RoyGal80

Q: Can I schedule an automated disk maintenance run?

Hi all,

As I read int the various forums - it is quite important to perform disk maintenance on your Mac every 2 months or so.

In my old windows machine it was possible to tell the OS to run scan disk and defrag automatically.

Is it also possible to tell my Mac to run needed disk maintenance tasks automatically?

If yes, how?

Thank you very much. Roy

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 2, 2013 12:47 PM

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Q: Can I schedule an automated disk maintenance run?

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  • by WALTER-MILANO-ITALY,

    WALTER-MILANO-ITALY WALTER-MILANO-ITALY Mar 2, 2013 12:53 PM in response to RoyGal80
    Level 4 (2,205 points)
    Mar 2, 2013 12:53 PM in response to RoyGal80

    You do not need to tell Mac OSX to maintein you disk. It will do its best alone during the time you are not using it.

    No maintenance or defrag is needed untill your system works perfectly.

     

    If your Mac slows down or you feel something not working properly read here https://discussions.apple.com/message/17181036#17181036

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Mar 2, 2013 1:18 PM in response to RoyGal80
    Level 7 (32,127 points)
    iPad
    Mar 2, 2013 1:18 PM in response to RoyGal80

    Is it also possible to tell my Mac to run needed disk maintenance tasks automatically?

     

     

    It does this automatically either in the middle of the night or, if sleeping, when you wake it.

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Mar 2, 2013 2:32 PM in response to RoyGal80
    Level 7 (30,924 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 2, 2013 2:32 PM in response to RoyGal80

    As the others have pointed out, periodic maintenance is completely unnecessary. Do not fall for any attempts to get you to download software to "clean" or otherwise maintain your Mac! (See The myth of the dirty Mac.)

     

    The only thing you really need to do is repair the hard drive with Disk Utility every now and then, just to make sure that if your hard drive has gotten corrupt at all that it gets fixed. But not very often. I generally just do that right before installing any significant system upgrades or updates. (For example, when 10.8.3 comes out, I will be sure to repair my hard drive right before installing it.)

  • by Topher Kessler,Solvedanswer

    Topher Kessler Topher Kessler Mar 2, 2013 3:22 PM in response to RoyGal80
    Level 6 (9,866 points)
    Mar 2, 2013 3:22 PM in response to RoyGal80

    While running cleaning tools is not needed unless there is a problem, the case is slightly different with checking the hard drive for errors. The hard drive may accumulate an odd error or two with use that can go completely unnoticed but which may result in a problem when accessing the files associated with the error. A periodic check of the hard drive's filesystem structure will not hurt a thing and can help uncover potential hidden errors like this.

     

    Unfortunately there is no way to schedule this with Disk Utility, but you can script the system to do so using shell scripts and launch daemons to manage when they run.

  • by RoyGal80,

    RoyGal80 RoyGal80 Mar 3, 2013 3:32 AM in response to Topher Kessler
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 3, 2013 3:32 AM in response to Topher Kessler

    Thank you guys,

    I think i will try an use a scripter to mainain my system's disks automaticly.

    Can the Automator tool assist here?

  • by thomas_r.,

    thomas_r. thomas_r. Mar 3, 2013 4:23 AM in response to RoyGal80
    Level 7 (30,924 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 3, 2013 4:23 AM in response to RoyGal80

    As Topher pointed out very explicitly, you cannot script a hard drive repair. You cannot repair the currently running system, so you have to reboot from another disk.