iWork and iLife put my Macbook Pro in "turbo mode": How Can I keep it that way?!

Ronald Epstein · 08-14-2007, 04:50 AM

When I first bought my Macbook Pro 5 months ago I was amazed
that bootup time was between 25-30 seconds which is pretty damn fast.

However, in the same way as a Windows bootup eventually slows
down on a PC, so did my Mac bootup. I would estimate that lately
it takes about 50-60 seconds to fully boot up (if not more).

Last week I installed both iLife and iWork on my Mac.
During the install process the software went into optimization mode
where it optimized my hard drive.

Now, my Macbook Pro boots up as fast as the day I bought it. I can't
believe how fast I can access my laptop. It really is like night and day.

So, the big question is, how do I make sure that my Macbook Pro
remains optimized? What did this software do that I can do on my own
to ensure that my laptop never slows down the way it had?

Michael_K_Sr · 08-14-2007, 08:39 AM

You could use a copy of Alsoft's Disk Warrior to fix any disk fragmentation. It's a good piece of software to have on hand regardless, because it can bail you out if you ever suffer a catastrophic problem with the system directory.

ErichH · 08-14-2007, 12:16 PM

Michael beat me to it. Run Disk Warrior every week or so.
I think there's a special or newest rev for Book Pros - 41?
Check the site - http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/
Boot it - Run it - Be Happy

E

DaveF · 08-14-2007, 01:14 PM

You reboot your MacBook Pro? You turn off your MacBook Pro?

I don't notice reboot times much since I rarely reboot now

I'll have to check out this utility; I quit the defragging game years ago in Windows, but I suppose it's good to run a disk util once in a while. edit... $100 for a disk utility? Gotta pass on that.

ErichH · 08-14-2007, 02:06 PM

Dave - you boot the CD, run the directory replacement and quit - restart is automatic. 15 minutes or so on a 500G drive.

**HTF Ads**

Ken Chan · 08-14-2007, 03:56 PM

Quote:

During the install process the software went into optimization mode
where it optimized my hard drive

Did it actually say "Optimizing system performance"? That's actually doing a process called "prebinding", which makes apps load faster. It is not defragging. Supposedly, there is no need to manually do it any more, but if that is what happened and it did have such a noticeable effect, then to use a technical term, "something's up"

Also, I rarely reboot my computers. Mac wake up from sleep very reliably.

Thomas Newton · 08-15-2007, 03:57 PM

I wouldn't think you'd need to mess around with "prebinding" a lot, but if you want to force another one, there is a way.

Bring up the Apple Tech Info Library article Apple - Mac OS X - Applications Don't Open After Quicktime 7.2 Update, and note the exact shell command that it talks about using in the Terminal window. (You should be able to skip the Mac OS X update reinstall, if you are not having the Rosetta / Quicktime issue the article talks about.)

Then whenever you want to force a prebinding, go into Terminal, run that command, wait for it to finish, and reboot.

(Hint: if you put the command into a text file, then chmod +x that file from inside the Terminal window, you can later run the command by typing something like ./my_prebind. Then you don't have to remember, or look up, the command line options.)

Thomas Newton · 08-15-2007, 04:03 PM

And the command is ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apple TIL article

sudo update_prebinding -root / -force

ErichH · 08-15-2007, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Chan

Did it actually say "Optimizing system performance"? That's actually doing a process called prebinding

Also, I rarely reboot my computers. Mac wake up from sleep very reliably.

The optimize routine is common with most apple updates and ware installs.

If you do a lot of downloading and trashing, directory replacement is a good idea. If not, a sleep state holds quite well. You can still get sluggish if you leave a lot in the trash and keep a heavy desktop. Basic Basic