Running Slowly and How to Defrag

Welcome to the Apple Discussions!

Since you're using Mac OS X and your hard drive is formatted with HFS+ (Apple calls it "Mac OS Extended"), you shouldn't really need to defragment you hard drive:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668

There may be some other routines we can step through to help you make sure your computer is running well, if you'd like...

-Doug

there is no need to defrag a Mac, this is done automatically.
but some things you can do:
start with Utilities>disk utility>verify and repair permissions.

how big is the hard drive? how full is it? when HD reaches near capacity, machine tends to slow dramatically.

how much ram do you have? more is better.

what programs are you running that are slow? all or some?

ppl here can help you, but need more info!

D.

Don't be so fast to assume guys. The hfs+ format was intended to "Prevent" minor fragmentation, but it does happen and after a few years, it will build up. There is a program called iDefrag designed specifically for mac os x. If you want a copy, just pm me and I'll see you through with it. But repairing permissions won't fix speed issues unless the permissions were badly damaged and disarranged.

Actually HFS+ does nothing to prevent fragmentation. The link provided by Douglas describes how Mac OS X usually eliminates fragmentation.

It should be pointed out that iDefrag is not a free utility. The user comments appear mixed. iDefrag's main benefit may be more that it optimizes the drive rather than it's operation as a defragger.

I recently defragmented my hard drive on my mac mini. The process takes some time and requires a few things, namely an external FireWire hard drive, a cloning program, and a Mac OS X 10.4 install disc (with Migration Assistant). I use SuperDuper! as my cloning program. CarbonCopyCloner is an alternative to SuperDuper!, but SuperDuper! is simpler to use in my opinion. Also, SuperDuper! is free just as CCC, but if you pay the registration fee you get some convenient additional capabilities. Also, I downloaded the demo of iDefrag and used it to get a visual picture of the before and after states of my hard drive. The results were very impressive.



Here are the steps I took to defrag my hard drive.

1. Clone your internal drive to the external drive using SuperDuper! or CCC. This will take a while. You can also use iDefrag at this time to see what your hard drive looks like before the defrag process. Have iDefrag assess your hard drive and then use a screen capture command (shift-command-4) to take a snapshot of the iDefrag window.

2. This step is *most important *. Verify the clone is successful by booting from it. You now have your entire hard drive backed up.

3. Boot from the 10.4 install disc and do an erase and install on your internal drive. This will completely erase your hard drive (which is why the external back up is necessary).

3 1/2. This step is optional. During installation of Mac OS X use Disk Utility to Zero All Data on your hard drive. I did this because of the obsessive/compulsive tendencies I have when playing with my mac. This will take a while.

4. After the install is complete and you've gone through the Setup Assistant process, use Migration Assistant to transfer all your data from your external clone back to your main computer. This will take awhile.

5. Use iDefrag to assess your hard drive again. Take another snapshot. Compare the before and after shots.



On my 80 gig HD I saw a significant improvement according to the iDefrag photos. As far as performance goes, I'm not sure if there is a difference or not.

An interesting experiment would be to run a benchmark or disk performance test before and after a procedure like this to see if there is any performance increases. If anyone does that, please post back with your results.

Hopefully, this is useful. Good luck.

-A

1.42 Ghz Mac Mini Superdrive Bluetooth / 12" G4 iBook Mac OS X (10.4.8)

1.42 Ghz Mac Mini Superdrive Bluetooth / 12" G4 iBook Mac OS X (10.4)

1.42 Ghz Mac Mini Superdrive Bluetooth / 12" G4 iBook Mac OS X (10.4)

Well that wasn't migration assitant's intentional use, it simply organizes some of the main directories. If you want, you can use my cd key for idrefrag