Titanium Software Maintenance app?

[BobHas]

Hi,

I am working on sorting out a High Sierra iMac. I think I have file system corruption at some level on the system disk, although I am also not totally confident the hardware is 100% - another story...

I have a copy of the Maintenance app from Titanium Software (the version for High Sierra - apparently there is a different one for each major release).

I am wondering, before I start with it, say verifying the system disk, how it is regarded and if I can rely on it to not make the situation different/worse by trying to change anything.

 

[Rod]

Maintainence is highly recommended on these forums and I use it myself but it's worth going through its default settings prior to running it to understand what it's going to do. Essentially it empties caches of old accumulated data and you can decide to or not to remove any of those.

 

[BobHas]

Thanks. Good input.

Just as my starting point I am looking at the first item: "Verify the structure of the system files". I am not sure why or how much that actually does, but I am looking to see what I can about possible corruption of some part of the system files so what that does and does not do is my current concern. The only other idea I currently have is to run First Aid, and I am pretty sure that makes changes and get to a place where things are worse than now when it gives up.

I have tried a few ways of trying to just make a photocopy of what I have and trying this stuff on it, but so far that has not worked out. Each way I try ends up giving up part way along.

 

[Rod]

File verification is just that, it verifies that the system is in a "normal" state. If not it will notify you.

 

[BobHas]

File verification is just that, it verifies that the system is in a "normal" state. If not it will notify you.

Excellent. Thanks.

Finger crossed...

 

[pm-r]

I am wondering, before I start with it, say verifying the system disk, how it is regarded and if I can rely on it to not make the situation different/worse by trying to change anything.

First off, before doing any Fix-It stuff, make sure you have a current working backup preferably a bootable clone and then test at the Clone actually works as a startup device.

If you really suspect the system is corrupt why not save a lot of work and do a reinstall of your current operating system?

For checking your own files, the Maintenance app is a good place to start, and is basically just one part of the full Onyx.app

But don't forget to run Disk Utility and its First Aid option to check and fix your boot Drive.



- Patrick
=======

 

[ferrarr]

Try safe mode boot.

Start up your Mac in safe mode

Starting up in “safe mode” may help you diagnose problems you have with your Mac.

support.apple.com

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I am wondering, before I start with it, say verifying the system disk, how it is regarded and if I can rely on it to not make the situation different/worse by trying to change anything.

I think that it's important that you know what Maintenance is, and what it is not.

Maintenance has no "repair" routines, or for that matter any routines at all, of it's own. Maintenance is just a graphic interface that issues Unix commands to invoke built-in functions that already exist in the Unix underpinnings of the Macintosh operating system. Everything that Maintenance "does" is a native Apple/Macintosh function.

So if you are concerned that Maintenance is going to do something foreign, or unusual for the Macintosh, it isn't. Because it can't. Everything that Maintenance does was designed by the same people that wrote the Mac OS and its underlying Unix code. Everything that it does is already built-in to the Mac.

Running Maintenance is the same as having an IT manager who knows Unix inside and out invoke certain built-in functions via the Mac's Terminal program (aka "the command line").

Also, with regard to any file directory repair that your Mac needs, if your Mac's drive is formatted as APFS, there is only one repair utility available anywhere that you can use to try and repair it. And that utility is the Mac's own "fsck" utility. As of the advent of APFS, Apple has declined to release all the information about APFS that third parties would require to write their own repair tools. No matter what you read on any third party utility's Web site, none of them work to repair the directory on Mac disks formatted as APFS. So your choice is limited to what is built-in to the Mac OS. You can access that utility via the Recovery feature, via Safe Boot, via Disk Utility/First Aide, or via the command line (fsck), but it is all more or less the same thing.

When you launch Maintenance, and it says that it first has to verify your disk, it isn't Maintenance that is verifying your disk, it is the Mac OS. Maintenance is only an easy way for ordinary users to invoke maintenance routines built into the Mac OS. You can trust Maintenance to the same level as you trust Apple's own software.

I hope that this makes sense.

 

[ferrarr]

If the Mac is an older model, you can install an older version of Mac OS X/OS X/macOS (pre APFS) by creating a bootable USB installer. Then APFS will not be an issue.

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

Download and install current or previous versions of the Mac operating system on compatible Mac computers.

support.apple.com

 

[Randy B. Singer]

If the Mac is an older model, you can install an older version of Mac OS X/OS X/macOS (pre APFS) by creating a bootable USB installer. Then APFS will not be an issue.

It's true that you can use Disk Warrior to repair a damaged hard drive that is formatted as HFS+.

However, if one already has a backup of all of their data, it probably isn't practical to purchase Disk Warrior. Disk Warrior is $120 now. For that price you can simply get a brand new replacement hard drive. In fact, you can probably upgrade to a faster SSD. You can just install that and restore your data to it.

The thing is, if you pay $120 for a copy of Disk Warrior, to repair your badly damaged hard drive...can you ever trust that drive again knowing how badly damaged it once was? It makes more sense to just purchase a brand new drive.

Of course, if you don't have a backup of your data, or if you already own a copy of Disk Warrior, the above doesn't apply. Trying Disk Warrior is probably your best choice.

 

[BobHas]

Thanks all.

I am drowning in questions... Sorry.

Remind me how I verify if the system disk is APFS.

And BTW I have rarely seen anything really helpful about the case sensitive vs not case sensitive.

And, however viable or not what backups I have may be, the system is High Sierra. If it comes to a new computer what happens relative to restoring from a TM backup or maybe a SuperDuper copy (allegedly bootable form - to be tested a little way down the way for bootability on the current machine...).

 

[MacInWin]

The best test for APFS is Disc Utility, found in the Applications/Utilities folder. Written by Apple, who know APFS best and who haven't shared much with anybody else to write something "better."

Case Sensitive isn't needed 99% of the time. Time Machine does use it, but otherwise, don't bother.

New machines should be able to migrate from older TM backups. Can't guarantee SD or CCC clones, but it's likely to be ok, too.

New machines cannot boot systems older than what they originally came with. That's been that way for a long time. So a bootable clone could be used from which to migrate, but not to boot, on a newer machine.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I am drowning in questions... Sorry.

That's why we are here, to answer your questions! Don't hold back.

Remind me how I verify if the system disk is APFS.

Go up to the Apple menu, and choose About This Mac.
Click on System Report
Under "Hardware" choose "Storage".
Fourth line down should be "File System". That will tell you.

Since you are running High Sierra, you almost certainly have an internal (startup) drive NOT formatted as APFS.

And BTW I have rarely seen anything really helpful about the case sensitive vs not case sensitive.

In just about every instance, you should go for "case sensitive". See:

File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

And, however viable or not what backups I have may be, the system is High Sierra. If it comes to a new computer what happens relative to restoring from a TM backup or maybe a SuperDuper copy...

Any new Mac will be backwards compatible with whatever file system is being used on your backup drive.

bad link removed

Your bootable clone likely won't boot a newer Mac. I suspect that your cloning software will still work to migrate just your data (without the old OS) on your backup to your new Mac. (I haven't checked how to best do this. Check with the developer of your cloning software.) Or you could just use Migration Assistant to move your old data from your clone to your new Mac.

 

[MacInWin]

In just about every instance, you should go for "case sensitive". See:

File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

Randy, I read that article and it doesn't say which APFS format is preferred. It just discusses the various options that are available. Is there another reference for why "case sensitive" is preferred? I would be interested in the benefits and downsides of case sensitive.

 

[ferrarr]

The only upside I can see to case sensitive is more file name options.

1 File
2 file
3 fIle
4 fiLe
5 filE
6 FIle
7 FILe
8 FILE

 

[MacInWin]

The only upside I can see to case sensitive is more file name options.

1 File
2 file
3 fIle
4 fiLe
5 filE
6 FIle
7 FILe
8 FILE

Yes, but that has a major downside in that if you want to open one of those, you have to remember which of them uses what case in what position. Most of us, I think, would just use numbering, so File1, File2, File3, etc. That's how the camera in phones works, to create files named "IMG_####" that are incremented one at a time. Imagine how complex it would be if the camera used image, Image, iMage, imAge, etc, to distinguish the files. There would be no way to quickly determine which image came first, whereas the numbering system makes that handy. It's pretty clear that IMG_2000 came before IMG_2001.

And that complexity in naming is why I asked Randy if there was a reference that gave the rationale for using Case Sensitive. I am interested in that rationale, as I don't see "more file names" as a significant enough benefit to offset the downside of the resulting confusion in similar names.

 

[pm-r]

In just about every instance, you should go for "case sensitive". See:

File system formats available in Disk Utility on Mac

Hmmm...???
That is the first time I have ever read a recommendation or a suggestion that "case sensitive" should be and is recommended to be used in any Drive formatting in any Mac forum or Guide and I certainly didn't see anything recommending it in the article you provided a link to above.

Maybe you could provide a link to an article that does so and why it might be better and under what circumstances.

I've often wondered why it was and even available or the reason for it andrecall trying to find some justified reason years ago, but never really found anything.

But I guess it does give the user the option for having two different files with the same name in the same place if they ever have a reason for doing so.



- Patrick
=======

 

[BobHas]

Whow, a lot to unpack here. Thanks.

First question - how does a disk get AFPS? Looking at my disks the ones I have worked on mostly seem to have gotten Journaled HFS+. But I do note both my mid-2016 MacBook Pro on Catalina and this mid 2011 27" iMac on High Sierra that I am dealing with show APFS on the internal system disk. Important to note about that - the iMac had its internal hard drive replaced with a 1GB SSD some years ago. I don't recall how it was initially set up (formatted?, initialized?, whatever the right term is). I suspect the guy who did the replacement must have done some level of initiation of the drive. I think I recall him demonstrating it booted fine, and quicker than it had with the hard drive of course. I can not recall how the contents were restored (maybe the hard drive had not failed and he transferred its content). Most likely by me from a backup. Likely TM.

 

[BobHas]

My question about case sensitive stirred up a bit of discussion that reflects exactly the source of my difficulties being clear about it. My experience I think has been the MacOS is case insensitive when say I search for a file with Finder. I am much happier with it that way so worry when I see that a disk is case sensitive and don't know how that could surface for me.

 

[BobHas]

As mentions of Migration Assistant come up it reminds me I have never know much about it and what what all it can do. In this thread there have been multiple mentions. I have done some looking but have not found a good guide to it and the things it can do. It looks like having that in the toolbox for my current situation would be very helpful.