defragmenting drive

iDefrag

I have used it, andreccomend it! http://coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php

Some will say this is not needed, and that OSX has defrag built into it,as your running - this is only partly true, more technical explanations are out there (I think even on iDefrags site) I will just say that I noticed a SIZEABLE difference in speed and responsiveness of my machine (1.42GHz G4 Mac Mini, overclocked to 1.67GHZ, 1 GB RAM and a 320GB 7200RPM boot drive connected through firewire (400) )

/Bill

it does it in an "OK" speed for defrag speed, but I *DO* notice a speed increase. After doing that, it helps to turn Journaling back on after that. As that will decrease the amount of fragmentation it occurs between the time of the defragmentations (do it about 1x a month and it will stay in tip-top shape) Be sure to buy the latest. The old versions of TechTool Pro didnt work with 10.4 very good

The one thing that Norton Utilities always did really well for me was defrag and optimize using Speeddisk. I used to use it in OS 9 often on a regular maintenance schedule, so when I finally switched to X I bought the X version. Then I read this:
Panther Maintenance Tips

I also learned about Filesaver's unpleasant behaviors and the hidden files that Norton's Filesaver throws onto your harddrive which are very undesirable, so what I did was create a Utility harddrive with its own basic OS X and with Norton installed, but with Filesaver completely removed. Doing this was quite tricky because the Norton install process creates those hidden files automatically for each volume it detects in your computer. What I did was have only the OS X utility harddrive I created in the machine to which I installed Norton and ran the updates. Then I removed all trace of Filesaver from it--trashing anything that came up in Find that was labelled "filesaver," "Nortonfs," and "nfs." Then I installed another harddrive in the machine and used Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the whole utility harddrive to this third harddrive without including the four hidden Norton files in the copy. CCC shows you all files on a harddrive you want to copy including hidden files and gives you the option to not include files in the copy process.

Then I erased the original utility harddrive and removed it from the machine, and left that new Filesaver-less, hidden-file-less utility harddrive in the machine and reinstalled my main harddrive. Booting from the Utility harddrive, I've used Norton's Speeddisk to defrag my main harddrive a couple of times and it works great. This is all a long complex setup for having Norton Utilities, but it works, and I was able to rescue my investment in Norton Utilities this way. I even used Norton DiskDoctor a couple of times to solve problems, but I do that very cautiously too. Mostly I just make sure to use the main harddrive's Disk Utility to repair permissions as regular maintenance, and keep the utility harddrive disconnected and available for emergencies. It's got the Applecare version of Techtool deluxe on it too, but I haven't found that program very useful.