De-fragmentation (revisited)

[lists3-200402]

Randy B. Singer wrote:

>lists3-200402 said:
>
>  > it's not a matter of blind faith...it's a matter of common sense.
>  > fragmentation was an issue in 9.x...it's NOT an issue in osx. stop
>>  surfing magazines and start trusting apple. as far as advice goes,
>  > ask those responsible for managing hundreds of macs in high intensity
>>  shops...ask them what THEY think of fragmentation in osx.
>
>I have.  I am in contact with quite a few folks who administer hundreds
>of Macs.  I'm also in contact with quite a few users.

well, whenever i hear the word "defrag" or "norton" (or both words in 
the same sentence), i think of the word "inexperienced" or 
"incompetent". i create mac builds for a living (os9, osx, etc.) for 
many high intensity shops (read: no schools). the build is only half 
the equation. the other half is making sure the hardware is set up 
right.

if the user needs to work on video, sound, photo editing, etc., that 
person needs a scratch disk. you need room to work on this kind of 
stuff. a raid-0 scratch disk is ideal (two internal or external 
drives striped together).

using a defrag utility does not address the root issue...having a 
scratch disk is the solution for these types of workstations. i'm not 
talking about educational environments...i'm talking about 
breat+butter high intensity shops. service bureaus, video/sound 
production, digital photography shops, etc.

...try recommending a defrag utility to any competent mac support 
person in these types of environments and see what kind of response 
you get.

:)

>  > ps, stop surfing magazines and looking for angles to sell your book
>  > and start trusting apple.
>
>I don't have any current books, or anything else, to sell.
>
>I suggest that you stop being a troll.

your response to me was a little troll-ish, wouldn't you say?:

>  If you prefer to have blind faith in Apple, that's fine.

...i trust common sense.

At 05:57 -0700 7/4/04, John Baltutis <baltwo at san.rr.com> wrote:

>If you read <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668> closely,
>you'll see this:
>
>"If your disks are almost full, and you often modify or create large files
>(such as editing video, but see the Tip below if you use iMovie and Mac OS
>X Panther), there's a chance they could be fragmented. In this case, you
>might benefit from defragmentation, which might be performed with
>third-party disk utilities. Another option is to back up your important
>files, erase the hard disk, then reinstall Mac OS X and your backed up
>files."

in the same article, you'll see:

   " For these reasons, there is little benefit to defragmenting."

>And, <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42964> states:
>"iMovie: "Disk Responded Slowly" Alert" If you see this alert, copy the
>project to another disk, or consider using a disk defragmentation utility
>to defragment the disk where the project is located."
>
>So Apple hasn't shut the door to defraging and it might still be reasonable.

i don't think so. the reasonable solution is to get a scratch disk or 
larger drive if you're running out of room. how much time do you 
think will go by before the lack of space will pose problems again?

>BTW, personal attacks are unwarranted.
>
>>  to beat on this dead horse shows you have waayyy too much time on your
>  > hands...maybe your time would be better spent learning/preaching unix?

if you're going to accuse me of attacking someone, have the courtesy 
of including the smiley face after my comment...some would consider 
creative editing an attack in itself:

>to beat on this dead horse shows you have waayyy too much time on 
>your hands...maybe your time would be better spent 
>learning/preaching unix?
>
>:)
>don

:)
don