On 08/09/2010, at 3:16 PM, Rob Phillips wrote: > > Hi Ronni > > On 6/09/10 2:33 PM, Ronda Brown wrote: >> Hi Rob, >> >> Sorry to hear you are still having problems with your MBP. You are not >> going to particularly like what I have to say … sorry :-( >> >> OSX requires plenty of Free Unused Hard Drive space to run well. Also you >> only have 2GB RAM, Snow Leopard really needs 4GB (I know if only requires >> 1GB to install, but to run well it needs 4GB). > Yeah. In the past I've always maxed out the RAM, but I didn't for this > machine, because with Leopard it didn't seem a problem. >> >> A hard drive that fills up and turns flaky is nearly impossible to get back >> to normal without Erasing reformatting. >> If you run Photoshop it is best to have 100GB of free space. If all you were >> doing is Microsoft Word and email, I would keep a minimum of 50 GB free >> unused space available, this allows the operating system vital unused space >> to write its swap files, virtual memory scratch disk. >> >> Full hard drives also tend to fragment system and data files and greatly >> slow disk access down, too. >> >> Left unchecked, the problem will likely spread and corrupt the entire >> install until the hard drive literally won't mount or the computer won't >> boot or run without constant crashing. >> This is where you are at …. (I did warn you that you wouldn't like what I >> have to say). > This was probably my next option, so it isn't too much of a surprise! > However, I emailed the same info (plus reports of some recent kernel panics) > to the IT people at work, and they are trying to get me a new machine on > warranty. That's better news than your suggestion! :-)
Hi Rob, It will be a good win if you get a new MBP on warranty ;-) … ah, the joys of working in Education … I would pay the extra and have more RAM installed though. Also when you have the new replacement MBP, take care to leave plenty of Free Available space on the Hard Drive or you will find yourself in trouble again. I like to keep my computers with at least 20-25% Free Available space on my Hard Drive. There are many different types of problems that can manifest the symptoms you experienced. Insufficient RAM or even hardware failure can be the culprit. But one of the most common causes of the problems you describe is not having enough free space on a startup drive. Filling your hard drive until it's almost full is fraught with issues. First, your Mac needs some free space for creating swap space to manage memory use. Even when you have adequate RAM, OS X will reserve some space at startup for memory swap space. In addition, individual applications usually use some disk space for temporary storage. The point is that many pieces of the OS and many applications use hard drive space, usually without your being aware of it. When it gets your attention, it's usually because of erratic system performance. In general, you should keep as much of your drive free as possible. As I mentioned above, If I had to put a minimum on the amount, I would say keep at least 20% of your startup drive free at all times; more is better. If you're getting to the point where you worry about your hard drive's free space, it's probably time to either spring for a larger hard drive or archive some of the data and get it off the drive. How did I come up with 20% as a bare minimum? I picked this value so that some basic OS X maintenance scripts will have sufficient free drive space to run. This includes OS X's built-in disk defragmentation system, memory swap space, and enough space to create cache and temp files when OS X starts up, while still leaving room for basic applications, such as email and web browsers, to use free space as needed. Cheers, Ronni 17" MacBook Pro Intel Core i7 2.66GHz / 4GB / 1067 MHz DDR3 / 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200rpm OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard Windows 7 Ultimate (under sufferance) -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]>
