Can You Defrag External Hard Drives?

wxwax

So I did a llittle diagnostic test this weekend and it told me my two external hard drives are unusually slow at processing stuff.

One of them is almost full, so no biggie there. But the other has a lot of room left.

The diagnostic site recommended defragging the drives. So here's my question: is it safe to use the Windows defrag utility on an external hard drive? I'd hate like heck to lose any of those files/folders.

Thanks.

Andy

wxwax wrote:

So I did a llittle diagnostic test this weekend and it told me my two external hard drives are unusually slow at processing stuff.

One of them is almost full, so no biggie there. But the other has a lot of room left.

The diagnostic site recommended defragging the drives. So here's my question: is it safe to use the Windows defrag utility on an external hard drive? I'd hate like heck to lose any of those files/folders.

Thanks.

Defrag? What's that?

wxwax

Andy wrote:

Defrag? What's that?

I knew you'd do that. So read this.

Andy

As a Mac user, I don't deal with trivial, yet time consuming and annoying Windows Defragging stuff. But, we Mac people are *very* giving. You should be able to defrag that external drive no trouble.

wxwax

Andy wrote:

As a Mac user, I don't deal with trivial, yet time consuming and annoying Windows Defragging stuff. But, we Mac people are *very* giving. You should be able to defrag that external drive no trouble.

You're going to make me dig up DavidTO's looooong list of Mac maintenance routines, aren't you?

Thanks for the advice.

Andy

wxwax wrote:

You're going to make me dig up DavidTO's looooong list of Mac maintenance routines, aren't you?

Nope.

Macs use a smarter file system than peecees, that's all. Unix knows if a file can fit in a free space before it starts writing it - unlike 'doze, which willy-nilly starts writing on the nearest free space and when that fills, it goes and finds more.

Mac drives are usually less than 4% (often waaaaay less) fragged on OS X. And this has negligible impact on performance.

David's list? Meh. I don't use it, never do. I have Disk Warrior, to recover, in case I get a hardware failure. But that's just safe.

Face it, Macs, like Canon and Ribs, are just better.

ChrisJ

wxwax wrote:

So I did a llittle diagnostic test this weekend and it told me my two external hard drives are unusually slow at processing stuff.

One of them is almost full, so no biggie there. But the other has a lot of room left.

The diagnostic site recommended defragging the drives. So here's my question: is it safe to use the Windows defrag utility on an external hard drive? I'd hate like heck to lose any of those files/folders.

Thanks.

Yes, it should be safe.... you may need to offload some of the files from your almost full disk though. Defragging works better when it has some free space to work with (sometimes it demands it).

Just make sure your system and the disk don't lose power while you're defragging!

DavidTO

wxwax wrote:

You're going to make me dig up DavidTO's looooong list of Mac maintenance routines, aren't you?

Thanks for the advice.

Those are worst-case, BTW.

Plus, OS X automagically defrags any file under 20MB when it opens it.

And no, Sid, I don't mind that you find me risible. That's my raison d'etre.

wxwax

Ahem.

:lol4 :lol4

DavidTO wrote:

There is some maintenance that every mac user should run, and here's my $.02:

1) Unix crons: they do run if you keep your system on 24/7, but who does? Macjanitor is great, i used to use it, but I now recommend Macaroni. It's a system pref that will run the daily, weekly, monthly crons and also REPAIR PERMISSIONS (very important) and remove localized files (not really maintenance, but something you may or may not want to do). The UNIX stuff is important to keep your machine running smoothly, and is scheduled for the middle of the night, based on the theory that a UNIX machine will be on 24/7. But since yours most likely isn't, you need to invoke those commands in another way. You can do in the terminal or use one of many GUI apps to do it. Macaroni is customizable, but basically, once it's installed, you don't need to worry about it, since it runs in the background during idle time. Permissions need to be repaired periodically because like everything else in this world, they become corrupted over time. You can do that in Disk Utility, but why bother when Macaroni will take care of it for you? Localized files are for all the language support for things like Azerbaijan (sp?), simplified Chinese, etc. You don't need any of them if you are an american english speaker. Otherwise, you can basically delete every one of them that doesn't apply to you. Can save you 500mb of disk space and unburden you from unecessary files. I set Macaroni to remove localized monthly, figuring that system updates will put all those things back on my system, and I don't want them.

2) Disk maintenance: You need a good disk utiltiy, and the best is Disk Warrior. It will repair/rebuild your disk directory, which like permissions and all else in this world, will become corrupted over time. If the corruption becomes too bad, your drive will need to be completely reformatted. Regular maintenance should avoid that. Monthly, is what I recommend.

3) Back-up: Your drive will fail. It's just a matter of when. Back up, and back up often. The solution I prefer is to have a firewire drive that's big enough to hold everything on my internal drive, and I make an exact clone using SuperDuper! so that if I do crash I am back up and running on my last back-up after a simple restart. Drives have gotten so cheap that it really makes sense. It greatly simplifies the process.

4) Other things: You can use Panther Cache Cleaner to clean all of your system caches. Could speed things up considerably. Or, you may have a corrupt preference file, and you could run Preferential Treatment to test all your prefs. Maybe you've crammed your drive too full: leave 10% free space open at all times. Maybe you don't have enough RAM: put in as much as you can.

That's what I can think of now. I'm sur there's more things that you could do to speed things up, though.

EDIT: Here's another thing I thought of: make sure you are running the latest OS. If you're on Jaguar, upgrade to Panther (although Tiger will be coming out in 3-6 months, so you may want to hold off). And run Software Update, but only after repairing permissions.

wxwax

ChrisJ wrote:

Yes, it should be safe.... you may need to offload some of the files from your almost full disk though. Defragging works better when it has some free space to work with (sometimes it demands it).

Just make sure your system and the disk don't lose power while you're defragging!

Thanks. The full one only has about 6% left, so I'll move some files.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

And no, Sid, I don't mind that you find me risible. That's my raison d'etre.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

Those are worst-case, BTW.

Except for that pesky monthly thing you recommend! :lol4

DavidTO

wxwax wrote:

Ahem.

:lol4 :lol4

#1 costs $8, set it and forget it. Never look at or worry about it again.

#2 monthly's overkill, but whatever, you got me there.

#3 everyone should be backing up regularly, whatever the platform

#4 is only if you have experienced problems that are out of the ordinary and shouldn't be required more than once a year if that, you could go 5 without needing to run it.

Andy

wxwax wrote:

Except for that pesky monthly thing you recommend! :lol4

David's list is for David.

Sid, face it, you want a Mac, just like Gus.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

#1 costs $8, set it and forget it. Never look at or worry about it again.

#2 monthly's overkill, but whatever, you got me there.

#3 everyone should be backing up regularly, whatever the platform

#4 is only if you have experienced problems that are out of the ordinary and shouldn't be required more than once a year if that, you could go 5 without needing to run it.

Yeah, I was getting worried as I reread how automagically it defragged, until that monthly thing popped up. Phew!

I think Thusie put it best in the other thread: the big thing with Mac is how easy the OS is to operate, and how aesthetically pleasing it is. By comparison, Windows machines are intimidating.

wxwax

Andy wrote:

David's list is for David.

Sid, face it, you want a Mac, just like Gus.

As I said, I'm around them all day. They're just computers. Although I must say, the purchase of the 5D is starting the same cascade you experienced, and may eventually lead to a new box, simply because CS2 runs slowly on mine. Curse Adobe for their robber-baron ways!

Andy

wxwax wrote:

As I said, I'm around them all day. They're just computers. Although I must say, the purchase of the 5D is starting the same cascade you experienced, and may eventually lead to a new box, simply because CS2 runs slowly on mine. Curse Adobe for their robber-baron ways!

There you go, that's better.

Oh and Macaroni is another piece of automagic code I use.
David should change his list.

1. Pay $8 for Macaroni. Set it and forget it.
2. Pay $50 (or whatever) for Disk Warrior. Run it when you remember to. Or need to.
Done. End of list.

DavidTO

Andy wrote:

David's list is for David.

Sid, face it, you want a Mac, just like Gus.

My list is totally valid, but what doesn't work about it is that it's unclear what is regular maintenance and what is out of the ordinary, something's wrong stuff.

I'll re-write it so it's clear how trouble-free macs are.

Happy, Sid? I think the worst thing you found me guilty of is not being able to put simple concepts into simple terms...

wxwax

I never said it would be a Mac. Too much money.

And since you're in a 'set it and forget it" mode, I'll pop you a PM next time there's a Mac security patch.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

My list is totally valid, but what doesn't work about it is that it's unclear what is regular maintenance and what is out of the ordinary, something's wrong stuff.

I'll re-write it so it's clear how trouble-free macs are.

Happy, Sid? I think the worst thing you found me guilty of is not being able to put simple concepts into simple terms...

And that pesky word "monthly."

Golly, you guys sure are touchy.

DavidTO

wxwax wrote:

I never said it would be a Mac. Too much money.

And since you're in a 'set it and forget it" mode, I'll pop you a PM next time there's a Mac security patch.

No need. Automagically taken care of for me. No need to intervene.

And Sid, really, I'm not touchy. Feely, maybe, but not touchy.

wxwax

DavidTO wrote:

No need. Automagically taken care of for me. No need to intervene.

And Sid, really, I'm not touchy. Feely, maybe, but not touchy.

Cool, let's make plans for our own apres Bryce.