On or near 8/14/03 7:50 AM, SVEN AERTS at [EMAIL PROTECTED] observed: > I thought OSX didn't require defragging ? > I thought it did it in the background or something? > Sven, if you read the original article on TidBITS, and all the discussion thread that followed, you'll have the complete picture, which is far too complex to recount in detail. Go to www.tidbits.com and search for the article title, " Optimizing Disks is a Waste of Time." My message, which you quote, was attempting to summarize my conclusions after doing all the reading.
My own experience with Entourage databases (and FileMaker ones too) is that they do get fragmented, and that defragging them gives tangible performance improvements; I recommend doing so, not with a generic disk defragmentation program, but simply by copying the Entourage identity folder and files, and replacing the original with the copy. This works because OS X will always use the _largest_ available free space when copying a file, in an attempt to make it contiguous. On 07-07-2003 17:00, "Allen Watson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just to be fair: The follow-up mail on the TidBITs site is largely critical > of the original article I commented on. It finds a number of other good > reasons for defragmenting disks, particularly when using video or graphic > apps that create and use large files, or when running a system that creates > a lot of swap files (fragmented swap files can make a system crawl, so > defragging free space, to allow for contiguous swap files, is important). > But, my interpretation of things, the general opinion seems to be that > defragging the entire disk is something that needs to be done only every > three to six months, and that doing a full backup, erase, and restore > accomplishes the same thing, usually much faster. > > For Entourage users, summing up: if you have adequate contiguous free space, > you can "defrag" the Entourage identity files by duplicating the folder, > erasing the original, and renaming the copy to replace the original. It > often will give a noticeable performance boost. A rebuild of the database > will do the same thing (takes a bit longer, though), and (some say) has an > added performance benefit because it reorganizes the database's internal > structure. -- Microsoft MVP for Entourage/OE/Word (MVPs are volunteers) Allen Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Entourage FAQ site: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> AppleScripts for Outlook Express and Entourage: <http://members.thinkaccess.net/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/Scripts/> Entourage Help Pages: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/> -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
