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geltab · Nov 13, 2003, 03:05 PM

Is there any program in Panther that you can clean up your temporary files and defrag your HD, like in windows?

I am new to macs.

Thanks

coolmacdude · Nov 13, 2003, 03:07 PM

Originally posted by geltab:
defrag your HD

Panther defrags automatically in the background, so there is no need for that.

bkb · Nov 13, 2003, 04:47 PM

how cool !?

ae86_16v · Nov 13, 2003, 06:12 PM

Originally posted by coolmacdude:
Panther defrags automatically in the background, so there is no need for that.

Really, I didn't even know that.

nagromme · Nov 13, 2003, 06:26 PM

I thought defragging simply wasn't as useful in OS X. I never heard that it was automatic. Can anyone confirm if it is?

Even so, I've heard there are still benefits, and people buy 3rd party apps for it,

nate_02 · 08:49 PM

I was told that Panther only defrags files 20g or less.

EDIT: Sorry, I meant 20MB

phantomo · Nov 13, 2003, 07:33 PM

That should be 20MB. Panther do that in the background. Check older post in Mac OS X section in this regard.

dagaz · Nov 13, 2003, 08:39 PM

Yes, when Panther opens up a file which is less than 20MB in size it checks to see wether the data is in contiguous blocks - if not it moves the file on the fly so that it occupies contiguous blocks on the hard drive. Also, file journaling is turned on by default in Panther and third party utilities (Drive 10, Nortons) can't defrag a journaled volume.

nate_02 · Nov 13, 2003, 08:47 PM

Originally posted by phantomo:
That should be 20MB. Panther do that in the background. Check older post in Mac OS X section in this regard.

oops, sorry, I meant 20m

geltab · Nov 14, 2003, 10:41 AM

Thanks for the replies. I am still a bit confused though. Does it only defrag when you download a file under 20 mb? Now do you mean it defrags the whole hard drive every time or just the small files (less than 20 mb) when you download <than 20 mb files? I noticed that whenever I install software, I get a message that says something to the extent of "optimizing hard drive". Is this defragmenting?

Do I need to get a program to defrag?

iohead · Nov 14, 2003, 12:43 PM

Originally posted by geltab:
Thanks for the replies. I am still a bit confused though. Does it only defrag when you download a file under 20 mb? Now do you mean it defrags the whole hard drive every time or just the small files (less than 20 mb) when you download <than 20 mb files? I noticed that whenever I install software, I get a message that says something to the extent of "optimizing hard drive". Is this defragmenting?

Do I need to get a program to defrag?

Here are some relevant points:

1. Fragmentation (and consequently, defragmentation) are file system specific - not hard drive specific. So you defragment a file system, not a drive.

2. The current implementation of HFS+ tries to keep files whose size is under 20 MB defragmented. This is what was reported on Slashdot and other sites, and is based on looking at the source code. It seems the file system tries to do this when you open such files.

3. "Optimizing Hard Drive" is not defragmenting the file system. The post-installation stuff is running "update_prebinding", which is a program that tries to synchronize "prebinding" information for libraries/executables when new files are added to the system. Type "man update_prebinding" in the Terminal to read further details.

4. Fragmentation is not really a problem on most current day file systems. You do not need a defrag type of program, or need to worry about this in general.

Hope that helps.

-A