Degraded computer performance is a common phenomenon. Disk defragmentation is the most used option to optimize and speed up your computer, especially among Windows users. However, things are a bit different when it comes to Apple. Mac stores files on the largest available free space blocks. Additionally, Mac uses Hot File Clustering (HFC) to automatically optimize disks. HFC is a multi-staged clustering scheme. HFC records “hot” files on a volume (0.5% of the file system located at the start of the volume), and moves them to a place called hot space. These files are also defragmented automatically. Despite all this improvement, Mac’s disk drives are not completely immune to fragmentation. There are times when defragmenting your Mac’s disk can improve your system performance.
In this guide i will walk you through a great utility called iDefrag to defrag your Mac Hard Drive. This is the same utility used by the Genius Bar techs at Apple Stores to perform a variety of tasks. iDefrag also optimizes the disk by rearranging files to improve performance and speed.
Using iDefrag to Defragment and Optimize Your Mac Disk
Before you begin, Purchase and Download iDefrag depending on your OS X Version:
OS X 10.10 and earlier version: see here
OS X 10.11 and later: see here
After it has been downloaded, double click to run the app. At the time of writing this article, we are running iDefrag 5.0.0 on OS X 10.10.
After you run it, drag the app to applications.
Then launch the iDefrag app from the applications folder. Once done, drop the license file to the pane, the license file is usually in the format *.jp2. After the app has launched, choose disk and click the lock icon. Key in your OS X password and click OK.
iDefrag will start examining the disk. Wait a couple of minutes until it finishes, and then click the first Drop Down Menu.
From here, you can choose any of the options depending on your choice. For this example, i will be using the Quick (on-line) option. To know more about these options: click here
After you have made the selection, click the > (Play Button) to begin. You will be able to see the progress at the bottom in the Messages pane.
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