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Protecting your data from drive failures, theft, fire, flood, and dinosaurs.
Two Drives in Your Mac Laptop!
Extreme reliability and performance. Delivered.
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Our premium upgrade service provides peace of mind.
Personal Mac Consulting
Save time, aggravation and money. Get performance, reliability and backup. Get answers now.
Save time, aggravation and money. Get performance, reliability and backup. Get answers now.
Testing & Diagnostic Software
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BACKUP & DATA SAFETY
Data Safety with RAID-1 Mirror
Protect your data with a fault-tolerant RAID-1 Mirror.
Using Apple Time Machine for Backup
How to use Apple Time Machine for Data Safety
- Using Time Machine for Data Safety
- Configuring Time Machine
- Choosing a Time Machine Backup Drive
- Time Machine BUG: Silent Exclusion of Volumes
- Restoring Files with Time Machine
- Best Practices with Time Machine
- Optimizing Time Machine
- Time Machine and Backup Tips
- Starting a Time Machine Backup When Desired
- Excluding Items from Time Machine Backup
- Using Time Machine with Adobe Lightroom
HOW TO
How To Guides
How to perform useful tasks and upgrades.
- How to Capture the Screen or Window as an Image
- How to boot off an external drive
- How to upgrade your system/boot drive
- How to Set the Startup Volume / Startup Drive/Disk
- How to clone a volume
- How to Verify/Repair a RAID Volume
- How to detect a failing hard drive (SMART status)
- How to test memory for reliability
- How to install 6GB or 8GB memory in MacBook Pro
- How to Reset Apple Safari Saved Information
- How-To Disallow Saving Usernames/Passwords in Safari
- How-To Erase a Web Site Password in Safari or Firefox
- Moving Your Bookmarks to Another Computer
- How to Create a Group of Bookmarks in Safari
- Enabling the Developer / Debug Menu to Safari
- How to Change Date and Time Formats for Ease of Viewing
- How to Create and Use a RAM Disk
- How to See Disk Usage / Space Used
- How to use a Mac Pro as a Robust File Server
Setting Up Your Mac
Suggestions for setting up your Mac for performance and data safety.
- Sizing and Setting Up Your Mac Boot Drive
- Installing a Just-Right Mac System
- Separate Data from System and Applications
- High Performance Mac Configuration
- Testing Mac Memory and Drives
- Choosing the Right Mouse
- Boot With the 64-bit Kernel
- Set Finder Preferences
- System Preferences (General)
- How to Unhide your Library Folder on OS X
- Set a Two-button Mouse
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Disable the Caps Lock key
- Declutter the Dock
- Turn Off iTunesHelper
- Exclude Items from Spotlight
- Apple Mail Unread Mailbox Setup
- Time Machine for Always-on Backup
- Relocating the Home Directory Off the Boot Drive
- Relocating Mail Off the Boot Drive
- Relocating Documents Folder Off the Boot Drive
- Relocating iTunes and iPhoto Libraries
Setting Up Your Mac For Better Security
Reduce the chances of security breaches.
- Set up a Normal User Account (and use it)
- Keep System Software Up To Date
- Disable Automatic Login
- Disable Incoming Internet Connections
- Disable Safari’s 'Open Safe Files by Default'
- Disable Java in Safari
- Apple Mail Security
- Put Adobe Flash on a Leash
- Safe Settings for Adobe Flash
- Turn Bluetooth Off
- Turn Off Unused Network Services
- File Sharing and Remote Access
- Use a Hardware Firewall With Unroutable LAN
- Prefer Wired Internet; Avoid Wireless Internet
- Use a Bastion Server
- More Diligent Measures, Even Hardware Removal
Upgrading Your Mac
When and Why to Upgrade Your Mac.
- Upgrades: Know Your Priorities
- Be Smart About Upgrades
- Upgrades: How Much Memory?
- Upgrades: Internal Hard Drive or Solid State Drive?
- Upgrading Your System Drive
- MacBook Pro Upgrades
- Upgrading Mac Pro Memory
- Upgrading Mac Pro Internal Drives
- Upgrading the Mac Pro CPU
- Upgrading Reliability and Backup
- Upgrading Ergonomics and Efficiency
- Case Study: Upgrade a MacBook Pro to Banish Sluggishness
- Case Study: Upgrade a 2010 MacBook Pro for Photoshop Performance
- Case Study of Mac Pro Memory and Photoshop CS5 Performance
Command Line Time Savers
Useful tasks at the command line in Terminal.
Monitoring and Graphing Stock Performance
Following stock performance and company news efficiently.
FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS
Optimizing Photoshop CS6 Performance
The best hardware and configuration for Photoshop CS6.
Strange but True: Photoshop CS5 Performance
What you should know about CS5 performance.
Optimizing Photoshop CS5 Performance
The best hardware and configuration for Photoshop CS5.
- The Photoshop CS5 Upgrade (Introduction)
- Photoshop CS5 Memory Usage Preference
- Photoshop CS5 Maximum Memory on Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, iMac
- Photoshop CS5 Cache Tile Size = Sharp Stick In The Eye
- Photoshop CS5 64-bit and 32-bit Plugin Issues
- Adobe Plugins for Photoshop CS5 Performance
- Speed Up Saving and Opening Photoshop CS5/CS4/CS3 Files
- Save Big Files 20X Faster With the DisallowFlateCompressedPSD Plugin
- Influence of Drive Speed on CS5 Big File Save Speed
- Photoshop CS5 Warmup Time — Memory Allocation Hit
- Scripts to Warm Up Photoshop CS5
- Analysis of Photoshop CS5 CPU Core Usage
- Various Other Photoshop CS5 Issues
- Photoshop CS5 diglloyd Benchmarks
- Photoshop CS5 Optimization Conclusions
Optimizing Photoshop CS4 Performance
How to configure a Mac to maximize Photoshop CS3/CS4 performance.
- Photoshop CS4 Optimization (Introduction)
- How to Configure Photoshop CS4 for best performance
- Performance in Photoshop CS4 vs CS3
- Test results for Photoshop CS4 on Mac Pro
- Test results for Photoshop CS4 on MacBook Pro
- Using Solid State Drives (SSD) for Photoshop CS4 Scratch
- Optimizing Photoshop CS4 on Apple MacBook Pro With Solid State Drives
- MacBook Pro Photoshop CS4 speed demon SSD
- Using a RAM disk as a Photoshop CS4 scratch disk
- Photoshop CS4 Benchmark actions
- Photoshop CS4 oddities
- Photoshop CS4 Performance Conclusions and Recommendations
Optimizing Other Photography Software
Speedups for working with images.
OPTIMIZING MAC PERFORMANCE
Optimizing Mac Performance
Learn about Activity Monitor and understand how CPU cores, processes, memory use, and software scalability affect performance.
- Ways to Optimize Your Mac’s Performance
- Optimizing your Mac: Get Adequate Memory
- Optimizing your Mac: SSD for Fast Virtual Memory
- Optimizing your Mac: Fast Hard Drive or SSD
- Optimizing your Mac: Quit Vampire Programs
- Optimizing your Mac: Turn Off Unused Services
- How to Delete a Space-Hogging Sleep File sleepimage
- How to Reclaim Wasted Cache Space on Your Boot Drive
Optimizing Video/DVD and Other Software
How to make your software run faster on the same hardware!
Mac Performance 101: Cores, Processes, Memory
Monitoring tips and application CPU core scorecard.
Mac Performance 102: Storage
Learn about hard drive and interface performance, including RAID, partitioning, eSATA, Firewire, and more.
- Introduction to Storage Performance
- Why You Need More Space Than You You Need
- Larger Hard Drives Are Faster Than Smaller Ones
- The Fastest 2TB Volume is on a 4TB Drive
- Why you should avoid Port Multiplication
- SATA, Firewire, and USB
- eSATA compared to Firewire 800
- How to Partition Hard Drives
- RAID striping and mirroring
- Step-by-step to setting up RAID on Mac OS X
- RAID 5 for Performance and Reliability
- SoftRAID is easier RAID
- eSATA PCI-Express card configuration
Optimizing Mac Application Performance
Optimizing specific application performance.
Special Report: Virtual Memory on Apple MacBook Pro
Virtual memory performance on the Apple MacBook Pro 2010/2009 with solid state drives and hard drives.
CHOOSING & CONFIGURING A MAC
Quick Links for Buying
Where to go to buy Macs and related items.
Choosing and Configuring a Mac
An in-depth look at how to find the right Mac setup for you
- How to Choose a Mac
- How to Select and Configure a Mac Pro
- How to Select and Configure a MacBook Pro
- How to Select and Configure an iMac
- Buying a Refurbished Mac
- Buying a Mac at the Apple Store
- Upgrading Your Mac
- Setting up Your New Mac (or renovating one)
- Mac Boot Drive Dogma
- Mac Backup and Reliability
- Simple and Cost-effective Backups for Mac
- Backing up with Apple’s Mac Backup
- My Mac Pro: An Example
- Mac Pro Memory: Choosing, Installing, Testing
How to Buy / What to Buy
Nuts and bolts of buying a Mac, and recommended extras.
- Mac Pro Buyer's Guide: Step-by-Step
- Buyer's Guide: Ordering a Refurbished Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Ordering a New Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Setting up a Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Multi-interface External Enclosures
- Buyer's Guide: eSATA Enclosures
- Buyer's Guide: Memory for Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Hard Drives for Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: eSATA Cards for Mac Pro
- Buyer's Guide: Recommended Solid State Drives (SSD)
- Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro Memory
- Buyer's Guide: eSATA for MacBook pro
- Buyer's Guide: Displays
- Buyer's Guide: Power Conditioning (UPS)
- Recomended Vendor: OWC
MAC OS X
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
Mountain Lion tips and how-to.
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Special Report: Upgrade Now or Wait?
- The Snow Leopard Upgrade (Introduction)
- How to Safely Install Snow Leopard
- Finder preferences in Snow Leopard
- Snow Leopard Performance
- Memory and Drives for Snow Leopard
- Booting into 64-bit mode (Snow Leopard)
- Snow Leopard Hardware Compatibility
- Snow Leopard Software Compatibility
- Snow Leopard: Printing with Epson Pro Printers
- Snow Leopard Hassles and Bugs
- Snow Leopard Test Notes
Mac Trials and Tribulations
Headaches and hassles encountered with OS X.
Mac OS X Lion Hairballs
When an upgrade brings more downgrades and bugs than value.
- Mac OS X Lion Hairballs
- Cannot Print With Epson Stylus Pro 3800
- Lion-converted Apple Mail Cannot Be Used With Snow Leopard Boot
- Apple Mail Searching Multiple Choice, Multiple Steps
- Apple Mail Modal Window
- Apple Mail Takes Accounts Offline for Days
- User Comments on Apple Mail in Lion
- Multi-second System Hangs with Rainbow Beachballs
- Software RAID Display Broken
- Disk Utility Cannot Verify a RAID Volume
- Unusable Full-screen Mode
- Scrolling Direction Baffling
- Spelling Auto Correct
- Save As Command Forces Multi-Step Workaround, Data Destruction
- Fixing Controls in Finder Icon View Windows
- Pixellated Image Previews in Lion Finder
- Finder Cannot Display File Type Correctly
- Column Divider Will Not Size To Fit
- You Are Not Connected To The Internet
- Launchpad Does Not Accept Keyboard Input
- Restore Windows When Quitting and Re-opening Apps
- Disable Animated Window Zooming
PRO-GRADE HIGH PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS
The MPG Pro Workstation™
Get a Mac desktop ready-to-use, customized for your needs
The MPG Pro Laptop™
Get a Mac laptop ready-to-use, customized for your needs
OUTRAGEOUSLY FAST SYSTEMS
Apple July 2010 iMac 27-inch Quad-Core
Just how fast is Apple’s new quad-core iMac?
Fast and Reliable Hardware RAID
How fast and reliable can RAID-0, RAID-5 and RAID-6 go using an 8-drive mini-SAS box and a hardware RAID card?
- Introduction to RAID Considerations
- Choosing RAID-0, RAID-5, RAID-6
- CiDesign iStoragePro iT8SAE Enclosure
- Atto R380 RAID PCI Express RAID Card
- Atto/iStoragePro Performance and Testing Overview
- Atto/iStoragePro Test Results for RAID-0 Striping
- Atto/iStoragePro Test Results for RAID-5 Striping + Parity
- Atto/iStoragePro Test Results for RAID-6 Striping + Dual Parity
- Atto/iStoragePro Speed with Western Digital RE4 vs Hitachi 7K2000
- Atto/iStoragePro RAID Conclusions
Apple Mac Pro Westmere 4/6/8/12-Core (Aug 2010)
Choosing among 4/6/8/12 cores, and is 2010 Mac Pro faster or better than 2009 model?
- Mac Pro Westmere Introduction
- Which Mac Pro CPU for Photography, Video, Sound?
- Mac Pro Westmere Clock Speed, Cores, and Cache
- When More Is Less: Photoshop Slower With 12 Cores Than 6
- Mac Pro Westmere Estimating CPU Performance
- Mac Pro Westmere Hits and Misses
- Mac Pro Westmere Ordering Tips: What to Get and What to Skip
- Mac Pro Westmere Solid State Drive Option
- Mac Pro Westmere How Much Memory and Where to Buy
- Mac Pro Westmere Value Compared to Quad-Core iMac
- Mac Pro Westmere Internal SATA Bandwidth
- Mac Pro Westmere Test Machine Configuration
- Mac Pro Westmere Photoshop Performance: diglloydSpeed1
- Mac Pro Westmere Photoshop Performance: diglloydMedium
- Mac Pro Westmere Photoshop Performance: diglloydHuge
- Mac Pro Westmere Photoshop CS5 Panorama (Auto Align and Auto Blend)
- Mac Pro Westmere Digital Camera RAW File Processing Speed (Bibble Pro)
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Import with Adobe Lightroom 3
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Import with PhaseONE CaptureONE
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Import with Apple Aperture 3
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Processing with Canon Digital Photo Professional
- Mac Pro Westmere RAW-file Processing with Nikon Capture NX2
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with PhotoZoom Pro
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with Helicon Focus
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with PTGui Pro
- Mac Pro Westmere XCode C++ Build
- Mac Pro Westmere Real World Memory Bandwidth
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with Apple Logic Studio
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with Adobe After Effects
- Mac Pro Westmere Performance with Handbrake Video Encoding
- Mac Pro Westmere Cinebench CPU and GPU
- Mac Pro Westmere Conclusions
Shootout: 8-core 2.93GHz or Quad-Core 3.33GHz?
Why 4 cores are often faster than 8!
- Comparing Cores vs. Clock Speed (Introduction)
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed Raw CPU Performance
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed: Digital Camera RAW-file Processing
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed: Photography Applications
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed: Photoshop Benchmarks
- Nehalem Cores vs. Clock Speed Conclusions
Optimizing the MacBook Pro Core i7
Maxing-out your MacBook Pro Core i7 with memory and drives.
SSD
OWC Mercury Accelsior PCIe RAID SSD
Ultra-fast solid state storage with hardware RAID for a Mac Pro in a PCIe slot.
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD with Hardware RAID
- Mercury Accelsior 'E2' PCIe SSD with Dual eSATA Ports New!
- Mercury Accelsior 'E2' Upgrade Process (Module Swap) New!
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Setup and Configuration
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Benefits and Applications
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Performance Singly and Striped
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Photoshop CS6 Benchmark (diglloydMedium)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Photoshop CS6 Benchmark (diglloydHuge)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Speed vs Capacity and Data Type (240GB)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Speed vs Capacity and Data Type (480GB)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Speed (Triple RAID-0 Stripe)
- Mercury Accelsior PCIe SSD — Conclusions
OWC Mercury Electra 960GB 3G SSD
Huge capacity in a speedy SATA SSD.
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD
Fast 6 Gbps solid state drives eclipse prior generations with 500+ MB/sec.
- Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD
- Sustained Transfer Speed — 2011 MacBook Pro 6G Port
- Read Applications Folder — 2011 MacBook Pro 6G Port
- Duplicate Image Files — 2011 MacBook Pro 6G Port
- Photoshop CS5 diglloydMedium Benchmark
- Photoshop CS5 diglloydHuge Benchmark — OWC 480GB 6G SSD on Mac Pro 3G Port
- Sustained Transfer Speed — OWC 480GB 6G SSD on 2010 Mac Pro 3G Ports
- Sustained Transfer Speed — OWC 480GB 6G SSD on 2011 MacBook Pro 6G
- Sustained Transfer Speed — 2010 Mac Pro Internal 3G Port 120GB Model
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 3G Solid State Drives
Fast and durable, enterprise-grade solid state drives.
- Introduction to Mercury Extreme Pro 3G
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G Single Drive Performance
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G RAID-0 Stripe Performance
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G and Photoshop on Mac
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G and Photoshop on Windows
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G RAID-0 Stripe Performance
- Comparing the Mercury Extreme Pro 3G 400GB to 200GB Model
- Comparing the Mercury Extreme Pro 3G 480GB to 240GB Model
- OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 3G 115GB SSD (25nm Flash)
- Mercury Extreme Pro 3G Conclusions
SPECIAL REPORT: Real World SSD Performance
Many brands of solid state drives put on a good show when new, but some degrade with use.
- Real-World SSD Performance Considerations (Introduction)
- Seasoning SSDs for Testing
- New vs Seasoned OWC Mercury Pro RE 200GB
- New vs Seasoned OWC Mercury Pro 240GB
- New vs Seasoned Crucial RealSSD 256GB
- New vs Seasoned Crucial M225 256GB
- New vs Seasoned Intel 160GB G2
- Comparing SSD Performance Results
- Comparing SSD Performance: Fill-volume 1000-file Test Results
- Severe Duty: OWC Extreme Pro RE vs Crucial RealSSD
- Severe Duty: OWC Extreme Pro vs Intel 160GB G2
- Severe Duty: OWC Extreme Pro vs Apple 512GB SSD
- Real World SSD Performance Conclusions
Solid State Drives (SSD)
Choosing and using solid state drives.
- Overview of Solid State Drives (SSD)
- Understanding Compressible vs Incompressible Data
- How to Make Your Mac Feel Lightning-fast
- Installing a solid state drive (SSD)
- Reconditioning a solid state drive (SSD)
- Crucial 128GB solid state drive (SSD)
- Crucial M225 256GB solid state drive (SSD)
- Intel X25-M G2 160GB solid state drive (SSD)
- OWC Mercury Elite On-The-Go External SSD
- Intel X25-E SSD
- Intel X25-M SSD on MacBook Pro
- Intel X25-M SSD in Mac Pro RAID
REVIEWS
Apple Mac Mini (Late 2012)
Apple’s first USB3 MacMini.
Apple iMac 3.4 GHz (Late 2012)
Apple’s fastest Mac as of Jan 2013?
- Late 2012 Apple iMac
- Display Quality and is it a TV?
- Fan Noise and Heat
- iMac Fusion Drive Performance (Single Volume)
- iMac Fusion Drive Performance (Separate SSD / HDD)
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — diglloydSpeed1
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — diglloydMedium
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — diglloydHuge
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — Auto Align Layers
- Photoshop CS6 Performance — XCode Build
- Photoshop CS6 RAW Conversion
Apple MacBook Pro Retina Quad-Core (June 2012)
Apple’s 2012 MacBook Pro Retina Display.
- 2012 MacBook Pro Retina
- Choosing a MacBook Pro Retina Configuration (IMPORTANT!)
- 2012 MBP Retina — Retina Display Scaling
- 2012 MBP Retina — Retina Display Size Comparison
- 2012 MBP Retina — Review Model Configuration
- 2012 MBP Retina — Memory not Upgradeable
- 2012 MBP Retina — Thunderbolt Ethernet Adapter
- 2012 MBP Retina — Apple 500GB SSD Performance
- 2012 MBP Retina — USB3 Performance
- 2012 MBP Retina — Photoshop CS6 Performance
- 2012 MBP Retina — RAW Conversion to JPEG
- 2012 MBP Retina — Memory Bandwidth
- 2012 MBP Retina and Photoshop CS5 / CS6
Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch Quad-Core (June 2012)
Apple’s 2012 MacBook Pro (non Retina).
- 2012 MacBook Pro 15-inch
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Configuring
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Review Model Configuration
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — USB3 Performance
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — SATA Performance with Both 6G Ports
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Photoshop CS6 Performance
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Photoshop CS6 Speed with Various SSDs
- 2012 MBP 15-inch — Memory Bandwidth
Apple MacBook Pro Quad-Core (February 2011)
A review of Apple’s first quad-core laptop.
- Introduction to the MacBook Pro Quad-Core
- Choosing which MacBook Pro Model
- How and Why I Configured my MacBook Pro
- Thunderbolt on the MacBook Pro
- Configuration As Tested
- Apple’s 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD)
- Mac OS X Support for SSD TRIM
- SATA Performance With OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD
- SSD Performance With Random Data
- MemoryTester SHA1 Performance
- MemoryTester CPU Performance
- MemoryTester Memory Performance
- Results With Photoshop CS5
- RAW Import with Adobe Lightroom 3
- RAW Import with Apple Aperture
- RAW to TIF with Bibble Pro
- RAW to TIF With Canon Digital Photo Professional
- RAW to TIF With PhaseOne CaptureONE Pro
- RAW to TIF With RAW Developer
- Focus Stacking with Helicon Focus
- Panorama With PTGui Pro 64-Bit
- Image Scaling With PhotoZoom Pro
- Encoding Video with Handbrake
- 2011 MacBook Pro: Will Apple Fix the 6G SATA BUGS?
- Conclusions on 2011 Apple MacBook Pro
2010 MacBook Air for Photographers?
How does the 2010 MacBook Air fare in the context of photography?
Apple MacBook Pro Core i7 (April 2010)
A review of Apple’s first Core i7 laptop.
- Introduction to the MacBook Pro i7
- MacBook Pro i7 Features and Changes
- MacBook Pro i7 Ergonomics and Usability
- MacBook Pro i7 Test Configurations
- MacBook Pro i7 CPU Performance and Memory Speed
- MacBook Pro i7 System Boot and Application Launch
- MacBook Pro i7 SATA performance With Solid State Drives
- MacBook Pro i7 SATA performance With Solid State Drives: BIZARRE
- MacBook Pro i7 Performance with Photoshop CS4
- MacBook Pro i7 Performance with RAW File Processing
- MacBook Pro i7 Software Development Performance (XCode)
- MacBook Pro i7 Recommendations
MacBook Pro eSATA Cards
A review of eSATA cards for the MacBook Pro.
- MacBook Pro eSATA options with ExpressCard/34 Slot
- MacBook Pro eSATA Test Procedure
- MacBook Pro eSATA with Mercury Extreme SSD
- MacBook Pro eSATA with OWC QX2 RAID-5 Enclosure
- MacBook Pro eSATA with Hitachi 7K2000 2TB Hard Drive
- MacBook Pro eSATA with Voyager Q + Mercury Extreme SSD
- MacBook Pro eSATA with 2TB Guardian Maximus RAID-1 Mirror
- MacBook Pro eSATA vs Firewire 800
- MacBook Pro eSATA Support for S.M.A.R.T. Status
- MacBook Pro eSATA Recommmendations
OWC Portable Dual-Drive RAID-0 or RAID-1 Mini Enclosures
Dual-drive externals for travel or compact backup.
- OWC Dual-drive Enclosures Overview
- OWC Dual-drive Features
- OWC Dual-drive Power Supply Options
- OWC Dual-drive Ergonomics
- Performance on Mac Pro with eSATA
- Performance on Mac Pro with Firewire 800
- Performance on MacBook Pro with eSATA
- Performance on MacBook Pro with Firewire 800
- OWC Dual-drive Conclusions
Mac Pro Memory
2009/2010 Mac Pro Memory — How Much for Performance?
- OWC 8GB memory modules for 2009/2010/2011 Mac Pro
- OWC 16GB memory modules for 2009/2010/2011 Mac Pro
- OWC 16GB Memory Modules for 2009/2010/2011 Mac Pro (2011 variant)
- OWC 16GB Memory Modules Clock Speed (2011 variant)
- OWC 16GB Memory Modules Performance on 3.33Ghz 6-Core Mac Pro (2011 variant)
- OWC 16GB Memory Modules Performance on 3.33Ghz 12-Core Mac Pro (2011 variant)
Drives and Expansion and Various
Reviews of various hardware and software.
- OWC Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis for Thunderbolt
- CalDigit PCIe 2-Port USB3 Card for Mac Pro
- NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G PCIe Card for Mac Pro
- Newer Technology Guardian Maximum 2TB RAID-1 Mirror for Plug and Play Reliability
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro (2011 model)
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro (2012 w/USB3 model)
- OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Mini (2010 model)
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini USB3 / eSATA SSD
- OWC Mercury Envoy Pro EX 480GB USB3 SSD New!
- OWC Mercury Elite Pro mini (2011 model)
- OWC Mercury Elite Al-PRO QX2
- Data Robotics Drobo
- NewerTech Voyager Q Drive Dock
- OWC On-The-Go 2.5-inch enclosure
- Sonnet Fusion F2 portable 2-drive RAID
- 2009 Apple MacBook Pro unibody 17
- Pimp My MacBook Pro
- 2008 Apple MacBook Pro unibody
- 2009 Apple MacMini
- Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34
- Novatel Wireless MiFi 2372 3G Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot
iPhone and Related
Apple iPhone and related items.
Mac Pro Early 2009 (Nehalem)
Configuring and optimizing.
- Introduction to Mac Pro Nehalem
- Mac Pro Nehalem Memory Overview
- Mac Pro Nehalem Scalability
- Mac Pro Nehalem: Dual vs Single CPU
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Introduction
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Memory and Compute Speed
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Photoshop CS4
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: RAW-file Converters
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Scaling/stacking Images
- Mac Pro Nehalem Tests: Software Development
- Mac Pro Nehalem Power Usage Spike Playing Music
- Mac Pro Nehalem Recommendations
Drobo 5D with Thunderbolt or USB3
RAID reliability in easy to configure 5-drive case.
Desktop Hard Drives
Performance and use.
- Testing Desktop Hard Drives (Introduction)
- Hitachi 4TB Deskstar 7K4000 Hard Drive
- Toshiba HGST 3TB Hard Drive (HDKPC08/DT01ACAxx)
- Hitachi 4TB Deskstar 5K4000 'Coolspin' Hard Drive
- Hitachi 3TB Deskstar 7K3000
- Western Digital RE4 2TB Enterprise Grade 'RAID Edition' HDD
- Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB hard drive
- Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K2000 / Ultrastar A7K2000
- Western Digital RE4-GP 2TB
- Low-power 2TB consumer hard drives
- Hitachi 1TB Deskstar E7K1000 Saturn.E
- Hitachi 1TB Deskstar 7K1000
- Maxtor 500GB Maxline Pro 7H500F0
- Seagate 1TB Barracuda ES_2
- Seagate 1.5TB Barracuda 7200.11
- Western Digital 1TB RE3
Laptop Hard Drives
Technical performance data.
- Testing Laptop Hard Drives (Introduction)
- Seagate 500GB Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drive
- Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB
- Fujitsu 320GB
- Intel 80GB X25-M SSD
- Hitachi 500GB Travelstar 5K500.B
- Hitachi 320GB Travelstar 7K320
- Seagate 160GB Momentus 7200.2
- Seagate 320GB Momentus 7200.3
- Western Digital 320GB Scorpio Black
- Western Digital 500GB Scorpio Blue
TRENDS
Core Rot at Apple
The worrisome decline of OS X quality and integrity.
- Apple Core Rot: Introduction
- Reader Comments on Apple Core Rot
- Impossible to Complete a File Copy on Any Drives
- Time Machine Silently Excludes Critical Data
- Finder Copy Destroys File System on Boot Drive
- Finder Refuses to Delete 'Backup Items'
- Finder Silently Fails to Copy Files
- Disk Utility Offers to Destroy 13 volumes on 4 Drives
- Graphics Professionals Need 10-bit Color
SOFTWARE
Software Tools
Tools for testing reliability and performance.
- DiglloydTools Software overview
- Purchase and Download
- DiskTester - drive performance and reliability
- MemoryTester - Memory and stress testing
- IntegrityChecker - Verify file integrity
- Command line tips
- Troubleshooting Issues
- DiskTester error: Cannot allocate minimum contiguous free space
- DiskTester error: permissions error, -5000 error
DiskTester User Manual
How to use DiskTester to test your hard drives or SSDs for speed and reliability.
- DiskTester User Manual
- DiskTester Testing Guidelines
- DiskTester recondition Command
- DiskTester fill-volume Command
- DiskTester run-area-test Command
- DiskTester run-sequential-suite Command
- DiskTester run-sequential Command
- DiskTester iops Command
- DiskTester run-streams Command
- DiskTester test-reliability Command
- DiskTester create-files Command
- DiskTester read-files Command
- DiskTester show-info Command
- Notes on Using the Command Line
MemoryTester User Manual
How to use MemoryTester, stress test your Mac, check for bad memory, etc.
IntegrityChecker User Manual
How to use IntegrityChecker to validate and verify your files, images, etc on your main drive, backups, or DVD/CD.
Up to 5x faster performance than an internal SATA drive!
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