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Jawbone54 · Jul 14, 2005, 11:59 AM

Still being relatively new to using a Mac, I don't know, is there any way to defrag my drives?

Mr. Blur · Jul 14, 2005, 12:11 PM

please.....search the forums....this has been covered a thousand times over already.

TETENAL · Jul 14, 2005, 01:33 PM

The system automatically defrags.

turtle777 · Jul 14, 2005, 01:39 PM

...which means, there are apps that do it, but it's not necessary !

-t

OreoCookie · Jul 15, 2005, 04:11 AM

Since 10.3, the OS automatically defragments itself during idle time.

wataru · Jul 15, 2005, 04:19 AM

It only defragments certain things under certain conditions. Last time I checked my drive with Drive 10, my disk had tens of thousands of fragments, and it's not like I do anything overly strenuous with my computer.

The answer is no, the system does not do complete defragmentation, but the idea is that it's enough.

OreoCookie · Jul 15, 2005, 04:32 AM

It has certain size limits (I think 20 MB or so), so that only files which are smaller than this are defragmented.

Maflynn · Jul 15, 2005, 07:29 AM

Originally Posted by Jawbone54

Still being relatively new to using a Mac, I don't know, is there any way to defrag my drives?

Here's the
Apple KB article stating why its typically not needed

Remember your mileage will vary and in some cases defragging does makes sense (doing a lot of video work that you need to have the files together.)

All in all as others stated for normal usage most people don't need to, and in some cases because of hot clustering you will slow the system down. Add on top of that OSX's ability to defrag files 20meg and under means it should be a dead issue.

While Mr. blur was a little less then helpful, he has a point this topic as many others have been covered a number of times and search would be faster then waiting for answers.

Good luck and enjoy your Mac

Mike

JLL · Jul 15, 2005, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by wataru

It only defragments certain things under certain conditions. Last time I checked my drive with Drive 10, my disk had tens of thousands of fragments, and it's not like I do anything overly strenuous with my computer.

The answer is no, the system does not do complete defragmentation, but the idea is that it's enough.

And you aren't thinking of complete files scattered around the harddrive? That's not fragmentation, and fragmentation shouldn't happen on a Mac if there is enough free space on your hard drive.

wataru · Jul 15, 2005, 08:47 AM

There were tens of thousands of both free space fragments and file fragments. They are both kinds of fragmentation. You say it shouldn't happen on a Mac, but obviously it does. Check out your own hard drive; I bet you have plenty of it.

JLL · Jul 15, 2005, 09:29 AM

How much free space do you have?

Chuckit · Jul 15, 2005, 09:42 AM

It shouldn't happen, but it does, but it doesn't generally matter, because the OS optimizes away the most important areas.

If you really want to defrag your hard drive: Back it up, wipe it clean, restore from the backup. Bam, no more fragmentation.

Detrius · Jul 17, 2005, 02:42 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

It shouldn't happen, but it does, but it doesn't generally matter, because the OS optimizes away the most important areas.

If you really want to defrag your hard drive: Back it up, wipe it clean, restore from the backup. Bam, no more fragmentation.

Certain types of backups won't work for this purpose. Carbon Copy Cloner will, as it's a file-by-file backup, as opposed to a bit-for-bit backup.

Jawbone54 · 11:14 AM

I apologize for not searching thoroughly enough. I did search the forums for a bit, but after having not found anything after a few minutes, I decided to start a new thread. I can empathize with getting frustrated at seeing the same post time and time again.

::edit::
And later on I found 407 posts that possibly would've answered my questions. Sorry, guys.

Those who were willing to help anyways...thank you very much for your help.