Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Does Mac OS X use external drives for scratch space?
- Thread starter Unspeaked
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Consultant
macrumors G5
No. It's not needed with OSX, as the OSX does defrag periodically (unlike a certain poorly made os).
You can use other disks for scratch disk for media apps though.
You can use other disks for scratch disk for media apps though.
OSX must use some of the primary disk as swap... How else does it save the RAM to the HDD when it goes to sleep?
But no, I don't think any sane OS would use USB-type external HDDs for swap. It can too easily accidentally be disconnected and that would be problematic.
But no, I don't think any sane OS would use USB-type external HDDs for swap. It can too easily accidentally be disconnected and that would be problematic.
TuffLuffJimmy
macrumors G3
If you get OS X running on ZFS it would, but why would you want your scratch disk to be external, let alone USB???
If you are comfortable with mucking around the OS (e.g., at least intermediate+ level Unix knowledge) you can move the swap space to another partition. See
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=81586
to get started. There are other resources too, if you want to search for moving the swap.
It is too much trouble for 'normal' users and the OS manages swap just fine, so it is better to leave it alone unless you have some very specific need.
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=81586
to get started. There are other resources too, if you want to search for moving the swap.
It is too much trouble for 'normal' users and the OS manages swap just fine, so it is better to leave it alone unless you have some very specific need.