, Cascading Style Sheets, and other elements of a site. I’ve used it to troubleshoot pages I’ve put together, grab images I’d otherwise be unable to get, and see what causes a particular page to take so darn long to load.

There are a bunch of other selections, as well, including options to turn off  images, CSS, JavaScript and a number of other items. My advice on those is to leave them alone unless you’re sure they’re what you need to turn off. You can find more information about this menu by looking up “Develop menu” in Safari Help.

Though it is doubtful that I will ever say that it is the only Web browser you will need, Safari 4 is a very capable one. Now, with just a couple of tweaks, it becomes even more flexible. While it may not have all the extensibility of Firefox, these options make it my primary browser both at work and at home.

Due to a recent transfer of old files at home, I came across an old email from my days in radio. One of the producers at the radio station I had been interning at had a problem. All the production studio computers were Macs, but he needed something to play on a Windows machine. He’d followed the instructions I’d laid out for him several months prior, but claimed that it completely refused to work on that Windows box. I had him send me the file, and once I received it, I didn’t even need to open the file to know what the problem was.

Like many Mac users, he hadn’t really given thought to the file extension, those sometimes cryptic letter combinations preceded by a dot at the end of most file names. While these file names are often invisible, and sometimes optional, under OS X, they are a necessity when  trying to open them under Windows.
If you’re going to be sharing your files with a Windows or Linux user (and if you’re on the Internet, you likely will – in one form or another) here are couple things you can do to make sure your shared documents are readable.

First, make sure your file extensions are all visible. You can do this by going to Finder > Preferences, clicking the “Advanced” tab and making sure “Show all file extensions” is checked.

Second, when sending the files, make sure they’re ones the recipient can view. Plain text (.txt) and Rich Format text (.rtf) are fairly easy to read, as are most Microsoft Office documents (.doc, .xls, .ppt), though you want to make sure to use common fonts for the documents, so they lay out right. TextEdit allows you to both read and write plain text, rich text, and Word-compatible documents, at least on a basic level. Apple’s iWork suite can open and save to their Office counterparts but, again, the transfer is not quite perfect. The same goes for the open source Open Office suite. If you find yourself doing a lot of transfer of Office documents, your best bet will be to bite the bullet and purchase Office for Mac. This will solve much of the document transfer problem.

Graphic-wise, common file formats seen on the Web (such as .gif, .jpg and .png) and in printing (such as .eps, .tiff and .pdf) should have no problems transferring. Files from specific programs (such as most Adobe applications) often work just fine with the Windows version as well, so if your recipient has Photoshop, then sending a .psd should give you no trouble.

Music and video is considerably much more tricky. If the recipient’s computer has Quicktime for Windows installed, then anything that plays on your Mac should play for them. If they don’t, then you’ll want to use something fairly common, like .mp3 files for audio and .mp4 for videos. QuickTime Pro can perform conversions to both these types.

Even if all you use are Macs, its not a bad idea to get in the habit of using Windows naming conventions. After all, you never know when you’re going to need it.

One of the Main problems with multitasking is that sometimes you miss an important notification, which grinds things to a halt. Sure, you can arrange all your windows so that they’re all viewable, but unless you have a pair of 30-inch displays, that method gets cluttered very fast. However, there’s another great little utility that works quite well.

Growl is a system extension that keeps an eye on your applications and notifies you of important updates with an unobtrusive window.

Many popular programs are supported by Growl, including perennial favorites like Toast, Firefox, Adium, and  StuffIt Expander. There are also add-ons that add notifications for Safari, Mail, iChat, iTunes, iCal, and a host of others. There’s even a command-line tool to allow you Terminal jockeys out there to add Growl notifications to your shell scripts.

At first, I resisted installing this notification system. Then, I actually started using it. Now, I get notifications as soon as files are done downloading, when I get emails or instant messages, and various other bits of information that are happening that I should know about, but am not actively monitoring.
Has really made my work flow more efficient, and it may do the same for yours.

You can find Growl at the author’s Web site, or in the “System Enhancements” folder of the Shareware collection included with every OWC and Newer Technology Storage Solution.

No matter how often you use a computer, you never really know everything. Sure, you may have the basics down and may be amazingly efficient in your day-to-day applications, but there’s always that one thing that could, over time, speed up your work flow.

As Mac users, one of those things we often overlook is the use of keyboard commands. While MacOS has always been very menu-driven, most of the common menu commands also have a keyboard equivalent. Rather than moving the mouse to a particular spot, clicking and going back to your work, you can hit a key or two and continue mousing/typing/etc. without stopping. Over time, that results in time savings.

Recently, I came across a coworker who, in order to take a screenshot of a window, would open up the Grab application (Applications>Utilities>Grab), Select “Window” from the “Capture” menu and use that to select the window he wanted.

A much faster (and easier) method would have been to hit Command-Shift-4, then hit the Space Bar to turn the cursor into a camera. All you need to do then is click the desired window to get the screen shot.

Considerably faster.

Poking around Apple’s Knowledge Base, I found a nice little article that shows many of the major system-wide keyboard shortcuts in OS X. I even learned of one or two that I wasn’t aware of, myself. You may want to check it out for yourself.

Hopefully, this info can help speed up your work flow by utilizing both the mouse and the keyboard to get around OS X.

Have you ever wondered how all the resources in your Mac are being used? I know I have. At any given point in the day, I’ll usually have a number of things going at once: Software downloads, graphic processing, file transfers, et cetera. Keeping track of processor, memory, network and hard drive use is important if you want to get the most performance out of your Mac.

There’s a number of ways to keep track of these sorts of things. You could simply open up Activity Monitor, and leave that running. The downside to that method is that Activity Monitor’s window is rather bulky, and that’s where the majority of the information will be. There are also various command-line tools you can run in Terminal which will provide quite a bit of information. However, unless you are comfortable mucking about in Terminal (which I generally don’t care to do), it isn’t very convenient.

However, for at-a-glance information regarding my system resources, there’s been a utility I’ve used on various machines since 2003: MenuMeters.

As the name would imply, MenuMeters puts a number of easy to read graphs or meters in your Menu Bar that give you vital specifics about memory, network, processor and disk usage. Its kind of like keeping an eye on the gauges in your car – they are only vaguely interesting when everything works fine, but when things are acting less-than-optimally, you can quickly see what’s going on.

If your Processor meter is showing 100% processor usage, then  perhaps you’re trying to do too much at once. If your Network gauge is peaking, then you know you’re dowloading/uploading to the greates capactity allowed by your network setup. If your RAM gauge is full and your Disk Activity gauge is blinking rapidly, your computer is using your hard drive for Virtual Memory, and you probably need to buy some more RAM.

MenuMeters is a wonderful utility if you want to keep up with what’s happening on your Mac. Being freeware, its price is right, and you’re not out anything if you decide you don’t like it.

You can find MenuMeters at the author’s Web site, or in the “System Enhancements” folder of the Shareware collection included with every OWC and Newer Technology Storage Solution.