Is my iDefrag Optimization taking too long?

[ted939]

Well I sure don't know the total defrag time, but I did find this if you need to use your Mac before it's finished!!



I think that might help a bit with your questions.

Then leave the rest for some other time when you can let your Mac defrag itself for a full day or more I guess.

- Patrick
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Thanks, Patrick! That doesn't answer my questions, but it is definitely good info to know!!

 

[MacInWin]

There's reports all over the internet over the years up til now, of people saying defragging their modern macs is beneficial.

There is a lot of stuff in the internet that simply is not true. Most reports like that come from Windows users who are migrating to macOS and bringing habits from that environment to the macOS environment. That's not to say a really badly fragmented drive wouldn't benefit from defragging, but you said your drive is 1) External, 2) 4TB size and 3) only uses 650GB. And those three facts say that it didn't need defragging (it's not very full, so there is a ton of free space on it plus, external drives might need defragging, but the interface is the throttle on drive performance mac more often than fragmentation). In your situation, defragging is totally not needed. As for how long it might take, open Activity Monitor, look at the Disk tab to see if read/write actions are underway. If not, look at CPU tab to see if anything is not responding (red lettering) to indicate it's stalled.

Do you have a backup for the external drive? You might be better served just stopping the defrag operation, erasing the drive and restoring from the backup. If you do NOT have a backup, quitting the defrag is less optimal because you may lose the data. In that case, unless Activity monitor show that it's stalled, I'd let it run and treat it as a lesson learned.

 

[IWT]

From first post:

Does this mean I have another 15+ hours left to wait for this, and if so, is this normal/OK for iDefrag to take some 15-30 hours to optimize 650GB on a 4TB drive?! - Who knows? - quite possibly given that it's taken this long so far.

ALSO - Regarding upgrading from iDefrag 1.7.3 to 2.2.8 (per Corialis website suggestion for OS10.9.5):

a. What's the process? Go to their website and download the latest version compatible with your Operating System

b. What's the cost? That may depend on whether the Upgrade (if there is one) is free. More likely, there will be a charge, but less than buying the app first time. The website will tell you, either on its main page or when you commence the "Buy" process.

c. How would it benefit me (if at all)? Only in the sense that the latest version is likely to have fewer bugs and might be quicker.

Does that complete the process? Always happy to answer questions if we can.

Ian

 

[pm-r]

OK, let's see if this helps!!

I'm wondering: Does this mean I have another 15+ hours left to wait for this, and if so, is this normal/OK for iDefrag to take some 15-30 hours to optimize 650GB on a 4TB drive?!

What does the iDefrag progress bar show as far as time or percentage. It should be a close guestimate I should think.

ALSO - Regarding upgrading from iDefrag 1.7.3 to 2.2.8 (per Corialis website suggestion for OS10.9.5):
a. What's the process?
b. What's the cost?
c. How would it benefit me (if at all)?

The answer to ALL those questions and more are available at the developers site here:
https://coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag/

There may be some variables for your situation that we don't know about so you'll have to go there and read to get the full answers you're looking for.

If that doesn't help answer your questions I give up and I'm not one to just give a man a fish.

I hope that helps eh???


And BTW: Don't forget that that Seagate STEA4000400 drive is a low-power drive that spins at just 5,400 rotations per minute(RPM), and not at 7,200rpm, and the Elgato USB 3 adapter could be affecting the drive's defrag speed and possibly slowing things down. It sure won't be speeding up anything.




- Patrick
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[harryb2448]

What I like Patrick is the vcery small print:-

Quote "This problem largely does not affect SSDs — though they do still perform less well if files are fragmented, the difference is much smaller and for most SSD users it won’t be worth spending the time defragmenting."

ted39. I know you know it all. But you have never told us how the external drives are formatted?

 

[pm-r]

What I like Patrick is the vcery small print:-

Quote "This problem largely does not affect SSDs — though they do still perform less well if files are fragmented, the difference is much smaller and for most SSD users it won’t be worth spending the time defragmenting."

ted39. I know you know it all. But you have never told us how the external drives are formatted?

Well, at least in the OP's case here, it seems he's not defragging any SSD according to his #16 post:

I am not defragging an SSD drive (as my original post explains).

- Patrick
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[chscag]

We have all answered his questions numerous times. He was actually given everything he needed in our first reply. We are not going to waste any more time on this. If Ted wishes to defrag his external spinning drives, that's up to him.

We are finished here.