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UnixMac · Jul 26, 2004, 06:16 PM

I had some problems before with the Drive 10 defrag needing me to first repair my disk then after running it for what seemed to be 2 hours or more, it caused my machine to stop booting in to OS X.

Has anyone had any problems/experience with techtool pro on X.3 that they wish to share?

Thanks

Sam

yukon · Jul 26, 2004, 10:29 PM

Sounds like you had disk damage, and the "repair" broke an OS X boot file or something.

Try other utilities, make sure Drive10 says the disk is fine now....reinstall OS X and enable Journaling. Make sure to try the hardware diagostics of course, rather than just the volume ones, to make sure the drive isn't failing itself.

the new TechTool seems to work fine for me. It could use a better defragmenter, like "Arrange files by access" etc, but no problems so far....and yeah, my drives are almost full, they fragment quickly. stupid ATA100, don't know whether to trust Pather's new >130gb formatting ability or not.

wadesworld · Jul 27, 2004, 10:48 AM

Repeat after me...."I do not need to defragment anymore".

Wade

UnixMac · Jul 27, 2004, 11:23 AM

Originally posted by wadesworld:
Repeat after me...."I do not need to defragment anymore".

Wade

Please, explain... I've heard this once before... although it was a person who said.... "you don't need to defrag on a Mac" which lead me to believe it was in the OS. Why do they include defrag features if it doesn't help. I ask seriously, as I don't wish to do any harm to my files if I don't gain any benefit. Also, keep in mind, I use FCP with large video clips.. if that helps.

thanks in advance!

Diggory Laycock · Jul 27, 2004, 11:30 AM

Ta Da:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

http://www.doctormac.net/tips/osx_optimize_waste.html

UnixMac · Jul 27, 2004, 11:42 AM

Originally posted by Diggory Laycock:
Ta Da:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

http://www.doctormac.net/tips/osx_optimize_waste.html

Thanks both are helpful... but they do both admit there is a small increase in speed..

The apple site said "For these reasons, there is little benefit to defragmenting." Little benefit is nevertheless some benefit.. also they mention that it's easier to repair less fragmented files should you suffer a hard disk crash.

While the doc site said that it's going to take you 2 hours to defragment your disk to only get 1 second in speed increase... but If I do the 2 hours at night while I sleep, it's no big deal.

Anyway, I figure it's not enough benefit to do it often, if I do it, it's gonna be once a year or so, and not weekly as I originally figured I'd have to do.

Thanks all.

wataru · Jul 27, 2004, 11:53 AM

Originally posted by wadesworld:
Repeat after me...."I do not need to defragment anymore".

Wade

Says you.

Do a search--the issue is far from clear. The one and only fact I can give you about it is this: Drive 10 reported several thousands of both file fragments and disk space fragments on my drive when I last optimized it. This is on OS X 10.3, which people claim doesn't need defragging because it can defrag to some extent on its own.

SMacTech · Jul 27, 2004, 05:17 PM

You don't need to defragment, even less of a need with Panther and a fast computer. If you have the time, and a backup, it cannot hurt.
I never liked or had particularly good luck with TechTool, in its earlier days. It took forever to defrag my OS 9 20gb drive. It never caused a startup problem for me.

wadesworld · Jul 28, 2004, 12:44 AM

Says you.

Do a search--the issue is far from clear. The one and only fact I can give you about it is this: Drive 10 reported several thousands of both file fragments and disk space fragments on my drive when I last optimized it.

Who gives a rat's butt?

Fragments are how a drive operates. They're going to exist, period.

My point is simply that for 99% of normal users, defragging is a complete waste of time. You'll spend a few hours doing it, have a slight risk of corrupting data, and have no noticeable speed increase. And the minute you're finished, the system will set about undoing what you've done.

Spend the hours doing productive work on your computer, rather than trying to fix something that for 99% of users, isn't broken.

The exception to this would primarily be video or audio pros - but they've got a variety of problems to deal with that the average user doesn't.

Wade

pendragon · Jul 28, 2004, 06:49 AM

UnixMac,

Clearly there is some difference of opinion re the wisdom of defragging, but FWIW, I have successfully used TTP on a PB G4/433 and on a DP 800 (both 10.3.4). While I have not had any problems in so doing, I have not noticed any difference/improvement.

Maflynn · Jul 28, 2004, 07:10 AM

As the KB article also says you actually may decrease performance because of the hotband.

I've never defragged my mac and my performance has been as peppy as the day I bought it.

Mike

UnixMac · Jul 28, 2004, 09:23 AM

All very helpful and worth heeding gentleman, thanks again for those opinions on TTP4.

powermacj7 · Jul 29, 2004, 05:30 PM

On Tech Tool, what is directory maintenance?

urrl78 · Sep 7, 2004, 09:41 PM

newest version 1.5 Ghz 17" owners:

TTP 4.0.2 will defrag an exterior HD but CD will not boot or make an e drive on either ext or interior HD.

So far their e-mail support is no help to me.

Once I installed TTP 4.0.2 on HD I downloaded an upgrade to 4.o.3. At least 4.0.2 would boot when used with version tracker's BootCD, 4.0.3 downloaded upgrade will not. $100 and all it's good for is defragging exterior Hard drives.