Disk maintenance on Snow Leopard
- Thread starter Curiosity
- Start date
DeltaMac
Tech
Those are two different issues.
The periodic tasks are for system maintenance (not disk maintenance), and are performed on a scheduled basis when the system is turned on. The system will check for overdue tasks (the Mac was turned off at that time, for example), and will perform overdue tasks in the background when needed.
IMHO, you should be concerned about extreme fragmentation if you have it. Your OS X system automagically keeps certain areas of the hard drive under control, along wiht a certain file size range, mostly very small files. Modern operating systems are not so much affected by fragmentation, but there are several issues that can make that much more noticeable. Audio recording direct to the hard drive is one. Another is if you let your hard drive get too full. That 15-20% free space is a good rule of thumb to follow on your boot drive. Fragmentation is only one of the issues that might give you problems with a full hard drive.
The periodic tasks are for system maintenance (not disk maintenance), and are performed on a scheduled basis when the system is turned on. The system will check for overdue tasks (the Mac was turned off at that time, for example), and will perform overdue tasks in the background when needed.
IMHO, you should be concerned about extreme fragmentation if you have it. Your OS X system automagically keeps certain areas of the hard drive under control, along wiht a certain file size range, mostly very small files. Modern operating systems are not so much affected by fragmentation, but there are several issues that can make that much more noticeable. Audio recording direct to the hard drive is one. Another is if you let your hard drive get too full. That 15-20% free space is a good rule of thumb to follow on your boot drive. Fragmentation is only one of the issues that might give you problems with a full hard drive.
To follow-on to Post No. 2, your computer does not have to be on at a scheduled time for the periodic tasks to be performed. MacOS X will perform the tasks when your computer is turned on if they are due. Fragmentation is not the main issue with nearly full hard drives. This is something that anyone who has ever defragmented a hard drive at 90% capacity filled knows very well. The problem with a nearly full hard drive is that the UNIX virtual memory system does not work properly.
My best advice to the OP is to leave his system alone. MacOS X will take care of itself. If you experience problems, then run Disk First Aid in Disk Utility. The major thing that DU does is to fix permissions. For more nagging hard drive related issues, run File System Check from the command line in Single User Mode.
Takeaway Message: Resist the Windows-user temptation to futz with your system. Left to its own devices, MacOS X will give you years of trouble-free service. More people have problems related to excessive and inappropriate maintenance than from failure to perform user maintenance.
My best advice to the OP is to leave his system alone. MacOS X will take care of itself. If you experience problems, then run Disk First Aid in Disk Utility. The major thing that DU does is to fix permissions. For more nagging hard drive related issues, run File System Check from the command line in Single User Mode.
Takeaway Message: Resist the Windows-user temptation to futz with your system. Left to its own devices, MacOS X will give you years of trouble-free service. More people have problems related to excessive and inappropriate maintenance than from failure to perform user maintenance.
jbarley
One more, for the road!
This little widget also will tell you exactly when the maintenance scripts were run, and it is free.