Idefrag

I am trying to use idefrag to defragment my mac os x as this may help with the error the disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. so how do i defragment my volume mac os x. it says i need to boot from another volume to use full defrag.
please help me make sense of this. thanks

Hi,
You need to make a bootable backup of your laptops hard drive. You have to purchase or create an external hard drive, format it as GUID using Disk Utility under the Partition selection (click on the disk and not the name you chose for your new external drive), and preferably zero the drive using Disk Utility under the Erase function to map out the bad sectors. It takes more time but it may save you from future problems. Then buy a copy of SuperDuper, install it, read the directions, and clone your boot drive to your new external hard drive. Don't do this from a FileVault account and preferably do it from your Admin account. Restart and repair the external drive with DiskWarrior then boot into the external drive from the Startup Disk selection in System Preferences and run iDefrag on your laptops hard drive.
Hope this helps

Similar Messages

  • Success with iDefrag and DiskWarrior on my Intel iMac! (indirectly)

    Had some very good success using iDefrag and DiskWarrior on my intel iMac, both of which do not run directly on the intel platform yet. As I had observed a gradual (modest) slow-down over the course of the past month since I got my iMac, I couldn't help but try to figure out a way to defrag and optimize the hard drive since I had over 125GB (including quite a few large media files, and a couple system updates, both of which tend to cause fragmentation). So, after doing two independent backups on separate external HD's, I ran iDefrag on my iBook and defrag/optimized the iMac's hard drive using Target Disk Mode. As expected, the hd was VERY fragmented - and the process took overnight to complete. Being as careful as possible to ensure no problems, I then ran verify disk and repair permissions on the iMac's hard drive, and no problem. Did notice a very meaningful increase in responsiveness and speed on the iMac, even more than I would have expected. Since I historically always ran DiskWarrior after doing this exercise on my PPC mac's, I decided to attempt the same here. Since I (and others on this board) have been unsuccessful in running DW3.03 using the iMac in Target Disk Mode, I decided to update backup drive #1 post-iDefrag, and was then able to mount this drive (backup#1) and run DiskWarrior on it from the iBook. No problems were detected which was great news, but the I had it write the new index/directory files. I then sync'd back to my iMac's hard drive (from backup#1 to iMac HD) and observed that a number of files were updated most likely as a result of the updated directory/index files from running DW (I use FolderSynchronizer to sync). So keeping backup#2 of the pre-iDefrag/DiskWarrior for a while, but so far so good, and a very meaningful improvement in performance. So the experiment seems to be a success.
    DISLAIMERS: If anyone does "try this at home" please backup and re-backup before attempting. In addition, please note that Coriolis is in the process of developing an intel build for iDefrag and probably recommended in general to wait for this update.
    iMac 20" 2GHz Core Duo 2GB RAM, iBook 12" 1.33GHz   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

    Thanks for this posting and the good advice.  I put in some time chasing the 801.57 gb limit before finding this thread that steers in the direction I see now I must persue, a new enclosure (modern day version rather than 5 year old technology -- yes, the old external drive has the Oxford chipset mentioned repeatedly in other threads) to go with my new drive.  Would have been better off $$-wise to have purchased a complete unit, but this is so much more fun on a Monday evening.
    Great being here with you all!

  • IDefrag errors

    I tried to defragment my hd using iDefrag. Prior to defragging, I ran DiskWarrior. iDefrag [which runs fine on my other 3 Macs] went into an endless loop and, when running repeatedly, it generated an error message...cannot move blocks from A to B.
    Q at that time: directory issue of hardware issue.
    So I zeroed the hd, and hence, retired any bad blocks [if there were any]...after re-loading the software from scratch, when running iDefrag again, I had the same error message and problems. After several tries, I am down to 4 fragmented files with no more than 3 fragments each. All files belong to Spotlight.
    The friendly people at Apple Care were as much at a loss as I was. Fact is that I have never had any hd issues in real life.
    Does anybody have similar problems and how did you solve them?
    Any recommendationw how to go from here?
    Jurgen

    Hi again,
    thanks for all the replies.
    It turned out that deleting the empty space did not have any noticeable effect on the write performance.
    But there is one thing I don't understand: I already have an archive harddisk externally attached via USB. It is a TrekStor 2TB system of two 1 TB disks. But unlike my internal RAID these two disks are combined by the USB case. Apple Disk Utility does not recognize two independent disks. Also both (the USB 2 TB + the internal 3 TB RAID) are formated HFS+ Journaled. I can't figure out if they are both GUID or Apple Partitions. Is there a way to find out?
    BUT: I can fill up the USB drive with 1,82 TB net space with 1,82 TB of data. There is only 1,1 GB free space left. And even the last 10 GB copied with speeds around 4 MB/s which is slow, but compared to normal USB 2 speed around 15 MB/s this is an ok speed.
    So thats a usage of 99,94 % and the drive is still more or less usable. Now writing is about 1 MB/s. But 1 GB of left over space would be ok I guess.
    So what might be the reason the internal 3 disk RAID would not deliver that performance? I'd hate to waste 50 GB of working space, when I am working on a large video project.
    Thanx again for some ideas!
    Message was edited by: Gerd Majora

  • Circle Slash "Do Not Enter" on boot after iDefrag

    I ran iDefrag last night because my MBP was running sooooo slow. I barely ever use it and it has 300 GB of free space. I used to use OnyX to optimise the disks on Snow Leopard but I didn't see that option in Lion. I let iDefrag run and went to sleep. This morning I woke up to the Do Not Enter sign and the spinning thing below it. I made sure I left it plugged in so I don't understand what happened.
    How do I fix this and not lose my data?

    boblaudermilk wrote:
    I ran iDefrag last night because my MBP was running sooooo slow. I barely ever use it and it has 300 GB of free space. I used to use OnyX to optimise the disks on Snow Leopard but I didn't see that option in Lion. I let iDefrag run and went to sleep. This morning I woke up to the Do Not Enter sign and the spinning thing below it. I made sure I left it plugged in so I don't understand what happened.
    How do I fix this and not lose my data?
    Despite some software developers claims, Macs do not require defraging and therefore the cause of the system slow down will be found elsewhere. It sounds, unfortunately, that your HDD may have been ready to die and iDrag just put the final nail in it. Unless you can get it to mount by repairing it with something like DiskWarrior, then I would think, given that it sounds like you have no backup, that you may be in some trouble here. Do you have any form of backups?
    Pete

  • The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved. idefrag didnt solve the problem. Please help, maybe i did something wrong

    My time Machine isnt set up so i cant back up my files.
    i read on the apple forms that idefrag works and solves that problem. I payed money, and defraged my computer and i still get that error msg!

    zuzugp wrote:
    My time Machine isnt set up so i cant back up my files.
    Well you need to resolve that backup issue first and combined we will solve your other issue.
    Get a new blank external drive either the same size or slightly larger than your boot drive and open Disk Utility in your Applications > Utilities folder.
    Select the external drive makers name on the far left and click Erase and Security option > Zero all data on the new external drive, let it complete it will take some time.
    If your on 10.7, the Erase function and select the next to the far right option, that's a Zero Erase, the 7x takes too long and isn't necessary as the Zero erase is enough to map off any failing sectors.
    Once that is finished, download the free to use (donations) Carbon Copy Cloner and clone the OS X drive (10.7 partition) to the external drive using the default settings, just select drive A and B and click clone. Wait for this also takes some time.
    Hold the option key down and select the cloen to boot from, check it out, it's a exact copy. Cool.
    i read on the apple forms that idefrag works and solves that problem. I payed money, and defraged my computer and i still get that error msg!
    You got burned, because iDefrag doesn't move data in that fashion, it only attempts to defrag files and still leaves data on the area where your trying to create the Bootcamp partition.
    Your solution is to option key boot from the clone, Zero erase the OS X partition and reverse clone back onto the drive/partition. Provided you have the drive space avaialble for Bootcamp, then all the free space will be avaialble at the bottom of the drive to create the Bootcamp partition.
    see this
    BootCamp: "This disc can not be partitioned/impossible to move files."

  • IDefrag froze and had to force quit... possible lost data/damage?

    Complete defragmentation failed to complete, it just froze... Now I'm worried something from my tons of stuff is missing or not working,  and I'll notice later on or never...
    I did an external backup right before, so I'm thinking about just 'taking it all in again'  as it was before the failed defrag to be safe... then try defrag again??

    In the documentation for IDefrag it states that your first step should be a backup, for exactly the reason that you have run into.
    Once I read that I decided to not buy it and use the restoration of a clone if I think I need to defragment as NoonDayWitch has suggested. I find it safer and cheaper.
    Allan

  • IDefrag 2.0

    Those of you that have been waiting for the new version of iDefrag to come out can stop waiting, it's available now.
    http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php
    I bought the previous version at the end of February and appear to have a free upgrade, which is really cool of them.

    The BootCamp Asistant (BCA) needs a free contigeous diskspace on you harddisk to make the BootCamp partition.
    OSX on the other hand tries to keep files in 'one-part' on the harddisk which after some time of usage leads to files being scattered all over your harddisk.
    Therefor the BCA can not find the free contigeous space it needs.
    The easiest way is to use a cloning app like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your internal OSX to an external harddisk.
    Then repartition the internal HD with Disk Utility while booted from the external HD and then clone the OSX back to the internal.
    This usually puts the once scattered files back in order at gives the needed free contigeous diskspace for the BCA to work.
    http://s3.amazonaws.com/com.shirtpocket/SuperDuper/Fragmentation.pdf
    Stefan

  • Using idefrag on the startup volume

    just bought idefrag (on a recommendation from some of you) and used it on my media drive. Everything looks cool, and now I'm wondering if anybody has ever used it on their startup volume. I feel like this could potentially make me a very sorry dude.
    any thoughts?

    just bought idefrag (on a recommendation from some of
    you) and used it on my media drive. Everything looks
    cool, and now I'm wondering if anybody has ever used
    it on their startup volume. I feel like this could
    potentially make me a very sorry dude.
    any thoughts?
    I've used it.
    I boot from my firewire drive's boot partition and can do a full defrag on the system drive.
    caveat#1: I back up the system before doing so.
    caveat#2: My startup volume is small, I keep all samples, loops...etc on the second partition of my system drive.
    That said, it makes a noticeable difference in how fast the system boots and how quickly programs load.
    For even smoother operation, disable spotlight and journaling.
    pancenter-

  • BootCamp + iDefrag problems (macmini)

    Im tryng to install Windows on my mac mini. When I go to boot camp I got a message saying tha there are some files in my disk that couldnt be moved.
    To solve this problem, I make a search over the internet and find out a program called iDefrag.
    So I bought the program. Unfortunetly, for making a full defragment of my Disk its necessary to do it with the primary disk unmounted. So the vendor created a software named Coriolis CdMaker to creat a boot disk and make the full defrag.
    But my macmini doesnt have a dvd burner (superdrive) and I could not creat this dvd. I also tryed to burn over the network, with a driver on a PC, but with no success.
    How can I creat this DVD? I dont have any external drive and other mac. I also dont plan to buy.
    Is there a way to solve this problem without formatting?
    (I see that my free space is 98% fragmented).
    Screenshot of burning options: http://img81.imageshack.us/i/imagem2kev.png/
    Thank u all

    The cheapest answer is to find another Mac and have them burn the DVD for you.
    Maybe you have an iPod you can put into disk mode? If so you can use it for a boot drive.
    Too bad you don't plan to buy an external drive for a backup. You will either have a better setup for the future, or become very good at solving every kind of problem a program or OS update can do to trash your system, or be forced to reinstall your OS whenever serious problems do appear.
    I wouldn't even bother with iDefrag if you have a second hard drive. I'd use Disk Utility to "Restore", or SuperDuper! to clone your OS to a partition on the second drive. Then boot from the second drive and do it again from the second drive to the first drive.
    This puts all of your OS and files into a partition that is small enough for you to create a second partition for BootCamp.
    Then again, you could just use Disk Utility to "Restore" your iDefrag boot disk image to a partition the second drive and boot from it.
    The good news is that you need a second drive for Time Machine backups, and/or a SuperDuper bootable clone anyway, so the money for the drive is not wasted.
    Another alternative is to pick up an inexpensive external DVD burner. This would also not go to waste when you want to burn DVD's or if your internal optical drive fails.

  • IDEFRAG FAULT: There was a hardware problem accessing your volume

    Idefrag stops defragging when arriving at the following block and gives this warning:
    There was a hardware problem accessing your volume (e.g. bad block or loss of power) and Idefrag cannot continue. The File that Idefrag was working on was: /Previous/Library/Logs/DirectoryService/DirectoryService.server.log -
    What can i do?
    Now i cant finish defragmenting. Only the compact defrag level > cuz this scan level only restore the empty blocks. All the other levels it stops defragging.
    Please help

    iDefrag may well have damaged your system. No such third party utility is required, or even adviseable, on OS X which does such things by itself.
    I would recommend a reinstall from your recovery partition.
    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.

  • IDefrag Issues

    I had done a lot of reading and read conflicting things about whether OSX needs to be defragmented. I went ahead and decided to give it a shot since my disk space remaining was less than 10%. After letting iDefrag do its thing, my computer restarted and thats when the issues began. I now show no date/time/airport/battery info in my menu bar, my desktop icons are all whacky looking, and I am unable to launch an application unless it is in the dock (other wise it appears as though it doing something similar to "show package contents"). What did I do? How can I fix this and get my computer back to normal?
    TIA
    Here is what my desktop/menu bar looks like:

    Copy your data off (Music, Documents, Pictures, Movies etc) to a external storage drive and disconnect, verify you have your files on another Mac, then follow the
    Restoring OS X - 10.6  "fresh install method"
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201
    It's going to be painful and brutal work getting your machine back, but that seems to me to be the only course of action that is going to clear your mess up.
    FYI, keeping your boot drive below 50% filled.
    Installing the OS first and updating
    then programs, then finally files from backup (but not more than 50% of the drive filled)
    Tends to keep OS X in fine shape for long periods of time.
    Cloning back and forth also makes things fast again and is much safer then Defragging as you always have a functioning copy.
    Read my thread, it's quite involved and sheds the light on things.

  • Buy iDefrag or restore the system via TimeMachine? What's the better/faster way?

    Hi there!
    I'm thinking about either buying iDefrag or restoring my system.
    As I read on several websites there is no need to defrag Mac OS X because HFS+ automatically does (more or less). But: if the free space on the HD goes below 10% the OS can no longer defrag itself even if you delete files and free space increases again. Is that true at all?
    As I had only 40GB left out of 500GB I am now thinking about what to do. Is there any need to defrag or restore (iDefrag: 27€ / system restore: just some time)? Would any of those two options speed up my Mac? Or should I do nothing? I'm not sure if the Mac is slower than it should be at all.
    Thanks for your opinios and evaluations.

    ...if the free space on the HD goes below 10% the OS can no longer defrag itself even if you delete files and free space increases again. Is that true at all?
    No.
    Is there any need to defrag or restore (iDefrag: 27€ / system restore: just some time)?
    About disk optimization with Mac OS X

  • Error while verifing a data DVD burn

    Hi - I'm trying to put a lot of .wmv files onto DVD+R discs in order to remove them from my hard drive, which is becoming full. Problem is that after the burn is complete, the process fails about 1/2 way through and I get the following message:
    "An error occurred while verifying the disc. This disc may not work"
    Then it ejects. The disc does not show up in the finder when I re-insert it.
    Please help!! I've wasted several DVD's on this. I have also run iDefrag and that has not helped. Thanks.

    What brand of discs are you using, and at what burn speed? Also, which drive is in your computer?

  • I've had it! I've tried everything! my Macbook Pro is unreasonably slow

    I can blame a lot of the hanging on Photoshop, but I thought I purchased a computer that could handle it!
    I am a graphic designer. I work with multiple files at once, and these files are always high resolution and sometimes up to 24x24 inches in print size. I use version CS3. I feel as if when Photoshop is open, everything else hangs. The spinning wheel is always making an appearance. Programs often hang so much that they will no respond, including Photoshop, even when doing the simplest tasks.
    I have plenty of hard drive space. I have 2GB of RAM. I have messed with the cache levels and amount of memory that Photoshop takes up. I have used iDefrag and several programs to free up space such as Monolingual and this other program, I can't remember the name, but it helps you to delete browser files like your history, cache, etc. I've deleted unused fonts, I've done so many things. Nothing seems to help.
    When idle, Photoshop uses around 1.14 GB of real memory/1.95 GB of virtual memory. Is this common?
    Firefox is using 83.55 MB of real memory/866.92 MB of virtual memory. I also always have Mail open (25 MB/460 MB) and some other programs like instant messaging programs and Text Edit. My Activity Monitor says I am using 1.98 GB of System Memory... wait a minute, that's almost all of my memory!!
    I feel like I've been freeing up disk space but that is hardly my issue. My issue seems to be processor performance, or RAM. I think my issue is probably Photoshop, and not anything to do with my Mac.
    Any advice, anyway?! Please help. Thanks!!

    Look at these links
    52 Ways to Speed Up OS X
    http://www.imafish.co.uk/articles/post/articles/130/52-ways-to-speed-up os-x/
    Tuning Mac OS X Performance
    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/performance.html
    11 Ways to Optimize Your Mac's Performance
    http://lowendmac.com/eubanks/07/0312.html
    The Top 7 Free Utilities To Maintain A Mac.
    http://mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/thetop_7_free_utilities_to_maintain_amac/
    Mac OS X: System maintenance
    http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607640
     Cheers, Tom

  • "How do I defrag my mac?" "You don't need to, it does it itself" Fragmented Free Space: 99%. READ THIS NOW

    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.

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