Help: Looking for Freeware Defrag for Mac OSX

[rcanpolat]

hey guys

im looking for a Freeware Bootable Defrag App for Mac OSX 10.6

i know you's are going to say "macs dont need to be defragged" but they do

reason being when you use a mac for around a year or so and seriously load up your hard drive it generates files which cannot be moved. (files over 20mb's) why do i need to move them?

when you are creating a boot camp partition it needs to move files away from the partitioning part of your drive but some files cannot be moved without a full defrag and nothing including repairing the disc or repairing permissions can fix it to move those files even if you boot of the cd.

the only 2 things that can fix it is 1: a defrag or 2: a format

so! anyone know of a freeware bootable defrag for osx because im not up for a format.

cheers lads

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by rcanpolat

...i know you's are going to say "macs dont need to be defragged" but they do...

No, they don't, except in very extreme-need circumstances.
Read: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1634

The file system used on Macintosh computers is designed to work with a certain degree of fragmentation. This is normal and does not significantly affect performance for the majority of users.

Fragmentation has nothing to do with not being able to move a file.

[angelwatt]

The power of Google:
About disk optimization with Mac OS X
Does Max OS X need a disk defragmentor/optimizer?
An easy way to defragment a drive's free space

[rcanpolat]

yep thats great info you's have there but its useless and leaves me in the same problem.

i need a freeware mac defrag app that is bootable

booting off the osx cd and running its aps doesn't fix the problem, the only way is to boot off a defrag disc which i done before but it was a disc on lend to me (illegal i know but i had to do it - and since then the disc is no longer available to me)

there is nothing other then a defrag that can move the files - drive genius 2 works perfect and does the job but i dont own it, thats why i need a freeware app!

unless you's can explain an app to move the files? (i dont know what files they are - osx doesn't tell me - thus defragging is the only tool that will do the job)

leaves me back to square 1

[DewGuy1999]

Not free, $29.95. Coriolis Systems iDefrag

[Fishrrman]

Simply stated, I don't believe that there _are any_ "free" defrag apps for the Mac.

The only ones that exist are "pay for" or shareware.

iDefrag might be a good choice.

- John

[MisterMe]

Originally Posted by rcanpolat

yep thats great info you's have there but its useless and leaves me in the same problem.

i need a freeware mac defrag app that is bootable

...

leaves me back to square 1

You are a newbie who has prescribed an illogical remedy for an ill-defined problem. You have taken the position that your problem is file fragmentation and you dare anyone to say otherwise. Well, "otherwise." As has already been stated, nothing in your description even hints at file fragmentation.

Before you go mucking around your system, there are two things that you ought to try first:

• Launch Disk Utility and run Disk First Aid. If it identifies a problem, then be sure to boot your system from the Restore Disc [or another bootable MacOS X disc] to try to repair the problem.
• Restart in Single-User Mode and type fsck -fy at the command prompt. This runs File System Check, the most effective disk repair utility on the Mac.

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, but lighting a candle does no good when your eyes are closed.

[rcanpolat]

Originally Posted by MisterMe

You are a newbie who has prescribed an illogical remedy for an ill-defined problem. You have taken the position that your problem is file fragmentation and you dare anyone to say otherwise. Well, "otherwise." As has already been stated, nothing in your description even hints at file fragmentation.

Before you go mucking around your system, there are two things that you ought to try first:

• Launch Disk Utility and run Disk First Aid. If it identifies a problem, then be sure to boot your system from the Restore Disc [or another bootable MacOS X disc] to try to repair the problem.
• Restart in Single-User Mode and type fsck -fy at the command prompt. This runs File System Check, the most effective disk repair utility on the Mac.

It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness, but lighting a candle does no good when your eyes are closed.

you see its people like you who who just dont make sense. i stated above that i had already tried previously to repair permissions, perform first aid to the disc etc etc etc - i know for a FACT that nothing other then a defrag will do the job because last time it happened i spend easily 30-35 days trying to resolve the problem consulting many different apple users

thus i know for a FACT that a defrag is the only app that will move the files to the start of the hard disc without generating false locations and thus destroying my current OS

thanks for the replies everyone else, there seems to be a hole in the mac freeware market here for defrag apps

the very fact that im a "macrumors" n00b doesn't dictate my knowledge of apple computers or windows machines / linux machines. its merely a subheading for my current status of this website. thats like me saying for example "because you have 601 replies" that you are a super geek, i dont know you and i dont know what you are capable of (that was merely hypothetical)

congrats - you wiped your face into the mud yourself

topic closed - i'll source help elsewhere - thanks everyone else again

[plinden]

The OP is correct in that OS X will sometimes prevent partitioning (either for Windows or a standard partition) of a hard drive even in there appears to be enough space available. None of the solutions mentioned here will fix this (I tried them all myself), and it does seem to be due to either immovable files or (what I consider most likely) not enough space available for the OS to move files around.

I don't know of any free software that will fix this for you. The best solution I found was to create a bootable clone of my HDD, then transfer the clone back to the original. This isn't free of course, unless you have a bootable clone or spare external HDD already.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by rcanpolat

...i stated above that i had already tried previously to repair permissions, perform first aid to the disc etc etc etc

You said you had tried repairing permissions, but you did NOT state that you had performed Disk First Aid or tried the Single-User mode approach MisterMe recommended.

Originally Posted by rcanpolat

i know for a FACT that nothing other then a defrag will do the job

If you know this for a fact, then buy some defrag software and get on with it!

Originally Posted by rcanpolat

"because you have 601 replies"

That's not 601 replies.... he has about 6,500 posts and has been in the forum over 7 years. While that's not a guarantee of expertise, it does give him far more credibility than you have in this forum, especially since you've only had your first Mac for just over a year.

I suggest you rethink your attitude if you expect to get any help here.

[rcanpolat]

forget it! its just a constant loosing battle here!

[Mal]

Bye bye then!

Seriously, if you want people to help you, don't act like you know more than them. If you can't answer the question yourself, you have to at least acknowledge that someone else might know better.

jW

[Fishrrman]

Unlike some responders here, I'm a firm believer in periodic defragmentation, regardless of the OS. There are some situations, such as recording video or audio, that work best when there are large areas of contiguous free space. And the only way to ensure that you have this space available is to defrag.

I don't particularly care _what_ Apple says. Hey, they said the antenna on the iPhone4 is fine, right?

Having said that, there aren't any "free" defragmentation apps.

The one you need is iDefrag. It's not free, but it's not expensive, either.

iDefrag can do _other_ tasks as well as defrag. It can "compact" a disk, moving all the files "up front", so to speak, leaving contiguous space at the "rear" of the volume. After this, there's a much better chance you could partition the disk.

[hafr]

Originally Posted by rcanpolat

forget it! its just a constant loosing battle here!

Have you tried creating a partition in Disk Utility, then deleting it and retry Boot Camp Assistant? I want to remember that partitioning your drive in DU actually does defragment the drive, at least somewhat...

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by hafr

Have you tried creating a partition in Disk Utility, then deleting it and retry Boot Camp Assistant? I want to remember that partitioning your drive in DU actually does defragment the drive, at least somewhat...

2 year old thread. No, partitioning does not defrag a drive. However, there are some cases when you may need to defrag a drive in order to partition.

[gorskiegangsta]

OP, the most likely reason that OS X cannot move the files away from the to-be-partitioned part of the drive is because there isn't enough free space left on the main part of the drive. In this case, getting a bootable defrag software will not help you much as it will encounter the same problem.

[caroline61490]

I have just over 110 gb free on my macbook pro and need to defrag in order to partition and boot camp. I do not see how this would not be effective considering the fairly substantial amount of free space I have. I'm only committing about 40-50 gb to windows.

[talmy]

Even in this 3 year old thread nobody stated a free solution. There is one, if you have an external drive you can use.

Get SuperDuper! (you don't have to register/pay for doing what you need to do).

Clone your internal drive to the external.

Boot from the external. Clone the drive back. This will erase and copy all the files back, leaving them fragment-free.

And as a bonus, you now have a recovery drive you can boot from if you internal ever gets mangled.

[GGJstudios]

Originally Posted by talmy

Even in this 3 year old thread nobody stated a free solution.

Check out post #9, from 2009.

Originally Posted by plinden

The best solution I found was to create a bootable clone of my HDD, then transfer the clone back to the original.

[jgset]

Hello,

i see it's almost a year ago as the last post was written. But i think i have to add my experience here.

I had exactly the same problem with the same error message "files can not be moved"

Disk utility showed no errors. The user rights were OK, too. I tried all the above mentioned things but i also didn't want to spend money for a defrag tool. Finally it was no disk fragmentation problem.

This solved it for me (see post #7 from Nov 20 2009):

1. Boot into single user mode CMD+S
2. type /sbin/fsck -fy (checks and repairs your disk, it found some minor inconsistencies)
3. type exit and your Mac restarts
4. Execute BootCamp Assistant or what ever task again.

Now no errors appeared and all files could be moved

jgset

[2012Tony2012]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuZcYiyHKyQ