Encryption ensures for Data Protection on Mac OS X Lion

Data Encryption is a process of converting information in the form of plain text to a non-readable form termed as 'cipher text' using advanced mathematical algorithms. The motto of data encryption is limiting the right to access the information to authorized users only. Getting an efficient and reliable file encryption software for Mac is quite difficult, as so many data encryption software are available on the Internet. However, it is recommended to use professional software only. Once the information is transformed to cipher form, every time you need access to the information, you need to enter the decryption password, which is the same as that used for encryption.

Initially, data encryption was introduced for securely sharing military secrets. However, today, data encryption is used for sharing confidential information over emails between two business organizations. Mac OS X facilitates creating both blank and existing Mac volume’s encrypted image (.dmg) containing your precious data. Following are the steps involved in creating a password-protected blank image or vault:

• Step 1: Launch Disk Utility

(On the desktop menu bar, click Go > Applications > Utilities folder > Disk Utility)

• Step 2: Click New Image option on the Disk Utility toolbar

(Make sure no disk is selected in the left pane)

• Select a Location to save this image.

(You can also create a New Folder at this location.)

• Choose a Size for this image
• Choose Volume format as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
• Select Image Format as read/write disk image
• Choose Encryption as 128-bit AES Encryption or 256-bit AES Encryption (Mac OS X 10.5 or later)
• Click Create

When you click Create, a set password window will be displayed. For Password help, you can click key button next to the Password field. Here, you can try different pre-specified combinations of passwords. However, it is recommended to set your own password by choosing memorable in order that you can easily remember it. After you specify a password, it takes some time to create the blank image or vault. After that, you will see a mounted disk and an image (.dmg) file with the name you specified at the chosen location. Depending on the image’s size, you can move your essential files to it. Once the data transfer is done, you can un-mount this image in Finder. Every time you double-click this image, you need to enter the password.

This is how you can implement encryption in Mac OS X Lion. However, you can use file encryption software for Mac in order to achieve individual file encryption.

Note: Both encryption and decryption passwords are same.

Check Health Status of your Mac’s Hard Drive in Easy Steps

The hard drive is a major source of secondary memory on a computer, facilitating data storage to large extent. Just like every other electronic and mechanical component, hard drives are subject to logical corruption due to power failure, master boot record corruption, and failure due to physical damages. Though you cannot prevent the hard drive failure or corruption, you can avoid data loss by frequently checking the hard drive volume status with Disk Utility. If some errors are reported, you can make necessary repairs right over there.

You must refer to S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) Status of the hard drive on Disk Utility, which reports the reliability and expected failure. You might not know where and how to check hard drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status; therefore, follow the steps discussed below:

• Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility)
• Select the hard drive in the left pane.
• Now, look for the S.M.A.R.T. Status in the bottom pane under First Aid tab

• If it says Verified, then drive is OK
• Else, you need to repair the drive in Recovery Mode

Note: S.M.A.R.T. status belongs to the hard disk drive, not to an individual volume. Therefore, you cannot judge exactly where the corruption is.

Most likely, the corruption is in single volume (could be in boot volume) and you verify and repair the entire hard drive, which are time- as well as resource-consuming processes. You can individually check the health status of every Mac volume with Disk Utility, though. For this,

• Launch Disk Utility.
• Select a volume (non-boot) in the left pane.
• In the First Aid tab at the right, click Verify Disk and wait for the process to finish.

• If you see some Red instructions (indicating errors) in the Show detail area, then click Repair Disk
• Else, the volume is OK.

• Repeat these steps for each non-boot volume

To check the health status of the boot volume, you need to boot the Mac in Recovery Mode. To do this, Restart your Mac and hold Command + R Keys during startup.

• Choose a preferred Language and continue.
• Launch Disk Utility in the Utilities menu.
• Select boot volume (listed as Macintosh HD) and click Repair Disk

Depending on the size of boot volume, the process could be long and you have to wait. After the repair is finished, exit Disk Utility and boot Mac normally. If you do not get the drive or the volume repaired, it is recommended to back up your data and replace the disk with a new one.

Effective Tips to Revive your Mac OS X

“I am a newbie to the Mac world, who recently moved to Mac after hearing a lot about its unbeatable performance. Initially, it worked exactly how I heard about, but now this so-called excellent Mac OS X has turned into a Snail. Every time I double-click any file or folder, a colored revolving circle appears taking 3 – 4 seconds to disappear. Now, the situation has become annoying and I really do not know what to do. Somebody help me getting my Mac performing well again.”

You may consider many things affecting the performance of your Mac. However, you can’t be so sure, as you don’t know what exactly is going on inside the Mac machine. Besides, the situation becomes more critical, if the user is a newbie who can’t even think of taking a step forward to speed up Mac again.

Well, disappointment will not be roving around if you track the following steps to keep your Mac healthy:

 

Keep Everything Updated

Developers frequently release updates for software as well as for the operating system, which include fixes for various issues experienced by the users around the globe. Make sure you have installed all latest updates released both for Mac OS X and for each installed application. If not, then go to Apple menu and click Software Update. Every new update will display in the Software Update Window. You just need to Click Install button.

 

Keep Free Space on the Hard Drive

Do not keep unnecessary data on the Mac drive, as more free space improves execution. Go through the hard drive volumes, delete every useless thing, and move all seldom-used items to any external drive. Keep everything organized properly for easy access in near future.

 

Clean up Mac

Several types of temporary files (such as system binaries, cookies, cache, etc.) are generated as a result of internal processing and online activities. These files are not removed automatically after completion of the ongoing operations, but eat up RAM and processor. Though you can clean up such files manually by visiting different corners of the Mac machine, it is better to use a good cleanup software for quick and better results.

 

Upgrading RAM

RAM is the primary memory in computers that executes every system as well as user program. Operating system divides these programs into segments to store them on the hard drive. These segments are collectively executed in RAM. Therefore, more the RAM, faster will be the execution, i.e. you will experience a performance bump on Mac.

However, not every user goes for the hardware upgrade. Alternatively, one can defrag Mac drive.

 

Defrag Mac Drive

Because of the rapid movement of the large data segments and inefficient memory allocation, memory blocks remain unallocated among large data arrays. These unused blocks affect data access and Mac’s performance is minimized automatically. Use a good disk defragmentation software to remove the fragments and to speed up Mac.

Mac cleaner for OS X Mavericks | Make Mac ready for Mavericks

I need to clean My Mac drive with Mac cleaner for Mavericks installation. My Mac disk is almost full and need an app cleaner to delete all unnecessary applications and files from it. Currently, I am on Mountain Lion and want to switch to Mavericks to experience the most advanced OS from Apple. The most fascinating part of this OS X is its speed. I enjoyed every feature of my Mountain Lion but sometimes got frustrated with its sluggish speed. And that is the reason why I want to have the Mavericks.

Mac cleaning applications

While searching for this category, I came across two options – CleanMyMac and Stellar Speed Up Mac. The applications reviews were great and pushed me to download both of these.

Stellar Speed Up Mac v2.5

The free version of this App comes with limited features. The welcome screen offers three options:

a. SpeedUp Now : To apply the cleaning task on whole drive

b. Clean My Mac : To clean useless files from a single volume

c. Uninstaller ; To remove an application permanently

Options in Preferences

1. General : You can set the preferences for types of files to be deleted from your machine. It makes settings for both Clean My mac and SpeedUp Now options.

2. Folder Search: One can mention the folder location from where the files need to be deleted.

3. Languages: You have the flexibility to choose and delete the language files you don't need. You have the option either to group the files by language or by software.

4. Files: In this section you can filter the scanning process on the basis of file extension, File size and duration of last access.

5. Devices: This feature runs automatic trash service from external removable devices.

6. Advanced: The advanced section includes option to play sounds, Launch uninstaller automatically and trash monitoring.

7. Scheduler: You can schedule the launch of Speed Up Mac automatically and check for updates either daily, weekly or monthly.

8. Ignore List: The app ignores the files enlisted here.

The trial versin of this Mac cleaner scanned my complete drive of 320 GB in a minute and asked me either to register and clean 1.68 GB of useless files OR to clean just 460 MB, without registration. I clicked the “Free Cleanup” while I was downloading CleanMyMac.

CleanMyMac 2

The welcome window shows options for Automatic Cleanup, System Cleanup, Large & Old files, iPhoto cleanup, Uninstaller, Extension Manager and Eraser.

The app works on whole disk in one go and doesn't have any option to select a specific volume. It can delete the large and old files but doesn't provide flexibility to to chose the size and access duration.

An interesting feature I liked here is iPhoto cleanup which can delete unnecessary files from iPhoto of your Mac.

After the scan is completed, it prompted me a message to purchase the licence but no feature is free with trial version of CleanMyMac 2.

Options in Preferences

1. General: It has the option to reset the ignore list and play sounds.

2. Scanning: Here, one can select and deselect the type of files to be scanned while running the application.

3. Scheduler: Option to schedule the maintennance task by the application either weekly or once in 2 weeks.

4. Monitoring: This section provides option to launch uninstaller to delete all related items of an application, once it is moved to trash.

5. Privacy and Updates: An option to check for updates automatically.

On the basis of above observations, I prefer Stellar Speed Up Mac and going to, make my Mac ready for Mavericks.

Wipe Mac Hard Drive and Protect your Data with disk utility

Today, data recovery software are available worldwide facilitating data recovery from hard drives, flash memory, CD/DVD, and other removable media irrespective of how your data was lost. These software are available for a variety of operating systems, such as Mac OS X and Windows, recovering data efficiently. However, what in case you do not want the data to be recovered? Can we neglect the probability of data recovery on Mac? You might be thinking that why someone would wish for his data to go beyond recovery. Well, situations are there. Let us take a scenario making the uncertainties clear.

You own a Mac with large amount of data stored on it. Since the hard drive is about to get full, you need to upgrade it to the one with much higher capacity and move all the data to it. Then, what is to be done with the hard drive that is recently emptied? You may format and put it up for sale; however, you certainly do not want the buyer to recover data from it. Similarly, imagine the case of a professional whose every single file is precious. Does a simple hard drive formatting prevent the data from recovery? Mac disk wiping is the only way to protect your precious data from such unauthorized access, as wiping the hard drive deletes the data permanently, i.e. beyond recovery. Disk Utility in Mac OS X facilitates wiping Mac’s hard drive; however, those who do not prefer using Disk Utility for disk operations can opt for any external disk wipe software of Mac. For the time being, let us see how Disk Utility wipes the hard drive on Mac.

• Launch Disk Utility.

(Navigate to Applications >Utilities folder > Disk Utility)

• Attach the hard drive you need to securely erase (i.e. wipe) on Mac.
• Select this hard drive in the left pane of Disk Utility.

(Make sure the hard drive does not contain any data)

• Now, go to the Erase tab in the right pane
• Click Security Options and move the slider to Most Secure in Secure Erase Options window

(In some previous Mac versions, you can choose either 7-Pass Erase or 35-Pass Erase. These algorithms write junk over the drive and your data goes beyond recovery.)

• Click OK to erase the hard drive.

Mac OS X Lion provides 7-Pass Erase algorithm. Since the process is time and resources consuming, it is recommended to let it run overnight and get the hard drive wiped in the morning.

Mac cleaner app to Remove Unnecessary Mac Files Permanently

Just as you regularly take out the trash cleaning up your home, Mac machine also requires to clean Mac apps in order to keep it healthy. When a file or a program is executed in RAM, so many temporary files storing intermediate results in binary form are generated, which are referred to as system waste. These system wastes (i.e. temporary, cookies, cache, and several other types of unwanted files), are stored in different corners of the Mac machine, which not only eat up RAM, but even consume disk space. When these files are accumulated in huge amount, you experience performance issues, such as slow data response, spinning beach ball, sluggish startup, etc. Scan entire hard drive and delete Mac files that are unnecessarily eating up system resources and disk space. Before taking any cleanup action, you need to be familiar with these files, and how they are produced.

How such unnecessary files are produced

• During program execution and several input/output operations, computers generate intermediate files, which are useless after completion of the processes. These files contain binary data that self-allocates system resources and keep them busy unnecessarily. 
  
  
• Cookies are temporary Internet files that automatically download on a computer during online activities. These files contain sensitive information (in binary form) related to the online transactions, such as Internet banking, e-signature, etc. When you double-click an email attachment (i.e. images, text files, etc.) for quick view, they actually download on your Mac as temporary files.

In spite of these, you may have unused installed applications, large data files, and duplicate files stored on your Mac, which you should delete (if useless) or move to an external drive and free up the disk space.

Cleaning all unnecessary files

Remove all such unnecessary files from different corners (such as Documents folder, Pictures, default Email Downloads location) of your Mac machine and get its performance enhanced.

• Removing Documents: The user’s profile directory on Mac OS X has some default directories that store the documents you create, Internet downloads (i.e. images, audio and video files), etc. Open Finder, select user’s directory, and open Documents. Remove all unnecessary items right now.
  
  
• Cleaning Pictures: Similarly, in Finder, examine Pictures folder in user’s profile directory. If you connect iPod, Digital Camera, or any other device that synchronizes with Mac, peek inside its directory and clean up all unneeded pictures immediately.
  
  
  
  
  
• Removing email downloads: When you configure Apple’s mail, it creates a directory, i.e. “youruserfolder/Library/Mail Downloads” that contains automatically downloaded email attachments. Depending on the size of every attachment, the size of this directory could be large. Examine every single file carefully, and then remove it. For quick and better results, use a good clean up software to scan the entire hard drive at once and clean Mac files, which are unnecessary.
   

In spite of these, there could be several other unknown and unreachable locations on Mac storing huge amount of system waste. You can search for duplicate files in Mac’s Finder. Type asterisk (*) in search box and wait until the search is finished. Now, you can see similar files are shown together. However, before you delete any of those, reveal them in Finder in order to make sure they are copy of each other. For quick and better results, you can use a cleanup software for Mac.