dsc106 Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 What is this called in Mac, and how can I defragment my volumes to improve performance? I know where to find this in windows, but I'm new to the Mac.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idividebyzero Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 you dont need to defrag the mac file system Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Nonny Moose Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 Repeat after me OS X ISN'T WINDOWS While it isn't necessary to defrag, doing it once per year will give a small increase in speed (again, once per year, not the monthly WIndows regimen). The first one I could think of was iDefrag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsc106 Posted May 12, 2007 Author Share Posted May 12, 2007 Interesting. What is technically different about the HFS+ format that makes it not need to be defraged? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EFI Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 Interesting. What is technically different about the HFS+ format that makes it not need to be defraged? The way in HFS+ file structure is designed is such that it basically defrags on the fly everytime for most files, by not reusing the space from deleted files and also due to the application "package" system that OS X uses, which contains almost all of the files for a needed application in its own cluster on the partition table, eliminating the need to read on different sectors; therfore so fragmentation is kept to an ultra minimum. Fragmentation does happen though...its not that perfect, however it is much, much better than NTFS's way of operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bxsci(macuser) Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 the file system automatically defrags files under 20 megabytes -- and its better at keeping things from getting fragmeted but it still happens - if you want you can get idefrag and CD maker which will make a live CD of the program -- the only defrag u can do with idefrag while actually on your computer wont do much.. so make the live CD... (mac has a little problem with defraging a startup drive while running on the startup drive....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erbic Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 Only time I've found it necessary to defrag was when partitioning a drive. For some reason, if your hard drive is more than about 1% fragged then you can't resize partitions. Boot Camp just whines about files that can't be moved (??) and iPartition won't let you drag the little slider to resize the partition. In those cases, defragging fixed the problem. I haven't noticed much of a speed increase, but it did allow me to (finally) triple-boot Linux, Mac, and Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsc106 Posted May 12, 2007 Author Share Posted May 12, 2007 Only time I've found it necessary to defrag was when partitioning a drive. For some reason, if your hard drive is more than about 1% fragged then you can't resize partitions. Boot Camp just whines about files that can't be moved (??) and iPartition won't let you drag the little slider to resize the partition. In those cases, defragging fixed the problem. I haven't noticed much of a speed increase, but it did allow me to (finally) triple-boot Linux, Mac, and Windows. Can you change and re-size partitions once there are files on them & OS X is installed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 Can you change and re-size partitions once there are files on them & OS X is installed? You can on real Macs, but not on Hackintoshes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enzobelmont Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 awake! you're not in windows... it's a shame we've learned bad habits in micro$oft's world. sorry my english. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsc106 Posted May 13, 2007 Author Share Posted May 13, 2007 You can on real Macs, but not on Hackintoshes. Really? Why is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postaldave Posted May 14, 2007 Share Posted May 14, 2007 is this the same reason all the linux/bsd/unix file systems never need defragging? if so a better question to ask here is why the hell does microsoft go with NTFS if every other file system appear to be better? The way in HFS+ file structure is designed is such that it basically defrags on the fly everytime for most files, by not reusing the space from deleted files and also due to the application "package" system that OS X uses, which contains almost all of the files for a needed application in its own cluster on the partition table, eliminating the need to read on different sectors; therfore so fragmentation is kept to an ultra minimum. Fragmentation does happen though...its not that perfect, however it is much, much better than NTFS's way of operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted May 14, 2007 Share Posted May 14, 2007 Really? Why is that? Hackintoshes can't partition post-install due to the lack of EFI and the GUID Partition Table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EFI Posted May 14, 2007 Share Posted May 14, 2007 is this the same reason all the linux/bsd/unix file systems never need defragging? Yes, exactly. if so a better question to ask here is why the hell does microsoft go with NTFS if every other file system appear to be better? Well, because Microsoft developed NTFS, so it would kind of be embarassing to ditch their own filesystem design and move onto another one by someone else, especially after what, 13 years of usage? Now the real question would be why doesn't Microsoft make NTFS more improved and have features like HFS+ in OS X or even better ZFS. The answer is that they did plan on doing something similar...called WinFS, which was supposed to be incorporated into Vista, however that never happend either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
postaldave Posted May 14, 2007 Share Posted May 14, 2007 "..called WinFS, which was supposed to be incorporated into Vista, however that never happend either." now that is really funny. so you are saying that countless linux guys have made file systems in their spare time that work and microsoft couldn't pull that off with their own staff? between their registery structure and file system i'm amazed they do as well as the do. if they were more like like *unix they would really kick ass and there would be no need for any other OS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSXtasy Posted May 15, 2007 Share Posted May 15, 2007 Use Diskwarrior or iDefrag (short and simple answer if you really want to defrag) Also do weekly maintenance with Onyx. Google all three. Enjoy!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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