General questions about Mac OS X.

Hello there !

I'm looking forward to switching for a mac during the incoming months. Before that, I have some questions about Mac OS X itself and how it behaves as regards hardware.

• First of all, does Mac OS X provide some kind of Defragmentation / ScanDisk / Disk cleaning / Registry cleaning / etc. tools? If not, is it possible to download some? /or/ Does Max OS X automatically manages the harddrive so as to keep it unfragmented and clean all the time?
  
  
• Is it possible to set partitions on a Mac computer's harddrive? Does Mac OS X run more efficiently when its system files are located on a small partition (as Microsoft's OS)?
  
  
• When installing MS Windows XP on a Mac computer, does it create a second partition on which Windows system files will be located? /or/ Are they mixed with Mac OS X files?
  
  
• Does Mac OS X let as many possibilities as Windows as regards browsing into the system files? or are they hidden and they can only be accessed through a special program or whatsoever ?
  

Thank you for your consideration !

'later !

1. You don't really need to run maintenance on OS X as it does a rather good job of maintaining itself. However, every once in a while if you feel like doing it manually, there are programs available for this function, such as Onyx and MainMenu.

2. Yes, it is possible to partition drives in OS X using the built in Disk Utility. However, you won't see any benefit from doing so like you would in Windows.

3. You can do both. A program called Boot Camp creates a second partition, allowing you to dual boot OS X and Windows. Then there are virtualization programs like Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion, which let you run Windows within OS X like an application. The Windows install is stored in a virtual hard drive, which is essentially a really big file.

4. You are free to mess about the insides of OS X.

Very precise and effective answers . Thank you very much .