defrag hard drive

[bobtomay]

I never tested CCC - I have tested SD!... While it will also result in defragmenting when cloning to an empty partition, the resultant speed boost is about the same as a clean install and restore - although cloning is faster.

Running iDefrag after a clone or a clean install/restore resulted in the same 10-15% improvement in boot times.

 

[toMACsh]

Most utilities such as TechToolPro, Drive Genius, iDefrag, all offer a way to use bootable media to run the de-fragmenting process. Of course now that most of Apple's latest machines are without an optical drive, it means the process will have to run from a flash drive instead.

Not with TechTool Pro. The eDrive I mentioned that you create with it is a separate bootable partition on your hard drive.

 

[chscag]

Not with TechTool Pro. The eDrive I mentioned that you create with it is a separate bootable partition on your hard drive.

I don't believe that will work with Lion, ML, or Mavericks, but I could be wrong. I wonder if TechTool Pro has an update for OS X versions that use a recovery partition?

 

[samfromhernando]

'Defragment Mac or not

SSDs and Fusion drives should never be de-fragmented as that could prematurely wear them out. As for when a spinning hard drive should be de-fragmented, my guess would be when it's using 50% or more of its capacity. Although I've run iDefrag on a drive that was only around 20% filled and experienced an improvement in boot times.

I totally agree that we can trust the guys from Mac that it's best to leaf the defragging to the Mac itself. Personally, I simply run Sys Utilities occasionally and check and repair as needed and have no problems at all with my OS X 10.9.2 Mavericks.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!

 

[toMACsh]

I don't believe that will work with Lion, ML, or Mavericks, but I could be wrong. I wonder if TechTool Pro has an update for OS X versions that use a recovery partition?

The only thing the manual says is that it won't work on a RAID volume, whatever that is.

 

[chscag]

The only thing the manual says is that it won't work on a RAID volume, whatever that is.

I just checked. The new version of TechTool Pro (version 7) supports Mavericks with their bootable eDrive.

 

[samfromhernando]

Hi Chas_m - I'm also using CCC for cloning my year-old Macs - just have a question concerning your comments above - if a drive is cloned exactly, isn't the fragmentation that may be present on the boot drive just duplicated? And when replaced simply repeats the fragmentation? Or is there another step - just curious & still learning - thanks. Dave

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{QUOTE}
Being cheap, every couple of years I boot up from the bootable clone of my drive I've made on an external drive (using Carbon Copy Cloner in my case), erase the boot drive, then clone back. I don't feel the need to do this any more often than that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can you explain in as few words as possible how to "boot up from the bootable clone of my drive"? AND did you create this "Clone"??? or maybe direct me to a website which explains the operation. IHave a Mac OS X 10.9.2 Mavericks
Thanks for the help

 

[MacInWin]

The CCC website has a good discussion of how it works.

Mac Backup Software - Carbon Copy Cloner

To boot from a bootable drive other than the default internal drive, hold down the option key during power up until you see a selection of drives and select the drive from which you want to boot. External drives boot more slowly than internal, so it does take a bit of time.

 

[RadDave]

The only thing the manual says is that it won't work on a RAID volume, whatever that is.

Our old Dell Desktop (Dimension E510) had RAID 1 (two internal HDs that mirrored each other) and I use to do defragmentation (I assumed that each drive was subjected to the process but really not sure?).

BTW, RAID = "Random Array of Independent Disks" (initially 'Independent' was 'Inexpensive') - there are a half dozen or so options w/ this disk technology; RAID 1 is basically 'disk mirroring'; the others I don't understand the details, more for IT guys - for those interested, some information HERE - Dave

 

[samfromhernando]

Thanks tons for your reply.
Sam

 

[disturbed13]

RAID is awesome
there are many different 'Levels' (not like a video game)
the higher the number the higher the redundancy
for example one of my most favorite is RAID 5 which is a stripe with a parody (the strip rotates)
it requires a minimum of 3 HDD's but i prefer to use 4
and it will write the information on the array (also known as a volume) in a stripe across the drives
on the last drive (for example) it will use a mathematical algorithm to create the parody
then the next stripe will be written and the parody will be wrote to a different drive
so there will be a parody for every data stripe
the point of this is that if one hard drive fails
you can replace it with a drive of similar size (or larger) and the computer will be able to figure out what data is missing
it will either be part of the data stripe (then it will use the parody to figure it out)
or the parody itself will be missing, in that case it will rewrite it and away you go

RAID 6 can handle 2 drives failing
where RAID 5 can only handle 1
there are nested levels of RAID
like RAID 10 (aka RAID 1 + 0)
which is a stripe of mirrors ( 4 HDD's, are 2 'together' for the stripe and then the 2 groups are mirrored)
then there is RAID Z (which is software RAID used in the ZFS file system)
and last but not least there is JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) which is not RAID but a grouping of HDD's

if you want more info just google RAID on wiki
or Nested RAID

but on a side note
RAID does have its own 'loop holes' or short comings

 

[chas_m]

Sure thing.

So I have a Mac (any model) and an external drive (any model, as long as it has a capacity equal to or greater than the "boot drive" (the one inside the computer). In my case the two are connected by FireWire but USB and other ways work fine.

1. I use a program called "Carbon Copy Cloner" ($40) -- some people prefer "SuperDuper" ($30) -- and tell it to make a bootable clone of my internal hard drive to the blank external drive (target-to-destination).

2. Once it has done that, I can restart the computer and hold down the Option key (in Windows-speak, the Alt key) and keep holding it until I see options for which drive I'd like to boot from: the original drive or the clone I just made on the external drive. In this case, I would choose the external drive.

3. This will usually take a little longer than booting up from the internal drive, but once it's done I can then open Disk Utility and erase the internal drive. I like to give it a "secure" pass of filling the drive with zeros, which takes longer, but means the entire disk has really been erased rather than just the directory.

4. So that's done, and I'm still using the external drive as my boot drive, I fire up Carbon Copy Cloner (since its on the external too) and repeat the clone operation, only this time going from the external to the (now blank) internal drive.

5. When done, I'm back to where I was when I started. I just restart the machine, hold the option key down, pick my internal drive as the boot drive, and I'm back in business.

This whole process takes a few hours, but you don't have to watch it -- just stop back by periodically to move to the next step. If you keep a bootable clone handy as I do, then you can skip step one. For my 500GB of data, this operation typically takes a couple of hours on Firewire 400 and three hours on USB2.

 

[toMACsh]

I just checked. The new version of TechTool Pro (version 7) supports Mavericks with their bootable eDrive.

Yeah, mine is version 7, so I thought it was possible, except for...

Our old Dell Desktop (Dimension E510) had RAID 1 (two internal HDs that mirrored each other) and I use to do defragmentation (I assumed that each drive was subjected to the process but really not sure?).

BTW, RAID = "Random Array of Independent Disks" (initially 'Independent' was 'Inexpensive') - there are a half dozen or so options w/ this disk technology; RAID 1 is basically 'disk mirroring'; the others I don't understand the details, more for IT guys - for those interested, some information HERE - Dave

So, although I have a Core 2 Duo drive, it is definitely not a RAID drive, because the TTP eDrive creation was successful. But I never thought about the possibility that TTP was only defragmenting one "Core". It does show two progress bars at the bottom of the window when it is "churning".

 

[bobtomay]

Yeah, mine is version 7, so I thought it was possible, except for...


So, although I have a Core 2 Duo drive, it is definitely not a RAID drive, because the TTP eDrive creation was successful. But I never thought about the possibility that TTP was only defragmenting one "Core". It does show two progress bars at the bottom of the window when it is "churning".

You do not have a "Core 2 Duo drive" and you are not defragmenting a "Core".

"Core 2 Duo" refers to a type of Intel CPU (the processor - or central processing unit) in your computer and it's naming convention has nothing to do with the hard drive in the computer. And, fragmentation and defragmentation only apply to drives (where data is permanently stored on your computer) not to the CPU. Whether you have a 2.0 Ghz C2D or 2.8 Ghz C2D, that nomenclature would tell you the speed of the processor and how many "cores" (number of processors) it has. It would reveal no information whatsoever about the drive in the computer.

The 2 bars at the bottom are not "progress bars" showing the percent complete of the defragmentation process (nor any other function you may be doing in TTP) that is being done to the hard drive. They are a graphical representation of the current percentage of the total processing power being used - one bar for each of the 2 cores of your CPU.

 

[toMACsh]

Thanks for that info.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Most utilities such as TechToolPro, Drive Genius, iDefrag, all offer a way to use bootable media to run the de-fragmenting process. Of course now that most of Apple's latest machines are without an optical drive, it means the process will have to run from a flash drive instead.

I don't know about the others, but iDefrag no longer requires making a boot CD. For the defrag modes that once required a boot disc, it will now reboot into a "special mode" that lets it do the job.

Regarding the use of SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to do a "basic" defrag, I think it's worth mentioning that even the developers of SuperDuper recommend using a proper defrag tool if you have serious, recurring problems with fragmentation.
http://s3.amazonaws.com/com.shirtpocket/SuperDuper/Fragmentation.pdf

 

[chscag]

I knew that iDefrag would do the de-fragmentation routine without making a boot disk, however, it seemed to me that it performed faster from a separate boot disk. That was on my 2011 iMac which had an optical drive. (I tested it both ways.) My current iMac has no optical drive so my choice is limited unless I wish to use a flash drive.

I just opened iDefrag to get a date it was last updated, and as soon as I did it informed me that an update was available for download. (2.2.6 406)

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I knew that iDefrag would do the de-fragmentation routine without making a boot disk, however, it seemed to me that it performed faster from a separate boot disk. That was on my 2011 iMac which had an optical drive. (I tested it both ways.) My current iMac has no optical drive so my choice is limited unless I wish to use a flash drive.

I wonder what that "special mode" is? I can't help but wonder if its a RAM disk. It'd have to be that, or a small partition at the "end" of the drive that it creates temporarily.

 

[chscag]

I wonder what that "special mode" is? I can't help but wonder if its a RAM disk. It'd have to be that, or a small partition at the "end" of the drive that it creates temporarily.

That was my impression also. However, their latest instructions are a bit different now that OS X is no longer on disk. I ran thru the procedure last night just as a test. What it does is copy your Recovery partition to a flash drive and make it bootable. Then iDefrag runs from the flash drive and has full control over the hard drive during the de-fragmentation process. (To clarify... that's if your machine has no optical drive.)