Strange iDefrag message..

[djsound]

Hi there . I have used iDefrag many times and it worked perfectly but now it gets like halfway and says this ...

"Defragmentation of the disk main has finished.NOTE: Some files were skipped due to lack of contiguous free space and therefore remain fragmented."

....anyone know what that means? I googled but cant find anything..

 

[yellow]

My guess.. large fragmented files were skipped because there wasn't enough free space to move them around and put them together on the disk. I suggest making some more free space and trying again if you want them defragged.

 

[ss957916]

I've always read that Macs don't need defragging.

 

[diabolic]

Hi there . I have used iDefrag many times and it worked perfectly but now it gets like halfway and says this ...

"Defragmentation of the disk main has finished.NOTE: Some files were skipped due to lack of contiguous free space and therefore remain fragmented."

....anyone know what that means? I googled but cant find anything..

It means that there wasn't a space big enough for some of the files to fit as one contiguous piece. If the empty space isn't large enough for the entire file, it doesn't move it.

 

[Blaine]

I've always read that Macs don't need defragging.

Yeah, same here

 

[djsound]

hmmm...weird. I have tons of free space..

 

[diabolic]

They don't. OSX automatically optimizes the drive space so it won't need to be defragged. If he is running a drive that is FAT32, then it would need to be defragged.

 

[maflynn]

I've always read that Macs don't need defragging.

Yeah, same here

They don't, and apple recommends against it, due its hotband of frequently used blocks, they place frequent placed data on the hotband, and defraggers can alter that and actually degrade the performance not improve it.

That said, all disks can get fragmented to some degree, and OSX has the ability to defrag small files automatically. For some users, (audio and visual) people need their files contiguous otherwise it will impact their work.

The only other reason for defragging is to compact the free space so you can easily partition the drive for bootcamp.

 

[djsound]

ya I do Audio & Video so...I need to defrag =)

 

[yellow]

Mac OS X automatically "defragments" files that are <= 25MB.

How much free space do you have on the same drive you're trying to defrag?

 

[MacManiac76]

I've always read that Macs don't need defragging.

The files themselves usually don't need defragmenting. However the free space can become very fragmented over time, especially if you download and then delete several large files. This can become apparent when trying to setup a bootcamp partition where you think you have enough space for the partition size but bootcamp setup tells you that you don't. The issue is that there is sometimes not enough contiguous free space to create the partition of said size. So to a certain degree the statement that Macs don't need defragmenting is a myth.

 

[applesupergeek]

I think the most accurate statement would be they only need very occasional defragmenting.

 

[maflynn]

I think the most accurate statement would be they only need very occasional defragmenting.

Yes, depending on your needs. As I mentioned there are situations where people need their files contiguous otherwise the result of their will be affected. Audio and video are typically needs to ensure nothing impacts the processing.