Couple beginner Q's about iDefrag?

Hi everyone

Some people on this forum recommended iDefrag to me, so I've got it and am using it for the first time

A couple of questions for the more knowledgeable people than me..

1) I try to click "Go" and I get an error: "You cannot use this algorithm on the selected volume. Off-line algorithms need to unmount the disk so you need to boot from a different disk, partition, computer or CD/DVD. Alternatively, use the Quick (on-line) algorithm."

This time i just changed the Algorithm dropdown to "Quick (online)" but I don't know how to resolve this error or what it means?? I guess until I find out i will not be able to run a proper defrag and will have to use this online option??

2) If i pause the defrag process, do some work, then resume it, is this bad practice?

3) If i move the little arrow on the slider showing different bars of colours, does this interrupt the defrag??

Thanks!!

2

Oh - i found this in relation to question 1:
"Well you have to make a boot CD with iDefrag on it. I bought iDefrag from coriolis-systems and when you go to Download the software, you can also download the software (For free if you purchased iDefrag) to burn a boot CD; its called Coriolis CDMaker.

iDefrag will defrag any Hard drive, but you cannot be currently be useing it while its defragging. "

But I have never made a CD with an application on it before like iDefrag. Does anyone have a resource/link to teach me how to do this?

You do not need to create a disc if you bought the current version of iDefrag.

You cannot do a full defrag while you are booted up in OS X though.

I only start full defrags right before I go to bed - I have 175Gb of data on my drive and it takes roughly 4 hours to defrag.

Set it to Full Defrag, click the Go button and you should get a pop up with the option to either Cancel or Restart Now. Choose Restart Now and it will reboot the machine and defrag the selected partition.

And I'll also note, I have not found iDefrag useful for me more than about once every 6 months or more - and I move a lot of data - For ex - my current TM backup is 5 months old and is 500GB in size vs the 175GB actually used on my system partition.