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Last time, I talked about the 'dark matter' of your iOS devices and OS X systems: stuff that seems to occupy space without offering up information about why. In this Mac 911, I'll answer more questions about storage and backup.
As many as grains of sand on the beach
Doug Eldred writes in with a concern about a form of file bloat—but not about bloated sizes. Rather, the sheer number of items that seem to appear on his drive.
Whatever or wherever they are, they must not be terribly large, but my Mac used to have less than a million files (according to various tools, including SuperDuper!), and now it's [up] to 1.3 million. Trust me, I haven't knowingly created 300K new file recently!
Mac OS X (and, invisibly, iOS) has always had an inordinate quantity of files because of its Unix underpinnings. There is something about Unix that loves a multiplicity of tiny files rather than monolithic larger ones, hence these huge counts.
In the way back, in the long ago, it used to matter, because each file consumed a minimum amount of hard disk space regardless of the actual amount of data in it, and no more than 65,536 files on the drive. With HFS+, however, a drive can have nearly 4.3 billion files without each consuming unreasonable amounts of space.
Doug continues:
Those zillions of stray files don't seem to consume much space, but tools like SuperDuper! and Disk Utility 'verify disk' need to process each and every one of them in one way or another.
To my recollection and experience, the number of files shouldn't contribute to any system slowdowns, because they're inert unless needed. But during the cases that Doug mentions, could it cause delays? And why are there all these files being created, anyway? Super memory game mac os.
I turned to an expert: Dave Nanian, the founder of Shirt Pocket, makers of the SuperDuper! app that Doug uses. SuperDuper! is a disk backup utility that makes an exact, bootable clone of a drive, and I have it scheduled to run every night on my main computer in addition to two other forms of incremental document backup.
Dave writes:
Ah, 1.3 million files. I remember those early days, back when laptops were made of plastic, and chips by IBM. But today, you're not alone. The laptop I'm typing on right now has—according to Disk Utility—6,709,682 files. Make that, two seconds later, 6,709,687.
In general, especially if you're not seeing excessive disk usage, this just isn't something to worry about. There are a lot of hidden folders on your drive, sometimes entire hierarchies that are emulating things that can't be directly expressed in HFS+, but are still counted as 'files,' even though you wouldn't ever access them that way.
Apple implemented Time Machine in a very peculiar way by most developers' reckoning to create an exact copy without duplicating every file. Using so-called hard links, which allows a single copy of data to appear multiple times in a folder hierarchy, Time Machine creates hidden folders that fully replicate a hard disk's file structure. A Time Machine backup comprises mostly hard links pointing to existing files or folders unchanged since the previous backup. Each hard link is counted by OS X as a separate file.
Dave notes that Time Machine also stores a sort of local backup on the startup drive to improve its performance in copying to a local drive or a remote one over the network. Most other backup software makes an initial copy of a file and then a 'delta,' or a kind of summary of differences, for every version stored thereafter.
And Spotlight contributes to the file count: for better indexing, Mac apps have reference files for each quantum of data, such as an email message, to match a result up with an item. On one machine, I have hundreds of thousands of metadata files associated with email messages. Combine Spotlight and Time Machine, and you can see where the file count comes from. I don't use Time Machine and have nearly 1.8 million files on my MacBook Air.
Dave has consoling words, though: World of m.a.r.t.i. mac os.
I wouldn't worry about it too much — let the system handle its files, and don't be too concerned about the count. As long as your drive isn't mysteriously filling up, you're good.
Selective Time Machine
Tiny Man Mac Os Download
On the related suject of Time Machine, Larry Landen asks:
When I reinstall Mac OS X (to solve performance problems, or clear space) I have a restore option to migrate data from my Time Capsule, but it currently only gives me options to migrate entire user profiles, applications, and settings.
How may I pull only selected data (such as images, and iTunes media like music and movies, and documents) rather than an entire profile? I fear that restoring an entire profile may also restore any problems that made me want to reinstall OS X. Surrealista mac os.
It's a sensible and reasonable question: if some kind of corrupted or inaccurate setting is causing system problems, aren't you just asking for trouble by bringing all your settings over? Likely no. With the except of specific applications having corrupted configuration files, a clean installation and a migration of settings generally seems to avoid causing identical problems in OS X. (Solving corrupt app settings varies, but often involves tossing a file or several from ~Library/Preferences/
with the advice of the software's maker.)
That's in part because the corruption or other setting issues you're having can result from missing or overwritten system files or configurations that aren't copied back as part of a Time Machine migration.
With Migration Assistant, however, which you can launch on a computer after you've reinstalled and updated OS X, you can select certain sets of data to reimport, and can omit all your settings.
Another option, is to use the aforementioned SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to back up a volume, or software/service combinations like Backblaze or Crashplan to specific files or folders. Guru reels tv. Then you can more easily pick and choose what to restore.
Ask Mac 911
You can email things that perplex you or need solving to mac911@macworld.com, tweet them at me (if brief) @glennf, or call 206–337–5833 and leave a voicemail. Pandys cartoon adventure mac os. (We'll be experimenting with some audio in the future, and may put your question 'on the air.')
TLDR; The Lenovo M720q has dimensions, performance, and capabilities almost exactly the same as the mac mini at a more affordable price. You do lose Thunderbolt 3 connectivity as well as having to use an external power supply, but the flexibility the unit gives outweighs these compromises.
Like many people, I was also waiting for Apple to update the Mac Mini. The Mac Mini was my second Apple computer (the first was the 2011 Macbook Air) and I bought it primarily because it was the cheapest mac that Apple had to offer. So it was a bit of a mix of relief and disappointment that Apple announced the Mac Mini specs – which was a really big jump from its previous incarnations – and its price, which was also a big jump from its previous incarnations.
I've been thinking about purchasing the Mac Mini for many days, and I've been trying to consider alternatives. A couple of years back I bought the Intel NUC 7i5BNH which was the very first NUC that had Thunderbolt 3 capabilities, and is really easy to hackintosh. I thought that if I were to get a new machine, it's not gonna be an ultraportable with long battery life (I've already got the T480 for that), nor is it gonna be a gaming laptop (I've already got a Clevo P651 for that, plus I have the 1070 version), nor is it gonna be a full desktop (I've already got a i7-3770 that I've converted into an unRAID server to store old files and videos).
If I were to get a new machine, it's gonna be either the Mac Mini, or something very similar in form factor.
Small devices with really good performance
After looking around, I found the ThinkCentre Tiny line of products by Lenovo and I was hooked. I've had a really good experience buying my first modern ThinkPad online, and I thought that maybe I'd go ahead and get myself one of these small form factor PCs.
Tiny Man Mac Os 11
I don't have the latest Mac Mini but I was able to borrow one of the older generation Mac Mini's from the office to have a visual comparison.
The Lenovo purchase process couldn't be more different from that of Apple's. Whereas the choices are quite straightforward (if not limited) with the Mac Mini:
Choose your processor, your memory, your storage, your wallet; pick three
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You are given a whole boatload of choices with the ThinkCentre Tiny in comparison (and take note that that's just one of the three possible configurations of a Tiny; there's the M920q and the P330 models as well with their own sets of possible configurations):
How many choices do I have? Over 9000.
The ThinkCentre Tiny is so similar to the Mac Mini that it's difficult not to make comparisons:
mini | tiny | |
---|---|---|
Price | RM 3450 (USD 800) | RM 3650 (USD 810) |
Processor | 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 6MB shared L3 cache | 2.4GHz hexa-core Intel Core i7 Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz 12MB shared L3 cache |
Ports | 4 thunderbolt ports 1 headphone jack 1 HDMI 2.0 1 Ethernet 2 USB-A 3.1 gen 1 | front: 1 USB-C 3.1 gen 1 1 USB-A 3.1 gen 1 1 headphone/mic combo jack 1 mic jack back: 1 Display Port 1 HDMI 2.0 2 USB-A 3.1 gen 1 2 USB-A 3.1 gen 2 1 PCIe x4 low profile (with card giving 2 USB-A 3.1 gen 1) |
Memory | 8GB of 2666MHz DDR4 SO-DIMM memory (dual channel, as configured) | 8GB of 2666MHz DDR4 SO-DIMM memory (single channel, as configured) |
Storage | 128GB PCIe-based SSD | 512GB NVMe SSD |
WiFi/BT | Murata 339S00458 802.11ac BT5.0 | RealTek RTL8822BE 802.11ac BT4.2 |
Size | 19.7cm x 19.7cm x 3.6cm | 18cm x 18.5cm x 3.6cm (bare unit) |
Weight | 1.3kg | 1.32kg (as configured) |
Then there are those hardware and features that don't usually make it to the spec sheets:
- The Mac Mini has an internal power supply, so all you need is a power cable. The ThinkCenter Tiny requires an external Lenovo Slim-Tip power supply. One can argue of course that having it external makes it easier to replace/repair if it breaks.
- The Mac Mini needs some specialized equipment to open so you can replace the RAM modules. The ThinkCentre Tiny doesn't even require any tools if you configure it with the Tool-less option (which is for free by the way; I'm guessing the option to have it with tools is there for the business customers who wouldn't want the end users to be able to open the unit without IT support).
- The Mac Mini's SSD is non-replaceable; the ThinkCentre Tiny's SSD is.
- Although the Mac Mini has 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports, the ThinkCenter Tiny has full PCIe capability (as long as you have the correct riser card; mine came only with a x4 riser whereas the P330 can come with a x16 riser to accommodate a low profile RX560).
- The Mac Mini comes in recycled Space Gray Aluminum. The ThinkCentre Tiny comes in Black Steel.
- The Mac Mini's wifi antenna is internal. The ThinkCentre Tiny's wifi antenna is external.
No shortage of ports for both of them
My unit came with the Rambo DVD drive which increases the height a bit, but it's optional. Side quest for love mac os. I'm not sure if I want to keep it inside though as it makes the whole thing a lot heavier. Then again, it was only an extra $10 or so :P
The Ramb DVD Drive adds about an extra 2cm to the height of the whole unit. It adds some VESA mount points as well.
I've just finished setting it up and will be running benchmarks to check for performance soon. They're all not done yet, but the initial numbers are looking pretty good :)