On 29/01/2010, at 11:10 AM, Chris Burton wrote:
> Hi Everyone > > I have been pondering the above question for some weeks now, after my HD > became almost full (10gb free), and I decided to backup everything to an > external 1TB drive, and then remove about 30gb on the Mac to have some space > available. > > I remember a fair while ago some muggers saying that it is not necessary to > defrag as the OS somehow maintains the drive. Others have said that there are > programs that do defrag the drive and it does make a difference. > > On some of my previous macs of the PowerPC models (G5 and laptops), I used to > run Techtools Pro to periodically clean up the drive, and it seemed to work > ok. > > I am not so sure with the Intel machines I use. Do I need to do anything? > Are there any little apps that can show what the drive looks like? > > Any feedback on this is most welcome. > > > I am using a Macbook Pro 2.2ghz Intel Dual Core with 3gb Ram and a 250gb HD. > OSX 10.5.8 > > Mac OS X always tries to writes new material to the HS in contiguous areas of up to 20Mb, thereby keeping fragmentation to a minimum. It seems the jury is still out regarding the question of fragmentation. The current feeling seems to be that nowadays hard drives are so massive (500Gb becoming the norm, and 1Tb are now common) that the time taken in defragmenting vs any benefits achieved makes it an almost pointless exercise. Years ago, when the average HD size was less than 100 Mb (and files sizes were comparatively much smaller) file fragmentation was a real problem, and regular defragmentation had a real performance benefit. These days it's just time out of your life you'll never get back. Perhaps of greater value are tools such as Disk Warrior which optimise the disk catalog rather than the files themselves. If you want a tool to show you what the drive "looks like", try the free utility Grand Perspective (available from www.versiontracker.com). This gives you a graphical representation of your disk's file structure, showing you what is taking the most space, making the task of cleaning up your drive a little easier. -- Peter Hinchliffe Apwin Computer Services FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer Perth, Western Australia Phone (618) 9332 6482 Mob 0403 064 948 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to. -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:[email protected]>
