Since OS 10.5, launchd is used for scheduled maintenance rather than cron. Not to knock the disk utilities out there, but once I bit the bullet and performed the above procedure, I found that image-and-restore was less stress-inducing and less time-consuming. I spent years thinking that defragging my disks with third party software was a good idea. Disk Utility can save to and restore from network mounts, however - simply choose an AFP mount from the sidebar in the Open or Save dialog (even from the install DVD). Obviously you'll need somewhere to go with the disk image - hope you've got an external disk somewhere.

This should be about as bad as if your Mac was shut down improperly. Time Machine will have to re-check your Mac's freshly restored boot volume against the contents of your backup disk. I've carried this out many times, and the results have always been quite noticeable.Īnother thing you can do if you're feeling braver and have more time on your hands is to wipe your device and then set it up as a new device (which means you reload all your apps and data into it manually).Use Disk Utility to make a disk image of your Mac's regular boot volume.Įrase your Mac's regular boot volume and restore the disk image you created (erase and restore can be done in one fell swoop from Disk Utility's Restore tab).

Now you're ready to recover from a backup.

Once that is done, wipe your device ( Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings, and from there you'll be guided through the wiping process).

Familiarize yourself with the process before you start.

Normally, this is something I do once a year. The longer it has been since your iPhone or iPad was wiped (or new) the more mileage you'll get out of this tip.This process is going to take some time, so put aside a couple of hours where you won't be disturbed or need your iPhone or iPad.If you don't have a backup then you're going to have to reload your stuff manually, and that's going to take a lot longer. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP! You can either create a local backup using iTunes, or back up to iCloud by going to Settings > iCloud > Backup, and then turning on iCloud Backup.Some pointers before you go all hog wild and wipe all your data.

Apple defrag hard drive