iDefrag?

[talmy]

I think most of us would agree that Mac OSX is derived from UNIX with a fancy front end on it. Before I retired and sold up, my companies ran Unix based systems on Bull hardware for our servers and central accounting. It was part of the recommended weekly routine for our IT guys to run a defrag and compact on the Bull servers.

Perhaps the person who recommended this was misinformed? I've been around Unix and later Linux systems at several companies for 30 years now and not one of them has ever done defragmentation on any systems. Some operating systems are just better able to deal with fragmentation than others -- the gain might be so small that the time spent on defragmentation is greater than the time lost to fragmentation!

 

[MisterMe]

I think most of us would agree that Mac OSX is derived from UNIX with a fancy front end on it. Before I retired and sold up, my companies ran Unix based systems on Bull hardware for our servers and central accounting. It was part of the recommended weekly routine for our IT guys to run a defrag and compact on the Bull servers, ...

Wilson

This response is also aimed at kingmohd84. I do not discount experience with Bull servers. However, I do count Apple's advice for its OS more heavily than anecdotal experience with non-Apple hardware and software. On this issue, Apple has been abundantly clear. Its file system has a private logical bitmap that is different from its physical bitmap. Third party defragmentation utilities do not have access to Apple's logical bitmap. Therefore, they are more likely to degrade performance than to improve it.

A computer is a highly technical device. Its care and maintenance should be determined by data-driven procedures and not ignorance of their alternatives. My own knowledge is informed by 21 years with the Mac and with other computers prior to that. That goes back to System 6, far beyond Apple's current UNIX-based OS. Over these years, I have used various and sundry defragging utilities. None has ever improved my Mac performance above noise level as determined by benchmark scores. The data confirm that Apple is justified in not providing defragging software with its OS.

OTOH, Microsoft provides such a utility for Windows. Microsoft's defrag utility dramatically improves system performance. The data confirm that Microsoft is justified in providing degragging software with its OS.

As what of this business with weekly defragging of Bull servers? I am reluctant to comment on situations where I have none of the facts. I can say, however, that there are other experiences and points of view. Many UNIX-based servers in the US have uptimes measured in years, not hours. I read a report a few years ago about the discovery of a server than had been "lost" for years. The IT staff had somehow lost track of the server and did not know that it existed. For the years that it was lost, the server continued to faithfully perform its duties. It never lost a packet.

 

[wilsonlaidlaw]

i am still confused about the defrag issue and dont see how it will not help,
but what do i know?

any way , further update i ran onyx and it told me i need to repair the disk , i used the OS install disc and did repai the disk successfully ,
the funy thing is after i got to my hard drive i found in the trash 2 video files that i deleted weeks ago , and nothing deleted prior to that or after it appeared

wtf?

That is not unusual if you have an HD error. It is also not uncommon in this situation, to have the trash bin showing as empty, when if you ctrl click, you will find files in the bin. If in doubt, you could use Onyx and securely delete. This is not however, a fast operation, overwriting all the deleted data.

Wilson

 

[MacBH928]

thanks for everyone
i guess defragging will not help

i ran disk repair it fixed something i do not know what , but hopefuul everything is good now

the thing i learned from this thread is
keep files in your startup disk to minimum , and move your files to an exterior HD
increase ram when possible