Forums
New posts
Articles
Product Reviews
Policies
FAQ
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
General Discussions
Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
defrag hard drive
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="bobtomay" data-source="post: 1577232" data-attributes="member: 24160"><p>When to defrag OS X?</p><p></p><p>That all depends on how picky your are about the speed of your machine and whether you notice your machine slowing down or not. A lot of folks do not even notice it.</p><p></p><p>For those that simply use their machines for email, the web, a couple of cheesy non-3D games and never fill up their drive over 30-40% used space - and don't really notice much, if any, slow down - those that just used Windows and never, or rarely, did any maintenance on their Windows machines - probably never. My wife used her first Mac for 6 years, went from 10.4 with in place upgrades to 10.7 and the only maintenance done on her machine in all that time was to run Onyx once every 6-12 months.</p><p></p><p>For those that notice a half second slow down in app launch times or a 10 second increase in boot times - don't like it and Onyx doesn't take care of it - the ex-Windows overclockers, hard core gamers, those that spent 3-4 hours a week cleaning and defragging their Windows machines 'before' it slowed down - re-installing Windows every 6 months because that was the only way to really clear all the junk out of the registry and get your speed back - you install and uninstall 50-100 apps a year just testing and playing around with stuff, you move a few hundred GBs of movies or other data on and off the drive - personally, I do all the above - or, you just want your machine running as fast as possible - all that crowd likely will want to defrag.</p><p></p><p>After setting up a brand new drive &/or just a wipe and clean install of OS X - then installing all of your regular apps or a restore from Time Machine - in all my testing, iDefrag has consistently decreased the boot time in that scenario by 10-15% minimum. I maintained consistent boot times of 26-28 seconds with 10.4-10.7 on an '06 MBP.</p><p></p><p>Personally, I believe everyone that uses their computer can benefit from an occasional defrag.</p><p>How often and whether the entry price of $30 (was $40 when I bought the first version) for iDefrag is worth it - that's up to how susceptible an individual is to slow downs on their machine.</p><p></p><p>After settling in to OS X - which took me at least a couple of years to learn to do things based on the running of OS X and not just because I did them in Windows - if you want your <strong>Mac using a HDD</strong> running as fast as it's capable of running at all times:</p><p></p><p>1. do not install an anti-virus app - unless it is not a stay resident app and can be run only when you want it to run - ex. ClamXav</p><p></p><p>2. do not install "any" cleaning app (except Titanium's Maintenance or Onyx)</p><p></p><p>3. do not allow any apps to load at start-up - except those you use all the time and you specifically want them loading at start-up - every one of them will slow down your machine to some extent</p><p></p><p>4. run the Automation tab in Onyx when you first notice some slow down - this will depend on your use, for me, it was once every 2-3 months - for my wife, it was once every 6-12 months</p><p></p><p>5. run iDefrag when Onyx doesn't take care of the issue - this one could be more detailed, but, I'll allow those that use iDefrag figure for themselves</p><p></p><p>6. do not allow your OS X partition to go below 20-25% free space - and for those that allow their HDD to get to this point - you definitely would benefit from a defrag</p><p></p><p>7. And, for the hard core only, do not permit your OS X partition to go below 35-40% free space. Once you hit around 30% free space, a defrag is not going to get your HDD running as fast as it use to. Reading and writing to that last portion of the HDD just is not going to be as fast - period. This particular item is not OS X specific - this item relates to the nature of HDDs and is the same no matter what OS you may be using.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="bobtomay, post: 1577232, member: 24160"] When to defrag OS X? That all depends on how picky your are about the speed of your machine and whether you notice your machine slowing down or not. A lot of folks do not even notice it. For those that simply use their machines for email, the web, a couple of cheesy non-3D games and never fill up their drive over 30-40% used space - and don't really notice much, if any, slow down - those that just used Windows and never, or rarely, did any maintenance on their Windows machines - probably never. My wife used her first Mac for 6 years, went from 10.4 with in place upgrades to 10.7 and the only maintenance done on her machine in all that time was to run Onyx once every 6-12 months. For those that notice a half second slow down in app launch times or a 10 second increase in boot times - don't like it and Onyx doesn't take care of it - the ex-Windows overclockers, hard core gamers, those that spent 3-4 hours a week cleaning and defragging their Windows machines 'before' it slowed down - re-installing Windows every 6 months because that was the only way to really clear all the junk out of the registry and get your speed back - you install and uninstall 50-100 apps a year just testing and playing around with stuff, you move a few hundred GBs of movies or other data on and off the drive - personally, I do all the above - or, you just want your machine running as fast as possible - all that crowd likely will want to defrag. After setting up a brand new drive &/or just a wipe and clean install of OS X - then installing all of your regular apps or a restore from Time Machine - in all my testing, iDefrag has consistently decreased the boot time in that scenario by 10-15% minimum. I maintained consistent boot times of 26-28 seconds with 10.4-10.7 on an '06 MBP. Personally, I believe everyone that uses their computer can benefit from an occasional defrag. How often and whether the entry price of $30 (was $40 when I bought the first version) for iDefrag is worth it - that's up to how susceptible an individual is to slow downs on their machine. After settling in to OS X - which took me at least a couple of years to learn to do things based on the running of OS X and not just because I did them in Windows - if you want your [B]Mac using a HDD[/B] running as fast as it's capable of running at all times: 1. do not install an anti-virus app - unless it is not a stay resident app and can be run only when you want it to run - ex. ClamXav 2. do not install "any" cleaning app (except Titanium's Maintenance or Onyx) 3. do not allow any apps to load at start-up - except those you use all the time and you specifically want them loading at start-up - every one of them will slow down your machine to some extent 4. run the Automation tab in Onyx when you first notice some slow down - this will depend on your use, for me, it was once every 2-3 months - for my wife, it was once every 6-12 months 5. run iDefrag when Onyx doesn't take care of the issue - this one could be more detailed, but, I'll allow those that use iDefrag figure for themselves 6. do not allow your OS X partition to go below 20-25% free space - and for those that allow their HDD to get to this point - you definitely would benefit from a defrag 7. And, for the hard core only, do not permit your OS X partition to go below 35-40% free space. Once you hit around 30% free space, a defrag is not going to get your HDD running as fast as it use to. Reading and writing to that last portion of the HDD just is not going to be as fast - period. This particular item is not OS X specific - this item relates to the nature of HDDs and is the same no matter what OS you may be using. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
General Discussions
Switcher Hangout (Windows to Mac)
defrag hard drive
Top