Problem with iDefrag

I am using iDefrag 5 on an iMac running OS 10.11.2. During the changeover allowing iDefrag to take control the system gets hung up on a page asking what language to use. I highlight English and the program sits there. It won't continue.
WASSAmatter??

I've never run defragmenters on my Mac and don't believe it is necessary. A lot of these apps just pray on people to make money without having any actual impact on performance. So just remove the app and be done with it.

Thanks for the advice RazOrEdge. Will do.

earley said:

I am using iDefrag 5 on an iMac running OS 10.11.2. During the changeover allowing iDefrag to take control the system gets hung up on a page asking what language to use. I highlight English and the program sits there. It won't continue.
WASSAmatter??

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Hello - might help to know the type of Apple computer you are using (i.e. model/year) which would impact a response depending on whether the drive is a standard mechanical HD, fusion drive, or a SSD?

But, we've had a number of threads on the need (if any) for defragmentation of a modern Apple drive running a recent OS X - take a look at THIS DISCUSSION w/ a brief statement from the link quoted below - for myself w/ early 2013 computers (iMac w/ a fusion drive & MBPro w/ a SSD), I don't even think about the issue. Dave

But it didn’t, and no such defrag option exists, which should give a pretty clear indicator that for the vast majority of Mac users, defragging an OS X drive simply isn’t a necessary task. There are several reasons for this, one being that the Mac OS X HFS Plus file system automatically defragments files on its own, in a process known as Hot File Adaptive Clustering (HFC). Additionally, many modern Macs ship with SSD, or Flash Storage drives, which don’t ever need to be defragged in general because they have their own maintenance process known as TRIM.

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ADDENDUM: Well, Ashwin beat me to the draw - hope the link is of additional help.

Looking at Coriolis' website, it appears that they have some unresolved compatibility issues with 10.10 as of December of last year. They advise users to instead use 5.0.1, instead of their later release. They don't seem to mention El Capitan (10.11.x) at all. Perhaps the same advice applies?

Thanks very much for the help folks. I think that the best solution is to forget about iDefrag.

earley said:

Thanks very much for the help folks. I think that the best solution is to forget about iDefrag.

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No problem - and one more thing to add.... you do NOT want to EVER defrag an SSD. This will cause excessive and inappropriate writes to your SSD and will lead to premature failure.

earley said:

Thanks very much for the help folks. I think that the best solution is to forget about iDefrag.

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Actually, iDefrag works very well. I've used it numerous times without incident. However, like cwa107 mentioned, there is a problem with the latest version of OS X El Capitan 10.11.3. You can either wait for a fix or you can defrag your hard drive a different way. Backup first, then erase the drive. Reinstall OS X and restore your data from backup. That accomplishes the same thing. And if you do have a SSD, do not defrag it at any time.

Have to say, I have been using iDefrag for years on my hard drives. While there are many users that would never have much benefit, iDefrag is a great tool for those that A) keep 40% or more used space on their system drive, B) move a lot of data on and off their drives, C) are extremely conscious of the slow downs to the system that are caused by fragmentation of the free space and the way OS X writes data from one end of the drive to the other to avoid file fragmentation on the drive.

As has been pointed out above, never defrag a SSD.

Now I have the other side of the story. I first downloaded iDefrag because i was told of the slow downs caused by the way the OS writes the data. The first timeI used it , it took forever to run, simply because the data was spread all over the place. Afterward the system was noticeably faster.

I found a way to make iDefrag run. Throw away the version in you Apps folder, go to the Coriolis site and download a fresh copy. It ran fine.

I personally use the defrag option from Drive Genius. I've never had any problems with it starting with Snow Leopard all the way to El Capitan..

The way I use it is that I create an external boot drive and boot from it. That way I'm able to completely defrag my internal drive.

PS. I have a 2011 27" iMac i7 with a 256GB SSD and a 2TB hard drive. My SSD is my main boot drive.

earley said:

Now I have the other side of the story. I first downloaded iDefrag because i was told of the slow downs caused by the way the OS writes the data. The first timeI used it , it took forever to run, simply because the data was spread all over the place. Afterward the system was noticeably faster.

I found a way to make iDefrag run. Throw away the version in you Apps folder, go to the Coriolis site and download a fresh copy. It ran fine.

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The Coriolis site now has the latest update available which can be used with El Capitan. Nice improvement and cleaner interface.

Dopeyman said:

I personally use the defrag option from Drive Genius. I've never had any problems with it starting with Snow Leopard all the way to El Capitan..

The way I use it is that I create an external boot drive and boot from it. That way I'm able to completely defrag my internal drive.

PS. I have a 2011 27" iMac i7 with a 256GB SSD and a 2TB hard drive. My SSD is my main boot drive.

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It doesn't matter which program is used for the defrag procedure, SSDs and PCIe Flash Storage should NEVER be defragged.

Dopeyman said:

I personally use the defrag option from Drive Genius. I've never had any problems with it starting with Snow Leopard all the way to El Capitan..

The way I use it is that I create an external boot drive and boot from it. That way I'm able to completely defrag my internal drive.

PS. I have a 2011 27" iMac i7 with a 256GB SSD and a 2TB hard drive. My SSD is my main boot drive.

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Hi Dopeyman - just curious about your process above - I'm assuming that you are just doing a defrag on the 2 TB spinning HD and not touching the SSD - correct?

My Apple computers are a MBPro w/ a 256 SSD, so not an option, as already discussed in previous posts here; the other is an iMac w/ a fusion HD, i.e. a 128 SSD component which I do not defrag either - there have been other previous threads on this topic - one HERE which there were some posts related to this topic and these 'hybrid' drives. Dave

RadDave said:

Hi Dopeyman - just curious about your process above - I'm assuming that you are just doing a defrag on the 2 TB spinning HD and not touching the SSD - correct?

My Apple computers are a MBPro w/ a 256 SSD, so not an option, as already discussed in previous posts here; the other is an iMac w/ a fusion HD, i.e. a 128 SSD component which I do not defrag either - there have been other previous threads on this topic - one HERE which there were some posts related to this topic and these 'hybrid' drives. Dave

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Actually, I defrag both my 2TB spinning drive AND my SSD. I've been doing this for a couple years and I haven't had any problems with my SSD or the spinning drive.

Dopeyman said:

Actually, I defrag both my 2TB spinning drive AND my SSD. I've been doing this for a couple years and I haven't had any problems with my SSD or the spinning drive.

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Well, despite not having an issue at the moment w/ your SSD, its lifespan is likely affected - one discussion HERE - you should just be doing the spinning HD, but completely up to you. Dave

Dopeyman, you are killing the SSD with the unnecessary defrags. It doesn't speed up anything and it wears out the memory cells. SSD differs from spinning drives in that there is no mechanical component. The idea of defrag is to reduce the number of head movements required to read/write a file. By making files and empty spaces contiguous, the read/writes need fewer head movements. But in an SSD, there are no heads, so there is zero benefits from defragging. (Well, maybe a few nanoseconds, but certainly nothing like a spinner.) And also unlike a spinner, there is a finite number of reads/writes in an SSD before the cells stop responding. So doing useless moves to gain no speed improvement and wearing out memory cells is really, really bad.

Well the industry advice states not to use defrag programs on SSD's but I have been using iDefrag on my 2012 MBP with HDD for some time without incident but not since the last El Capitan update.

Rod Sprague said:

Well the industry advice states not to use defrag programs on SSD's but I have been using iDefrag on my 2012 MBP with HDD for some time without incident but not since the last El Capitan update.

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The latest update for El Capitan is available for download from the Coriolis site. Just open your copy of iDefrag and click on check updates. It will recognize your license key and download/install the update.

Wow, thanks you have probably saved me some headaches.