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Do you defragment your hard drive, beyond what OS X does automatically?
1/1: Do you defragment your hard drive, beyond what OS X does automatically?
Other polls | 1,608 votes | 22 comments
First vote!
Yea!
What is Fragmentation?
More on fragmentation.
Most people probably don't do it, but is it even necessary?
It'll be interesting to see the results of this poll. It'd be more intresting to see a survey of whether OSX, under normal circumstances, really does benefit from defragmentation at all.
Defragging matters!
I have never defragged my slot-loading iMac (40GB), and I am suffering. I can't import more than about 15 seconds in iMovie 2 (let alone 3) without dropping frames. When the computer was new, I imported (and exported) 2 x 1 hour tapes in one go each, with no dropped frames. (that was the only time my hard drive got within 5GB of full)
Defragging matters!
I agree. Especially for older Macs. When the drive on my G4/466 gets badly fragmented the whole computer runs very poorly.
Most people probably don't do it, but is it even necessary?
I don't do it nearly as often as 10.2 or earlier (including 9, 8 and 7), but from time to time, I do end up with large files (over 20 MB) that end up quite fragmented
does it?
"beyond what OS X does automatically?"
yes it does.
From the link above:
Well...
Actually, there could be other problems related to fragmentation. If you run with a very full disc. For further reading:
A quote
Btw, here's a quote from the article:
Back up and erase
I don't know of any on-the-fly, background defragmenting utility for OS X, except OS X itself (see messages above for how this works). Alsoft has a fine background defrag util for pre-OS X, called DiskExpress Pro, but there's no OS X version--in fact, there's no HFS Plus version, even though HFS Plus was introduced with OS 8.1. For several years, Alsoft has had a running "gag" on their web site, in which they've been promising "The version that will optimize HFS Plus disks is currently under development". When OS X was released, they started promising an OS X version. Several years ago, I stopped by their booth at the San Francisco Macworld show, and asked them if they were ever really going to release an HFS Plus version. The two guys in the booth first laughed as if they'd been caught in the act, pointed at each other to try to get the other guy to answer the question, and then one of them responded that it would be available in about a half-year. That was several years ago. I'd say it's safe to say they have no plans to release this, so when you still read on their web site that it's "currently under development", well, they have an odd sense of humor.
Back up and erase
Intech Software Speed Tools has a disk defragmenter as part of it's suite. Works with 10.3.x
Back up and erase
Yes, but doesn't it require that you launch the Intech utility to start the defrag process? I don't think it operates on the fly, in the background. If it allows you to do other things while it's running, that would be close to the same, but not quite.
Back up and erase
No, it doesn't run on the Fly, but it does a good job defragmenting drives. I use it a lot to defragment my Audio drive for recording. It's a great little tool.
More of an issue with big files or old drive
It's worth noting that older computers are on average going to be more prone to fragmentation, due to their smaller disks (the lower RAM may mean more swapfiles as well, depending on what you're doing). Plus, of course, on a pokey computer every little bit helps.
Periodic defrag...
Every 6 months, except I usually call it something else: repartitioning. Including a backup to external drive, restore, and, more often than not, getting a logic board problem fixed.
iDefrag
Coriolis Systems has released iDefrag. Maybe Rob can do a review in followup to his recent one of iPartition.
bad habit from the old days
been trying to stop myself from defragging/optimizing with partial success! it's one of those things stuck from the past... like why we all use qwerty keyboards (which was originally designed to slow typing speed down!) instead of the more efficient dvorak layout...
urban legend
like why we all use qwerty keyboards (which was originally designed to slow typing speed down!) instead of the more efficient dvorak layout...
Sorry, that's an urban legend. Turns out that, when tested, the speed and efficiency of qwerty and dvorak layouts are about the same. The reason the keys were layed out in the way they are on a qwerty keyboard was to help the keys from striking each other in early typwriters. Apparently, most english words can be typed using alternate sides of the keyboard for alternate letters in a qwerty layout. I have heard that the letters to the word "typewriter" were placed all on the top row so that salesmen could easily demonstrate their product. However, I don't know the veracity of that particular nugget.
urban-er urban legend
On a tangential note, I think you have gone way off IMHO (I do not intend to start flame session). Because the dvorak layout utilizes both hands with the most frequently typed characters right under the fingers, the distance one has to move the fingers is much less resulting in faster typing times. I distinctly read a study where dvorak won hands down, after 9 months of training.
urban-er urban legend
I agree that this is a tangent, but I can't resist adding my 2¢.
During the time I was finishing my masters thesis, my hands were dying from too much typing, and so in an attempt to find relief, I special-ordered an electric typewriter with a Dvorak keyboard (this was in 1972). I practiced for a month or so and was astounded at how much difference it made to my hands once I became proficient with it. I could spend a whole day typing and my hands felt very relaxed, unlike what they had been like before. BUT: shortly after that, I started using computers, and all of the terminals at my school were IBM selectrics, none of which were Dvorak. This was way before there could be any significant customizing of keyboards--I was working on an IBM 360 and was lucky to be using a terminal instead of punched cards. So, just as I was mastering the Dvorak keyboard, I was basically forced to give it up and go back to qwerty. It was at least 10 times as hard going back, plus, I also went back to the sore left hand syndrome I had avoided during those few happy months on the Dvorak. I've never gone back again--life's too short to keep changing things like that. However, while the Dvorak may not be the maximally efficient layout, in my mind there is no question that for typing English text, it is much more efficient than qwerty. Greg Shenaut
Why waste your time? MacOSX stays on top of defrag
I have noticed that MacOS defrags itself more frequently than most people remember to do on their own. I am always running into people who ask me for help with their computer problems (Windows, of course) and when I ask them have they defragged it I get a really blank look, and these people have had their computers for years! |
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