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NutFlush920

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
280
34
I have a Mac Mini which I only use as a iTunes server. I have USB hard drives connected to it which house several TB's of MP4's. The hard drives are formatted as Mac OS Extended.

I'm fairly new to Mac and always followed the rule of thumb in Windows to leave 10% of the drive unused for defragmenting. Is true with Mac formatted hard drives too? How much if any free space should I leave if the drive is just holding MP4 files for my iTunes server to host to my Apple TV's, iPad's, and iPhones?

With 4.5 TB, i'm loosing close to 450gb of storage space leaving 10% free.

Thanks in advance.
 

NutFlush920

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
280
34
Sorry to revisit this but would like more clarification as to what benefits there are to leaving space unused on my external drives that are just there holding video's. I now have up to 7.5TB of storage and find it hard to swallow giving up 3/4 of a TB total for nothing.

As I understand it, HFS+ doesn't fragment like Windows drives do.
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,361
248
Howell, New Jersey
Sorry to revisit this but would like more clarification as to what benefits there are to leaving space unused on my external drives that are just there holding video's. I now have up to 7.5TB of storage and find it hard to swallow giving up 3/4 of a TB total for nothing.

As I understand it, HFS+ doesn't fragment like Windows drives do.

Okay the answer is complex multi -part .

If you are done with the drive and are not writing anymore you can go past 90 percent. This is more true with a 2tb hdd vs a 100gb hdd.

one Reason is simple a 2tb at 90 percent leaves 200gb space. a 100gb at 90 percent leave only 10gb space.

I have a lot of eyetv recordings un compressed 18 gb = 3 hours of recordings..

If I put 100 recordings on a 2tb hdd I will have 1.8tb 200 gb left over.


I can put 5 or 6 more total of 108gb plus 1.8 tb or 1.92 TB.. As long as I just read it from then on I am fine with a 96 percent fill.

Now if I am using a 2tb as my only drive ie booter and everything else it would get bogged down at 96%. So you can pack your drives some more if you archive and then play movies once it is at 96%. It may run a bit slower deep in close to the spindle but if you are playing a movie only that should not be an issue.
 

NutFlush920

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 31, 2011
280
34
Ok thanks, yes the drives have everything I want on it so will no longer be writing to them just reading from them. As I need more storage, I simply buy another drive and add it to my setup.

With that being said, I should leave about 4-5 percent free?
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,361
248
Howell, New Jersey
Ok thanks, yes the drives have everything I want on it so will no longer be writing to them just reading from them. As I need more storage, I simply buy another drive and add it to my setup.

With that being said, I should leave about 4-5 percent free?

hard to tell. drives can vary as they are mechanical .

try decrease drive by drive .

a 2tb with 1.8tb move it to 1.85tb use it a few times then 1.9tb. I would not go past 95 or 96 percent. still 1.9tb vs 1.8tb is a few blu-rays extra.
 
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