Defrag on Mac Lion | Defragmenting software for OS X Lion

Do I need to defrag my Mac Lion hard drive – A very common question being asked by users who have switched from PC to Mac. In PC, installing antivirus, antivandal, firewall and disk defragmentation are common practices to keep drive in shape. If you switch to Mac, you need not to worry about such things. 

The Dilemma about defragmentation

Most of the PC users believe that it’s a good idea to defrag hard drive after every couple of months. It cab be done with built-in software but, it takes too long and checks your patience. 

New Mac users might wonder whether they should, and how they can, defragment their new machine’s hard-drives.

The most general answer to this question is ‘No, there is no need to do this. But, its possible to defrag Mac drive (no built-in app for defrag on Mac) with some third party tool.
Stellar Drive Defrag is the tool which can bring difference to your Mac performance with easy and fast defrag process. 

How to accomplish the process

The trial version of Stellar drive defrag can be downloaded from developer’s site. The demo version has limited features, but, is sufficient to give you the feel of complete app and its significance.Once you’ve downloaded and installed it, this is what you will see:

Welcome Screen

Stellar Drive Defrag in action

Remember: you’re working with your important data at a very deep level. The process will bring the files together that are currently split across different locations on your drive.

Situations can go wrong eg. Power cuts hard drive failure etc. So, it’s very important that you make a complete backup of your drive to insulate yourself from those data loss situations. It can be done via Time Machine or Stellar Drive Clone.

Stellar Drive Clone

Additional Features

Stellar Drive Defrag monitors your drive temperature, and take steps according to your settings and protects your in case of overheating by pausing until it cools down. This is a reassuring feature – it’s nice to know your drive is not going to meltdown!
Mac OS X file system apparently places frequently used files in Hot Zone and keeps the process running flawlessly. 

So, Defragment or Not?

As per my idea, we should do so anyway – not often, but maybe three or four times in a year. Running a Full Defragmentation does seem to have made things a little snappier – but not more than reinstalling OS X. 

Now, back to my introducing paragraphs comparing PCs and Macs: yes, your Mac need some help every now and then and make sure that it’s running the built-in maintenance scripts. 

I know that the topic is likely to be controversial. There will be people who know a lot more than me about how OS X file system works to give you its best. I expect you to voice your ideas in the comment section.