Best program to defrag with? (free or paid)

[MythicFrost]

Hi,

I'm looking at buying either Disk Warrior 4 or iDefrag and I'm wondering which is best, or if there are any others worth getting? I need to defrag my hard drive.

EDIT: DiskWarrior4 is too past my price range - I'm hoping for something no more than $20-30.

Thanks

 

[munkery]

Typically you do not need to defrag Mac OS X unless you do not leave 10% free space on your hard drive so that your machine can manage its memory on the fly. http://macs.about.com/od/faq1/f/defrag.htm

Your only choice for that price range is iDefrag AFAIK.

You can also free the required amount of space such that your system will clean itself out.

 

[MythicFrost]

Typically you do not need to defrag Mac OS X unless you do not leave 10% free space on your hard drive so that your machine can manage its memory on the fly. http://macs.about.com/od/faq1/f/defrag.htm

Your only choice for that price range is iDefrag AFAIK.

You can also free the required amount of space such that your system will clean itself out.

Ah ok, thanks.

Unfortunately when I go to make a 500GB partition for Windows with Boot Camp Assistant it tells me "Unable to do this, blah, blah, please back up and format your drive, blah, blah", so I hope defragging will fix this.

I've gone ahead and bought iDefrag.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I'm looking at buying either Disk Warrior 4 or iDefrag and I'm wondering which is best, or if there are any others worth getting? I need to defrag my hard drive."

iDefrag is what you want.

Ignore the postings that say "don't defrag".

iDefrag will do what you want it to do.

 

[Gregg2]

Disk Warrior doesn't defrag, does it? I don't have it, never have. I use TechTool Pro when I want to defrag.

 

[Hal Itosis]

Disk Warrior doesn't defrag, does it?

Alsoft used to make a defragger, back in the day...

Company History
Plus Products

[and DiskExpress came out when system 6? was around.]

I don't have it, never have.

DiskWarrior may be a one-trick pony, but it's the best around at doing that particular trick.

A "must-have" IMO.

Similar deal goes for iDefrag: if you want a defragger, then that's the best.

 

[MacDawg]

Ah ok, thanks.

Unfortunately when I go to make a 500GB partition for Windows with Boot Camp Assistant it tells me "Unable to do this, blah, blah, please back up and format your drive, blah, blah", so I hope defragging will fix this.

I've gone ahead and bought iDefrag.

Let us know if it works for you
Users have only had limited success with iDefrag for the issue you are citing
The problem isn't technically fragmentation, it is contiguous space
The best fix is to do as BootCamp Assistant suggests... back up (clone), erase your drive and restore your clone

 

[MythicFrost]

Thanks everyone,

I used the compression algorithm (vs the quick, or others) and it took about 14 hours give or take, it still doesn't let me create the 500GB partition.

@MacDawg: I don't understand, how does erasing my drive and then restoring the clone solve anything (despite it saying that)? Isn't the data exactly the same as it was? I'm just curious to know what's different between that and defragging.

 

[munkery]

Thanks everyone,

I used the compression algorithm (vs the quick, or others) and it took about 14 hours give or take, it still doesn't let me create the 500GB partition.

@MacDawg: I don't understand, how does erasing my drive and then restoring the clone solve anything (despite it saying that)? Isn't the data exactly the same as it was? I'm just curious to know what's different between that and defragging.

Does it ask you to clone your system, restore system, and then create boot camp partition? Or, does it ask for you to backup your data, format, reinstall OS, create boot camp partition, and then restore your data?

 

[MythicFrost]

Does it ask you to clone your system, restore system, and then create boot camp partition? Or, does it ask for you to backup your data, format, reinstall OS, create boot camp partition, and then restore your data?

The latter I believe, it says exactly this:

"The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.
Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."

I'm trying to get rid of some files to make more room and hope that helps, because I really don't want to have to do the above.

 

[munkery]

The latter I believe, it says exactly this:

"The disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved.
Back up the disk and use Disk Utility to format it as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume. Restore your information to the disk and try using Boot Camp Assistant again."

I'm trying to get rid of some files to make more room and hope that helps, because I really don't want to have to do the above.

Ya, I would not want to go through all that either. Hopefully you can find a solution without doing the format. I think when you follow those instructions the sum of your data takes up less disk space such that it allows for the partition. You would think the only files that were not movable would be those for the OS and not user files?

 

[RRmalvado]

Thanks everyone,

I used the compression algorithm (vs the quick, or others) and it took about 14 hours give or take, it still doesn't let me create the 500GB partition.

@MacDawg: I don't understand, how does erasing my drive and then restoring the clone solve anything (despite it saying that)? Isn't the data exactly the same as it was? I'm just curious to know what's different between that and defragging.

The data will be the same yes, but it will be in a continuos space on the hard drive. This will then allow Bootcamp to partition the drive correctly.

A co-worker had this same situation happen to him and did the iDefrag trick but it did not work for him either.

 

[MythicFrost]

Ya, I would not want to go through all that either. Hopefully you can find a solution without doing the format. I think when you follow those instructions the sum of your data takes up less disk space such that it allows for the partition. You would think the only files that were not movable would be those for the OS and not user files?

Yeah I know

The data will be the same yes, but it will be in a continuos space on the hard drive. This will then allow Bootcamp to partition the drive correctly.

A co-worker had this same situation happen to him and did the iDefrag trick but it did not work for him either.

Ah ok I see, well hopefully clearing off some space will allow me to do but, but if not... we'll see.

Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[MythicFrost]

All right, I'm really mad now. I think this is so stupid!

I've only got 200GB of data on my 2 TB HD, that means I have 1.8 TB's free, and, it won't let me create a 5GB partition, it's ridiculous.

 

[dolphindolphin]

Hmmm, weird. I got it to work after doing the default defrag option in iDefrag. I believe it was the quick defrag.