Drive Genius 3 - Mac

Defragging is not to be done on a system that isn't backed up.
Since systems can be backed up for less than they are defragged, and the Mac does its own defragging for 20MB files and smaller, I rarely recommend third party defraggers. The point to defragmenting your machine is really for larger files, and if you have larger files, it often is done in a production environment where keeping a separate partition or drive for scratch space for temporary files is better than using defragmentation software. That separate partition or drive can then be erased without damaging the continuously used data.

If you are having slowing down, see my FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/Macosxspeed.html

And optimize only once you have isolated the problem, and confirmed with others the tool in question will help you more than harm. And always backup your data first before trying any optimization.

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Yes, it works about as well as other similar utilities. However, the essential needs for keeping your computer running well can be met by Disk Warrior, which is the best directory fixer around besides Disk Utility and fixes many directory problems no other utility can fix. Add to it AppleJack - CNet Downloads or MacUpdate - for dealing with cache and other related problems.

For beachball problems visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on handling the SBBOD.

This is not to suggest that Drive Genius is not a quite useful utility.

Cache problems are very sensitive, and often misdiagnosed. Do not attempt to fix them without at least two backups. Same with Disk Warrior. Issues that may appear to need it may be a result of a dying hard drive. Keeping at least two copies of your data at all times is imperative.

Message was edited by: a brody

Nothing is "imperative" except death. Most all cache problems are not that sensitive. With a rare exception any cache can be removed without consequence.

Although more backups are always better a warning that one needs at least two backups is excessive and certainly not an imperative.

Because diagnosing whether a drive is dying is quite difficult and also may be misdiagnosed one should approach problem solving in a logical fashion rather than issuing such warnings that would scare most novices from fixing anything, and are really extreme.

Backups are important, but they aren't the be all and end all for fixing problems with a Mac or any other computer.

I disagree. A backup is the quickest method of recovery, and the most reliable when the hard drive dies. And that can be at anytime. Because of bugs such as the Firewire bug, sometimes your backup drive is not accessible at the time of recovery. So making sure that at least one backup is remote from your machine when there is an upgrade performed on the machine is one way of ensuring the upgrade doesn't give your backup a flight of fancy and decide not to be accessible after the upgrade.

Not to belabor the issue, but my remarks had nothing to do with using a backup or what a backup is for, so don't change the subject. My remarks had to do with the extremity of a remark that having two backups was imperative. Furthermore, having a hundred backups is no guarantee of zero data loss if each backup is defective.

You have taken a stance that the be all and end all of upgrades, new software installations, maintenance, etc. is the backup. I'll state again, "Backups are important," they just aren't as big a deal as you suggest and making dire warnings as you do is a discouragement and hardly as useful as simply giving a user a suggested course of action. Certainly you can include making a backup part of the course of action. This would be far more helpful.

That's exactly what I am doing. But I'm emphasizing the importance of the backup first in any steps that troubleshoot. Cause if you don't, you could end up speeding the demise of the hard drive, when you don't know whether the issue is due to a dying hard drive or not. SMART tests can tell if the drive is definitely dying, but they can't spot every dying hard drive. And symptoms of bad directories, fragmentation issues, and bad cache files can be exactly like the first signs a drive is on its way out.

Unless you have some problem with your system you don't need this. It is rare to need to defrag a drive. You don't, as a matter of course, need to monitor your drive or optimize it.

I would first recommend Alsoft Disk Warrior as #1. With SuperDuper #2. Together with multiple backup sets.

Look up hard drive recovery report on MacIntouch.

Consolidating free space or erasing a drive and restoring may be helpful if you intend to install Windows, do editing and use a drive for scratch or video editing. A good large fast drive with ample free space is an easy way to maintain performance - those new 2TB WD Black Caviar drives for instance with 145MB/sec.