Defragmentation Safeguards Used By Mac OS X

Overfilled hard drive, obsolete hardware configuration, accumulation of system-generated waste, and many more factors, though, are responsible for minimizing the performance of Mac; fragmentation, nonetheless, is one of the foremost causes of the poor performance of your Mac system. Meanwhile, you come across a colored spinning beach ball, sluggishly booting Mac, and poorly executing applications and files.

Ever since you purchased this so-called excellent computer (i.e. Mac), it is proving itself exactly how you had heard about it. However, this excellence does not last long and it starts facing performance issues as mentioned above. In such a painful situation, many of the users do not even know what the actual cause of this annoying state of Mac is and directly contact with Mac technicians. Well, taking help from experts is a wise decision, but it does not guarantee that the same issue will not arise again just as every other issue does. On the other hand, a few users even ask why to optimize Mac, as it is the finest computer that does not require optimization at all. However, all such users need to know that excellence lacks a lot to meet perfection. This means that performance degradation is a state that is strongly associated with every machine and so does with Mac.

Apart from the typical causes of slowdown of Mac computers, fragmentation is also a major cause of poor performance of computers, since it is responsible for scattering of data segments on the hard drive. For demonstration, go through this article carefully.

“Fragmentation refers to a deprived state of the hard drives that involves data being scattered or stored randomly.”

Mac OS X employs HFS+ file system for allocation of storage blocks to data. Well, formatting a hard drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) splits its storage space into blocks of certain sizes to store data. When you save a large file to your Mac drive, based on its size, Mac file system divides it into a number of segments of smaller sizes and each of these segments gets a separate storage block. The storage blocks occupied by all segments of a single file are logically connected to each other. However, due to some poor storage allocation algorithms, file segments occupy blocks that are at distant locations on the drive. Likewise, because of the variance in the sizes of these segments and the storage blocks, many storage blocks contain free spaces, whereas several others require these segments to undergo segmentation again in order to be able to fit in those blocks.

However, not only these internal factors are responsible for fragmentation, but some external factors are as well. For example, when you move a large file from one location to another on your Mac, then a slew of storage blocks are emptied simultaneously. Mac users believe in the fact that Mac OS X does not face fragmentation issue, as it employs HFS+ file system to format its hard drive. This means, if Mac OS X does not face fragmentation issue, they why to optimize Mac? Well, you might be thinking this; it is also a fact that the HFS+ file system only minimizes the need for defragmentation on Mac OS X, but it does not eliminate fragments. Let us discuss how Mac file system deals with fragmentation:

“Defragmentation involves rearranging all physical blocks on the hard drive in a logical order aspiring to reduce the response time of data stored onto them. During this process, all fragments are eliminated throughout the allocated regions on the hard drives, which results in improved performance of the Mac systems.”

Every time you open the files stored on your Mac, HFS+ file system thoroughly scans each file for fragments. In case, if a file is found as highly fragmented (i.e. having eight or more fragments), the file system defrags it automatically. However, not every file satisfies the criteria set (i.e. it works on a fragmented file only if it is not more than 20MB of size) for automatic defragmentation. Therefore, since Mac is unable to defrag large files (more than 20MB of size), you have to use a professional disk defragmentation tool for Mac to get its performance improved significantly.

A professional Mac disk defragmentation application thoroughly analyzes your Mac drive when it is initiated. This analysis includes scanning all storage blocks, storage algorithm used for storage blocks allocation and the remaining free blocks as well. In technical terms, defragmentation involves maintenance of the work done by the file system and yields the highly efficient and contiguous storage blocks with reduced number of fragments. Thus, it minimizes the response time of data and improves the performance of your Mac system. For this, all storage blocks in non-contiguous regions on the hard drive are rearranged in a logical order, which results in improved productivity of your Mac. Besides, it uses compaction mechanism to impede fragmentation to occur again by creating larger regions of free spaces on your Mac drive.

Since a slew of disk defragmentation apps for Mac OS X are available on the Internet, when it comes to selection of a reliable and efficient one, many users get confused and select a random one. However, selection of such an inefficient Mac app may adversely affect your Mac system. In general, an unreliable Mac disk defragmentation app may cause data loss. What all you come across is reliant on the selection of the app. Therefore, in case you are confused or unaware of which app is to choose for your Mac, you can take the help from Mac experts. Besides, make sure you properly go through the user manual provided with the app before using it, as the security of your data as well as the Mac system is must.