New User - Maintenance help

Living out in the boonies in NW Florida I have no access to user groups. I started out with Apple II but switched to PC due to engineering pressure many years ago. So now I have an iMac G4, bought mostly for the graphics/DV. I've done the updates to the operating system when told to. But it is rather difficult as my internet access is via satelite connected to a PC runing ics which is a pig. Consequently the mac actually runs slower over the satelite than dialup. So I download to the PC and move it to the mac. And also with Apple pushing you to the web for help functions it just takes too long to access help, when it actually completes which is not too often.

With all that out of the way. I have noticed lately that the bootup is slower and getting hung occasionly. I have defragged, but there must be other stuff to do regularly. Is there a location where I can go to get step by step items to do every so often? Or can someone here tell me.

I leave the mac on all the time, as I read somewhere it does maintenance in the wee hours of the morning. But does it do it when its asleep? As it goes to sleep after only a few minutes of inactivity, I wonder if it does the maintenance.

What should I be doing. I just read something about rebuilding the desktop monthly or weekly or some such. And it talked about using some utility from Apple but they don't include it on your cd so you have to go somewhere else and get it or buy diskwarrior (@$80). It all seems complicated to me, probably cause its unfamiliar. So I need some instructions. Bare bones instructions on what to do.

I have 3/4 meg main mem, running OSX 2.8...

As always thanks in advance for any help and direction.

Wade in Florida

Hi There, Here's a few MAC OSX maintenance tips for you.

1: System File Checks, while you could use disk warrior for repairing file systems most of this can be done with the built-in fsck tool. This util checks for and repairs damage within your file system. To use the util do this:
A: Reboot Your Mac
B:Start up in single user mode achieved by holding down Command-S until you see Unix type code appear on your monitor.
C: When you see a command prompt, type /sbin/fsck -y

This command runs a series of tests and will report any errors, then fix them. Rerun until you get no more errors then type reboot at the command line once everything looks good.

Repairing Permissions:
Run the Disk Utility (under Applications>Utilities) Select your startup partition (boot disk) and clickthe First Aid tab. Click on Verify Disk Permissions. If any permisssion problems are reported click Repair Disk Permissions to have the utility correct them.

These are your basics, there is more like zapping your PRAM or clearing out your caches.

Hope that helped,
Chris
postasite.net