idefrag defragmentation problem

[t4ggs]

Hey guys, I'm new to this forum and to Mac
just wanted to ask a simple question

I have a MBP with and Hard Drive of 500Gb (My first month with it)
I have iDefrag and every night for 3 nights I left the computer defragmenting....at morning It has only reached 30%
also the next night it starts over again\

my question is? shouldn't it be starting from the same point it was left before???

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

 

[allan.nyholm]

I have used iDefrag once to defrag my previous OS X installation by using a boot cd and doing a full defrag. It took 3 hours or so.

In general there is no need for defragmenting your harddisk - maybe just do it once if you really feel the need by creating that boot cd and be done with it. OS X has an builtin defragmentation mechanism that takes cares of defragmenting smaller files. I don't remember the exact file size of the files OS X takes care of. But it's either 20MB or 200MB (someone correct me)

If you say have a lot of bigger files and you notice OS X slowing down while in operation then just do a full defrag once. Don't do it every night.

I can't help you with your exact issue though - just give you some advice.

 

[joshrholloway]

You really shouldn't bother running iDefrag. I wouldn't go so far as to say it will harm your drive, but if you're running it every night then your drive will be constantly reading and writing, which could reduce its life.

Here is a really thorough and detailed analysis of why defragmenting HFS+ volumes is essentially pointless: http://www.osxbook.com/software/hfsdebug/fragmentation.html

Even if you don't understand all the technical details of the document it's very interesting to see the results. Jump down to the conclusion if you want the no-nonsense answer.

 

[Kpeters213]

Hey there,

Agreeing with the previous posters, most mac users definitely don't need their drive defragmented. The article presented by joshrholloway is a pretty good explanation why.

For me though, I prefer to defragment every once in a while. This is because I work with video and audio and probably push through 5BG a day on my drive. Its a personal preference and also a personal risk to defragment.

I too use iDefrag and have for about 2 years now. I've defragmented my drive successfully probably 20 times now. I've never once had a problem.

Now I need to ask a few questions to understand your issue a little bit more.

Are you booting iDefrag from a CD or DVD?
Of your 500GB drive, how much of it are you using?

To me it shouldn't be taking that long to defragment. And to answer your question, I don't think that it starts off where it left off last time if you start using your computer again during the day.

Hope this helps!

 

[rdowns]

This is the Mac dude. Get rid of your defrag and virus software. **** just works. 😀

 

[rychencop]

yeah...defrag is a leftover from your Windows days. no need for that crap anymore. be free and enjoy your Mac.