Defragmenting disk and other stuff

[GRuizMD]

Does Leopard and Mac need to be defragmented or any type of manteinance?

Just got my Imac and I am loving it....

Comming from Windows world... I am transferring Gigs of data and Wonder if this machine will get slower ala windows..

20" Alu Imac 2.4 with 4Gb of RAM

 

[Eidorian]

I've looked into iDefrag but I don't see much of a reason unless you're moving a lot of large files on and off disk on a regular basis.

 

[scienide09]

Welcome to the world of OS X. I wondered my the same when I got my MBP after years of regularly having to defrag on XP.

The short answer is that you don't have to worry about defragmenting because OS X takes care of that for you.

The long answer is that unless you do a lot of work with large files where you're often moving, creating, or modifying them, then you don't need to worry about it. Once you migrate your files from your PC to your Mac, after a few restarts from normal usage (no need to turn it off and on a couple of times like a Windows box), the OS will have optimized for you in the background.
Apple documentation.

 

[GRuizMD]

Thanks

Thanks guys.... This OS is awesome...

 

[scienide09]

No problem. Enjoy your new iMac.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Two quick comments...

From the link you gave (excellent reading, take the time, folks):

Note:Mac OS X systems use hundreds of thousands of small files, many of which are rarely accessed. Optimizing them can be a major effort for very little practical gain. There is also a chance that one of the files placed in the "hot band" for rapid reads during system startup might be moved during defragmentation, which would decrease performance.

So not only does it not help, it can hinder to run disk optimization simply because you had to in Windows world.

The one thing I've done is run Disk Utility -> Repair Permissions after a major software update, i.e. after restore from backup, after kernal updates requiring reboot. Seems to make sense to run it then, feedback on this welcomed (i.e. if you think even that is unnecessary routine maint)

-jim