I was under the impression that defragging was a Windows thing, not something that we have to do in Macs.
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A very slow Mac Pro ...
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I was under the impression that defragging was a Windows thing, not something that we have to do in Macs.
if you are into video editing, I would very very very much consider SSD. I know you haven't said anything about that. But I also do video editing, and a SSD for a scratch/media disk has changed my entire workflow for the better.
Once a drive approaches 80% or more filled to capacity, fragmentation CAN get in the way. However, if your drive is that full, fragmentation is a collateral side effect of needing a larger drive IMO. Basically, you don't have to worry about defragging the drive, you just have to make sure you have sufficient capacity for your needs.
Dopeyman,
Thank you for your reply. Defragging is a PC option. With Macs we can Verify Permissions and Repair Permissions. There is also the First Aid option. Both options (Verify Permissions and Repair Permissions) have been completed but I thank you for your input.
Korican100,
Yes, as an editor I rely on speed and capacity. I will look into SDD drives if my budget will allow - if not, it’ll be 7200rpm disk drives.
GadgetHound,
This seems to be the common train of thought here - a fresh install. I take it that this would be on a brand new drive and not an over-write on the existing Macintosh HD? My RAID drives are, as you predicted, 1TB in total (2 x 500MB). I understand what you say about the main drive needing to be 1.5T. I will have to conduct these changes little by little as I am not in a position to rush out and buy 4 all-new disks at once. I will start with the main drive and then to the RAID replacement.
Thank you all for your suggestions. This has been (and I hope will continue to be) a great help.
snaps
Thank you for your reply. Defragging is a PC option. With Macs we can Verify Permissions and Repair Permissions. There is also the First Aid option. Both options (Verify Permissions and Repair Permissions) have been completed but I thank you for your input.
Korican100,
Yes, as an editor I rely on speed and capacity. I will look into SDD drives if my budget will allow - if not, it’ll be 7200rpm disk drives.
GadgetHound,
This seems to be the common train of thought here - a fresh install. I take it that this would be on a brand new drive and not an over-write on the existing Macintosh HD? My RAID drives are, as you predicted, 1TB in total (2 x 500MB). I understand what you say about the main drive needing to be 1.5T. I will have to conduct these changes little by little as I am not in a position to rush out and buy 4 all-new disks at once. I will start with the main drive and then to the RAID replacement.
Thank you all for your suggestions. This has been (and I hope will continue to be) a great help.
snaps
Defragging is not a PC-only option.
I personally use Drive Genius to defrag my main drive in my iMac.
I start up from an external and start the defrag. I've noticed speed increases whenever I do it.
I personally use Drive Genius to defrag my main drive in my iMac.
I start up from an external and start the defrag. I've noticed speed increases whenever I do it.
However, saying that, when my Mac Pro was new and out of the box, Mac invited me to download TechTool Deluxe. I have been using this from time to time. I perform Volume Structure on all drives and this is the message I get every time:
TechTool Deluxe can scan volumes for problems related to the numerous structures that are necessary for the volumes to operate correctly. If problems are found, TechTool Deluxe can attempt to repair the damage to help reduce the chance of future problems.
Can attempt? but no actual repair ...
In the longer term, would my investment of $99 for Drive Genius be best saved for new drives or would this really help my current situation?
Some time ago I fell Mac Keeper ... there were numerous reports on several forums saying it was a rip-off ...
snaps
TechTool Deluxe can scan volumes for problems related to the numerous structures that are necessary for the volumes to operate correctly. If problems are found, TechTool Deluxe can attempt to repair the damage to help reduce the chance of future problems.
Can attempt? but no actual repair ...
In the longer term, would my investment of $99 for Drive Genius be best saved for new drives or would this really help my current situation?
Some time ago I fell Mac Keeper ... there were numerous reports on several forums saying it was a rip-off ...
snaps
For maintenance, I use Disk Warrior to fix the HD directory and for degramentation, Drive Genius. So far I did not encounter any speed slowdown or frequent "beach ball" slowdown or kernel panics. I have a 2008 and 2009 MP and both are running smoothly. Though I still make sure my HDs have free spaces of at least 25%.
I would try running memtest and then also Disk Warrior before doing a reinstall.
I also have ML and Diskwarrior on an external drive. This has saved my butt a few times.
As for the ram it might be worth getting more and trying 4,4,2,2 - 4,4,2,2 That's how my 24gb is installed { 3/1 Mac Pro }
I also have ML and Diskwarrior on an external drive. This has saved my butt a few times.
As for the ram it might be worth getting more and trying 4,4,2,2 - 4,4,2,2 That's how my 24gb is installed { 3/1 Mac Pro }
Well, I bought Drive Genius 3 and ran it over MACINTOSH HD and RAID 0 disks. Apart from some very lovely graphics and a green one that shows me a before and after defrag, very little has changed.
From their self-promotion blurb : Are you seeing the beach ball more or having other issues with your Mac hard drive ... well, frankly, yes. Even after $99 Im getting it more and more.
I had no idea that a beach ball was so expensive ...
Should I just be a man and re-instal OS X straight onto my MACINTOSH HD or is there another, less costly way of doing it? (I have all my software on backups so theres no issue there).
All ideas and thoughts would be gratefully accepted (as would the return of my $99).
snaps
From their self-promotion blurb : Are you seeing the beach ball more or having other issues with your Mac hard drive ... well, frankly, yes. Even after $99 Im getting it more and more.
I had no idea that a beach ball was so expensive ...
Should I just be a man and re-instal OS X straight onto my MACINTOSH HD or is there another, less costly way of doing it? (I have all my software on backups so theres no issue there).
All ideas and thoughts would be gratefully accepted (as would the return of my $99).
snaps
I still thnk that a clean install is best.
I like the idea of having to ' man up' to do it.
First try a repair install ( non destructive straight install over the existing OS).
No (I've not long tested this myself on a separate partition); The installer as normal, chose your Mac OS X boot drive to install and it will do the install without trashing any of your data or apps.
No actual mention that its doing a repair, but it just does it - seems the installer knows not to mess about with your apps and stuff and seamlessly sorts out the system files.
Follow it up with a Repair Permissions and theoretically it should be back to fresh installed state (the System files that is).
Ahh, well therein lies the problem. I do not have a separate Mac OS X boot drive.
As I was preparing for this problem solving exercise, I renamed my old backup disk “new boot drive” but since it isn’t GUID, I could not instal OS X onto it. I remember having long discussions with folk about how I could go about it and, apparently, I needed to buy a new disk which was GUID. As a first resort, I was advised to give Drive Genius a go first.
So, I bought Drive Genius 3 ’the expensive beach ball’ edition instead and now am back to square one.
If you do not hear from me again, it’s been emotional ...
snaps
As I was preparing for this problem solving exercise, I renamed my old backup disk “new boot drive” but since it isn’t GUID, I could not instal OS X onto it. I remember having long discussions with folk about how I could go about it and, apparently, I needed to buy a new disk which was GUID. As a first resort, I was advised to give Drive Genius a go first.
So, I bought Drive Genius 3 ’the expensive beach ball’ edition instead and now am back to square one.
If you do not hear from me again, it’s been emotional ...
snaps
Snaps, from reading here, I'm unclear on wether you understand the reinstall or not. You don't need a separate drive to repair permissions afterwards. You can repair permission from the recovery partition in the utilities section. You can also buy a cheap 8GB USB thumb drive and make a recovery/install device with the same utilities. I'm sorry to hear you pinched off $100 for this but it's TOTALLY un-needed for your purposes.
crjackson2134
I understand repair and verify without a problem but its the reinstall of OS X. I copied the original OS X disc to a spare drive (not the boot drive) but it would not read it. If it was that simple, I would be up and running already.
Try again?
snaps
I understand repair and verify without a problem but its the reinstall of OS X. I copied the original OS X disc to a spare drive (not the boot drive) but it would not read it. If it was that simple, I would be up and running already.
Try again?
snaps
Again, just start the OS X Install and choose your existing OS X Hard Drive as the target to install OS X onto. It will then install a fresh set of OSX over your existing one (the one that is possibly suspect) and after which will reboot to (hopefully) a fully working install.
Im still here and the reinstall seemed to go OK. Havent seem any vast improvements (in fact, nothing to write home about). If that expensive beach ball comes back, Ill be in touch.
Thank you for all your help - no matter how little or how much. It was all gratefully appreciated!
snaps
Thank you for all your help - no matter how little or how much. It was all gratefully appreciated!
snaps
I am suprised no one mentioned using Diskwarrior, which can fix things no other software can.
I always run DW when my mac gets slow; what it does is optimizes the directory..on my last run on my mac pro, like 37% of directory was out of place. After running it my mac pro was back to normal.
Not this is different than defragging. Though they say the Mac OS does not need defragging, if you use alot of big files its good to do that too.
DW highly recommended though
I always run DW when my mac gets slow; what it does is optimizes the directory..on my last run on my mac pro, like 37% of directory was out of place. After running it my mac pro was back to normal.
Not this is different than defragging. Though they say the Mac OS does not need defragging, if you use alot of big files its good to do that too.
DW highly recommended though
I must say that Disk Warrior saved my data one time on a 2006 iMac that somehow had disk corruption. I cant recall if it was on 10.4 or 10.5, but the machine would not boot and Disk Utility would not touch it. Disk Warrior did indeed fix it, the machine booted fine, and all the data was intact.
If I'm wrong, I apologize in advance, but I think you are misunderstanding MBR and GUID. That selection is not in the part where you choose Mac Extended Journaled, Mac Extended Journaled (Case Sensitive), etc. you have to go to your disk utility, click the drive, click partitions, choose 1 partition and then click the "options" button and choose GUID. Your drive can definitely be formatted as GUID.
