Like its owner, my iMac is slowing down which annoys us both. My 16 year old grandson who seems to know Macs inside out suggests that I try iDefrag. Most of the comments on its discussion forum are favourable but I would like to know if any WAMUG members have used it and how they found the experience.
You'll see it's quite old - I think defragging has been even less of a necessity with later systems. One thing to check though is that your free space on your hard disc exceeds 10% of the total volume.
Thanks for that advice Mick. I have read the Apple article two or three times and think I understand most of it. In a way it'a disappointing that defragmentation is extremely unlikely to make any perceptible difference to the speed of my iMac. On the other hand it saves me sweating it out how to work a new application. Since the speed of the machine matches that of its owner, it is not a crucial issue.
And may I add what a great way of putting a web address in the discussion contributions. I hope the new web site will give clear guidance on how to enter the actual site address or the clever way Mick did this one.
Alan - it's very easy to to put in a link. It's best to visit the page you want to link to then copy the URL to the clipboard using Edit>Copy or Command-C as you prefer. Then, come on here and start typing your message. When you get to the point where you want your link to be, click on the Link button just above where you're typing. This will open a small window. Paste your copied URL in there and press Return. It then opens a second small window for you to type the text you want displayed as the link - I typed the words "Apple's article on defragging" (no quotes needed). Don't worry that it doesn't display as you expect it to - it will when you click the Reply button to make your post.
Speed..... Hmmm complicated issue.... But reduce the number of plug-ins for your browser, toss any un-needed preferences, especially ones that do housekeeping, if you are unix savvy, check your chrontab list, for "shit you never asked for", if you know how to pre bind an app you got from a friend, do it. Have a look to see what is actually running in case you have some apps ticking away in the background, with the console and terminal apps, assuming you know how to use them. Failing that, check your account and it's associated login items and toss anything you haven't used in a month. Then do an orderly shutdown...... Wait a minute and restart. I try hard not to add new unix spawned processes as that just eats processor speed and these are usually what you may remember as system extensions, prefs, inits etc from years gone by, now known as plugins prefpanes and so on.
Thanks Gordon. I'll steel my nerves in preparation for trying to do some of the clever things you suggested. However, they are rather daunting so it will be a slow process.
Alan Cox 