Computer Maintenance: My Year End Rituals

Instead of drafting a set of resolutions I may or may not live up to, I’ve decided to do the next best thing: perform some routine computer maintenance.

The holidays are a perfect time to prep your machine for the upcoming year. Whether it’s rebuilding your computer’s OS and apps from the ground up, or pruning your hard drive – the time and effort spent will serve you well when you are in “production mode”.

Clean Keyboard

It’s been said that the average keyboard is dirtier than a public toilet seat. Having seen more than a few keyboards in public places, I won’t contest the idea. Mice and keyboard need periodic cleaning. It’s best to unplug your devices before cleaning them.

With a microfiber cloth and a dab of iKlear cleaner fluid, I swab the keys until their original lustre has been restored. It’s a 10 minute process that takes on an almost meditative quality. Happiness is a minty fresh keyboard.

Dust the Desktop

A can of compressed air can do wonders for your machine. For the Mac Pro tower residing under my desk, I pepper it with a can of compressed air every few months, keeping an eye out for dust bunnies, particularly near any airflow vents or fans. In addition to compressed air, I’ll follow up with removing layers of dust using a microfiber cloth. The obvious benefit to cleaning the insides of your computer is a machine that runs cooler.

Calibrate Displays

By default, most newly purchased displays are too bright and overly saturated when first plugged in. And with older monitors, color values can drift over time. While not overzealous, I make every point to calibrate my displays once every four months. If your work ever takes you into the realm of print, running a good color calibrator can make all the difference.

Remove Unused Apps

Having a relatively small (120GB) Solid State Drive forces me to evaluate the apps I use and don’t use on a regular basis. To determine when an app was last used, I rely on CleanMyMac2. If I haven’t used an app in more than a year or more, it’s safe to say I don’t need the app on my system. CleanMyMac2 safely uninstalls apps and their support files, making the uninstall process a trivial affair.

Organize folders and Prune Data

As I maintain somewhat of a regimented file structure on my system, this portion of the routine is very simple.

I have two folders for all my design projects: Current and Archive. Old projects are moved into Archive. My Archive folder has subfolders for each year. Data older than five years gets archived off my main hard drive onto an external drive. Photos are the exception to this rule.

Verify onsite and offsite backups

You have a local backup and offsite backup, right? Great. Do they work? Take a few minutes to boot from your backup drive. Pick a few files at random and open them up. All good? Great! Now access your offsite backups and pull a few files at random and restore them on your machine. Verify that your backup drive is running smoothly.

Testing your backups is just as important as having backups made. For my offsite backup needs, I use Backblaze. I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve had to retrieve files from Backblaze’s servers – and everything worked. Whichever offsite backup service you go with, periodically test them out by retrieving a few files or folders. Never assume your backups work.

Computer maintenance is the easiest resolve to make, and one that will help you in the long run. And while you’re at it, clean up your desk. ;)

-Krishna

Krishna December 28, 2013 calibration, computer, iklear, keyboard, Mac, Mac Pro, maintenance