You might be experiencing some performance issues with your Mac, and you knew from your PC days about defragging computers. Well, you won’t find any command or utility to do that on Mac. The point is that the Mac File System is designed differently than Microsoft's, and it defragments files automatically. However, there are still some situations when you may need to defrag Macbook once in a few years.
Nov 28, 2020 Select a full or quick mode, choose the files to defragment as well as associated metadata. Download Stellar Drive Defrag 3.0 for Mac from our software library for free. This Mac application was originally produced by Stellar Information Systems Ltd. The size of the latest installation package available for download is 17.5 MB. Defragging Mac computers became less important with the release of Mac OS X 10.2, an operating system version from way back in 2002. Starting with that version, Macs came equipped with a new filing system that did a better job grouping of data together, reducing fragmenting and the need to reorganize the data later. Defrag Mac is the process of keeping your Mac optimized. It helps to keep all fragmented data together in Mac hard drive and Mac OS X does not have any inbuilt tool. I have used Stellar Drive Defrag and found it as a great defragmentation tool. July 18, 2014 6:13 am.
In this article, we’ll tell you how to defrag a Mac, all advantages and pitfalls of doing this, and what alternatives to defragging are out there. Anxious to find out? Then let’s start!
Jul 09, 2019 What is iDefrag for Mac. IDefrag helps defragment and optimize your disk for improved performance. Supports HFS and HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). Supports case sensitive and journaled filesystems. Supports adaptive hot file clustering ('Hot Zone'). Compact data, moving all free space to one place. Optimize filesystem metadata. On-line defragmentation.
Do you need to defragment a Mac?
First of all, let’s find out why we do a Mac disk defrag. To cut a long story short, defragmentation aims to boost a computer’s performance by reorganizing the data on your drive. As a result, the related bits are grouped, and loading files and programs take less time. Simply put, Mac defragment moves everything back in order and can greatly speed up a slow system.
However, despite the obvious advantage, a Mac running any OS X version later than 10.2 generally doesn’t need to be defragmented. This is because OS X and macOS have their own built-in Apple Mac utilities that clean up fragmented files from the hard drive. Therefore, for most users, it eliminates the need to perform a regular defrag. But there is an exception to every rule, and in a few rare cases, a defrag for Mac can make a difference.
When do Macs need to be defragged?
If your hard drive is more than 90 percent full, the macOS may have problems with automatic defragmentation routines. This situation is common for multimedia creators who produce plenty of large files in pro tools like Adobe Premiere, Final Cut, or Photoshop.
Therefore, if you have hundreds or even thousands of large (1GB and larger) movies, audio files, or creative documents, you should consider removing them to free up the storage. Another alternative is defragging a Mac.
Concerning the first option, there is a fast and safe way to remove unnecessary files from your Mac — a powerful app CleanMyMac X. It finds above 74 GB of junk on an average computer, including old and large files, app leftovers, and system clutter. It helps to boost computer performance, so you probably won’t even need to defrag a Mac.
However, if you still wonder, “How do I defrag my Mac?” read on. We’ve prepared all the essential guidelines for you.
How to defragment a Mac
One of the simplest and most user-friendly Mac defrag methods is to use a trusted third-party defragmentation program. But before choosing and installing the app, make sure to back up your data. Should something go wrong, you’ll be able to restore all necessary files easily. You can use Time Machine, iCloud, Dropbox, or any other external storage at hand for this purpose.
When choosing the defragmentation app, pay special attention to the compatibility requirements. Macs running operating systems older than OS X 10.2 are not compatible with the latest modern defragmentation software, so finding a relevant tool is challenging.
Once you’ve installed the program of your choice, open the utility and follow the instructions of a disk defragmenter for Mac. Give the process plenty of time to complete without moving your computer anywhere until the defragmentation is finished. Usually, you’ll need to restart your Mac as well.
Will defragmentation harm my HDD?
You may not worry: OS X defrag will not harm your HDD. As you already know, disk defragmentation can greatly speed up the traditional hard drive. It’s because HDD fragments all the data and stores it in multiple locations. And it may take quite a time to read the file with its pieces situated in different places. The procedure for arranging the data is not harmful to your HDD and aims to boost the computer’s performance. And while it is not advisable to turn to such extreme measures, defragmenting a hard drive disk is a safe procedure if, of course, performed accurately.
Why you should never defrag Mac’s SSD
The process described above is applied only to the hard drives. If you have a newer Mac with SSD (solid-state drive), you should never defrag its data. SSDs operate in a different way to a traditional HDD and already have a built-in automatic maintenance process. Therefore, it is not necessary to defrag a solid-state drive to boost Mac’s performance.
Furthermore, all defragmentation attempts can even hurt your SSD. Flash memory used by a solid-state drive has a finite lifespan because of the limited write and read cycles. And disk defragmentation is a process of reading the data from one place and writing it to another. So if you defrag SSD, you will perform thousands of write operations each time on the drive. It can speed up the degradation of a solid-state drive and lead to its wear and tear. And that’s not what you need.
What are alternatives to defragment a Mac?
If your Mac is running slowly, you don’t necessarily need to defrag Mac hard drive. Sometimes it’s not your HDD that’s having problems. Therefore, try some alternative methods that may help you speed up the system without disk defrag on Mac.
Repairing Disk Permissions
“Try repairing your disk permissions” is a standard Mac troubleshooting tip. Permissions are file settings that affect the ability to read, write, and execute the file. And if they are no longer set correctly, software that uses the file may not work right.
In OS X Yosemite or earlier, the file permissions on a startup disk can be repaired with the help of Disk Utility. Note that beginning from OS X EI Capitan, disk permissions are automatically protected, and there is no need to verify them with Disk Utility.
How do I repair my Mac startup disk?
Here are the steps for optimizing your Mac:
Open Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities).
Choose your startup disk.
Click the First Aid tab.
Click Verify Disk Permissions to check permissions.
Click Repair Disk Permissions to repair any inconsistent permissions.
If you don’t want to repair disk permissions manually, you can easily perform the action with the utility we mentioned above — CleanMyMac X. It has the Maintenance module that will help you optimize your Mac, including verifying startup disk and repairing disk permissions. Thus, you’ll ensure that your Mac’s operating system is functioning properly. You can download CleanMyMac here.
Therefore, before defragging your Mac, try to perform the Mac disk cleanup to increase the disk speed. It’s an easy and risk-free process that will not take more than a few minutes.
General speedup tips
Sometimes your Mac needs a good kick-start to run smoothly. Here are some tricks to speed up your computer.
How do I improve my Mac performance?
1. Update macOS software
Try to update your software to the latest versions as it performs better than the previous ones. Usually, system updates include performance and bug fixes that could be the reason for slowdowns.
2. Delete unnecessary files
Ensure that your Mac has at least 10 percent of total drive storage available at any time to perform background actions and provide enough space for temporary files, caches, and virtual memory. Once again, CleanMyMac X is a great solution for finding and removing useless and large files that take gigabytes of space on your Mac.
3. Stop programs from launching automatically
A large number of apps may launch simultaneously when you turn your Mac on. Some of them run in the background and are only visible in a menu bar, so it’s even hard to define if they’re actually running. You can stop them from loading by opening System Preferences, clicking on Users & Groups, and choosing Login Items. You’ll see a list of applications that launch during the startup. You can switch off the ones you don’t need by clicking the minus sign (-) button.
If you’re looking for some utilities that can help with all of that and even more, try Mac maintenance software like CleanMyMac X, It will optimize Mac performance safely and quickly.
We hope this article was helpful, and you found the answers to all your questions here. Thanks for reading and share this article if you liked it!
Summary:
What is defragmentation, how to defragment on Mac OS, where is the data going after defragmentation? Can it be recovered? In this article, you will find the answers.
What is defragmentation?
Disk fragmentation occurs when a file is broken up into pieces to fit on the disk. Because data are continually being written, deleted, and resized, then there are more and more fragments. The resulting impact of fragmentation is slow PC performance, long boot-times, random crashes, and freeze-ups – even a complete inability to boot up at all. So when a file is spread out over several locations, it takes longer to read and write. Many users blame these problems on the operating system or think their computer is 'old,' while hard disk fragmentation is often the real culprit.
/DriveGenius4Defrag-580a6ed43df78c2c739e0fe5.jpg "Disk")
Sometimes, you try to speed up your computer by running a disk defragmenter, but cause programs or large files broken up or fragmented. This is terrible for us because once the data is lost due to defragmentation, it is hard to recover. Therefore, you can back up existing data and recover lost data before defragmenting the disk.
Will defragmentation harm my HDD?
Don't worry: Mac OS X defrag will not harm your HDD. As you already know, disk defragmentation can significantly speed up the traditional hard drive. It's because HDD fragments all the data and stores it in multiple locations. And it may take quite a time to read the file with its pieces situated in different places. The procedure for arranging the data is not harmful to your HDD and is aimed at boosting the computer's performance. While it is not advisable to turn to such extreme measures, defragmenting a hard drive disk is a safe procedure.
How to recover lost data on Mac OS X？
To recover lost data on Mac OS X in different situations, you should choose an excellent Mac data to recovery software which can recover all kinds of files from Mac hard drive or other storage devices for various reasons. Fortunately, Bitwar Data Recovery for Mac can meet all of the above requirements.
Download and install Bitwar Data Recovery for Mac on your Mac OS X, and then launch it. The software is compatible with OS X 10.11 and later.
Tips: For the latest macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) system requirements, Mac users are not allowed to access system disk from apps. If you want to recover data from the system disk, please disable the system feature 'System Integrity Protection (SIP)' and see the guide on How to Disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) in macOS High Sierra (macOS 10.13)?
Step 1: Launch the program and select the partition/devices where your data lost and then click 'Next.' If you want to recover data from an external storage drive, please connected it to your mac and selected it on this step.
Step 2: Select the scan mode based on the exact data loss reason. Then click 'next.' There is three scan mode to choose:
● Quick Scan: Recover deleted files on a partition or device, such as files deleted by command + deleted, emptied from the trash or removed by other software, etc. If additional data have not overwritten files, it can be entirely retrieved in the condition of the files or directory structures.
● Formatted Recovery: Recover formatted files after performed a quick format on a partition or hard drive in the condition of the capacity of partition or drive hasn't been changed before or after formatting.
● Deep scan: If the previous scan couldn't work to find lost files, try Deep Scan this time. Deep Scan will search every sector of a hard drive to find all existing data, but the scanning process will spend more time than Quick Scan and will not have the original file name in the scanning results.
Step3: Choose the file types you want and click 'Next.' You can select all kinds if you do not know which type of files you want
Step 4: After the scanning, you can preview and filter the data you want. Then select them and press the recover button to save them on the Mac.
Tips: Please DO NOT save the data into the Partition or device where you lost the data.
After the above steps, the lost data will be recovered back. Then you can perform to defrag on Mac.
How to defrag on Mac HDD?
Before starting the Defrag utility, please backup your drive and recover all relevant data, and close all open files and applications before proceeding. These are important to avoid data loss in the event of an unforeseen issue. To defragment a disk on mac, follow these steps:
Note: It is not recommended to defragment the system disk directly. However, you require to boot from another computer and defragment the drive.
Select the drive from the left of the Drive Genius Window that you'd like to defragment, then select the 'Defragment' utility in the Speedup section of the feature window as shown below:
Volume Fragmentation will display a graphical representation for a quick overview of the files laid across the volume to indicate how much fragmentation is across the hard drive. Four different colors are displayed to show the usage of space:
The red portion represents fragmented data, the white part represents free space, the green section represents used space that is not fragmented, and the yellow portion is reserve space required by the Mac operating system and can't be defragmented.
Click the 'Start' button in the lower right. Make sure that you have a secure backup of all data on the device and press the 'Defrag' button.
Conclusion:
During the defragmentation process, if you find that data is lost, you must stop the defragmentation and use Bitwar Data Recovery for Mac to recover the data. It will retrieve the information easily and quickly. Just download and try it. In addition, the Bitwar Data Recovery offers a 30-day free trial, you can get the trial by sharing this program on your public media, like Facebook, Google+, Twitter.
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