Defrag HD
Sorry, I'm new to Mac. Is there any provision to defrag the hard drive on the Mac. I assume it should become necessary at some point. Also, what are disk permissions? And how are they used? Thanks for the help.
OS X automatically defrags files on the fly that are under 20 MBs in size, so there's little need to defragment a drive. Furthermore, modern hard drives are pretty fast so fragmentation doesn't have that much of an impact on throughput. The main concern is when the drive is nearly full and the operating system needs contiguous space to meet a storage demand. As long as you maintain at least 15% free space on your hard drive you shouldn't have much need for defragmentation. See this article for some technical detail: Fragmentation in HFS Plus Volumes.
About permissions:
Macworld- Secrets- Take Control of Permissions in OS X_ Page 1
Macworld- Secrets- Repairing permissions- What you need to know
MacFixIt - Repair Permissions- A false panacea
Unix Tutorial - Managing Permissions
Similar Messages
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just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??
Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd.
Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set.
1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price.
I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there.
Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB?
Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopard
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009
where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings. -
Do I need to defrag my iMac hard drive like I do on a PC?
If so, how do I do this?
Thanks.The basic answer is that there's no need to defragment drives on modern (e.g., not Microsoft) filesystems. This is as true of the Linux native filesystems as it is of the Mac OS X native ones.
The longer answer is that the strategy used to store data on disk on modern filesystems essentially avoids fragmentation altogether. The problem of fragmentation was recognized in the 1970s and more or less solved at that time. UNIX filesystems adopted these strategies 20-25 years ago and the native filesystems of Linux and Mac OS X are derived from them. The strategy works while there's sufficient free space on the disk (depending on the size,
that could be between 1% and 10% f the disk - the bigger the disk, the smaller the percentage). If the disk fills up, the last few files written may become fragmented, but at this point there's simply not sufficient disk space left to avoid it or fix the problem (Windows, likewise, reaches a point when a disk becomes so full it's effectively impossible to defragment it).
That leaves Microsoft's NTFS and FAT filesystems as the last widely-used hold-outs that experience regular fragmentation. -
Just a heads up for my fellow Mac users.
"How do I defrag my mac?"
"You don't need to, ever. It does it automatically."
"But it's running really slowly..."
"Repair permissions or something. Defragging is not necessary on a mac."
Techtool pro is now defragmenting my mac. Looks like the job's going to take about 4 hours. I thought I'd give everyone the truth about this while waiting (on a different computer obviously)
The truth is, Apple's defragmenting system ***** BALLS. It has two massive, massive flaws which I feel people urgently need to be made aware of.
#1: It only defragments files up to 20mb. If you're a movie producer, a songwriter, a photographer, or anything which involves working with many massive files, the built in defragmenting program WILL NOT HELP YOU IN THE SLIGHTEST.
#2: It only defragments FILES. Free space is ignored, which eventually causes absolutely hrrendous problems.
Let me give you an analogy here. Imagine your mac's hard drive is a bookcase with lots of books on it.
File fragmentation is when it can't find a gap in the bookcase big enough for the entire book, so it breaks the book into pieces and srotes them in different gaps.
Space fragmentation is when there are gaps all over the bookcase, instead of all the books being pushed to one side so there's a long gap elsewhere.
Apple's built in defragmenting program will only fix the first problem - and even then, it will ignore any book bigger than 20 pages long, if you have bigger books which are broken up, you're screwed.
Why is space fragmentation a problem? It's a problem because it directly LEADS TO file fragmentation. If there is a large block of free space all in one part of the disk, then an entire file can be written to it. However, if there is no single free block big enough for the file, it HAS NO CHOICE but to fragment it.
So basically you might have 5 GB free and want to save a 2GB imovie project. That's cool. But what you may not realize is, the biggest single area of free space is only say 600MB. Others are around 300 and 400. Therefore the file MUST be fragmented into all these different areas, which wouldn't be necessary if all the free space was in one area of the disk.
But apple's built in tools don't do anything about this, at least not in Tiger. PErhaps this has been fixed in later installations but I'm almost certain the same issues exist in leopard.
Your only option is to buy a defragmenting program. I know this ***** but believe me, this IS something you NEED to do if your activity on your laptop involves disk space - intensive projects. I'm using TechTool Pro which has been recommended to me as hands down the best. It has a number of other functions as well, right now I'm only using the defragmenting tools but it has others for repairing damages disk sectors and other mantainence tools. There are other programs such as iDefrag out there as well.
Why am I telling you this? I'm telling you because I experienced mind numbing frustration trying to get answers from the Apple community. Google it or ask the question yourself and you will most likely be whacked in the face with the intro to my post here - "You don't need to, it's not necessary, macs do it themselves, blah blah blah"
Even worse, Apple's own webpage on the subject is nothing short of a disaster. It basically says "You PROBABLY don't need to defragment, unless you work with large files." That's it. You'd expect it to have an extra section saying "If you DO happen to work with large files, here's what you do" but no such section exists. It basically says "You don't need to defrag most of the time, and on the rare occasions when you do, well, too bad, you're screwed."
I urge everyone to heed this or they will be tearing their hair out at how slow their mac has become and the fact that no one will offer any meaningful advice other than the standard, generic, "Repair permissions" - the Mac equivelant of "have you tried turning it off and on again".
My disk is at 99% fragmented free space. NINTEY NINE PERCENT. In other words, although I have 25GB of free space, there was not a single contiguous block on the entire machine. I had almost 5,000 fragmented files as well, mostly imovies. Defragmenting got this down to about 300.
The defrag job is taking more than 4 hours and will probably go on to take a lot longer than that. This machine has been slowly grinding to a halt over the last 3 years and now I know why.
Please don't listen to anyone. Get yourself a defragmenting folder, and email Apple to tell them it's just not good enough to give their customers half assed answers and inadequate basic maintainence tools. Mac OS X must literally be the only operating system out there where something as basic as defragmenting is not only almost impossible to get answers on, but actually costs money to fix once you DO get answers.
As customers, we should not accept this any longer. I intend to spread the above message far and wide.
I LOVE Apple. I've always been "a mac" and I always will be. This in no way a mac bashing post or a windows endorsing one. I wouldn't switch back to windows if you gave me a million euro.
But sometimes even the best developers can royally f*ck up. This is one of them.
There is no readon people should be forced to put up with this crap. Absolutely no reason at all. I've had 3 months of crappy performance with no official explanation whatsoever.
Apple if you're reading this: I love your products. I'm a loyal customer. People are more forgiving than you think, speak up, admit you dropped the ball, and DO something about it in your next updates to Lion and whichever versions of Leopard you are still actively maintaining.
There's no shame in admitting when you're wrong. The shame is in hiding behind false promises and walls of silence.
--Loyal customer, but feeling rather betrayed by all this.The old rule of thumb was to keep 10-12 GB free. Any lower than that and you will start to have trouble. I was very close to that for a long time and never had any complaints. Now, Lion "encourages" 20% free space (on my newer 250 GB drive) so I try to keep it with more than 50 GB free.
Do you still have the original memory in that machine too? The metal plate you have to remove in the battery compartment also provides access to the RAM. Your machine will take 2 GB of RAM, possibly 3. You definitely want to max that out too.
Regardless, you definitely need a new hard drive. When Apple switched to PC components, they had to take a quality hit. These 2.5" notebook hard drives are not very reliable. I'm surprised your hard drive hasn't died by now. I usually get a new hard drive with every major OS upgrade. A $ 50 investment every couple of years is no big deal.
Unfortunately, you (and I) suffer from being an early adopter in 2006. Those 32-bit machines only accept 2 GB RAM (maybe 3) and are only 32-bit so they can't be upgraded to Lion. Because of this limitation, you won't see as dramatic an improvement as you would with a 2007 machine. If you run more than a couple of applications, your hard drive is always going to have to be doing some VM work. My 2006 machine has even lost its bluetooth. I gave it to my brother. My very similar 2007 Macbook is still running great.
So, you must get a new hard drive because your old one is likely on death's door. If you don't have at least 2 GB - get it. If you can't afford a new machine, you might want to consider an SSD. That might help mitigate your RAM limitations. You can spend from $ 100 to $ 350 and get a dramatic speed improvement. -
I have a MacBook, do I need to clear the memory or defragment the disk like I need to do on my work pc with Windows?
If so, what do I need to dWOsloop_ORD wrote:
I have a MacBook, do I need to clear the memory or defragment the disk like I need to do on my work pc with Windows?
No you don't.
Mac's auto-defragment by writing 2GB+ sized files and smaller to one space on the drive, so you really don't need to worry about it.
If your going to parititon your drive or need a large space of free space, then Carbon Copy Cloning the entire OS x parittion to a external drive, option booting off of it and then erasing and reverse cloning is the approved method of defragmenting and freeing up disk space, rahter than using defragmentaiton software that can cause issues and make the machine inoperatible.
http://www.bombich.com/
If you need steps to *cough* clean your Mac of caches and whatnot less your kid/wife/mother/girlfriend/boss, see's it then the steps are as follows.
1: Clean/clear your browser caches first, delete your history etc. from within the program itself, delete any files on the machine by dragging to Trash and emtpy Trash (secure erase not needed if you follow the steps later)
2: Download CCleaner for the Mac and run that
3: Download OnyX for the Mac and run all the cleaning and maintainece, reboot at the end.
4: For scrubbing hard drives of traces (deleted files), use Apple's Disk Utility > Erase Free Space option: Zero (or 7x if you need military/foresic level type deletion, but it takes overnight to complete)
Make sure your browser plug-ins are current, Flash, Silverlight especially.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/
And your Mac needs more codecs, search for Perian, VLC and Flip4Mac, install those. -
Because I can no longer open Adobe files, and have tried all obvious solutions, I've been told to defrag the Intel portion of my MacBook Pro. How do I do this?
I never use the Intel side, and have never partitioned the MacBook Pro.
Message was edited by: MacGirl221bI never use the Intel side,
Not understood, Intel make the processor that runs your Mac, there is no other 'side' to your Mac.
What Adobe application are you trying to open files with? -
Groupwise 8 on Server 2008R2 SP1 Performance and Defrag Questions
I am running GroupWise 8.0.2 on an HP DL360G G7 with 24 GB of RAM and Dual Xeon X5650 processors under Server 2008 R2 Sp1. Post Office is using roughly 562 GB of an 819 GB Disk located on an HP p2000 g3 SAS connected enclosure comprised of 12 x 146 GB (15k rpm) SAS disks in a RAID 10 configuration. Typically never more than 700 users connected to the Post Office at any time. I am experiencing client slowness at regular intervals. Roughly every three weeks. The solution tends to be to restart the server and give it a fresh start, which holds for a while.
Concerns.
1. When the server restarts I see minimal memory utilization maybe 1.5 GB within half an hour the Used memory climbs a bit to about 2GB but free memory is quickly pre-allocated to standby memory. Within about 2 hours the Free memory is all consumed and I have about 20+ GB of Standby Memory. Running RAMMap indicates that the memory is being used by Metafile and Mapped File, Which tells me that the Post Offices files are being indexed and cached into RAM. Then after a couple weeks go by the amount of active RAM exceeds 8GB (still mostly Metafile, not so much Mapped File). And standby RAM still consumes the remaining RAM between Metafile and Mapped file, leaving no free memory. Typically once I reach about 8GB of memory actively used by the system (mostly Metafile), it's time for performance to drop for the clients.
Also, I'm seeing increases in Disk Queue Length for the Post Office Volume. Typically below 2 rarely as high as 5,
I suspect my best solution is to start a regular defrag process as my volume is now 29% defragmented [yeah NTFS :( ]
Question:
I am concerned a defrag could take as much if not longer than 10 hours. Which is too long for the agents to be down. So I was wondering if anyone had used DiskKeeper or alternative 3rd party Defrag utilities that might be able to defrag open files in the background, or if anyone had run defrag with the agents running to get the defragable files, then shut down the agents for a second pass which should be considerably shorter. Any advice that can be offered, or other suggestions for my described issue, would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You!In article <[email protected]>, Matt Karwowski wrote:
> I am running GroupWise 8.0.2 on an HP DL360G G7 with 24 GB of RAM and Dual Xeon X5650
> processors under Server 2008 R2 Sp1. Post Office is using roughly 562 GB of an 819
> GB Disk ... I am experiencing client slowness at regular intervals. Roughly every
> three weeks. The solution tends to be to restart the server and give it a fresh start,
A) Updating to latest code may assist as this could also be a memory fragmentation type
issue or such that has been fixed
B) Perhaps even more RAM might help. How much space do the ofuser/*.db and ofmsg/*.db files
take up? The more mail flows, the more of those DB file content are held in memory. A few
versions ago, you tended to need as much RAM as the total of the DB files, and while those
days are gladly past, it is still a good number to watch out for.
C) Explore Caching mode for at least some of the users as that significantly reduces the
load on a server.
> I suspect my best solution is to start a regular defrag process as my volume is now
> 29% defragmented [yeah NTFS :( ]
Still way better than old FAT ;)
This is one of the reasons why GroupWise runs better on Linux with either EXT3 or NSS
volume types, and is why SLES is provided along with your GroupWise license.
As for running Defragments, even running it for just a few hours a week will gradually
help, especially if you can fit in one big burst near the beginning. So if you can automate
the process of shut down agents, run defrag for X hours and then shut it down, then restart
the agents, you may clear this all up. Just having the agents down an hour a week might
clear the memory usage issue for you.
I would be very hesitant to run any defrag on open database files of any email system
unless the defrag tool knew explicitly about that email system. But a smart defragger that
can keep the *.db files in their own (fastest) section of the drive and the rest off to the
side would go a long way to making the defragmentation process much more efficient.
I haven't directly run a GroupWise system on any flavor of Windows, since OS/2, so this is
more a combination of all my platform knowledge, but I hope it gets you closer to a smooth
running system. And if the other GW on Windows admins can pipe in, all the better.
Andy Konecny
KonecnyConsulting.ca in Toronto
Andy's Profile: http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=75037 -
Defrag Time Machine Back Up Drive??
getwellroad
Level 1 (0 points)
Jul 6, 2011 9:50 AM
i previously posted this question, but I mistakenly clicked my own comment as the correct answer. i think this makes the thread appear to be finished; so, because i'm still not completely sure what to do, i have attempted to copy and paste the discussion here:Sorry.
Just got Prosoft drive genius 3 software, and it's telling me that the external hard drive that i am using for my time machine back up drive needs to be defragmented. is it wise to do this or should i not??
Grant Bennet-AlderWest of Boston, USALevel 7 (27,805 points)
If your backups take a few seconds longer, so what. I say leave it alone.Beige G3, G4/867, G4/dual 1.25 MDD, MacPro'09 w cheap SSD, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier, and 9.2, 10.5 and Server - LW IIg, LW 4/600, ATalk ImageWriter L
The hatterLevel 8 (42,475 points)
Let's hope a couple things: that you have bootable clones of your drives also; that the backup drive for TimeMachine has over 3x capacity of the data you plan and are storing. I would also switch TM backup drives so you have a 2nd. Fragmented free space affecting performance happens when the drive is too full which may mean there isn't enough free space for a full backup set. 1.5TB for backing up 500GB, while WD Green 3TB is $140 and WD Black 1.5TB is, about the same price. I'd be worried about the integrity and directory, and whether you can afford to lose that drive. Defragging is also a very slow operation. the ideal: to just clone a drive, or start over with another drive and wait. cloning TM volumes has not been done or has it? SuperDuper hoped to but I don't think they or Bombich's CCC made it there. Trouble with highly fragged is when free space gets to 20% normally, 1/3 or so though for TM volumes, and finding where and a chunk of space for the file being written. Does TM use large spare image files of like 2GB? Best would be to ask in the TimeMachine section Snow Leopardhttps://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard?view= discussions#/?tagSet=1009where there are some good FAQ and tutorials, and people that know the ins-and-outs and shortcomings.
getwellroad
my boot drive is my internal hardrive which is a 250 GB drive. The drive i am using for TM is 500GB, but you are saying that is really too small. TM, as i understand it, creates a copy of everything, and then subsequent backups record any changes that were made since the last backup. and what do you mean "bootable clones" and do you mean for my internal hard drive AND each of the 3 external hard drives that i have? i'm using one of the three for backup using TM, and i am storing movie files on the other 2. i work at a church, and we use many short films that we purchase online. i then import that file into iMovie to give my volunteers a consistent second and a half of black before the clip and 4 seconds of black at the end of the clip. This provides smoother transitions, i've found, than trying to use most of the clips in their original form. i then have been filing these away in folders on the other 2 hard drives. Regarding the TM drive. Drive Genius is telling me that "the used space on the volume 02 [that's the name of the drive] is 25% fragmented (59.14% of total space).
btw, Time Machine keeps:hourly backups for the past 24 hoursdaily backups for the past monthweekly backups for all previous monthsand the oldest backups are deleted when your disk becomes full.
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), LaCie d2 Quadra 500GB external driv1st) A fragmented drive is not evil. It will not hurt anything. At worse it might slow down reading a file. However, as has been pointed out by others in this thread, who cares as this is a backup device, not a device you are going to be reading a lot.
2nd) The time you spend defragmenting the drive will far exceed the time you will save when writing new data to the drive.
3rd) Defragmentation will just increase your energy consumption, as all the reading/writing needed to move the files around in order to defragment it, will cause the drive to consume more energy than if it was just sitting idle waiting for the next hourly Time Machine backup.
4th) Defragmentation (if done frequently) may shorten the life of your drive. Not mentioned in "3rd" above is that the extra energy used translates into heat, plus you are moving the read/write heads back and forth all of which affect the drives mechanical and electrical components.
NOTE: There are situations where having a defragmented drive is useful, but mostly it has to do with needing to stream media at a high rate of speed, and fragmented files can affect that. However, a backup drive being used for incremental Time Machine backups is not in that category, and most home Mac usage does not need a defragmented file system either. -
How to move huge HD video files between external hard drives and defrag ext drive?
I have huge high definition video files on a 2TB external hard drive (and its clone). The external hard drive is maxed out. I would like to move many of the video files to a new 3TB external hard drive (G-drive, and a clone) and leave a sub-group of video files (1+ TB) on the original external hard drive (and its clone).
I am copying files from original external drive ("ext drive A") to new external drive ("ext drive B") via Carbon Copy Cloner (selecting iMovie event by event that I want to transfer). Just a note: I do not know how to partition or make bootable drives, I see suggestions with these steps in them.
My questions:
1.) I assume this transfer of files will create extreme fragmentation on drive A. Should I reformat/re-initialize ext drive A after moving the files I want? If so, how best to do this? Do I use "Erase" within Disk Utilities? Do I need to do anything else before transfering files back onto ext drive A from its clone?
2.) Do I also need to defrag if I reformat ext drive A? Do I defrag instead of or in addition to reformating? If so, how to do this? I've read on these forums so many warnings and heard too many stories of this going awry. Which 3rd party software to use?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions, tips, advice. This whole process makes me SO nervous.Here is a very good writeup on de-fragging in the OS environment that I borrowed
From Klaus1:
Defragmentation in OS X:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1375 which states:
You probably won't need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X. Here's why:
Hard disk capacity is generally much greater now than a few years ago. With more free space available, the file system doesn't need to fill up every "nook and cranny." Mac OS Extended formatting (HFS Plus) avoids reusing space from deleted files as much as possible, to avoid prematurely filling small areas of recently-freed space.
Mac OS X 10.2 and later includes delayed allocation for Mac OS X Extended-formatted volumes. This allows a number of small allocations to be combined into a single large allocation in one area of the disk.
Fragmentation was often caused by continually appending data to existing files, especially with resource forks. With faster hard drives and better caching, as well as the new application packaging format, many applications simply rewrite the entire file each time. Mac OS X 10.3 onwards can also automatically defragment such slow-growing files. This process is sometimes known as "Hot-File-Adaptive-Clustering."
Aggressive read-ahead and write-behind caching means that minor fragmentation has less effect on perceived system performance.
Whilst 'defragging' OS X is rarely necessary, Rod Hagen has produced this excellent analysis of the situation which is worth reading:
Most users, as long as they leave plenty of free space available , and don't work regularly in situations where very large files are written and rewritten, are unlikely to notice the effects of fragmentation on either their files or on the drives free space much.
As the drive fills the situations becomes progressively more significant, however.
Some people will tell you that "OSX defrags your files anyway". This is only partly true. It defrags files that are less than 20 MB in size. It doesn't defrag larger files and it doesn't defrag the free space on the drive. In fact the method it uses to defrag the smaller files actually increases the extent of free space fragmentation. Eventually, in fact, once the largest free space fragments are down to less than 20 MB (not uncommon on a drive that has , say only 10% free space left) it begins to give up trying to defrag altogether. Despite this, the system copes very well without defragging as long as you have plenty of room.
Again, this doesn't matter much when the drive is half empty or better, but it does when it gets fullish, and it does especially when it gets fullish if you are regularly dealing with large files , like video or serious audio stuff.
If you look through this discussion board you will see quite a few complaints from people who find that their drive gets "slow". Often you will see that say that "still have 10 or 20 gigs free" or the like. On modern large drives by this stage they are usually in fact down to the point where the internal defragmentation routines can no longer operate , where their drives are working like navvies to keep up with finding space for any larger files, together with room for "scratch files", virtual memory, directories etc etc etc. Such users are operating in a zone where they put a lot more stress on their drives as a result, often start complaining of increased "heat", etc etc. Most obviously, though, the computer slows down to a speed not much better than that of molasses. Eventually the directories and other related files may collapse altogether and they find themselves with a next to unrecoverable disk problems.
By this time, of course, defragging itself has already become just about impossible. The amount of work required to shift the data into contiguous blocks is immense, puts additional stress on the drive, takes forever, etc etc. The extent of fragmentation of free space at this stage can be simply staggering, and any large files you subsequently write are likely to be divided into many , many tens of thousands of fragments scattered across the drive. Not only this, but things like the "extents files", which record where all the bits are located, will begin to grow astronomically as a result, putting even more pressure on your already stressed drive, and increasing the risk of major failures.
Ultimately this adds up to a situation where you can identify maybe three "phases" of mac life when it comes to the need for defragmentation.
In the "first phase" (with your drive less than half full), it doesn't matter much at all - probably not enough to even make it worth doing.
In the "second phase" (between , say 50% free space and 20% free space remaining) it becomes progressively more useful, but , depending on the use you put your computer to you won't see much difference at the higher levels of free space unless you are serious video buff who needs to keep their drives operating as efficiently and fast as possible - chances are they will be using fast external drives over FW800 or eSata to compliment their internal HD anyway.
At the lower end though (when boot drives get down around the 20% mark on , say, a 250 or 500 Gig drive) I certainly begin to see an impact on performance and stability when working with large image files, mapping software, and the like, especially those which rely on the use of their own "scratch" files, and especially in situations where I am using multiple applications simultaneously, if I haven't defragmented the drive for a while. For me, defragmenting (I use iDefrag too - it is the only third party app I trust for this after seeing people with problems using TechToolPro and Drive Genius for such things) gives a substantial performance boost in this sort of situation and improves operational stability. I usually try to get in first these days and defrag more regularly (about once a month) when the drive is down to 30% free space or lower.
Between 20% and 10% free space is a bit of a "doubtful region". Most people will still be able to defrag successfully in this sort of area, though the time taken and the risks associated increase as the free space declines. My own advice to people in this sort of area is that they start choosing their new , bigger HD, because they obviously are going to need one very soon, and try to "clear the decks" so that they maintain that 20% free buffer until they do. Defragging regularly (perhaps even once a fortnight) will actually benefit them substantially during this "phase", but maybe doing so will lull them into a false sense of security and keep them from seriously recognising that they need to be moving to a bigger HD!
Once they are down to that last ten per cent of free space, though, they are treading on glass. Free space fragmentation at least will already be a serious issue on their computers but if they try to defrag with a utility without first making substantially more space available then they may find it runs into problems or is so slow that they give up half way through and do the damage themselves, especially if they are using one of the less "forgiving" utilities!
In this case I think the best way to proceed is to clone the internal drive to a larger external with SuperDuper, replace the internal drive with a larger one and then clone back to it. No-one down to the last ten percent of their drive really has enough room to move. Defragging it will certainly speed it up, and may even save them from major problems briefly, but we all know that before too long they are going to be in the same situation again. Better to deal with the matter properly and replace the drive with something more akin to their real needs once this point is reached. Heck, big HDs are as cheap as chips these days! It is mad to struggle on with sluggish performance, instability, and the possible risk of losing the lot, in such a situation. -
How to Defrag an External Drive connected to MacBook
I have an external hard drive (Western Digital 250 GB) connected to my Macbook which is used mainly for over flow files and larger CAD files, etc. I add-to and delete-from this drive frequently and it is starting to become a little flakey.
From my PC days, I would normally think that a defrag may help this, however I don't see any such option when looking through the various Finder utilities or System Preferences. Does OS X provide a way to clean-up this drive or will I need some type of outside software?
Message was edited by: Little RiverLittle River wrote:
I still had some time left on my tech support contract so I thought I'd give them a quick call to see what they thought. Here's what I learned:
1) my existing external drive is formatted in FAT32 (PC / windows format)
2) as such it is not an option to run the "Repair Disk Permissions" command. That is only available to drives that have been formatted using the Mac Journals format
Actually, it only works on disks with OSX installed, and only on your system files.
You or they may be confusing +*Repair Disk+* (which repairs the +File System+ on the disk -- directories, etc.), with +*Repair Permissions.+*
From Disk Utility's Help about Permissions:
Disk Utility repairs the permissions for files installed by the Mac OS X Installer, Software Update, or an Apple software installer. It doesn’t repair permissions for your documents, your home folder, and third-party applications.
You can verify or repair permissions only on a disk with Mac OS X installed.
3) I could back-up my files, erase the drive, re-format it using Mac Journals, then reload my files
Yes.
4) The advantage to doing this is that I could then run disk permissions in the future and would not need to defrag the drive (same idea as the primary drive file structure in OS X)
No, not Permissions. And no option in Disk Utility will move any data to defrag a disk.
5) The disadvantage is that any of my older files (i.e. CAD drawings) that were created on PC and saved in FAT32 format would no longer be readable (NOT an option)
They'd be readable to your Mac, but not a PC.
6) as my archive files are now, they can be read and/or shared on any platform (MAC, PC, etc.)
Yes, if that's what you need, do not change the format.
7) so their recommended option was a "paid" third party defrag app (Paid = accountability with tech support vs. shareware) for this drive to keep access to existing files and then using the alternate Mac Journals format on any new drives as storage needs dictate -
Does my hard drive need to be defraged after moving movies to external driv
Becuase my camera and external drive will not both operate by firewire (FW400) at the same time (a common problem according to many posts in this forum), I have to import my movies from my camera to the local drive while the external drive is turned off, then I disconnect my camera, turn on the drive, and then move the imported clips to the external drive using iMove 08. It's a pain, but it does get the job done.
Anyway, my question is: Will I need to somehow defrag my hard drive after many cycles of this process, or does OSX take care of this on its own? (yes, I'm recent Windows switcher).
By the way, I can attach my camera with firewire, and the external drive with USB to import directly to the external drive, but it pauses about every three seconds to let the drive catch up, and I just don't like to see it running that way.If you set, in System Preferences>Energy Saver, your Mac to sleep "never", then at three in the morning it will - if necessary - look after whatever defragging needs doing.
Mac OS X is self-defragging.
(..You don't say which camera and hard drive you're using, but in my experience "daisy-chaining" a FireWire camcorder through a 2-port FireWire drive to a FireWire socket on a Mac does usually work. You may have to swap between the two ports on the drive to find out which way works best. It's usually OK with Sony cameras, but Canons, however, do like the FireWire circuit all to themselves ..shame.) -
How do you defragment a hard drive
HOw do you defragment hard drives in a macpro running mountain lion.
You don't need to. But if you feel you must:
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
Boot from the external hard drive.
Erase the internal hard drive.
Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Do not quit Disk Utility.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure. -
How do you defrag a hard drive
I am wondering how the best way is to defragment my second internal hard drive. I am trying to set up a partition for boot camp, but it isnt partioning. I am wondering if it is because it needs to be defragged.
Please let me know how to solve this.
ThanksCaleb,
It is more likely that the drive is not using the correct partition mapping than it is that fragmentation is causing the problem.
The easiest way to "defrag" a drive, in this particular case, would be to simply copy whatever data is on it now to another volume, delete it from the original (or erase the original volume), then copy it back. This process copies whatever data you are handling sequentially in both directions, thereby eliminating all fragmentation. The other methods given so far in this thread will all work, but seem a bit overkill in your situation.
But as I stated, it is more likely that the drive in question isn't using the proper partition mapping. Select the drive in Disk Utility (the drive, not a named volume), then look at the bottom of the window to determine what partition map is being used ("APM," "MBR," or "GUID"). Only drives that are using the "GUID" partition map will support Bootcamp.
You can change the partition map by partitioning the drive and choosing the GUID scheme from the "Options..." dialogue sheet. In order to use Bootcamp to install Windows, the drive must contain only a single HFS+ partition.
I'll repeat those important points above: In order to use Bootcamp to install Windows, the drive in question must be partitioned with a single HFS+ volume, and it must also be using the GUID partition map.
Scott -
Trouble Booting from External Drives; Trying to Defragment from External
I have a Verbatim External Firewire 400/USB 2.0 hard drive that has Leopard installed on it. I have installed Drive Genius and Disk Warrior on the external drive. I boot holding the Option key and see the list of drives, and the External does appear. When I select it, the computer just reboots and loads the loads the internal hard drive. I'm trying to defragment the MacBook Pro from an external drive, but I can't do much if it won't boot from an external. I know with Intel Macs, you can boot from USB 2.0 and FireWire. Why won't it work? To be more advanced, I made a disc image of the MacBook Pro Restore DVD and restored it to a new partition of the external, thinking the operating system might be different in the new MacBook Pro because of the new settings in the System Preferences that control the glass trackpad. I'm stuck. Please help.
No, I would not recommend making a disc image. I would recommend cloning the drive to a freshly erased external drive. Cloning is not the same as making a disc image. Disc images cannot be used to boot the computer. They are large and unwieldy. They are intended to be burned to an optical disc and not used as a system backup.
Clones are exact file copies of everything on the source drive such that the destination drive is a mirror of the source drive. You can boot clones, you can update them, and you can access them directly just like any other drive.
How to Clone Using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the drive to which you will restore or backup.
Source means the drive you are restoring from or backing up.
There are many alternatives to using Disk Utilities Restore option. Any of the following can create clones as well as perform regular backups, and they can incrementally update a clone:
1. Retrospect Desktop (Commercial - not yet universal binary)
2. Synchronize! Pro X (Commercial)
3. Synk (Backup, Standard, or Pro)
4. Deja Vu (Shareware)
5. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware)
6. SuperDuper! (Commercial)
7. Intego Personal Backup (Commercial)
8. Data Backup (Commercial)
10. MimMac (Shareware)
11. SilverKeeper 2.0 (Freeware) -
What is the best way to defrag my macbook?
My 13" MacBook Pro (osx Lion) is lagging I do a lot of video editing and design work. Im looking for a way to clean up my computer, any suggetions?
DU does not defragment a drive. Repairing the disk would only help if the directory was corrupted. You may consider adding more RAM and be sure to maintain sufficient free space on your hard drive - 15 GBs or 10% of the drive's capacity, whichever is greater.
You may try;
Boot into Safe Mode and try repairing permissions (not likely to help.)
Restart normally.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions for OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior. Versions 1.5.1 and later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.) If this isn't the case, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard or Lion and should not be installed.
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems. For more about malware see Macintosh Virus Guide.
I would also recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. There is no confirmation that this version also works with Lion.
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
SyncTwoFolders
Synk Pro
Synk Standard
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Additional suggestions will be found in Mac Maintenance Quick Assist.
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity as free space. -
Ran Stellar defrag from a bootable CD. It was a successful defrag but when I tried to quit the program, it wouldn't respond. I finally had to manually turn off the mini. Now the mini won't restart...it attempts to for several minutes & then the stop icon displays. I have tried holding down the option key during restart & selecting the hard drive but get the same results. The Stellar people tell me it is a Mac issue. Help!
Does it boot from the Restore Partition?
Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.
If that doesn't help Reinstall the OS.
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