[Trailboss]

Hey all,

This is my first post, and I tried to search, but I am getting an error that the page cannot be found. Reluctant to post this, and well aware of the "do a search n00b" responses I'll probably get......I will put on my flame suit. Coming as a moderator on a 20,000+ member forum, I know how annoying these n00b questions can be.

On my Dell laptop, I could defrag the hard drive. Easy to find, push a button. My G4 Powerbook is my first Mac product, and I would like to know if I could defrag the hard drive. Under System Preferences I haven't seen anything that looks like I could.

How do I do this? Is it possible? OTOH, are there programs or downloads from versiontracker (or any other website you recommend) that I could use to clean up my hard drive?

Thanks for your reply. Sorry I wasn't able to search. Mod - feel free to delete if the answer is blindingly obvious.

-Josh

[Lateralus]

OS X defrags automatically.

[Trailboss]

Oh f*ck me, I just realized that I posted in the Power Mac, not Power Book section.

Thanks for the reply, though

-Josh

[OreoCookie]

That should have been in the MacOS or Applications section.

[alphasubzero949]

OS X, starting with Panther (10.3), defrags files <20 MB in size automatically.

There are third party tools to do it, but the gains from defragmentation are very minimal at best.

[Apfhex]

Well, I'm glad you tried to search. Try it again, it should work. There are some really in depth discussions.

Ummm... can I propose there be a STICKY about defragmenting? It seems we need one.

[msuper69]

Defrag?

I've not defragged since the OS X Public Beta.

Hasn't seemed to be a problem.

[Trailboss]

Cool, thanks for the replies.

After I searched (the search was temporarily down when I first posted this thread), I came up with this in case other people who search find the same stuff....

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ghlight=Defrag

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ghlight=Defrag

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ghlight=Defrag

There are many, many more.

*ducks for cover*

-Josh

[icibaqu]

as to the automatic "defrag" ie premissions repair that the mac does.

doesn't it happen in the wee hours of the night and only if your computer is not asleep. is there any way to change that default/schedule a different time without having to buy some random software?

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by icibaqu

as to the automatic "defrag" ie premissions repair that the mac does.

doesn't it happen in the wee hours of the night and only if your computer is not asleep. is there any way to change that default/schedule a different time without having to buy some random software?

You are waaaaay off.

1. Defragging has nothing whatsoever to do with repairing permissions

2. OS X does automatically defrag the most often used files on your disk

3. It does this dynamically, not just in the middle of the night

4. The only thing that used to run in the middle of the night were the periodic scripts, which also had nothing to do with defrag

5. The periodic scripts are handled by launchd now instead of the crontabs anyway

[macmad]

5. The periodic scripts are handled by launchd now instead of the crontabs anyway

Sorry for the dumb question, but what impact does that have?

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by macmad

Sorry for the dumb question, but what impact does that have?

It means that if the computer is asleep during the time that the periodic scripts (which have nothing to do with defrag) would normally run, they'll just run automatically whenever the computer wakes up.

[alphasubzero949]

Originally Posted by CharlesS

It means that if the computer is asleep during the time that the periodic scripts (which have nothing to do with defrag) would normally run, they'll just run automatically whenever the computer wakes up.

Not necessarily. If that were the case, there would be no need for anacron (which does utilize launchd for the Tiger version).

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by alphasubzero949

Not necessarily. If that were the case, there would be no need for anacron (which does utilize launchd for the Tiger version).

Type "man launchd.plist" in the Terminal, scroll down a bit, and you'll find:

StartCalendarInterval <dictionary of integers>
This optional key causes the job to be started every calendar interval as
specified. Missing arguments are considered to be wildcard. The semantics
are much like crontab(5). Unlike cron which skips job invocations when
the computer is asleep, launchd will start the job the next time the com-
puter wakes up. If multiple intervals transpire before the computer is
woken, those events will be coalesced into one event upon wake from
sleep.

Apparently, Anacron is a bit anachronistic in Tiger (ha! I kill me). There was never really that much of a need for it, though, since the periodic tasks are not exactly of earth-shaking importance.