Disk defragmenter for mac os. Do you need disk defragmentation on Mac? What is disk defragmentation

My Macintosh is handy when it comes to video and image editing. I also use it to create important documents.

Lately, however, it has been showing performance issues. What am I doing to improve its performance? Do I need to do what they call defrag?

Don't worry. I'll teach you how to defragment mac and how to improve your Mac's performance.

At this point, you might have noticed that your Mac is showing signs of performance issues.

And from your Windows PC days, you might have thought about defrag your Mac directly from the device. However, you will find that there is no utility or command that allows you to do this on a Mac.

File Mac system intosh is worded differently from the Microsoft PC. Defragmentation on a Mac is automatic.

But when the need arises, you may need to defragment your Macbook every few years.

In this guide, we'll show you how to do Mac defrag We will tell you about the pros and cons of the process. Alternatives to defragmentation will also be given in this article.

Here are the tips you will learn in this post.

Article Guide

Part 1. Do you need to defrag your Mac?

Why do we need to defragment a Mac disk? Well, the defragmentation process is used to improve the performance of your computer by reorganizing your disk data.

Relevant pieces of data are grouped accordingly, so launching and running files and software take less time.

Defragmenting your Mac reorganizes the data and puts it back in the correct order. This causes the slow system to speed up.

Any Mac running a version of OS X later than 10.2 usually doesn't need to be defragmented.

This is because macOS and OS X have built-in utilities that perform the process of cleaning up fragmented files located on your hard drive.

Thus, this eliminates the manual task of defragmentation.

However, there are always exceptions to all rules. And in this case, sometimes we need to defrag the Mac to improve its performance.

Part 2. When is it time to defrag your Mac?

If your hard drive has less than 10% free storage, macOS may have trouble auto-defragmenting.

This usually happens to media professionals who store many large files in programs such as Photoshop, Final Cut, and Adobe Premiere.

If you have a lot of large movies that are over 1GB in size, you should consider moving those files to external hard disk or their complete removal.

The same goes for creative documents and audio files. Another option you can do is to completely defragment your Mac.

As for deleting large unimportant files from your Mac device, you can use a tool like .

This tool can help boost your productivity by freeing your Mac from junk files which can slow it down.

Here is how to do it step by step:

Step 1: Download and Run iMyMac-Cleaner on Your Mac

Download Mac Cleaner from iMyMac. Launch the software. Once it opens, you can view the system status of your Mac on the main interface.

On the left side of the interface, click " System junk".

Step 2Scan Your System for Junk

Click " Scanning to start scanning your entire Mac for junk files. After the process is completed, all junk files will be displayed for you.

Step 3: View and select items to clean up

The software will ask if you are sure you want to clear the selected data. Confirm the process if you are sure about it.

Step 4: Mac System Junk Cleanup Completed

Wait until the process is completed. Once this is done, it will mark the files as Zero KB. Some files will not be marked as such since it is an auto-recreated folder.

Repeat steps 1 for 7. The difference is in step 3. You just need to select " Mailbox OR "Large and Old Files" instead of "System Junk".

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Part 3. How to Defrag Mac?

You have to use a Mac defrag tool from a third party trusted person to do this on your device.

However, before How to safely defrag your Mac hard drive, you should do backup your data. As soon as something happens, you can easily restore your files.

When choosing or looking for a defrag tool, you should check its compatibility requirements.

Mac devices running on operating systems older than version 10.2 for OS X are generally not compatible with newer types of defrag software. Thus, it is sometimes difficult to find a useful tool.

Once you have found the program, install it on your device. Open the tool and follow the instructions for defragmenting your Mac carefully.

The process will take a long time. Be patient and never move your device until the process is complete. Sometimes you will need to restart your Mac device to complete the entire defrag process.

Part 4: Security Considerations When Defragmenting a Mac.

After reading this entire guide, you may be wondering if defragmenting your hard drive(HDD).

Don't worry though. Won't Disk defragmentation can be beneficial to your drive. Hard disks usually break data into different parts and store in different places.

Thus, reading a file with all the fragments in different places can take some time.

Disk defragmentation organizes all this data and it won't harm your hard drive. It just results in an increase in the performance of your device.

Of course, extreme measures to improve the performance of your Mac are not recommended. Defragmentation is always a safe process if done correctly.

However, if your Mac is equipped with an SSD, you should NEVER defrag. SSDs are different from HDDs and work differently.

Solid state drives support themselves with automatic processes. Therefore, defragmenting an SSD is not recommended.

The defragmentation process can also damage the SSD. This is because it uses flash memory which has a limited lifespan.

Data read and write cycles are limited. During defragmentation, the process reads data and writes it to another location.

If you defragment SSDs, it will read and write thousands of times and shorten the life of the drive.

Part 5. What Are Mac Defrag Alternatives?

When your Mac is slow, sometimes you don't need to defrag your Mac. There are other alternatives that you can try. Below are some of them:

One way to troubleshoot for Mac devices is to repair disk permissions. What are the permissions? These are file settings that affect the ability to write, read, and execute a particular file.

If these permissions are not set correctly, the software that uses the file may not work properly.

Disk Utility can be used to restore the file permissions of a startup disk in OS X Yosemite (and other more advanced early versions). However, in OS X El Capitan automatic protection disk permissions are exercised. Thus, checking them with Disk Utility is not required.

So how do you fix boot disk your Mac device? Here are the steps to optimize Mac:

Step 1 - Launch Disk Utility.

Step 2 - Choose your specific boot drive.

Step 3 - Select the "First Aid" tab.

Step 4. To check the permissions, click "Check Disk Permissions".

Step 5: To repair permissions, click Repair Disk Permissions.

How do you improve the speed or performance of your Mac?

1 - Software updates.

You should update your macOS software to latest version. Generally, newer versions perform better in comparison. System updates include bug fixes and performance optimizations that can speed up your device.

2 - delete unnecessary data.

It's best to have at least 25% free space on your Mac. This gives your Mac enough space to run background tasks.

It also provides enough space for caches, temporary files, and virtual memory. Use iMyMac's Mac Cleaner to remove junk files.

3 - Stop automatic start programs.

When you turn on your Mac device, there are many programs that can start or run at the same time. Others even run in the background making you unaware of its existence.

You can stop multiple applications from running by going to " System settings". Then select "Users and Groups" and then select "Login Items".

It will list the applications that run during the startup of your Mac. Turn off apps you don't need.

Part 7. Conclusion.

When you experience performance issues, there are a few things you need to do to improve your Mac's performance. Defragmenting your Mac can become great way improve its performance.

However, you should only do this for hard drives, not for SSD. You can also use iMyMac's Mac Cleaner to clean junk files. Finally, you should always take care of your Mac by following our tips above.

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I work on media files in accordance with my profession. I find my Mac (Mac Lion) is slower every day. I think it would be useful to defragment the drive, but haven't found an Apple tool for it. I want an efficient third party Mac defragmenter for my Mac drive.

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@WojciechBednarski Everyone HDD suffers from fragmentation. SSD is very fast time access compared to mechanical drives, so it is less noticeable. An SSD has a limited number of read/write cycles for each of its cells, you win, you lose some... - Fred Nov 09 11 2011-11-09 13:31:02

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HFS+ disk access speed is not affected by fragmentation, unlike Windows file systems like OSX will do some defragmentation . Third party investigation - .

You might be better off checking for free space for new files.

There are some utilities to do defrag like iDefrag

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I agree with free space. Having enough affects the speed a bit. Having enough memory also affects speed, as OSX uses disk swapping when memory gets tight, which slows things down. - Richard Nov 09 11 2011-11-09 15:35:23

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I agree with Mark. I usually don't fill the drive past 80-85% since the slow parts of a mechanical drive start around that point. HD have different speed and access time depending on the location on the disk.

So using an app like iDefrag can help (don't forget to back up your files before!), but it will probably need to be done regularly to ensure continuous results and I'm wondering if there will be a time when you're going to spend on this ain't gon' be for nothing.

I would suggest using RAID-0 or better, but RAID-5 drive settings. Bit more expansive, but the speed will be much more constant over a longer period of time, but this setup also carries more risk (especially RAID-0), so you NEED to make a backup, can get expensive...

An SSD is a good solution, the only issue is capacity. A good, fast and reliable 204 GB SSD sells for ~$500, 480 GB for ~$900.

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DriveGenius does what you ask.

There aren't many applications out there that do this on a mac since actual file fragmentation is both rare and rarely causes measurable slowdowns. Mac OS X automatically defragments files that can cause slowdowns in addition to automatically optimizing hot (frequently accessed) files to a fast, non-fragmented part of the drive.

The HFS+ filesystem directory/directory itself can be fragmented for a long time, but you can fix it easily. Machine time backup and uninstall/remove fixes the problem without requiring you to spend money on a live tool. DiskWarrior also helps rebuild HFS+ directories in addition to the already mentioned Drive Genius.

Good luck - keep looking if you find a defrag that's not what the doctor ordered on your mac.

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Warranty and Liability

A warranty should be given for any repair. Everything is described on the site and in the documents. A guarantee is self-confidence and respect for you. A 3-6 month warranty is good and enough. It is needed to check the quality and hidden defects that cannot be detected immediately. You see honest and realistic terms (not 3 years), you can be sure that you will be helped.

Half the success in Apple repair is the quality and reliability of spare parts, so a good service works directly with suppliers, there are always several reliable channels and a warehouse with proven spare parts for current models so that you do not have to waste extra time.

Free diagnostics

This is very important and has already become a rule of good taste for service center. Diagnosis is the most difficult and important part of the repair, but you should not pay a dime for it, even if you do not repair the device after it.

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Good service appreciates your time, therefore offers free shipping. And for the same reason, repairs are carried out only in the workshop of the service center: it can be done correctly and according to technology only at a prepared place.

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If the Service works for you, and not for itself, then it is always open! absolutely. The schedule should be convenient in order to be in time before and after work. Good service works on weekends and holidays. We are waiting for you and working on your devices every day: 9:00 - 21:00

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If a company has been on the market for many years, and it has managed to establish itself as an expert, they turn to it, write about it, recommend it. We know what we are talking about, since 98% of incoming devices in the SC are restored.
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Many Mac users who come to the platform from the Windows world are accustomed to defragmenting their PC hard drives from time to time, and so the inevitable question arises: should you defrag your Mac hard drive? The answer is usually no., you do not need to defrag your Mac as part of the maintenance procedure. We will explain why this is the case, but there are exceptions to this and we will discuss them also for users who can benefit from defragmentation.

What is disk defragmentation?

If you're already confused, here are a few summary; Disk fragmentation is the gradual inability of a file system to keep related data together, resulting in increased hard drive activity as the drive has to search for related data more frequently. The result is most often felt as a slowdown in computer performance, and resolution is a process called defragmentation, which basically just reorganizes the data so that related bits are grouped together.

Fragmentation in Windows vs. OS X

Fragmentation is so common in the Windows world that the operating Windows system includes built-in defragmentation utilities that have become part of the typical scheme service for most PC owners. In new Windows versions file fragmentation is generally improved, but many longtime users continue to perform regular defragmentation, even if it has become a hocus-pocus maintenance procedure, and the ability to defrag remains unchanged in latest versions Windows renamed from "Disk Defragmenter" will now be marked as more common function"Optimize disks".

On the other hand, Mac OS X does not contain such defrag tools or general optimization disks (no, Repair Disk is not the same). One would assume that if Apple thought Mac disk defragmentation was important enough, it would include such a feature in the OS X Disk Utility app, right? But that didn't happen, and no such defrag option exists, which should give a pretty clear indication that for the vast majority of Mac users, defragmenting an OS X drive is simply not a necessary task. There are several reasons for this, one of which is that file system Mac OS X HFS Plus automatically defragments files on its own, in a process known as Adaptive Hot File Clustering (HFC). In addition, many modern Macs come with SSD or Flash Storage drives that don't require defragmentation at all as they have their own maintenance process known as TRIM.

How about exceptions? Which Macs should be defragmented?

This is typically a small group of Mac users who can benefit from using manual disk defragmentation tools in OS X. In my years of Mac experience, the most common user profile that could theoretically benefit from accidental disk defragmentation are media creators who have tons of huge files scattered across the old hard drive. This means things like hundreds if not thousands of movie files of 1GB or more, thousands of huge audio files, or thousands of huge creative documents that are usually professional users of tools like Adobe Premier, Logic Pro, Final Cut, Photoshop or similar applications. . which create many large multimedia files. Please note that I have mentioned old hard drive, because due to the way OS X works, file fragmentation takes a very long time, and users who have new drives or who update drives periodically will probably not experience any file fragmentation at all.

If you fit into this limited custom pattern and are using a Mac Pro 2008 with the original hard drive, which has thousands of 10 GB movie files loaded, perhaps defragmenting will help you. There are many applications that can be used to defrag a Mac drive, but perhaps the most trusted utility is iDefrag, which costs about $32 and comes with a free demo. Please be aware that defragmentation applications are third-party utilities and are not supported by Apple, and defragmentation tools should never be run on SSD flash drives.

Another alternative to defrag that will have the same end effect is backup disk, formatting the disk, then reinstalling OS X and restoring from a backup.

Okay, I don't need to defrag, but my Mac feels sluggish, now what?

If your Mac is running slowly, you can fix the problem with a few simple tricks:

• Log out open applications to free up memory, most slowdowns are due to RAM limits and increased virtual memory usage (you can even create your own Quit Everything app if you want)
• Restart your Mac, this will clear the cache, free up memory and allow you to install major system updates
• OS X software update, newer versions tend to work better than previous versions and some system updates include performance and bug fixes
• Make sure you always have at least 5-10% of your total disk capacity on your Mac to provide enough space for temporary files, caches, virtual memory, swap files, and hibernating files.
• Check the health of the disk using the "Check Disk" feature in Disk Utility. If the drive doesn't recover and fails, you can use this simple guide to recover your data before it's too late.

You can also follow some specific instructions on what to do if your Mac is slow, take some additional measures to speed up older Macs that have become sluggish over time, and get used to doing some general operations maintenance of the system to keep it working. good for the life of a Mac.

Have questions or comments? Let us know!

File fragmentation is a very old problem of any operating system throughout the history of the computer industry, which means that one logical file, while seemingly being on one hard drive as a logical unit, is actually disassembled into small parts. own funds tries to minimize file fragmentation by writing all the pieces side by side if the file is open, larger than 20MB, and contains more than eight fragments. True, this measure is good for preventing fragmentation. files, but it does not save from fragmentation free space on the hard drive.

What is free disk space fragmentation?

Fragmentation of free space is very noticeable if users have a small percentage of free space on their hard disk and they often work with files and then free up space on the disk (for example, delete temporary files). At the same time, the treasured gigabytes of the remaining free space in practice turn out to be not a continuous area on the disk, but “islands of freedom” scattered between data blocks: a little here, a little there, a little more after this folder.

And what, in fact, is the problem, any poppy will ask. It's just that in this case, the access time to files for both writing and reading increases. And this has a negative effect on hard state drive and the noise it produces, as well as the speed of system response. And since it uses file caching quite heavily, the system will simply slow down, since the cache will be scattered all over the hard drive.

How to see fragmentation of free disk space?

If you suspect that it's time to defragment, I suggest using the free console utility (link at the very bottom of the page). We put the hfsdebug file in any directory and execute the following command (you will need to enter the administrator password):

sudo the path to the file/hfsdebug -0 | sort-n

This command will display all blocks of free space, sorted in ascending order. For example, I got a lot of lines, something like this:

10391 0×134e488 0×1350d1e 40.59 MB
10993 0×11004e7 0×1102fd7 42.94 MB
11691 0×152cd74 0×152fb1e 45.67 MB
12229 0×26d1a05 0×26d49c9 47.77 MB
14537 0×2693cdc 0×26975a4 56.79 MB
24090 0×129b388 0×12a11a1 94.10 MB
57704 0×12a9b0c 0×12b7c73 225.41 MB
68490 0×133c5dc 0×134d165 267.54 MB
69680 0×12c82f7 0×12d9326 272.19 MB

This means that the largest "island" of free space is 272.19 MB and descending to the smallest at 100 KB. In general, this is not surprising, since I quite often installed many different applications, downloaded files from the Internet, and deleted them. In general, I performed quite a lot of file operations and decently scoff at . For the most curious, you can use another command that displays the percentage of file fragmentation (more precisely, the percentage NOT-defragmentation).

sudo ./hfsdebug -f -t 5

The execution will take some time, but the result will be something like this:

Out of 1214506 non-zero data forks total, 1209938 ( 99.624 % ) have no fragmentation.
Out of 4135 non-zero resource forks total, 4074 ( 98.525 % ) have no fragmentation.

Such high percentages indicate that Mac OS X does its job well and does not allow fragmentation. files.

Why else do you need to defragment free space?

For example, if you want to create a partition, you will need a solid piece of free space on your hard drive. Otherwise, the user will simply be notified that "Partition could not be created, please reinstall OSX and try again". And all due to the fact that Mac OS X simply does not provide a tool for defrag hard disk. In this case, it is recommended to make a full backup of the data, format the hard drive, reinstall and restore the files. In my opinion, not the friendliest behavior of the OS.

Therefore, it is best to use special applications for defragmenting data from third-party developers - at least you don't have to do backup/restore tricks. Yes, and it should take less time.

Defrag Tools

Before moving on to defragmentation, to increase the effect, you can use, for example, to clear the system and user cache. And for the defragmentation itself, you can use special utilities.

The utility is designed specifically for defragmentation and provides a number of algorithms for this. For example, "Compact", one of the algorithms of work, places all files at the beginning of the disk, and free space at the end. This procedure takes minimal time. You can download a demo version