Utility for Optimizing/Defragging drives?

Any suggestions on a good third-party utility for optimizing/defragging external Firewire drives?
Thanks -

I think it is rather unfortunate that Apple does not have an official stance on this issue as it pertains for Logic. It is my understanding that it is the responsibility of the operating system to write the actual data to the disk. This allows developers, including developers of the major DAW manufacturers, a certain freedom from having to worry about how that data is written. I would have to think it's very easy for them to make a blanket statement and say: "sure - you should definitely defrag", without fully understanding the details of how OS X maintains its filesystem, and therefore whether or not it's really necessary to do so. Not that they're not incredibly talented programmers - it's just that they don't really need to worry about this stuff, just as I don't have to worry about how TCP/IP works when sending data across a network.
Now, in spite of my skepticism, I admit that I am tempted to try defragging my audio drive to see if helps improve performance, but I have to ask: how does one measure this? Is the disk I/O indicator within Logic a good indicator? Perhaps one of the low-level command line tools within OS X would be better?

Similar Messages

No Erase option in Disk Utility for an SSD Drive!

Hi guys,
Made a time machine copy on a 500gb external hard drive of my 13" MBP with a HDD currently in it.
Then took my 500gb SSD from an old 15" MBP, removed the HDD and put it in my 13" MBP.
Opened up 13" MBP in restore mode. Chose restore from time machine back up.
Choose the time machine external drive as source. Then chose the SSD drive to restore to.
Said it was erasing the drive... Asked for a password...
I typed in my usual password. It then said the SSD drive couldn't be erased.
Took the SSD out and put the original HDD back in.
Plugged the SSD into a firewire 800 caddy to try erase it in disk utility as an external.
This drive will show up in disk utility but the erase option isn't available.
I can repair the disk but it says the disk is perfectly fine.
I can click on the partition option but everything is greyed out and I can't partition it at all.
This drive will now no longer show up on the desktop or finder.
This is driving me crazy!
Just want to erase the SSD, use time machine to restore onto it and get busy.
Please help!
Thanks,
Chris

Aha! I only looked at 'format' list, didn't notice the 'option' list.
problem solved.
thank you !

Using Disk Utility for backup - target drive must be same size as source?

Hello. I have a 250 GB data drive that I need to back up to an external drive using Disk Utility (restore) so that I can create a RAID-1 set using the 250GB drive. The files take up only 100 GB on the drive.
Does the target external drive need to be 250 GB or just 100+ GB in size for the Disk Utility to work?
Thanks
David

I you want to make a non mirrored drive into a mirrored one you can do that with diskutil. Copying it first is not needed.
man diskutil:
enableRAID mirror|concat device
Convert single filesystem disk or volume into a unpaired mir-
ror RAID set or concat set. Ownership of the affected disk is
required.
repairMirror raidDisk newDisk
Repair a failed mirror. Supply the existing RAID as the raid-
Disk parameter. Supply the new disk as the last parameter of
the request. newDisk and raidDisk are only Device Nodes or
Disk Identifiers. Ownership of the affected disk is required.
The second disk in the mirror set needs to be as big or bigger as the first disk.
Do this booted from another disk or DVD.

What is a good defrag utility for OS X?

Hi, I was wondering what is the recommended defrag utility for 10.4.6. Thanks.

I think that I remember reading that since 10.3, X automatically does it, but I cannot remember for sure.
As the linked article claims, rayray, the OS defrags, but only up to a point.
Firstly, it only defrags files less than 20 Megs in size. This used not to be much of an issue, but in these days of humungous video files and the like, it sometimes can be these days.
Secondly, and significantly, it does not defrag free space. THis isn't much of an issue either when your disk has plenty of free space, but it can certainly become so when things get tight.
Various processes run by Mac OSX require "contiguous" free disk space. A badly fragmented drive may still have quite a few gigabytes of free space, but all of it may be in very small hunks. When the OS needs to write a file all in one place (like a directory extents file, for example), but can't find the room, this can result in very nasty things happening. It may , for example, simply write the file anyway, right over the top of another file.
Until your HD gets down to its last 40 or 50 gigs of free space you don't need to worry. When you DO get down to this sort of level, though, especially if yo are working with very big video files and the like, you need to do something about it. It depends a fair amount on what you are doing with your computer. Some people will get away with it until they are down to the even the last 4 or 5 gigs. Trouble is, if their usage patterns change they may well run into strife.
One solution is to simply "clone" your internal drive to an external, wipe the internal drive, and then clone it back. Make sure the clone really works before you wipe the internal though!
Alternatively , as suggested by Angus, Coriolus's "iDefrag" is the best of the utility bunch for this sort of stuff., I've been using it happily myself for quite some time now.
Cheers
Rod

Optimal Hard Drive Configuration for Premiere Pro CS5 and Pro Tools

I am in the process of upgrading a workstation that is used primarily for multi-track audio recording in Pro Tools to use the following Adobe CS5 products for production of promotional videos in HDV (and AVCHD for the web) as well as printed marketing materials for bands and musicians: Premiere Pro, Encore, Photoshop, Illustrator and Soundbooth.
Since Premiere Pro is probably the most demanding application of the group, I have been studying the suggested hardware configurations on this forum with great interest, particularly HARM's suggestions (including his Generic Guideline for Disk Setup) to determine which hard drives to purchase and the optimal manner in which to configure them.
I am upgrading an HP Z800 with dual quad core 2.44 GhZ processors with hyperthreading (16 virtual cores), 12 GB of memory and an overclocked GeForce GTX 470. Without setting up a RAID configuration (which I cannot afford at the moment), I would like to use the 4 available HDD bays in the Z800 in the optimal manner for Premier Pro, using currently available drives. I am currently considering purchasing a 300GB VelociRaptor to use as my C drive because of the extended load times and demands placed on the drive by ProTools and the associated Waves plug-ins.
I would appreciate suggestions to improve my following plan: C (300GB WD VelociRaptor) for OS and Programs; D (1 TB WD Black Caviar) for Media and Projects; E (1 250 GB WD Black Caviar) for Pagefile (approx. 18 GB) and Media Cache; and E (2 TB WD Black Caviar) for Previews, Exports and Pro Tools audio files.
I have great respect for the knowledge of the members of this forum and eagerly await your suggestions.
/Bill

I very much appreciate the responses to my email because I know that all of your time is valuable and that you have chosen to use some of that valuable time to help an unknown individual. This forum is remarkable because of the wealth of knowledge available and the willingness of so many to assist others.
I now wish to narrow my questions to save you time and so that I can get specific advice. I may not have not been clear that I have already upgraded to the HP Z800 with dual quad core processors and overclocked GTX 470, primarily for the improved performance it will provide in ProTools. My question now is how to optimize its performance for Premiere Pro CS5. Based upon my research, I am considering the following two upgrades, but I am open to other suggestions if they would provide better results at a similar cost
1. I am considering purchasing a 600GB WD VelociRaptor ( WD6000HLXH) for my C drive on which I would place OS (Windows 7, 64 Bit) and programs in an effort to reduce loading times of large programs. I have two questions: (1) Are members of the forum seeing a significant improvment in program loading times with the VelociRaptor because I am still not convinced that the price performance of SSD's justifies their use; and (2) There are so many models of VelociRaptors now that I want to be certain that I am purchasing the best version for my needs. In addition to the usual 10000 RPM speed, this model has 32MB Cache and a 3.5" form factor as well as a SATA 6.0GB/s interface (which I doubt my motherboard can take advantage of but it might extend the useful life of the drive with future configurations).
2. I currently have available for installation in the Z800 the following drives: (1) WD 2TB Black Caviar; (1) WD 1TB Black Caviar; (2) Hitachi 1TB. I believe that the Z800 can accept up to 5 SATA hard drives which I will have if I purchase the Velociraptor. Although I am reasonably knowledeable when it comes to hardware, I have never set up a RAID configuration. Therefore, it would be helpful if someone could recommend one of the various RAID configurations and brieflyexplain why it would seem to be best for my needs. I can then focus my research on understanding that one configuration.
I was planning to follow Scott's suggestion for my current 3 drives: OS and programs on C (WD 600 GBVelociRaptor), media and projects on D (WD 1TB Black Caviar), export files and Pro Tools files (all live musician tracks, no samples) on E (WD 2TB Black Caviar). However, I have been reading about the benefits of a RAID configuration so I am interested in further suggestions now that I have clarified my questions.
Thank you all for your help.
Bill

How does disk utility decide which optical drive to use for burn?

This is a somewhat daft question and purely out of interest.
How does disk utility decide which optical drive bay to open for burning?
I have two drives in a MacPro and both have the same capabilities (DVD-RW). Why does it sometimes open the lower one, and sometimes the top one?

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:
The estimate is based on how long it already took to do how many blocks, and how many blocks are left to do. If you told it to overwrite 35 times, it will be a long, long time before it completes.
The estimate is made grossly large by the presence of Bad Blocks that need to be Read during the test (not the case with Erase and Write Zeroes).
Each Block is written with some redundancy bits, so that small errors can be corrected on reading. A Bad Block causes the drive to re-read. and re-read, and re-read, in hopes of getting correctable data the next time. This should NOT be an issue in writing. But if the drive stops responding (which can and does happen with a bad drive) the Erase function will just sit there, thinking it is making progress, and stretching out the time.
Thanks, Grant.
If I read your reply correctly, Erase and Zero Out free space shouldn't elongate the process, because there's no read occurring.
The drive will not be Mounted while Disk Utility works on it, so it will not be on the Desktop. But ask Apple System Profiler \[ About this Mac > More Info > Serial ATA ] if the drive is still THERE . If it cannot be seen, you have your answer -- the drive dropped out of sight while being tested -- Bad Drive.
Well, now I am confused. It's a FW800 drive. It's on the Desktop. And it appears under FireWire in System Profiler. AND Disk Utility shows a mount point. But the Unmount and Eject buttons are grayed out.
Will the drive be mounted if it fails to respond to Disk Utility? That doesn't seem to make sense.
How do I determine its status? It appears to be stuck at "1 day, 5 hours" but it'll take an hour for that to change. I think it's been that long since I first noticed the time.
Harv

Drive Erase Utility for the Resetting the Cryptographic Key for T500?

Hi,
I have to reset the Cryptographic Key, so i found the Tool "Drive Erase Utility for the Resetting the Cryptographic Key and the Erasing the Solid State Drive - ThinkPad LINK.
Now i am very disappointed because id doesn't work with the T500.
Is there another Tool i can use?
Thanks in advance.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

It doesn't work on T500 because that link is only for the new systems, according to the text on that webpage you linked:
Edge E120, Edge E125, Edge E220s, Edge E320, Edge E325
Edge E420, Edge E420s, Edge E425, Edge E520, Edge E525
T420, T420i, T420s, T420si, T520, T520i
W520
X1, X120e, X121e
X220, X220i, X220 Tablet, X220i Tablet
To get the version you need for T500, you have to look in the T500-specific driver matrix or support download page.
Here's the link: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?LegacyDocID=MIGR-68369

When using disk utility to copy one drive to another is it common for the screen to go black

I have a G5 and the main HD is making a little noise. I installed a new HD and was using disk utilities to copy the old to the new. The message came up that it would take 5 hours to copy. The screen went black ... is this common? How do I know it's doing it's thing?

I always set the Energy Saver settings to "never" whenever I do things like volume cloning, software (especially OS) downloading and installing, or using Disk Utility for most anything.

OK to use fdisk/100% "SOLARIS System" partition for RAID6 Virtual Drive?

Solaris newb, here - I am configuring an x4270 with 16 135 GB drives. Basic approach is
D0, D1: RAID 1 (Boot volume, Solaris, Oracle Software)
D2-D13: RAID 6 (Oracle dB files)
D14, D15: global spares
After configuring the RAID's w/WebBIOS Utility, I am now trying to format/partition the RAID 6 Virtual Drive, which shows up as 1.327 TB 'Optimal' in the MegaRAID Storage Manager. After hunting around the ether for advice on how to do this, I came across http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23824_01/html/821-1459/disksxadd-50.html#disksxadd-54639
"Creating a Solaris fdisk Partition That Spans the Entire Drive"
which is painfully simple: after 'format', just do an 'fdisk' and accept the default 100% "SOLARIS System" partition. After doing this, partition>print and prtvtoc show this:
partition> print
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 59125 + 2 (reserved cylinders)
Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
1 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
2 backup wu 0 - 59124 1.33TB (59125/0/0) 2849529375
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
8 boot wu 0 - 0 23.53MB (1/0/0) 48195
9 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
# prtvtoc /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s2
* /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s2 partition map
* Dimensions:
* 512 bytes/sector
* 189 sectors/track
* 255 tracks/cylinder
* 48195 sectors/cylinder
* 59127 cylinders
* 59125 accessible cylinders
* Flags:
* 1: unmountable
* 10: read-only
* Unallocated space:
* First Sector Last
* Sector Count Sector
* 48195 2849481180 2849529374
* First Sector Last
* Partition Tag Flags Sector Count Sector Mount Directory
2 5 01 0 2849529375 2849529374
8 1 01 0 48195 48194
My question: is there anything inherently wrong with this default partitioning? Database is for OLTP & fairly small (<200 GB), with about 140 GB being LOB images.
Thanks,
Barry

First off, RAID-5 or RAID-6 is fine for database performance unless you have some REALLY strict and REALLY astronomical performance requirements. Requirements that someone with lots of money is willing to pay to meet.
You're running a single small x86 box with only onboard storage.
So no, you're not operating in that type of environment.
Here's what I'd do, based upon a whole lot of experience with Solaris 10 and not so much with Solaris 11, and also assuming this box is going to be around for a good long time as an Oracle DB server:
1. Don't use SVM for your boot drives. Use the onboard RAID controller to make TWO 2-disk RAID-1 mirrors. Use these for TWO ZFS root pools. Why two? Because if you use live upgrade to patch the OS, you want to create a new boot environment in a separate ZFS pool. If you use live upgrade to create new boot environments in the same ZFS pool, you wind up with a ZFS clone/snapshot hell. If you use two separate root pools, each new boot environment is a pool-to-pool actual copy that gets patched, so there are no ZFS snapshot/clone dependencies between the boot environments. Those snapshot/clone dependencies can cause a lot of problems with full disk drives if you wind up with a string of boot environments, and at best they can be a complete pain in the buttocks to clean up - assuming live upgrade doesn't mess up the clones/snapshots so badly you CAN'T clean them up (yeah, it has been known to do just that...). You do your first install with a ZFS rpool, then create rpool2 on the other mirror. Each time you do an lucreate to create a new boot environment from the current boot environment, create the new boot environment in the rpool that ISN'T the one the current boot environment is located in. That makes for ZERO ZFS dependencies between boot environments (at least in Solaris 10. Although with separate rpools, I don't see how that could change....), and there's no software written that can screw up a dependency that doesn't exist.
2. Create a third RAID-1 mirror either with the onboard RAID controller or ZFS, Use those two drives for home directories. You do NOT want home directories located on an rpool within a live upgrade boot environment. If you put home directories inside a live upgrade boot environment, 1) that can be a LOT of data that gets copied, 2) if you have to revert back to an old boot environment because the latest OS patches broke something, you'll also revert every user's home directory back.
3. That leaves you 10 drives for a RAID-6 array for DB data. 8 data and two parity. Perfect. I'd use the onboard RAID controller if it supports RAID-6, otherwise I'd use ZFS and not bother with SVM.
This also assumes you'd be pretty prompt in replacing any failed disks as there are no global spares. If there would be significant time before you'd even know you had a failed disk (days or weeks), let alone getting them replaced, I'd rethink that. In that case, if there were space I'd probably put home directories in the 10-disk RAID-6 drive, using ZFS to limit how big that ZFS file system could get. Then use the two drives freed up for spares.
But if you're prompt in recognizing failed drives and getting them replaced, you probably don't need to do that. Although you might want to just for peace of mind if you do have the space in the RAID-6 pool.
And yes, using four total disks for two OS root ZFS pools seems like overkill. But you'll be happy when four years from now you've had no problems doing OS upgrades when necessary, with minimal downtime needed for patching, and with the ability to revert to a previous OS patch level with a simple "luactivate BENAME; init 6" command.
If you have two or more of these machines set up like that in a cluster with Oracle data on shared storage you could then do OS patching and upgrades with zero database downtime. Use lucreate to make new boot envs on each cluster member, update each new boot env, then do rolling "luactivate BENAME; init 6" reboots on each server, moving on to the next server after the previous one is back and fully operational after its reboot to a new boot environment.

How do I access Disk Utility for 10.7.1?

How do I access Disk Utility for 10.7.1? I found it in the forums a few weeks ago, used it, then lost the directions. This is a last ditch attempt
to use OS Lion. I parted my hair incorrectly when I installed and have been plagued by the dread rainbow spinning ball in EVERY application. Yes, every. Name one, Safari, Firefox, Text Edit, Mail, Excel, Word, iTunes, Garage Band, Calculator, Calender, iPhoto....yes, every, and I cannot
find a solution that works. I have back up files on two different hard drives 500 gig and 1 terrabyte with all my music, photo and writing files.
I am a writer and a musician so imagine the frustration. OS 10.6 is an option of course. My dedication to Apple and each new OS is deep so
I am hoping that somehow there will a fix, an upgrade, something that does not require me to go bac to the much more endangered species named OS.
hahhaa! Just stalled waiting for the ball to finish with it's random spinning.... SO, this is like a last desperate .... it just did two more stalls.
NO OTHER apps running, just little Firefox holding on for dear life, last desperate request for a fix.
MacKeeper has been great in sending helpful directions for getting the Antivirus to work after it mysteriously decided to stop working, Quite MacKeeper, go to Activity Monitor, force quit helper, start up MacKeeper and run program. It works!
SO before my third stall stops me, please post directions to open disk utility in administration mode so that I can do any further repairs that have not worked by using it from the open system. Also keychain synching stopped working with Lion.
Thanks to any and all who can help.

Press and hold Command-R keys and reboot. You'll then start up in the Lion Recovery HD. You'll find Disk Utility there.
Command-R to the rescue.
Just hold down Command-R during startup and Lion Recovery springs into action. It lets you choose from common utilities: You can run Disk Utility to check or repair your hard drive, erase your hard drive and reinstall a fresh copy of Lion, or restore your Mac from a Time Machine backup. You can even use Safari to get help from Apple Support online. And if Lion Recovery encounters problems, it will automatically connect to Apple over the Internet.

Since I upgraded to Lion 10.7.2, my external HD is no longer visible in AirPort utility (in the AirPort disks tab). I also installed the AirPort utility for iOS5, it reported a disk problem, but running Disk Utility on the Mac showed no issues. Help!

To expand on the question, I have performed the following steps:
1 - Unplugged external drive (1TB WD MyBook) from the Time Capsule
2 - Reconnected it. At this point, AirPort utility for iOS5 reported a problem with the disk (Time Capsule light was blinking Orange)
3 - Unplugged external drive, connected it to MacBook Pro, ran Disk Utility. It found no problems (disk visible straight away on the MacBook Pro).
4 - Reconnected to Time Capsule - still doesn't show up under the "Disks" option under Air Port utility. Or rather, the hardware is visible (i.e the physical disk) but not the volume.
5 - I tried another external hard drive, and the volume also doesn't appear in the Disk section under the AirPort utility.
The WD disk is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
This is a big problem for me, as the drive houses my iTunes library.
Anyone else had a similar problem? It all worked flawlessly until last week.

I love computers.
Have managed to fix this already. Been working the issue for a few days now, and a few minutes after writing the above post I decided to reset the Time Capsule to factory default settings.
After entering all my details again (used same network names, passwords etc) the Time Capsule was rebooted. When it came back on line - guess what? Yep, the MyBook WD drive is now visibile. I can connect via the network from my other machines to the drive, and iTunes is back.
So - thought I would post my resolution in case it helps others.

What formatting for external hard drives for my photo students?

I teach digital photography. Our classroom Macs are a mix of Intel and PPC (iMac 20", G5s). My students typically either come with a Mac laptop, buy one while here, or soon after they leave. Some (few!) have a PC laptop or will leave to go home to a PC laptop.
I've been buying one external harddrive per student (with FW800, FW400, USB 2.0, 250 GB) from macsales.com for students to put their digital photos on while here and when they leave my 12 wk. course. I encourage them if they have a Mac laptop to partition their external drive to have one partition for backing up their boot drive, one for their photos.
In the classroom, they may be hooking up their external drive to a PPC or Intel Mac.
What recommendations can you give for what formatting they should be using for their external drives? Intel, for PPC, or...MS-DOS (if they go to a PC)? (One student told me that her external drive which was formated for PPC last summer now won't show up on her MacBook Pro.)
I realize they can only use the FW800 on a few Macs (including 17" MacBook Pro, Mac Pro), and should not be using USB 2.0 for a drive they hope to boot a Mac with. I've heard formatting and using MS-DOS is very unstable (for PCs at least).
Tips, please?
2x2.66 GHz Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9) 5 GB RAM

I've been buying one external harddrive per student
(with FW800, FW400, USB 2.0, 250 GB) from
macsales.com for students to put their digital photos
on while here and when they leave my 12 wk. course. I
encourage them if they have a Mac laptop to partition
their external drive to have one partition for
backing up their boot drive, one for their photos.
That's impressive and very user-supportive. At work, our students have space on our server to backup/store their work for the semester but are greatly encouraged to backup their stuff with either Cds or DVDs (and we don't supply those). If they use a personal machine, they are responsible for their own backups of their system.
In the classroom, they may be hooking up their
external drive to a PPC or Intel Mac.
For data, the traditional APM formatted drive work with both.
What recommendations can you give for what formatting
they should be using for their external drives?
Intel, for PPC, or...MS-DOS (if they go to a PC)?
(One student told me that her external drive which
was formated for PPC last summer now won't show up
on her MacBook Pro.)
As I mentioned earlier, an Intel Mac can boot from an APM formatted drive although this may or may not be the best solution. Unfortunately with partitioning via Disk Utility (and perhaps other tools as well - I've not investigated this yet), every partition must be of the same scheme GUID or APM.
The most important reason for backups (IMHO) is to safeguard personal work. The OS can be re-installed anytime and settings reconfigured if need be. Since the APM scheme can be used by both Intels and PPC for data, I would go with APM. Bootable or not, their important data will be backed up.
(I don't know why one student had a problem but it shouldn't be related to the partition scheme.)
For a bootable system/backup, I use Carbon Copy Cloner from Mike Bombich. Ideally, so long as there is space, I create a restorable image of a fresh OS install and put it away for a rainy day. I then clone my entire internal drive to the external (APM). Over the last year, I've been able to boot from it on my original iMac CD as well as have a hard copy of my work.
Once backed up, I would later use the option to only copy changed files instead of re-doing the entire drive. That was a feature in the PPC version of the app (which will run under Intel) although I haven't tried the latest universal version (3.0 beta). There are a number of other applications that can perform backups/cloning as well.

How do you find the right replacement for a hard drive

i have a 2007 macbook and the hard drive just went out and i want to find a new one that would be combatible

For a new hard drive try Newegg.com http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Dr ives&Order=PRICE
Or OWC for regular hard drives and SSDs http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/
Here are instructions on replacing the hard drive in a MacBook with a removable battery. http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=45088
After you put in your new hard disk put your install DVD into the optical drive (CD/DVD drive) and reboot. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc. As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the "c" key on your keyboard (or the Option Key until the Install Disk shows up) until the apple shows up. That will force your MacBook to boot from the install DVD in the optical drive.
When it does start up, you'll see a panel asking you to choose your language. Choose your language and press the Return key on your keyboard once. It will then present you with an Installation window.
Completely ignore this window and click on Utilities in the top menu and scroll down to Disk Utility and click it. You should see your hard drive in the left hand column along with your other drives. Click on the drive and select the Erase tab. Set the format value to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click the Erase button. After that has finished select the Partition tab. Type in a Name for your hard drive and select how many partitions you want from the Volume Scheme. The usual setting is one partition. Click on the Options button after you've selected a partition to make sure it's set for GUID. Then click the Apply button and after the Partitioning is done quit Disk Utility.
You can now follow the instructions on the install screen

Can anyone recommend a free maintenance utility for panther ?

I have an iBook running OS 10.3.5 Panther. It is not running as well as it used to despite clearing the hard drive of old files. I think it would benefit from some kind of a maintenance script utility that would clean and optimise the system. This is a spare computer that we use mostly for surfing, email and iTunes, my main computer is a newer Macbook. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good 3rd party downloadable utility for Panther, preferably free or shareware, that I could install and run periodically?

Hi 12frets56!
"Can anyone tell me what "BSD Subsystem installed" means? .... How would I know if my iBook has this?"
BSD Subsystem is a Unix tool, and numerous applications require it to function.
If I find a more technical definition, I'll post it!
Unless you performed a custom install, and chose to not install it, the BSD subsystem is installed by default when you install Mac OS X.
EDIT: Here ya go Berkeley Software Ditrubution!
Navigate to HD > Library > Receipts. If BSD is installed, the file BSD.pkg will be present.
If it is not installed, repost for further instruction.
As Texas Mac Man (Tom) posted, insufficient available space, can cause performance issues, system corruption, and possible loss of data.
Depending on Mac system usage habits, it is a general recommendation, to keep 10% to as much as 20%, of the Total capacity, available at all times.
Review the suggestions, in the documents that I have linked to below.
Authored by Dr Smoke:
Problems From Insufficient RAM And Free Hard Disk Space
Freeing Space On Your Mac OS X Startup Disk
Have you ever run any routine Maintenance procedures, as suggested in the articles linked to below?
Mac OS X 10.3/10.4: System Maintenance, authored by Gulliver
Maintaining Mac OS X, authored by Dr Smoke
Is the Mac shutdown overnight, or does it run 24/7?
As posted, if you turn the Mac off nightly, the Background Maintenance Tasks, are never run.
The CRON Commands, can be run manually as well, using Terminal.
I also use MacJanitor when necessary.
INSTRUCTIONS TO RUN CRON MANUAL COMMANDS
Quit all applications/programs.
Navigate to HD > Applications > Utilities.
Double click on Terminal, to open.
At the prompt, type:
sudo periodic daily
Press Return.
Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
This will execute the daily script that is sheduled to run every night.
When completed, repeat this procedure, but change the command to:
sudo periodic weekly
This one rebuilds a database or two, and usually takes somewhat longer to complete. It is scheduled to run once a week.
Repeat again, with command:
sudo periodic monthly
Or they can all be run in one pass, which is preferable, with this command:
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
When the tasks complete, and return to the prompt, you may quit Terminal.
Restart the Mac, and run Repair Permissions.
TO REPAIR PERMISSIONS ON THE STARTUP DISK
1.Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities, and select the startup disk in the left column.
2.Click First Aid.
3.Click Verify Disk Permissions to test permissions or Repair Disk Permissions to test and repair permissions. (I never "Verify". Just run "Repair".)
Rerun RP, until the only messages reported, are listed here Spurious Permissions Errors Using: 10.3.x, authored by Michael Conniff.
When "Repair Permissions" is complete. Quit "Disk Utility".
After you have done some Spring Cleaning, you can use the 10.3.9 Combo Update, to upgrade to the final version.
ali b

Disk Utility not finding Hard Drives after Updates

Howdy;
Updated my B&W G3 to 10.4.4 and itunes 6.0.2. After update and restart, ran Disk Utility (DU), which seem to just get into a loop "Gathering disk data". Force quit DU and tried running from Tiger DVD, but similar story.
I have done a little research and there has been many problems with DU linked to itunes 6.0.2 update, but not quite the same (no B&W G3 w/10.4.4 and different DU hang point).
I followed: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1505537#1505537
and even tried moving iTunes to desktop; trashing several iTunes.pkg files; restarting, all to no avail.
Any additional suggestions out there?
Dual 2.5 G5; Mac min; B&W G3 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I doubt that any jumpers are needed, since this is the only (master) drive in the system. WD's site has pretty good info on this. Verify for yourself however.
Also, from their site:
How to partition and format an internal slave drive or an external drive in a Mac OS X (all versions).
Answer
In Mac OS X, you can use the built in Disk Utility to partition and initialize the drive so it will appear on the desktop.
1. Open the main drive (the drive that contains the operating system).
2. Open the Applications folder.
3. Open the Utilities folder.
4. Select Disk Utility.
5. The drives are displayed on the left side of the window. Click on the drive that you wish to partition (the top drive listing for the hard drive that you want to work with).
6. Once the drive is selected click on Partition.
7. Click on the Options button to select the partitioning scheme.
8. Click on Apple Partitioning Scheme or Apple Partitioning Map and then click on the OK button.
9. You will see several options for setting up the drive. Once you have selected the number of partitions, the format type you want, and a volume label, click the Partition button.
10. Following the completion of this process, the drive will appear on the desktop.
Joe

Utility for Optimizing/Defragging drives?

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