I have been saving and deleting and re-saving some HUGE files lately (10GBs and even 40GB). As you can imagine my hard drive is heavily fragmented. I believe I have noticed a decrease in performance. I can live with that, but the fragmentation isn't allowing me to partition even 10GB for windows 7 boot camp. I have read that both iDefrag and Time Machine Restore will reorganize my hard drive. I'm wondering, if we disregard the cost of iDefrag, which do you recommend? If Time Machine even leaves a one percent chance of removing Applications or making me reinstall them, then I pass on that. Because I can't afford to reinstall the many apps I have. Also I backed up my computer using Time Machine earlier today so I'm good to go.. The question is which is safer? faster? more effective at defragmenting? and least likely to destroy anything? Also, I have an external hard drive formatted to mac journal (extended) so I can run iDefrag?? I believe, off of that?? I have a mac mini 320GB hdd of which 260GB is currently used up. THANK YOU! I'M SURE this has been asked a million times but humor me, pleasee!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
System Restore or iDefrag to 'clean' my hard drive
- Thread starter abar20
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Fishrrman
macrumors Nehalem
"I'm wondering, if we disregard the cost of iDefrag, which do you recommend?"
I recommend iDefrag (with the following provisos).
You _do_ realize that to do a defrag of your internal drive, you must boot from another source? The Apple install/restore DVDs won't work for this.
That means you need an external drive from which to boot.
In any case, you should be completely backed up before you attempt a defrag -- just in case something goes wrong during the process. In all likelihood, it will go fine, but one never knows.
Do you have a backup system in place yet?
By the way, your backup MUST be "bootable". You CANNOT create a "bootable backup" with Time Machine, and I also recommend that you not waste your "time" with Time Machine.
Instead, use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable "clone" of your internal drive.
CCC is free. Google it to download.
If you don't yet have an external backup system, I recommend that you consider one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connecla...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253062702&sr=1-22
The price is right -- very flexible periperhal to have at hand.
Then, get yourself a "bare" SATA drive from a place like newegg.com. I think Seagates are the drive to buy, as of late.
Get your hardware set up and use CCC to do a clone to the backup drive.
Reboot from the backup (hold down the "option" key at startup and keep holding it down to invoke the "startup manager").
When you're booted from the backup, "aim" iDefrag at your "target" (which will now be the internal), and give it a go....
I recommend iDefrag (with the following provisos).
You _do_ realize that to do a defrag of your internal drive, you must boot from another source? The Apple install/restore DVDs won't work for this.
That means you need an external drive from which to boot.
In any case, you should be completely backed up before you attempt a defrag -- just in case something goes wrong during the process. In all likelihood, it will go fine, but one never knows.
Do you have a backup system in place yet?
By the way, your backup MUST be "bootable". You CANNOT create a "bootable backup" with Time Machine, and I also recommend that you not waste your "time" with Time Machine.
Instead, use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create a bootable "clone" of your internal drive.
CCC is free. Google it to download.
If you don't yet have an external backup system, I recommend that you consider one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Connecla...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1253062702&sr=1-22
The price is right -- very flexible periperhal to have at hand.
Then, get yourself a "bare" SATA drive from a place like newegg.com. I think Seagates are the drive to buy, as of late.
Get your hardware set up and use CCC to do a clone to the backup drive.
Reboot from the backup (hold down the "option" key at startup and keep holding it down to invoke the "startup manager").
When you're booted from the backup, "aim" iDefrag at your "target" (which will now be the internal), and give it a go....
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
yeah your right
this is exactly what i decided to do... i already cloned my drive to a partition on a external drive with carbon copy cloner. and tonight i will use it to boot from and defrag my internal drive. While time machine is good, and i love that apple introduced me to the idea of a one click back up solution (which pc never did for me) I will be using carbon copy from now on.. One quick question to anyone out there... Aren't there 'copyright' laws attached to cloning a bootable version of your drive? i mean hell... along with my system I am essentially cloning expensive software which anyone could plug into any computer around the world and run free of charge.. I LOVE IT anyway.. i guess there isnt too much room for exploitation.. And I would never think of it.. I just love that my mac mini could be crushed by a meteor and I wouldnt shed a tear, because locked away in my closet is a hard drive that essentially contains my computer..
this is exactly what i decided to do... i already cloned my drive to a partition on a external drive with carbon copy cloner. and tonight i will use it to boot from and defrag my internal drive. While time machine is good, and i love that apple introduced me to the idea of a one click back up solution (which pc never did for me) I will be using carbon copy from now on.. One quick question to anyone out there... Aren't there 'copyright' laws attached to cloning a bootable version of your drive? i mean hell... along with my system I am essentially cloning expensive software which anyone could plug into any computer around the world and run free of charge.. I LOVE IT anyway.. i guess there isnt too much room for exploitation.. And I would never think of it.. I just love that my mac mini could be crushed by a meteor and I wouldnt shed a tear, because locked away in my closet is a hard drive that essentially contains my computer..
With the new iDefrag you don't need to boot into another drive or bootable CD/DVD.
http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php
http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php