I've been reading alot of comments on this iMac forum about owners complaining of spinning beach balls when using their 4-5 year old iMacs. I have the same situation with my 2006 model running Tiger. So I've been wondering if OS X Macs need periodic hard drive defragging like the Classic Macs did (running systems 7, 8 and 9)? If so, what utility do you use to defrag?
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Defragging hard drive ever needed on OS X?
- Thread starter kathyricks
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Yes, of course. Defragging is a normal part of long-term computer maintenance.
You are going to be told by many that "there's no need to defrag in OS X because the system does this automatically".
It does NOT do so -- at least not for all files.
True, the OS will try to re-concatenate _some_ files during normal operations. But you will still be left with large areas of fragmented space on your drive.
Over time, as the drive becomes increasingly fragmented, with data "spread out" everywhere, it can slow down the drive (at least a hard drive). Perhaps this is a non-issue once you move to an SSD.
Try examining your drive with any utility designed to defragment. You'll see what I'm talking about...
You are going to be told by many that "there's no need to defrag in OS X because the system does this automatically".
It does NOT do so -- at least not for all files.
True, the OS will try to re-concatenate _some_ files during normal operations. But you will still be left with large areas of fragmented space on your drive.
Over time, as the drive becomes increasingly fragmented, with data "spread out" everywhere, it can slow down the drive (at least a hard drive). Perhaps this is a non-issue once you move to an SSD.
Try examining your drive with any utility designed to defragment. You'll see what I'm talking about...