Summary

Mac OS X gives you a great deal of flexibility, but it also requires more responsibility to run. To successfully keep your computer running smoothly and safely, you must stay current with system patches, create backups , optimize your hard drive and understand the effort your computer is expending to do the tasks you ask of it. We began the chapter with a look at Apple's automated software updates. Next, we looked at several options for backing up your data, including burning data CDs and creating disk images to transfer over the Internet or network to a safe storage place. Then, we talked about software available to defrag your hard drive. To finish up, you learned about the CPU Monitor Utility, which allows you to observe the processor function of your computer.