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02-16-2008, 05:17 PM
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#1 of 39 
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Ronald Epstein
Owner
Join Date: Jul 1997
Local Time: 02:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 23,384
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Defrag on a Mac
Having problem doing any defrag on my Mac (bootups are very
slow on my Macbook Pro) and I *think* I have figured out why....
Every software I have tried (Drive Genius/TechTool) is not
allowing a defrag to be done from within the Macintosh HD.
In other words, I think I have to install these programs and run
them from a external drive and/or bootup CD so I am not doing
a defrag from within the same hard drive.
Can anyone confirm if this is true or have I just made up a
bunch of horse shit? 
Thanks!
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02-16-2008, 07:27 PM
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#2 of 39
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Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Local Time: 02:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 3,296
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
That's pretty much it-- you can't defrag the disk without unmounting it, and you can't unmount it if it's currently hosting the active System. I generally boot from an external hard drive, but I've also used firewire target disk mode.
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02-17-2008, 03:45 AM
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#3 of 39
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Ronald Epstein
Owner
Join Date: Jul 1997
Local Time: 02:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 23,384
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
Jeremy,
How can I boot from an external hard drive? SuperDuper has backed
up my entire system to an external so I can easily boot from it.
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02-17-2008, 08:40 AM
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#4 of 39
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Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Local Time: 02:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 3,296
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
Jeremy,
How can I boot from an external hard drive? SuperDuper has backed
up my entire system to an external so I can easily boot from it.
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System Preferences/Startup Disk |
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02-17-2008, 11:31 AM
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#5 of 39
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Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Local Time: 01:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 803
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
Connect the hard disk, restart the machine and hold down the OPTION key to select which volume to boot from.
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02-17-2008, 11:43 AM
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#6 of 39
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John Rice
Member
Location: Colorado
Join Date: Jun 2000
Local Time: 12:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 8,396
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
Isn't Tech Tool on a bootable disc? I have always found it best to boot from that disc to do the defrag. Just hold down the "C" key during startup. Of course, I haven't had Tech Tool in years, so it may not be bootable anymore. Otherwise, either of the two previous suggestions will work.
They flutter behind you, your possible pasts.
Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost.
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02-17-2008, 08:17 PM
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#7 of 39
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Member
Location: Here
Join Date: Nov 1997
Local Time: 11:39 PM
Local Date: 10-07-2008
Posts: 10,599
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
One interesting thing: I recently upgraded my MBP internal HD, and used Carbon Copy Cloner to do it. I first put in my new HD in an external drive, CCC'd to it, and then installed it.
One thing I noticed: when CCC copied everything, it did so in a logical order (system files first, program files, then music/movie files), and it defragged in the process (by nature of the HFS+ file system). I confirmed this by running the demo version of iDefrag which at least lets you analyze the fragmentation on your HD. My old HD was horribly fragmented (I do a ton of small to medium file add/deletes) and the same files on my new HD were not fragmented.
Now what I have to figure out is, next time I need a defrag, can I CCC to an external drive, boot from the external drive, and CCC back to the internal drive?
Anyone had luck with this?
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02-17-2008, 08:36 PM
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#8 of 39
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John Rice
Member
Location: Colorado
Join Date: Jun 2000
Local Time: 12:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 8,396
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
I had terrible problems booting from any CCC backup (and just general problems), but have never had a single problem booting from a firewire backup done with SuperDuper. Never tried it with a USB drive. Now, that is my standard practice. I backup to a firewire drive, which is left off the rest of the time for added protection. When I get a new drive or just reconfigure things, I boot from the firewire drive and back it up to an internal.
They flutter behind you, your possible pasts.
Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost.
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02-18-2008, 08:05 AM
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#9 of 39
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2001
Local Time: 02:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 4,947
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
Is defragging necessary or even useful on a Mac?
On Windows, it's almost spiritual ritual for exorcising computer demons -- if anything weird is going on, do a defrag. So is defragging a Mac good practice? Or is this Windows users bringing bad habits to the Mac world?
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02-18-2008, 08:49 AM
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#10 of 39
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Member
Join Date: Feb 2001
Local Time: 02:39 AM
Local Date: 10-08-2008
Posts: 3,296
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Re: Defrag on a Mac
Quote:
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Originally Posted by DaveF
Is defragging necessary or even useful on a Mac?
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Not Really, no. Diskwarrior is more useful for fixing the broken file systems that Disk First Aid can't handle. |
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