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sterile

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 20, 2004
2
0
Does anyone know any good defragmentation (free) utility for mac os X ?

I have a G4 powerbook 10.2.8 with 1G ram

Thanx in advance!
 
if you would have searched through these forums you would have found that most people say not to optimize. they are right. osx does it on its own after any app install. let your drive be and let osx handle it.
 
blue&whiteman said:
if you would have searched through these forums you would have found that most people say not to optimize. they are right. osx does it on its own after any app install. let your drive be and let osx handle it.

That's not entirely correct.

After installing applications, the "optimizing" you see is Apple's prebinding being updated. That is not the same as defragmenting your hard drive.

Built into Panther is some code that auto-optimizes files below a certain size whenever they are written to the hard drive. I don't recall the size of the cap, but if a file is written to disk that falls below the cap, Panther automatically defragments that file. This is on a file by file basis, doesn't work for files that are larger than the cap, and again is not the same as defragmementing your hard drive.

If you do need to do a complete defragment, both Norton Utilities and Drive 10 (which is now part of TechTool 4) can do it for you. The debate on whether a full hard disk defragmentation is really worth it in any sort of real performance increase though is another story.
 
blue&whiteman said:
if you would have searched through these forums you would have found that most people say not to optimize. they are right. osx does it on its own after any app install. let your drive be and let osx handle it.

Well said, listen to this man. There's just no advantage to doing it, and you might even have a performance hit because of it. Let OS9 go, man! This is the UNIX world now!
 
Hmmmmmmmmmm

First of all, thanx to all who took the time and share their opinion on this...

Apple's opinion is that i should defragment my HD only if i store & delete large files (i copy wave files often)

I am about to install some programs in my G4 that recommend defragmenting my hard drive before i start....

And it takes more time to start up my mac after upgrading to 10.2.8

Can someone solve this puzzle? :)

Thnx!
 
sterile said:
Apple's opinion is that i should defragment my HD only if i store & delete large files (i copy wave files often)


Thnx!


I delete large files all the time (500mb - 1gb+) and still have no need to defrag with a 3rd party app.
 
also, osx runs more tip top when the system is left on 24/7. if your system is idle late at night it fixes itself for you. I don't know all the exact tech. details but it works like I said. I understand that laptop users need to use sleep at times but sleep keeps your system from self maintenance. sleep mode also seems to have a lot of issues as there are many threads here on MR about problems with it on every mac made it seems.

I leave my tower on 24/7 and have for almost 5 years. no problems, never used sleep mode either.
 
blue&whiteman said:
also, osx runs more tip top when the system is left on 24/7. if your system is idle late at night it fixes itself for you. I don't know all the exact tech. details but it works like I said. I understand that laptop users need to use sleep at times but sleep keeps your system from self maintenance. sleep mode also seems to have a lot of issues as there are many threads here on MR about problems with it on every mac made it seems.

I leave my tower on 24/7 and have for almost 5 years. no problems, never used sleep mode either.

Do you feel that if the reason for the longevity of your tower? It dose make sense to me, since a server is run 24/7. Do you have any knowledge of why a cool down every 7 days might be recommended? Does a program such as folding prevent the routine maintenance? So are you saying that a laptop should be put to sleep occasionally?
 
raiderz182 said:
so what is diskwarriror?? thats not a defragmenting program?

Disk Warrior degragments and rewrites the file directory, recovering stray and damaged pieces as it goes.
 
After putting good bucks into a system that works for you why, cop out now for "Free software"? I still use Norton and trust it to do what it was built for. I only check my systems for fragmenting about once or twice every six months or so and have never had problems with using Norton to defrag my HD. I do not have the option of leaving my machines running 24/7 at work. I leave the server on 5 days a week and turn off all other machines nightly. and Everything off on Friday. When I come in each morning, and boot the machines, this gives me time to toast my bagel and look at the pictures on the wall....been there 20 years and never noticed there were ducks in the picture... (old George Carlin line)
 
blue&whiteman said:
also, osx runs more tip top when the system is left on 24/7. if your system is idle late at night it fixes itself for you. I don't know all the exact tech. details but it works like I said. I understand that laptop users need to use sleep at times but sleep keeps your system from self maintenance.

System maintenance scripts are run between 3 and 5 am in the morning, because the Unix subsystem used in OS X was first written for servers that were usually kept on 24/7. However, certain third-party utilities let you run the same script at any time of the day, making it unnecessary to keep it on at night. One of thiese is MacJanitor (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5856). There are a lot of others out there, but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. Maybe some others have other utilities to recommend.
 
---edit---
looks like I was beat to the punch by MMS
---end edit---

blue&whiteman said:
also, osx runs more tip top when the system is left on 24/7. if your system is idle late at night it fixes itself for you. I don't know all the exact tech.

You do not need to leave your machine on 24/7 if you use a application like MacJanitor . The link also has a good explanation why.
 
wdlove said:
Do you feel that if the reason for the longevity of your tower? It dose make sense to me, since a server is run 24/7. Do you have any knowledge of why a cool down every 7 days might be recommended? Does a program such as folding prevent the routine maintenance? So are you saying that a laptop should be put to sleep occasionally?


you sure ask a lot of questions in 1 post :p my answers are: yes, no, not sure, up to the user. there you go :)
 
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