Defragmenting is mostly unnecessary if you are using a hard drive (defragmenting an SSD is not recommended) with the HFS+ file system (the OS X default) with a recent version of OS X, because:. The HFS+ file system actively seeks out large areas.
'Free, fast, and thorough, it can defrag whole disks or individual files and folders, on schedule or on demand.' 'Given the many features and pros listed above, Auslogics Disk Defrag is obviously one of the better defrag programs out there right now'. 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.
My Mac is starting to run slow… Do I have to defrag A Mac OS X hard drive? Or do they do that automatically? I wonder if there is a program that I can run monthly or weekly without mac auto-defrag.
Sometimes, our Mac gets running slow for there is no enough storage space. At that time, some people may want to defrag their Mac, but some of you may question that is there a need to defrag Mac. Well, this article will tell you how to defrag a Mac, and we will also provide you the best Mac defrag alternative to speed up your Mac.
Defrag Mac
Part 1. Does Your Mac Need Defragmentation
“Does Your Mac Need Defragmentation?” This question may have troubled Mac users for some time. To answer this question, you should first get to know about what is defragmentation. Defragmentation is a process that reduces the degree of fragmentation. It will organize the files that scattered in the disk and collect them together. Defragmentation is important because it can speed up a slow computer and improve its performance.
To answer this question, here are some occasions concluded when your Mac doesn’t need a defragmentation.
- • Generally speaking, Mac doesn’t need defragmentation if it adopts HFS+ file system. The HFS+ file system will increase the number of allocation blocks on the disk and decrease the minimum size of the file, which can upscale the storage space on the Mac hard disk.
- • Besides, with the Hot File Adaptive Clustering technology of the Mac OS X system, Mac doesn’t need to defrag and will defrag automatically if necessary.
- • For Mac OS X 10.2 or later, there is also no need to defrag a Mac. Another situation is that if you own a new Mac with SSD (Solid State Drive), there is no need to defrag your Mac. Because it can auto-defrag your Mac.
But if your hard drive is almost like 95% full (less than 10% storage), there may be some problems occurring in Mac’s auto-defrag. Or you are using an old Mac with traditional HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
At that time, your Mac will not defrag automatically. You should delete the large or old files on your hard drive or find a useful tool to defrag it.
You may doubt that if defrag will harm your HDD. The Mac OS X defrag will not harm your hard disk, but boot your Mac’s performance.
Part 2. How to Defrag Your Mac Hard Disk Drive
Different from the Windows system, the macOS doesn’t provide a built-in feature to defrag the Mac. So, if you really want to defrag a Mac, you can use a third-party program. But remember that you need to back up your Mac data first before defragging a Mac. In case something going wrong, you can restore necessary files with Time Machine, iCloud, Dropbox or Mac Data Recovery.
The most popular app for defragging is iDefrag. It will help you get the most out of your hard drives. There are five different defragmentation algorithms for different levels of defragmentation. In addition, iDefrag supports all versions of Mac operating system. Here are the steps on how to defrag your Mac with iDefrag.
Step 1After iDefrag has been downloaded, run this app on your Mac.
Step 2Defrag will start examining the disk automatically. Wait for a few minutes, and click the first Drop Down menu.
Step 3There are many options for you to choose. You can choose Quick (on-line) to operate it.
But it is not a free app. If you want to experience the whole features, you need to purchase it. You can also use other defragmentation software like Drive Genius or TechTool Pro 5.
Free Mac Defrag Software
Part 3. Is There An Alternative to Defrag Your Mac
Well, if there is a plenty of large music or movie files that are taking up much of your Mac storage space. The answer is definitely yes. The simple way is to delete them manually. Another way is to defrag your Mac with the defragmentation software mentioned in part 2. But you need to backup your Mac data first.
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Considering about its complexity, there is a fast and simple defragmentation alternative provided for you – Aiseesoft Mac Cleaner. It is a professional Mac management tool to remove junk files, clutter, duplicate files, large and old files, and monitor your Mac performance.
- Monitor your Mac performance, such as disk utilization, battery status, memory usage, and CPU usage.
- Safely delete Mac junk file, clean unnecessary files, and uninstall apps in one click.
- Preview junk files, unneeded files, old/large files, unnecessary apps before cleanup.
- Compatible with macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina, macOS 10.14, 10.13, 10.12 and 10.11.
- Support iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro.
You can follow the steps below to clean and speed up your Mac.
Step 1 Launch Mac Cleaner
Free download, install and launch Mac Cleaner on your Mac. You can click “Status” to view disk utilization, memory usage and CUP usage.
Step 2Scan Junk Files
Mac Cleaner allows you to clear system junk, iPhoto junk, email junk, similar photo, iTunes junk, trash, large & old files and duplicate files. Click the feature you want to use to clean junk files. Then click “Scan” to scan junk files.
Step 3Clean Junk Files
After the scanning is completed, click “View” button to check these junk files. Then select the file you want to clear and click “Clean” to clean the junk files on your Mac.
As you can see, just a few clicks, you can clean the junk files easily on your Mac. Moreover, you can also clean large/old files, unneeded apps or duplicate files that are taking up the Mac space, as to speed up Mac and improve its performance.
Conclusion
In case something important lost, you’d better back up some important files before defragging. With the defragmentation software we mentioned, we hope that you can defrag your Mac easily. If you just want to free up storage space on your Mac, Mac Cleaner is also a useful alternative tool for you. If you have any questions, just don’t hesitate to contact us.
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July 04, 2019 14:00 / Posted by Nicole Jones to Mac Cleanup
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How to access and free space on Mac? You can learn how to clean up disk space on Mac from this page.
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How to clear space on Mac? Some useful and efficient tips are provided in this post.
- How to Speed up Mac and Improve Mac Performance
Want to speed up your Mac? You can learn how to make Mac work faster from this page.
Recently there has been a debate regarding defragging Mac OS X and its disk optimization as an effective way for repairing disk permissions. Apple Company are even confident that defrag Mac OS X is not needed because the system already has its own optimization tool. According to the company you only need to defrag your system if you already have large files and your hard disk is already low. What makes defragmentation different from disk optimization?
In case your system already have large files it is necessary that you create backup of all your important files and applications. Then you can re-install your Mac operating system and restore your backup files back to the system. This is quite a time consuming activity but eventually will make your Mac system to run faster in accessing your large files. You can also use other utilities that will create a clone of your startup drive and then you can format the hard drive and restore the files back again. This is quite a faster remedy.
Mac Os X Defrag
Fragmentation is the process of splitting your files into multiple parts and storing it to different locations on the hard drive. However, files can be access easily in just one lump rather that seeking into two or three segments. This will more likely cause your system to slow down instead. The file systems are composed of different portions of free space that are separated from each other. When the hard drives is full of data then the file system will used smaller disk space instead and will result to split files into smaller chunks and then distribute it to different locations on the disk. This is already fragmentation process.
Free Mac Defrag Software
However Mac OS X’s HFS+ the file system is already protected from fragmentation this is because the file system under Mac will not used the space recently freed as much as possible and look for other areas where to store the files and other information. And another thing Mac OS X uses routine that will clump the smaller space in the hard disks into larger portions. And Mac OS X already performs its own defragmentation process which is known as “Hot-File-Adaptive-Clustering.” This greatly reduces the chances of fragmenting the files.
To Defrag Mac Or Not Defrag Mac
On the other hand, disk optimization is quite a different process form defragmentation. This deals with the organization of related files into logical groups in order to improve the performance of the system rather than splitting it into multiple chunks across the hard disk. Some of the common utility that performs disk optimization is the iDefrag that alters the arrangement of files in the hard disk in order to enhance its performance. This comes with pre-defined layouts that works for Mac OS X. This will eventually improve the performance of your system in the process.
Some Mac users are often confused if they need to defrag their Mac OS X? Mac users already enjoy the benefits of using their Mac OS X because it is already built in with utility that performs automatic defragmentation process. However, most users would rather use the disk optimization process because it will enhance the performance of their system rather than defragmenting their files.