[X4U] cause of kernel panics?

[Randy B.Singer]

Richard Gilmore said:

>I had a kernal panic on my laptop with a 40 GB drive that had about 500 MB
>of space left on it. I'm assuming low HD space can also cause them?


See:

http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html 
Item #5 and Note #2

I need to update Note #2 with some new defragmentation software for OS X 
that has become available. The  most promising of these is:

iDefrag
http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php

There was also an article on MacFixIt just last week about how letting 
your drive fill up beyond 80% full is likely to lead to directory damage. 
 Some on this list may recall that I was heartily flamed for stating that 
on this list last year.

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20050310003145313
Thursday, March 10 2005

>Make sure you have enough free space on your startup volume Mac OS X 
>requires at least 10 percent of the volume it is contained on as free 
>space in order to maintain the integrity of the file system. However, even 
>with 10 percent free space, Mac OS X's use swap files - as well as extra 
>data generated by third-party application caches, etc. - can quickly put 
>you back into a position of possible directory/file damage and increased 
>incidence of spinning pinwheels.
>
>Realistically, 20 percent of your Mac OS X startup volume should be kept 
>clear in order to achieve best performance and avoid disk problems. 


 

Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html