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.

• How To Defrag My Mac For Free
• Free Defragment Software For Mac
• Free Defragment Software For Mac Laptop
• Defragment Software
• Free Defragment Software For Mac Computers

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.

1. Most other defragmentation software products defragment the entire disk but do not optimize the individual file for more free space. Like Windows, it is safe and better at defragmenting files. This tool is simple and easy to use. This software supports NTFS, FAT32, and exFAT.
2. But now a days, the size of Mac disk is large enough to hold users data. Defragmentation is needed in machines prior to Mac OSX. The Mac OSX are advanced enough to manage its data and optimize Mac drive. Out of many Mac defragmenting tools Stellar drive defrag is the fastest and most reliable Mac software.
3. This is a free defragmentation tool. It is suitable for use with windows vista, windows xp and windows 8. It is portable software which you can use on the go. Besides, it is easy to use and you can use it to degfrag individual files rather than defrauding the whole disk.

Defraggler, the award-winning hard drive defrag tool from the makers of CCleaner. Optimize your hard drive and free up space. Download the latest version for free. What is iDefrag for Mac. IDefrag helps defragment and optimize your disk for improved performance. Supports HFS and HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). Supports case sensitive and journaled filesystems. Supports adaptive hot file clustering ('Hot Zone'). Compact data, moving all free space to one place. Optimize filesystem metadata. On-line 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.

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.

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.

What do you think of this post?

Excellent

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (based on 55 votes)

July 04, 2019 14:00 / Posted by Nicole Jones to Mac Cleanup

How To Defrag My Mac For Free

• How to Check and Clean up Disk Space on Mac

  How to access and free space on Mac? You can learn how to clean up disk space on Mac from this page.

• How to Clear Space on Mac

  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.

How long does it take your computer to solve different tasks? Sooner or later, every PC user wonders what they have to do to speed up the routine processes and improve its overall performance. When you ask a professional what moves can you make, there’s every likelihood that he will name the disk defragmentation.

What Is Disk Defragmentation After All?

Let’s stop here for a moment and explain what defragmentation is. Not every Mac user is aware of this process, which reminds of the apartment cleaning when people fit things into their places and get rid of junk along the way. The thing is, while being written to the disk, a file usually gets fragmented – divided into pieces to fit in the available free space. Later on, the data may be modified many times and/or moved from one folder to another.

Over time, almost each computer suffers from the increasing fragmentation, which makes the system spend more time looking for separate pieces of the file in various areas of the disk. That’s why the need to rearrange data and clean some space appears. The core idea of defragmentation is that the pieces of information scattered on your hard drive are brought back together. Done right, it may help to fix many issues on your favorite computer.

Luckily, the users don’t have to defragment their drives manually any longer.

What Is Defragging Regarding Apple Computers?

OK, now you have the basic idea of what defragging means and why it needs to be done from time to time. In a nutshell, if you ask yourself “Why does my hard drive take longer to read certain files?”, think about defragmentation. It will put the block back in sequential order. The drive head will stop running around the whole platter to read just one file.

Some people believe there is no need to defrag HDD on Mac. Also, they often add that you can’t use this procedure on SSD (solid-state drive) because it may be harmful to it. Although these assertions are partly correct, it is still important to discuss what defragging is regarding Mac before making conclusions.

Unlike Microsoft, Apple uses another file system on their computers called HFS+. It provides a special function called Hot File Adaptive Clustering (a.k.a. HFC). The main purpose of this component is to prevent fragmentation of disk storage automatically. Defragmentation may be necessary in case a relatively old drive is installed in the machine. If the hard disk is occupied for a long time by the large multimedia files (more than 1GB), defragmentation is a solution. Such data is highly susceptible to fragmentation. Thus, it can be difficult to automatically avoid it.

On the other hand, not so many users still have old drives. That’s why you can’t find defragmentation tools among Apple’s onboard utilities. In case you believe optimization is necessary, mind some smart solutions from third-party companies (e.g., iDefrag). The good thing is you should not run the process manually: it happens automatically on OS X. Once your Mac’s ‘house’ is full, let the smart defragging app solve the issue.

Does Defragmentation Make Sense on Macs?

While most experts would call Mac’s defragmentation an optional activity, let’s talk about the exceptions. The application of this procedure may bring several benefits. Are you a multimedia developer with tons of large files? Then you will almost inevitably face file fragmentation issues, which will make you wonder how to manage thousands of 1GB video/audio items. Remember, that such applications as Adobe Premier and Photoshop tend to produce files of enormous size.

If you do have old, overloaded HDD (where, say, hundreds of 10GB files are stored), try defragmentation. A good third-party tool that really works for this purpose is iDefrag, which costs around $32. Please, note that before running defragmentation, it is highly advisable to back up the drive to keep your data safe.

Remember that defragmentation has nothing to do with compression or destruction of files. The physical storage blocks will be reorganized. The specific algorithms depend on the selected defragging app, so you might want to learn more details before choosing the application. The positive outcomes of defragmentation include:

• Shorter response time of data saved on your computer
• Faster performance of all apps
• Enhanced hard drive’s efficiency.

What about the negative consequences? As far as we are acknowledged, OS X defrag has no negative outcomes for your HDD.

How to Defrag HDD Step-by-Step

Let’s say you decided to use a specialized third-party tool to defrag your Mac. Back up your data not to lose it – it is critical to be able to restore necessary files in case something goes wrong. To rest assured, apart from Apple’s built-in Time Machine, turn to good old storages like Dropbox to protect your data from the potential threat. Then, select the most suitable utility and download it. Make sure the chosen software is compatible with your version of OS. Follow these instructions to defrag your hard drive on Mac safely.

• Thin out user files on the boot drive. Start with the largest files like videos. Mind that a full boot drive (more than 80% filled) won’t let your computer function at its best. Thus, you will have to sacrifice some files or store them elsewhere.

In case you count on the best performance, decrease the files’ size so that the boot drive is less than 50% filled.

• Choose a blank powered external drive. A Carbon Copy Cloner will help to clone the OS X boot partition (Mac hard disk) to the external drive.

• Reboot your device. Boot from the clone with the help of Startup Manager. If you happen to have some doubts, examine the clone for a while.

Make sure it is reliable and try to notice any undefined problems at this stage.

• Go to Disk Utility -> Security. Use “Zero” option to erase the internal Mac HD or the entire drive. Get rid of the bad sectors during the process.

Never move the machine during this procedure!

• Reverse clone once you’re finished. Launch Disk Utility and choose Repair Permissions on OnyX maintenance and cleaning aspects. Reboot the computer.

Free Defragment Software For Mac

This process helps to cope with several issues:

• Corrupt caches
• Optimization problems
• Defragmentation problems
• Obstacles created by bad sectors
• Overall safety

Users create clones to allow them solving the same problem later when news apps fill the space. The lack of RAM, as well as some other problems, can be the only obstacles on the way to proper fragmentation.

Should You Defrag SSD on Mac?

Everything said above concerns all Apple computers equipped with the hard disks with moving parts. The thing is, the majority of modern Macs has SSDs. Their structure and recommended care vary. Many people wonder what happens to SSDs after the attempt to defrag them. Any tech person would say that traditional defragmentation for SSD is not acceptable. SSD defragmentation can lead to the active block overwriting. Plus, it will reduce the disk’s lifespan as it has the limited number of write/overwrite cycles. In the worst-case scenario, performing such procedures on Mac may simply disable SSDs. On the whole, the work of SSDs reminds of the way RAM modules function. The speed of reading/writing from different blocks has nothing to do with the file location.Also, keep in mind that third-party defragmentation apps are not supported by Apple. These instruments should never be launched on SSD flash storage drives. Thus, we can conclude that you do not need to defrag SSD as it makes no sense.

Will Defragmenting Speed up Computer and What Are Some Other Alternatives?

Free Defragment Software For Mac Laptop

Are you tired of your Mac being as slow as a snail? Several methods exist to improve your device’s performance. A defragmentation may be a great option for older Macs, but as we’ve clarified, it does not always help or is actually needed to optimize the new device. Here’s the short list of other steps you can take to speed up your struggling Mac:

• Shut down running applications to have more free space. Keep in mind that the majority of slowdowns happens because of the RAM constraints. Another reason may be the more intense use of virtual memory.
• Update software on a regular basis.
• Clean your Mac from garbage files (temporary, duplicates, caches, etc.).
• Limit the number of apps that launch on startup without your permission.
• Reboot your Mac every time you want to free up memory and setup system updates.
• Remember that the latest OS X versions allow performing better as well as fixing bugs.
• Check whether there is a minimum of 10-20% of free space on the hard drive at all times.
• Apply “Verify Disk” function to detect a failing drive.

Defragment Software

This way, you can speed up your Mac as well as eliminate several other gaps.

Free Defragment Software For Mac Computers