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Hello and welcome to my User Tip
- I’m wondering how to defrag a Mac hard drive and make it faster because my MacBook seems to run slower after updating to the latest macOS. Is there an app I can use for Mac defragment? Unlike Windows that provides a built-in Disk Defragmenter (now called Optimize Drives in Windows 10), macOS does not have a utility or feature like this.
- Download Defraggler - the award-winning defragmenter and hard disk optimizer.
- Faster Computer. Defraggler speeds up your PC by assembling fragmented files on your machine.
- For Mac OS defragment disk, you can rely on iDefrag to work efficiently. It is a useful tool to defrag and optimize your computer. You just have to reboot your computer and the software will provide you options to defrag the system. With this software, you will be able to defrag the whole drive easily. It can even perform selective defragmentation.
You might be experiencing some performance issues with your Mac, spinning beach ball, just general slowness and you knew from your PC days about defragging computers.
Well that's for Windows because the way it writes files it breaks them all up, OS X doesn't do that on small files, so it eliminates the need for MOST users to require a regular defrag. Perhaps once every few years after many updates, upgrades, program installs and reinstalls may one require it on a Mac, then rarely again.
O&O Defrag Free Edition has a composed and simple to utilize interface.
I outlined a safe way here that always gives you a bootable backup to check, plus it really optimizes the hard drive in the process. Also it stays optimized and faster longer when defragging software tends to require it again and again to regain the performance.
If you have Filevault enabled this procedure will not work because it's one giant encrypted image, this is designed to acquire it's results by copying the parts of files into one piece again and back into a alphabetical order according to the root level directory for optimal results, especially of fast loading of Applications into memory.
First if your experiencing computer problems, backup your personal information to a storage drive first, then consult the fix it options as defragging won't necessarily solve problems in software.
So to begin with some facts:
1: Only hard drives require defragging. SSD's no need.
2: You don't need to regularly defrag a Mac's hard drive, OS X writes small files in one batch, eliminating a lot of the need to defrag a Mac regularly.
3: Hard drives are fastest at the beginning of the drive. and slowest at the very end. Data is first written on the top of the drive and works it's way down. However data doesn't magically move up to take available space, holes can develop with a lot of reads and writes. Also things can get out of order, the heads have to travel further all over the drive to boot or load programs for instance.
4: The first 50% of the drive is faster than the second 50% due to more sectors in each track which the heads have less to move and can gather more data at one time. So preferably if you can contain yourself to the first 50% of a hard drive, it will perform fast forever.
I always get twice as much boot hard drive space as I'm ever going to need, I can always partition the unused space and use it as a backup clone for on the road, or rare used items, emergency storage etc.
5: Over time (like years) a Mac can slow down as the adding and reduction of data, OS X upgrades and normal operation tends to move data making it less optimized.
6: If one wants to create a Bootcamp or second partition on the boot drive, there might be OS X data near the bottom where the second partition will go, it's sometimes not easy to move this data further up on the drive.
7: If there are bad or failing sectors on the drive, it can substantially slow down read speeds and the spinning beach ball effect occurs.
Unfortunately the only way to remedy this is by backing up users data off the drive to a external storage drive (not TimeMachine or clone) and then using Disk Utility to Erase with Zero (Security option or move slider one space to the right) the entire drive (10.6) or the Macintosh HD partition (10.7 or later) then reinstalling OS X fresh, followed by programs and return of verified user files.
8: I don't advise using defragmentation software on a 'live' system, it's dangerous and if it messes up your stuck. If anyone has defragged a PC before knows it's never really completes in actuality, but this method I have here will do so wonderfully. ?
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So my solution is if your serious about performance, have large files like video that stretch across many sectors and want it in one piece, want to reduce bad sectors that can corrupt large and even small files, need to free up space for a partition or large file.
How to proceed
1: Reduce your boot drive user content (files, try movies first) so it's less than 50% of the drive filled (ideal) but never more than 80% filled as a full boot drive will make the computer not boot up.
Use Activity Monitor for this and reboot to see the changes if needed. (reducing user content isn't mandatory below 50% filled but preferred if you want to see the best performance)
See Storage Drive here: Most commonly used backup methods
2: Use a blank powered external drive (formatted GUID and OS X Extended Journaled in Disk Utility) and a copy of Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the OS X boot partition (aka Macintosh HD) to the external drive using the default settings and a full clone.
3: Then reboot the machine holding the option/alt key down (wired or built in keyboard), you can now boot from the clone using Startup Manager. Test the clone out for some time so your positive it's solid and reliable, catch any unknown issues (I haven't heard of any) and alleviate any fears you may have.
4: While booted from the clone, use Disk Utility to Security Option > Erase with the 'Zero' or second secure selection (on 10.7/10.8) the internal OS X boot partition (Macintosh HD), or the entire drive if there is no Recovery or Bootcamp partition (10.6 users) this will 'Zero' out all the bits, and when it reads it back for confirmation, map off any bad sectors in the process, never to be written to again. It will take some time and it's a very worthwhile step as failing sectors take longer to read from than perfect ones.
Note: You only need to do this once per drive, you might have to Erase Free Space > Zero perhaps one more time in the next year, but that should be it. Provided you don't move the computer/hard drive while it's operating (a big no no!)
5: When completed, reverse clone. the external onto the internal partition. Run Disk Utility > Repair Permissions on both and all the OnyX (Macupdate.com) maintenance and cleaning aspects and reboot. OnyX cleans out the caches and lets them rebuild.
See #12 OnyX Routine here: Step by Step to fix your Mac
You will solve your Bootcamp partition formatting problem, your bad sectors problem, your defrag problems, corrupt or bloated caches and your optimization problems all in one batch. Also have a working bootable backup in the process which is loads safer than a live defrag.
Your Application's will be written to the 'hot zone' the fastest part of the drive. They will load as fast as possible.
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Your OS X system files will be written next, followed last by your User account data last which tends to grow, expand and contact, suffer with more changes so the defragmentation that occurs will occur at the end and into the slower sections of the hard drive, not where Applications and System are.
Sure over time with OS X updates, upgrades, new app installs and such you can start seeing a loss in performance again (over many years), but another clone/reverse clone will solve that problem.
Also if you want to backup and defrag Windows Bootcamp partition (CCC doesn't do that), there is WinClone for that. I don't know how effective it is as I haven't used it.
There you go enjoy the new performance! ?
Disk Defragmenter Program
Note: If this doesn't work to improve your performance, you likely don't have enough RAM, or the OS X version is to new/bloated for your hardware or perhaps some other issue like a failing hard drive. See this and perhaps it will assist in narrowing down the cause.
Disk Defragmenter Macbook Air
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How to defragment Mac computer's hard disk?
You may have experienced a decrease in Mac performance and then looked for possible solutions on the Internet. A suggestion you might have come across is to 'defrag' the hard disk. Furthermore, people who have switched from Windows often seek guidance to defrag Mac hard drives, since the built-in software in Windows has a noticeable effect on computer performance. You will not be able to find built-in defragmentation software on Mac computers - this is not an oversight by Apple, but simply because this company's operating systems are designed differently to Microsoft Windows and also contain built-in protection against fragmentation.
In fact, Mac computer hard disks can have fragmented files. For example during update, upgrade, and installation, the uninstalling process can result in fragmentation. Therefore, defragmenting a Mac hard disk might be an option if you have not done this recently (within the past few years). Note that defragmentation is advisable only with Hard Drive Disks (HDDs) - we strongly recommend that you do not perform this on Solid State Drives (SSDs). Although there is no defragmentation-related software within the Mac operating system, there are some alternatives that you will find in this article together with information about the advantages and disadvantages of the defragmentation process.
Table of Contents:
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What is the defragmenting process?
Hard disk drives (HDDs) are usually most fast and efficient when information is written to the beginning (the outside edge) of the drive, and slowest when files are written to the end. New data is usually written to the beginning of the drive, thus slowly pushing older information toward the end (the inside). Data does not come back outwards to fill available space, and this results in 'holes, created by extensive read/write activity. Therefore, the read/write heads must move across large areas of the drive to load files or programs, thus resulting in reduced system performance. The defragmentation process moves data outwards to fill existing holes and reduce the volume of files stored toward the inside of the disk.
When you should consider defragmenting a Mac hard drive?
Macs are usually efficient in protecting the hard drive from fragmented files, since Apple created a macOS to automatically perform defragmentation. This process is also known as Hot File Adaptive Clustering. The automatic processes can, however, fail. This is rare, but in this case, you will need to manually perform defragmentation. This may be necessary if you are working with video/film, audio, and other media content, since the hard drive will contain hundreds of files larger than 1GB. Perform the defragmentation process only if you are using a Hard Drive Disk (HDD), not a Solid State Drive (SSD), since SSDs have a limited number of write/read cycles. Defragmenting SSDs might affect flash memory and shorten disk life spans, since, during the defragmentation process, the computer performs thousands of write operations.
Reduce drive holes manually
Rather than using software to perform defragmentation, you can try a number of simple steps that might have similar results:
Mac Os Disk Defrag
- To start, clean up the boot drive, reduce the amount of bulky files, such as movies and other video files. Ensure that the space taken by these files is less than 50% of the drive size, since the first half of drive storage is much faster than the second due to the huge volume of sectors. This, however, is only a question of performance - your computer will still work if the storage fills more than half the disk. Bear in mind that a boot drive occupying more than 80% of the total disk capacity will work poorly, or even not work at all.
- Next, clone the boot drive onto a clean external drive - you can clone a drive with third-party software such as Carbon Copy Cloner or similar. When you have created a clone of the Mac boot drive, restart the computer while holding down the Option key. This will invoke Startup Manager. Select the external drive with the clone of the hard disk to check if everything is working correctly.
- When you are confident that your cloned drive works properly, boot the Mac from an external drive and erase the internal boot partition or the complete drive by using the Disk Utility. This process will clear all hard disk sectors. If any bad sectors exist, you will be able to map them as unusable. In future, no data will be written to them. We recommend that you prevent using bad sectors, since they take much more time to read. Note: do not move the hard drive when erasing or installing.
- Finally, clone the information from the external hard drive back to the internal partition. Once cloning has finished, use Disk Utility and launch First Aid (or Repair Permissions on earlier versions of the operating system) on both partitions. This will clean caches.
Use third-party software to defrag your Mac's hard drive
In rare cases, where defragmenting is imperative, you can use third-party (paid) applications. You can also look for free alternatives on the Internet, but be aware that free software often comes with additional malicious software.
iDefrag is paid software that performs the defragmentation process and has recently been updated to be compatible with all versions of the Mac operating system. Download iDefrag from their website.