A hard drive is a device for permanent or long-term storage in computers.
36
votes
5answers
3k views
Do Macs need to be defragmented?
I don't see any application to defragment my Mac (running OS X).
Is defragmenting not necessary for Mac OS X? If so, why not?
24
votes
3answers
8k views
What are the differences between journaling HFS+ and non-journaling HFS+?
I'm about to format an external hard disk drive (HDD).
What are the key differences between journaling HFS+ and non-journaling HFS+? Apart from the fact that one has journaling and the other does ...
15
votes
1answer
820 views
Is defragmenting an SSD drive a bad idea?
I have heard that defragmenting SSD drives will shorten the life span of a drive. Just wondering if there is any truth to this and if so could someone elaborate as to why this happens.
15
votes
5answers
2k views
Does the use of SSD give one a dramatic performance boost?
I use Mac book pro 15", and it's time to buy a new one.
For HDD, now I see a new option of SSD, which is pretty expensive.
I can expect shorter boot-up time and faster access of files, but I'm not ...
14
votes
2answers
2k views
How can I disable the 2nd hard drive in my 27" iMac?
I have an 2010 27" iMac with an SSD and a regular hard drive. Now that I've been using the machine for some time and have not come close to filling the SSD, I'd like to disable the spinning hard drive ...
12
votes
3answers
3k views
FAT or exFAT or NTFS
I recently brought Western Digital's Passport Essential, and will be using with my MacBook (running Snow Leopard), MacBook Air (running Lion) and Windows 7 Desktop. I should be able to read-write data ...
11
votes
2answers
835 views
What is the difference between a “sparse disk image” and a “sparse bundle disk image”?
What are the differences between sparse and sparse bundle disk images?
10
votes
1answer
3k views
Replacing SuperDrive with secondary storage?
I'm familiar with the OWC Data Doubler, a kit which allows you to remove your Macbook's SuperDrive and replace it with secondary storage.
What alternatives exist for this product?
A complete answer ...
9
votes
9answers
3k views
What is the benefit of using flash memory in the Macbook Air?
I don't understand why Apple does not use SSD drives in the Macbook Air like some other manufacturers to (e.g. Asus, Samsung). The technical specifications of the Macbook Air on Apple's website never ...
9
votes
3answers
962 views
Is it necessary to eject external drives before logging out, restarting, or shutting down?
Is it necessary or recommended practice to eject external drives before logging out, restarting, or shutting down? (The drives are not being unplugged.)
BTW, I am aware that I need to eject my ...
9
votes
2answers
7k views
Is File Vault 2 whole disk encryption or whole partition encryption?
Can I use File Vault to encrypt only some of the partitions on my disk (so that I can still have unencrypted and Windows partitions on the same disk), or does File Vault encrypt the whole disk so that ...
9
votes
3answers
714 views
What happens when you remove (or lose) the SSD from a Fusion Drive?
After storing data on a Fusion Drive, is it possible to downgrade your Mac to use the hard drive (HDD) by just removing the solid state drive (SSD)?
In particular, I was wondering what happens when ...
9
votes
4answers
1k views
What are some tips for replacing my MacBook Pro hard disk with SSD?
I would like to replace my MacBook pro hard disk with an SSD, without reinstalling everything. I am looking for your experience on
good SSD drive models that have good performance at a fair price
...
8
votes
7answers
6k views
What format for my external drive allows use with Mac and Windows?
How can I use my external hard drive on Mac OS so I can modify/edit files on both OS's: Mac and Windows? How should I format it?
8
votes
2answers
375 views
How can I move my data to the new harddrive?
So I am planning to upgrade my Macbook pro's harddrive to a SSD. I don't know much Mac OS X tools, so I was wondering if anyone could let me know how I can copy my entire harddrive (including OS) to ...
8
votes
1answer
319 views
How can I tell whether a drive is asleep?
Is there an application or command-line utility for Mac OS X to query a hard-disk to see if it is 'asleep' or 'awake' right now? (i.e. as controlled by Energy Saver / pmset disk sleeping preferences). ...
7
votes
4answers
392 views
Will a cloned hard drive function exactly as the original?
If I buy a new hard drive and clone my original onto it (using Carbon Copy Cloner or something similar), will my computer function exactly the same as it did before? Will things like licensed programs ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
How do I eject the Time Machine backup drive automatically after each backup?
How do I set Time Machine to eject my external Time Machine backup drive automatically after each backup?
7
votes
4answers
736 views
Which process is periodically writing to the disk?
Even when I am not doing anything on my Mac, I see a lot of Disk IO: "Data Written per Sec" in Activity Monitor showns continuous writes:
Is this normal? Why would some process continuously write? ...
7
votes
2answers
6k views
How can I get Automator to mount a network volume?
I am writing an Automator "script" that rsyncs media on my 10.6.3 MacBook Pro to my Ubuntu 10.10 HTPC. I can make Automator run my shell script for rsync commands, but I can't make Automator mount the ...
7
votes
8answers
5k views
Macbook HD “Other” all the Sudden Almost Full
As you can see in the below image, my HD "Other" category is almost full. A couple of days ago, I randomly kept getting a popup saying that my disk was almost full. Then I went in and noticed the ...
6
votes
7answers
1k views
What are the best disk cloning tools?
Money is no object. I want a bit for bit perfect copy of a hard drive/partition which is bootable (is either possible) to be used in a backup regimen.
I have heard of some tools but your ...
6
votes
2answers
3k views
Will I damage my HDD if I transport my MacBook in sleep mode?
Is it safe to carry MacBook with HDD in a bag while it has been put sleep? I.e. I know there are some risks of hard disk drive damage if one tries to shake them or rotate them while they're working. ...
6
votes
4answers
225 views
Can I just swap the hard drives of two macbook pros (different years)?
I'd like to swap the hard drives of two Macbook Pros. One is a Core 2 duo model from 2010, the other a 2011 i5 model. Will this work? I just want to save time and not go through a lengthy data copying ...
6
votes
2answers
1k views
How to make an expanding compressed encrypted disk image?
I'd like the following setup:
A DMG file sits on my HD, taking up only the space of the contents, or perhaps only the space of the contents compressed.
If I double-click on it, I need to give a ...
6
votes
4answers
1k views
Is it okay to install OS X on an external drive, and then install that drive as an internal drive?
My internal drive is suffering hardware failure, so I bought OS X Snow Leopard (to upgrade my iMac from Leopard), a new drive, and a cheap external USB 2.0 enclosure. My plan is to install a clean ...
6
votes
2answers
5k views
How do I resize OS X main partition when I already have other BootCamp partitions?
Short story: partition resizing using Disk Utility fails because MediaKit reports no such partition when I try to shrink it. I also tried the same while booting from the DVD, same result.
Details:
...
6
votes
3answers
414 views
How can I increase the time before my external drive powers down?
I have an external USB drive from LaCie that is connected to my MacBook Pro –Â almost all the time. So whenever I don't use it for a few minutes, it powers down. That means, it takes a few ...
6
votes
4answers
2k views
iMac inconsistenly hanging and showing beach ball
This past week, I've been having constant problems with my 2007 Aluminium iMac (2.4GHz, 3GB memory, 320GB HDD). I've been downloading using Transmission, and when (sometimes) stopping or starting a ...
6
votes
1answer
321 views
How do I change the name of the hard drive
Right now my hard drive is called "Macintosh HD." How do I change it to something cool like "Death Killer"
5
votes
5answers
7k views
What is the best way to clone a disk between two Macs?
What is the best way to clone a disk between two Macs? I ask this every couple years or so and every time I get the same answer. "Use Carbon Copy Cloner", they say. But the unfortunate fact is that ...
5
votes
1answer
730 views
How can I tell which volume the operating system is on?
I'll admit that I am kind of rolling multiple questions in to one here so please forgive me and try not to knock me for it.
I am new to Mac but I'm trying to port one of my Java applications to OS X. ...
5
votes
4answers
176 views
How do I determine the speed of a disk drive?
I'm looking for a way to determine the read/write speed of a disk drive, either by looking up some system information or running a simple benchmark test utility.
5
votes
4answers
1k views
Why have 5 different iMacs developed corrupt OS X partitions when the physical drives are fine?
I'm a tech for my local school district and we are having some problems with our iMac Multimedia Lab. Over the past nine months, 5 of the 22 iMacs have suffered from filesystem corruption. The only ...
5
votes
1answer
625 views
What kind of encryption does Mac OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrptyed) use?
Since my primary hard disk is encrypted with FileVault2, I also wanted my backup drive to be encrypted. I plugged in my external drive, brought up Disk Utility, and went to erase/format the disk. I ...
5
votes
1answer
230 views
How to isolate the most disk-active process(es) in OS X?
I have some process(es) performing a lot of drive access from time to time, however I've hitherto been unable to isolate which process or processes are performing the access. What shell command can I ...
5
votes
1answer
417 views
What's the easiest way to free up disk space on my iMac with a huge photo library?
This is a hybrid hardware/software question with a few more factors than the typical "freeing disk space" question.
I have an older iMac with (I think) about a 250 GB hard drive. It's been running ...
5
votes
2answers
521 views
How do I spin down a secondary disk when not mounted?
I have Macbook Pro 13" (Early 2011). I replaced the SuperDrive with a SSD that now is my main disk. The existing HDD is used for Time Machine and nothing else.
I have 2 problems with the secondary ...
5
votes
1answer
4k views
Customize the Boot Camp Drive Icon in Lion
A while ago, I remember having customized the Boot Camp drive icon with a pretty simple hack.
It was on Mac OS X Tiger.
And it was that hack.
Now I'm running Lion. Windows 7 is comfy on his Boot ...
4
votes
2answers
3k views
How to fix Disk Utility, About This Mac, and Finder that disagree on hard drive space usage?
Has anyone seen this issue and know how to fix it?
Look at the free space reported by running "Get Info" on my hard drive (Macintosh HD) in the Finder, "About This Mac" from the Apple Menu, and Disk ...
4
votes
4answers
234 views
Time Machine External Drive
What factors are important when selecting an external hard drive for time machine backups?
4
votes
2answers
419 views
What process is accessing the hard drive?
I can hear the hard drive chugging away when it should be idle. Some process is writing/reading from it in semi-random bursts, let's say once every second. Very annoying and wasteful.
I tried ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
Can I use an Advanced Format drive in a Late 2010 13" MacBook Pro?
I have the 13" Late 2010 MacBook Pro, and the 250 GB Hard Drive is way to small, so I'm looking to get a bigger one.
I wanted to upgrade to a 750 GB WD Scorpio Blue (WD7500BPVT), but I've read ...
4
votes
3answers
2k views
Disable mounting Internal Macintosh HD at boot
My iMac (mid-2010 model, Snow Leopard) has a problem with S.M.A.R.T status: Failing and it has become read-only. Because I didn't want to waste money on the repair, I bought an external HD, so the ...
4
votes
4answers
473 views
Mac Application to defrag my Mac drive
I work on media files as per my profession. I find my Mac (Mac Lion) going slower day by day. I think it will be beneficial to defrag the drive but didn't find any Apple tool for it. I want a an ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
How can I mount an encrypted disk from the command line?
When I type diskutil mount disk3 in the terminal, it says Volume(s) mounted successfully. However, the disk is not mounted and I can confirm this by opening the GUI of Disk Utility.app and also the ...
4
votes
1answer
526 views
Is there a HDD/Hard-Drive testing tool for mac?
I just found an external HDD in my shelf and want to sell it :-) Before this, I tried to delete all the files on the HDD, but the disk utility of Snow Leopard aborted with a known error "Disk Erase ...
4
votes
1answer
260 views
How fast should my MBP internal drive be?
I'be been experiencing an ongoing (if not precisely measurable) feeling that my MBP is underperforming, and it seems to be related to disk IO. I recently downloaded a disk benchmarking tool, to see ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
Where are notes stored in Mountain Lion
I ha a hard drive that died recently in my macbook, I've replaced the hard drive etc so no issues there. Unfortunately, it appears I wasn't backing up the notes app to iCloud, and I really need to get ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
Is there a way to limit external hard-drive random spin-up?
I have 2 external USB drives connected to my iMac running 10.7.3. One is designated completely for Time Machine use and the other I use for data. (Nothing but a bunch of JPGs on that one.) The first ...
