Techsurvivors

Archives => 2003 => Topic started by: Al on September 17, 2003, 01:45:04 PM

Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Al on September 17, 2003, 01:45:04 PM
My system is OS 10.2.6 and I have Speed Disk from Norton Utilities 6.0.3.  It's only a OS 9 app thou.  I was thinking about purchasing Plus Optimizer from Alsoft, but it too is an OS 9 app.

Was wondering what you guys/gals recommend to defrag. drives?
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Bruce_F on September 17, 2003, 02:22:51 PM
Al,

Everything I've heard/read on disk optimizing under OS X seems to point to DO NOTHING!

If you keep up on the daily/weekly/monthly cron scripts and repair permissions when needed, that's all that is needed.

Fragmentation doesn't seem to apply, as much, when you're talking about speed issues.

If you're concerned, you could always use Carbon Copy Cloner to write an optimized disk and do some comparison tests.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: CyberPet on September 17, 2003, 02:37:14 PM
I actually disagree, you will always suffer from disk fragmention as long as you add/remove files from your harddrive. Doesn't matter if you use OS X or not since it's the same file system used as with OS 9 (HFS+). Some claim that if you use UFS instead you will suffer less from disk fragmentation, but I haven't seen any proof of that.

I personally defragment my harddisk about every second week with Drive 10 and I notice a big difference in how the harddrive act, especially with my PowerBook which is very sensitive to heavy load and disk access. After a defragmentation I notice less fan noise.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Al on September 17, 2003, 02:46:16 PM
Hey there, Bruce, Why I ask this is what Cyberpet mentioned.  There will always be fragmentation.  But it seems in OS X, there is a ton more fragmenting than in OS 9 days, especially when OS X has 3.5 million files...lol... wacko.gif

Does anyone think it would be safe to defrag with Speed Disk from Norton Utilities 6.0.3?  Or should I shell out for another disk utility like Plus Optimizer or Drive 10?
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Bruce_F on September 17, 2003, 02:50:25 PM
Petra,

That's interesting! It could be that a dual processor desktop doesn't suffer from the heavy load as much.

Now, I should do my own tests! huh.gif  biggrin.gif

I don't have Drive 10, or any other optimizing software that runs in OS X. dry.gif
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: kps on September 17, 2003, 07:02:07 PM
Very good thread Al, I've been wondering what to use myself. Prior to Jag I'd use PlusOptimizer from OS 9 to defrag and optimize both, OS 9 and OS X partitions. Then I wasn't sure if I could use it on Jag...so I didn't. Recently, I installed another new drive (third since I got the G4) so it wasn't an issue. I haven't touched it since and haven't noticed any problems. Now the 12" powerbook is a different matter, it won't boot OS 9, so using PlusOptimizer is definitely out.

Petra how is Drive 10 working out? I've heard some mention of problems out there.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: iGuy on September 17, 2003, 07:27:38 PM
I only have OS X version 10.1.5. Currently I am using Drive 10.  I bought it a few months ago not only to use but to take advantage of the free TechTool 4 offer.  Drive 10 has worked fine so far.

Anyone know when TechTool 4 will be shipping?  Has anyone received a copy?

Ryan
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: macdoug on September 18, 2003, 03:28:06 PM
I contacted Micromat a few days ago and asked them when TechTool Pro 4 was going to be released, because I have bought a copy of TechTool Pro 4 and am waiting on it. I believe they told me that it would be later this month and to keep an eye on the web site for further information. clap.gif Of cours, I will believe it when I see it.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: CyberPet on September 18, 2003, 03:47:23 PM
Bruce: I doubt it has anything to do what machine you have... maybe you notice the disk access less with a stationary since it's pretty noisy as it is compared to a laptop.

kps: Drive 10 works great, the only disadvantage is that it's SLOW. Especially the first time you use it and you have a few GB's on the drive. It can take a whole night!

Now I defrag my harddrive about every 2nd week and it takes about 2 hours with about 32 GB in use.

If you don't have the time to defrag, make a backup with Carbon Copy Cloner onto an external disk and whipe the other disk clean and copy everything back with CCC. Might be faster but it still takes a few hours depending on how many GB's you use.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Gary S on September 18, 2003, 04:05:03 PM
Al,

I used  6.0.3 Norton's Speed Disk to defragment once and it worked.

Here's the advice I got from Kelly. I used the profile he mentioned.

Norton Speed Disk and OS X.2

It's down at the bottom of the page.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Al on September 19, 2003, 04:04:56 AM
Thanks Gary, I am trying the profile now and will post back on how it goes.  If it does go well, I won't need to shell out more dough for a defrag program.

Out of 5 GB's free I have only a 500 MB largest free space.  Really time to defrag and optimize.

brb.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Al on September 19, 2003, 06:36:07 AM
The profile worked fine.  I see no problems afterwards and I liked the way it optimized the drive.  Main thing, my Mac booted up afterwards.  Also, afterwards I rebuilt the directory with DW.

Thanks again Gary for the info.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Gary S on September 19, 2003, 10:34:36 AM
Al,

I'm glad it worked! smile.gif
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Gary S on September 19, 2003, 11:24:44 AM
Al,

I'm defragging my OS 10.2.6 drive right now with Speed disk. I don't know how long it will take...it's going kind of slowly, but there's a lot of data on the 60 gig...about 13 gigs so....

I'll let you know. As I remember I used DW 3 afterwards also.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: kelly on September 20, 2003, 09:45:32 AM
Yeah. That works fine for me Al. smile.gif

I was down to 75 MBs of free Space on a 20 Gig partition. ohmy.gif

It's the only part of Norton I'd use on the OS X Partition though. smile.gif
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Al on September 20, 2003, 03:26:47 PM
Just as an update, my B&W is running fine after optimizing /defragging my drive with Speed Disk and the new profile.  Also, I believe that boot up is a little faster now.
Title: Defragmenting/Optimizing your drive?
Post by: Gary S on September 20, 2003, 07:31:57 PM
Update!.....

It worked well for me too. it took about an hour to run Speed Disk. biggrin.gif