Troubleshooting Mac OS X [Paperback]

Ted Landau's "Sad Macs, Bombs, and Other Disasters" is the standard trouble-shooting guide for the classic Mac OS. But Mac OS X is a very different animal, and it's obvious the author is still learning the ropes of the new operating system. The trouble-shooting advice in this book sometimes seems to employ a "shotgun" approach instead of the methodical zeroing in on a well-understood problem that marked the earlier book.

That's not to say there aren't some useful nuggets here. I've found the discussion of the many "Library" folders and their contents provides a useful starting point for my own trouble-shooting.

Like Landau's earlier book, this book often refers readers to the author's web site, for more up-to-date information. The site was once a great free resource for Mac trouble-shooting, but now almost all the site's resources are available only to paying visitors. Sadly, the book's many references to the site now feel like something entirely other than helpful advice.

Much like OS X itself, "Mac OS X Disaster Relief" feels like a work in progress. Perhaps the second or third edition will equal the quality of Landau's earlier book and earn the right to be called "indispensable."

But the book is much more than that. If you're interested in really learning about the inner workings of OS X, from the code manager to its unix underpinnings to Agua, this book explains in clear and precise detail. There's also a section on Classic: how to optimize it, how to keep it running smoothly, etc.

If you are only own one book on OS X, this should be it. If you're new to OS X, buy this one and Pogue's Missing Manual. The Pogue book will get you started. Landau's will keep you going! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I noticed on Amazon.com, that they mention the third edition of this book due out in September of 2003. I wonder if it will contain info on "Panther," OS X 10.3, which is supposed to be released around that time?

Many of you may know Ted as the creator of the MacFixit web site. In Mac OS X Disaster Relief, he covers the gamut from how to solve common problems, to rare ones, to geeky things like editing your preferences files to turn off blinking cursors. Or make files invisible (or vice versa). Though this is definitely an OS X book, he does tell you how to troubleshoot a few OS 9 things that may affect your OS X.

He devotes some pages to solving OS X crashes, and to the various disk repair utilities like Drive 10, Norton Utilities, etc. Interestingly, he seems to think it is safe to use Norton Speed Disk to optimize your hard drive (page 255). He also explains that this kind of optimization is entirely different from the kind of optimization that happens as part of an installation of software.

There is also a good section on internet and network troubleshooting. In that section, I think I may have found a solution I've been looking for. AppleTalk does not work when it is active on multiple ports (page 471). That may explain why I'm having trouble printing over ethernet.

In one section, he talks about backing up your OS X boot volume using `ditto,' an app built into OS X. He further explains that Carbon Copy Cloner is just a GUI front end for ditto, for those who don't want to use the Terminal. And he tells you about other apps like `psync' that will do the same thing.

This book tells you how to do a lot of very basic troubleshooting. If you want to get under the hood and dink around (technical term), customize, or troubleshoot at a deeper level, it will help you do that, too.