Disk Utility, Network preference pane, Console, Activity Monitor & System Profiler
These are five pillars of troubleshooting a Mac machines. If you are facing any issue try to check if you could locate it and then try to resolve using these tools. A breif intoduction of each of the item is here and I will surely write details of each of them later in coming posts.
1. Disk Utility: Disk Utility, located in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder, can perform two types of repairs via the following choices in the First Aid tab:
a. Repair Disk b. Repair Disk permissions.
While Repair Disk can correct a variety of directory problems, it is generally incapable of repairing severe directory corruption for which you can try few third party applications, but before you try them, assure that you have the latest version of the utility that is compatible with the version of Mac OS X you are using.
Repair Disk Permissions verifies and, if problems are found, resets (repairs) the permissions on Apple-originated files and folders (objects), i.e. Mac OS X system-related objects and Apple-provided applications bundled with Mac OS X. Click here to know how to repair disk permissions.
2. Network Preferences: The very basic settings of sound, network, parental controls etc are available, if I explain you in terms of Windows it is similar to Control Panel. If you are facing problems with Internet connection, click on the Assist Me button. From the dialog box that appears, select Diagnostics. If you still need more help, and you have sufficient technical skills, try Network Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). See “Inside Network Utility” for a guide to its most useful features.
3. Activity Monitor: This is a GUI application inbuilt in Mac OS X. It provides graphical representations of your Mac's CPU, system memory, disk activity, disk usage, and network processes. This little utility is really easy to overlook, but it can help you manage your memory and processing power when running lots of applications. If you prefer to work in the text-only Terminal application instead, you can view much of this information by using the top command.
4. Console: This tool lies in Application>Utilities and you can't actually fix issues using Console but if you really try to focus you will come to know where exactly the problem is and what needs to be fixed, just like a diagnosis tool.
5. System Profiler: This lies next to Console, is an informative application which makes you aware of the system hardwares and softwares. You can get good answers from System Profiler to the questions like, If the RAM on you machine is installed as it should be, If you are running the latest version of printer driver and lots more.
Hope this will give you a little insight to those applications in Mac, for detailed info please wait for the next post.
These are five pillars of troubleshooting a Mac machines. If you are facing any issue try to check if you could locate it and then try to resolve using these tools. A breif intoduction of each of the item is here and I will surely write details of each of them later in coming posts.
1. Disk Utility: Disk Utility, located in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder, can perform two types of repairs via the following choices in the First Aid tab:
a. Repair Disk b. Repair Disk permissions.
While Repair Disk can correct a variety of directory problems, it is generally incapable of repairing severe directory corruption for which you can try few third party applications, but before you try them, assure that you have the latest version of the utility that is compatible with the version of Mac OS X you are using.
Repair Disk Permissions verifies and, if problems are found, resets (repairs) the permissions on Apple-originated files and folders (objects), i.e. Mac OS X system-related objects and Apple-provided applications bundled with Mac OS X. Click here to know how to repair disk permissions.
2. Network Preferences: The very basic settings of sound, network, parental controls etc are available, if I explain you in terms of Windows it is similar to Control Panel. If you are facing problems with Internet connection, click on the Assist Me button. From the dialog box that appears, select Diagnostics. If you still need more help, and you have sufficient technical skills, try Network Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). See “Inside Network Utility” for a guide to its most useful features.
3. Activity Monitor: This is a GUI application inbuilt in Mac OS X. It provides graphical representations of your Mac's CPU, system memory, disk activity, disk usage, and network processes. This little utility is really easy to overlook, but it can help you manage your memory and processing power when running lots of applications. If you prefer to work in the text-only Terminal application instead, you can view much of this information by using the top command.
4. Console: This tool lies in Application>Utilities and you can't actually fix issues using Console but if you really try to focus you will come to know where exactly the problem is and what needs to be fixed, just like a diagnosis tool.
5. System Profiler: This lies next to Console, is an informative application which makes you aware of the system hardwares and softwares. You can get good answers from System Profiler to the questions like, If the RAM on you machine is installed as it should be, If you are running the latest version of printer driver and lots more.
Hope this will give you a little insight to those applications in Mac, for detailed info please wait for the next post.
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