Interesting question - if Panther apparently defragments any files that are 20 MB or less whenever they are read, would that mean that updating the locate database would more or less defragment your disk? (Naturally, this wouldn't defragment large files, but would it, in essence, be defragmenting as it's reading all those files?) Kirk My latest book: How to Do Everything with Mac OS X Panther http://www.mcelhearn.com/htde.html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kirk at mcelhearn.com | http://www.mcelhearn.com . . . . . . . . Kirk McElhearn | Chemin de la Lauze | 05600 Guillestre | France . .