Any free defrag options yet?

[Minjin]

I've been doing some searching and it doesn't seem as though anyone has ever made a free defrag utility for OSX (PPC Leopard in particular). Has that changed yet? I'd really like to get one to do some drive optimization.

Preemptive replies:

-Yes, the file system handles file defragmentation but it doesn't handle drive defragmentation which is what I am trying to deal with (deleted a bunch of users and user files at the beginning of the drive).

-No, I don't want to spend the money for iDefrag.

-I disagree that free software is not trustworthy.

-No, I can't wipe the drive and reinstall because I don't have Leopard install disks.

Thanks for any help.

 

[TheStu]

Response to your preemptive replies:

1: Wow, you
2: should pull
3: the stick
4: out...

I am just saying, I don't think I have ever seen you post this question before here, so to get all snippy with us right away...

Anyway, here is my suggestions?

Have an external drive? Good.

Wipe that sucker and reformat it to HFS+

Install CarbonCopyCloner (don't worry, it's free)

Clone your drive to the external

Boot off the external, wipe the internal, clone the data back.

Boom, drive optimized.

Edit:
Just noticed you said PPC Leopard... you will need a firewire enclosure. They cannot boot off USB.

 

[Minjin]

Response to your preemptive replies:

1: Wow, you
2: should pull
3: the stick
4: out...

I am just saying, I don't think I have ever seen you post this question before here, so to get all snippy with us right away...

I wasn't being snippy at all. And why I would I ask the same question twice on here? I was simply responding to all the typical responses that this question receives across the internet to keep people from wasting their time and to show that I have actually put some time into finding the answer on my own. I didn't insult people or tell anyone that they have a stick somewhere up them.

As for your suggestion, I've come across it before. I'm considering it. Thanks for responding.

 

[kamikazekyle]

I probably wouldn't worry about it too much. HFS+ tries to utilize single extents where possible with full read ahead and delayed cache writes, and most platter drives -- despite having varying access speeds across the platter and slowdowns when hitting all over the platter -- kinda come out to a wash in the end in terms of end-user perception of performance. Basically, external file fragmentation matters more than disk fragmentation when it comes to HFS+ for most cases, and usually OS X handles external file fragmentation quite well.

Of course, there are instances where a full disk defragmentation on a HFS+ filesystem could have tangible benefit: slow, older drives; huge chunks of extents removed but very little additional writing to the drive; forks containing more than 8 extents (needs extra b-trees) etc.

In your case, you did have a chunk of extents removed by deleting those profiles, but unless you're not really going to write a lot to the disk(s), a full disk defragment probably won't be noticble in the long run. Besides, since OSX uses HFS+ to try to write single contigous extents, that large chunk of now-free space will actually be roughly equivalent in the future as defragging your disk would be today. There's all these potentially large swaths of free blocks to be used for single extents.

Anywho, I haven't come across anything free in terms of full disk defragging on OS X. Like Stu mentioned, your best bet would be to use a cloner/file manager that was record aware so it could reallocate the fork blocks into single contiguous extents and update the records accordingly. None of the Windows utilities I've come across support HFS file systems, and *nix defragmenters are just as rare as OS X defraggers, much for the same reasons.

 

[sourceninja]

I can't say I've ever defraged a computer windows, linux, or osx sense 2007. I didn't know this was still a concern.

 

[TheStu]

I can't say I've ever defraged a computer windows, linux, or osx sense 2007. I didn't know this was still a concern.

In this case he is talking about 'optimizing' the drive, if he deleted large files at the beginning of the drive and now wants to... well it's not boot camp since it is PPC.

Maybe he just wants to make another partition, I am not sure what the point is other than to make partitioning easier.

Anyway, the point is that as you delete small files, OS X will shuffle other stuff around to keep all your data in a block near the beginning of the partition/drive. But if the file is larger than say... 25MB? it will not move anything and will instead just fill in the hole whenever it can. For really large files, filling in that hole can take a while and it never really fills in.

At least that is to the best of my understanding. I am all about the SSDs for OS drives now, I care even less about defragging than you do.

 

[Paperlantern]

I am all about the SSDs for OS drives now, I care even less about defragging than you do.

This is where I'm at. I get all cringy when I think about an OS drive that isnt SSD now. My office one is still spindle and it drives me nuts the office wont spring for the SSD for me, lol.

 

[Minjin]

I can't say I've ever defraged a computer windows, linux, or osx sense 2007. I didn't know this was still a concern.

The point is that on a spinning hard drive, the difference in performance between the first 10% and the last 10% is huge. Most of my stuff currently exists in the last 10% and most of the first 90% is now empty space. On a windows PC, it would be optimized automatically by chron jobs (win vista and on) or I could manually run a defrag which would do the same (defragment files and move them to the beginning of the drive). This doesn't happen on Leopard. I'm not sure it happens on any OSX version.

When you are dealing with an older computer, it certainly makes a difference.