[noka]

Okay, I know this has been covered a zillion times, but what is the final word on the proper maintenance measures to take with the internal HD, when used as both system/apps disk AND as your main disk for normal video use??

I've got a revA dual 2 GHz PowerMac G5 that seems to have an extremely fragmented drive. Some say, "oh, that's not possible with OS X!" others say, "You should throw all your files on to another drive, then transfer them back to your internal HD." But seriously folks, I'm looking for a REAL solution.

Back in the OS 9 days, when our old school disks would act like this, we'd boot up off a norton boot-able utilities CD, run the defrag utility and it would all be back to smooth runnin.... Now, I've been told that running defrag is not good for the system, etc...

What is the procedure for proper HD maintenance?

Any utilities? Anything that ships w/ OS X (Disk Utility seems to be close to useless)?

Any positive input would be greatly appreciated!!

[tooki]

There is no final word. Most people in the know say that defragging is not necessary, but some people are hell-bent on doing it and nothing will stop them.

Disk First Aid is a first-line defense against corruption. It's pretty much agreed that DiskWarrior is the tool for fixing disk corruption, though, and it can be used occasionally as a prophylactic.

The final word is that there is no final word. You have to decide whether the hassle of making a backup first is worth it in order to safely defrag, for the small increase in speed you may get.

tooki