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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting System
Mounting .DMG disk images has been getting slower and slower on my 10.2.6 machine, to the point where it took at least 15 seconds to open any DMG. I figured the OS was caching mounted volumes or something, and searching a bloated cache was causing the slowdown. Sure enough, I sudo rm'd the Library/Caches directories from ~, /, and /System, restarted, and now DMG mounts are back to a couple of seconds.

[robg adds: The actual command to do this would be:
 % sudo rm -r ~/Library/Caches /Library/Caches /System/Library/Caches
You won't permanently hurt anything by removing the cache files, but you may notice that it takes longer to open large directories (for example) while the cache files are rebuilt.]
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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting
Authored by: szabesz on Sep 23, '03 10:44:40AM

What a great kind of technology this "cache" is! It slows down the system. The developers at Apple must have gone crazy, I suppose.



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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting
Authored by: diamondsw on Sep 23, '03 11:12:44AM

The challenge of any caching system is to speed up the system while not killing that benefit with the overhead of maintaining the cache. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it doesn't. If you don't think the caches are worthwhile, try deleting them every boot. Suddenly Jaguar feels a lot like Puma. :)



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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting
Authored by: szabesz on Sep 24, '03 10:42:05AM

I have just installed a clean copy of OS X 10.2.6, and it is considerably faster than the one I have been using for more than a year now. After a year of usage my old system slowed down to crawl. Is it connected to this cache issue I wonder....?



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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting
Authored by: spacehaven on Sep 23, '03 12:16:53PM
I'll to try this out for a few weeks and see if I see an improvement. I created a crontab entry as follows:

0 3 * * * /bin/rm -r /Users/YOU/Library/Caches /Library/Caches /System/Library/Caches

Replace YOU with your username. This will run every morning at 3am. Oh, and add it to root's crontab (sudo crontab -e).

I can't vouch for it's security, and it's quite possible for other users to break things on a multiuser system (i.e.: ln -s /etc/hosts.deny /Library/Caches/biteme). Be careful!

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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting
Authored by: lipids on Sep 23, '03 05:18:36PM

You are sacrificing speed in one area to gain in another. If you really need a dmg to mount faster, skip the verification process. That really speeds things up.



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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting
Authored by: szabesz on Sep 24, '03 10:15:39AM

Anyone knows how to disable the checking of disk images in Panther? It seems to me that the Finder mounts the images, not the Disk Utility (there is no disk copy anymore....)



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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting
Authored by: bluehz on Sep 23, '03 07:10:02PM

One problem I see with this strategy is that in deleting ALL cache files you will also be deleting files like "com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore" which store file associations if I am not mistaken. This info is used for determining what app to use as the default app for opening a document when you double-click it. Also - there is a dock cache that will clear your dock completely also. You would be better off determining exactly which cache file is causing the problem and deleting cache files selectively.



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Mount.app
Authored by: slowco on Sep 23, '03 08:04:29PM

Also try Mount.app for faster image mounting. Search Versiontracker.



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Mount.app
Authored by: bostmass on Sep 25, '03 09:16:26AM

Personally I prefer Mount Me if only for the name. ;)



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Delete system caches for faster disk image mounting
Authored by: RaduM on Sep 24, '03 01:48:00AM

I wrote a script:

#!/bin/csh -f
/usr/bin/hdid "$1"
if ($status !=0) exit

and with DropScript made a droplet. I think works better!



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