There are few things more inconvenient than unplanned or unanticipated software reviews.  If you are going to review and look at software, it is substantially more fun to plan out a careful comparison between two products.  When done in a methodical way, you can think about how to test them, explore their corners, and determine if they they might make a good fit with your workflow.

In contrast, if you are drafting an unplanned software review, it usually means that something has gone terribly wrong.  What is tremendously ironic, however, is that the unplanned reviews are often much more extensive and thorough then the planned variety.  They are more valuable.  Unplanned reviews show you how the software performs in a time of relative crisis.

Or, that’s how this particular software review began life at least.  Rather than setting out to review defragmentation utilities on Mac OS X, it’s something that mostly just happened.  The original goal was easy: I wanted to do was use Apple Boot Camp to install the Windows 7 Beta on my Mac.  It’s amazing that such a simple thing could spawn nearly two full days of relative misery.So while you can find most of the unsavory details in a previous rant, here’s the take home point: Mac OS X doesn’t have a defragmentation utility.  That’s right, the world’s most advanced OS can’t handle a basic system necessity.  Well done Apple!

Into this gigantic void steps iDefrag.  Like an obnoxious usher, it helps lost bits of file find the rest of the party; and just like those ushers, it does it’s job in a straightforward and no-hassle manner … mostly.

The user interface is extremely simple, after all, this program only does one job.  Using the free demo version, you can analyze your drive and see where the greatest sources of fragmentation occur.  To do anything about it, however, you have to shell out your money.  After running the demo, I quickly realized that I would need to spend the cash. 

My Mac gets used for three primary reasons: 1) Run OsiriX and Matlab, 2) Sync to my iPod Touch, 3) Rip and convert DVDs to files that can be played by the iPod touch.  These three uses have one important thing in common, they either create or use very large files.  And while OS X will indeed automatically defragment some files, it only works on those lucky buggers that are less than 20 megabytes in size.  While this might be adequate for documents, it just doesn’t cover my needs.  Most video files, medical image volume sets, and music files can be substantially bigger than 20 megabytes.  And of course, my hard drive was an utter crap-fest.  The demo version made this quite clear, in a brilliant red color; the same universal red that screams disease, danger, and violence.

Luckily, iDefrag can use one of “Four powerful defragmentation algorithms” that:

Optimize[s] or compact[s] your disk as required.  Includes a sophisticated programmable optimization engine – if you’re an advanced user, you can rearrange the contents of your disk how you want (Advertising Materials).

Another advertised point is that the disk can be defragmented while in use.  While this sounds great in theory, it is incredibly underwhelming in practice.  Sure, you can defrag the disk while it’s in use … but it uses the most underpowered algorithm and it takes a very long time.  Okay, so the program started in a rather … disadvantaged … position when it took on my disk, but it still took more than eighteen hours for the first round of defragmentation.  These eighteen hours passed while using the “Quick” algorithm.  And during all eighteen of those hours, the machine was completely unusable since iDefrag monopolizes both RAM and the CPU.  But that is only a minor quibble.

It was, therefore, much to my dismay that iDefrag failed to solve my most pressing problem: it did not let me partition my disk with Boot Camp.  After all, I only bought the program for that one reason.  Thus, I returned to various Mac support forums and started looking for an explanation … which I eventually found.  It turns out that I used the wrong algorithm.  Rather than the “Quick” algorithm, I needed to use “Compact.”  So I did.  And got a love love message from the program (seen at right).

Turns out that the most powerful defragmentation algorithms can only be used in the offline mode.  Who would have thought?  After all, both Linux and Windows are perfectly capable of defragmenting the drive while it is online.  They can even resize and move partitions.  (But that is really beside the point, comparisons with the competition are just tacky.)

There is a solution to this problem, though.  While reading through a support forum, I realized that iDefrag ships with a secondary program: Corialis Disk Maker.  Using “Disk Maker”, you can create a boot disk (remember those?) to run iDefrag.  Which I did.

The first time I tried to boot the resulting disk, I got a spinning black wheel on the log-on screen which didn’t go away (even after two hours of not so patient waiting).  I eventually forced the system to shut down by holding the power button and tried again.  The second time, it successfully booted and ran (though took a disturbing five minutes to do so).  I selected the “Compact” mode and pressed the play button.  I then waited for a long time (six hours on this run) before the job eventually finished.

After this secondary run, I was ecstatic to find that Boot Camp could successfully partition the disk.  Hallelujah!  Two days after starting my adventure, I finally had a defragmented and partitioned hard disk ready for Windows 7 installation.  For that reason, let me publicly acknowledge iDefrag’s greatness.  Without you, iDefrag, I wouldn’t be writing this post now.  Well done!

Conclusion

Pros:

• After a false start, downloading a secondary program, and restarting the machine with a special boot disk; iDefrag just works ™, mostly.
• The program for creating the boot disk is included in the price of iDefrag.  Yay!  You only get gouged once!

Cons:

• Expensive.  iDefrag is $30.  Unfortunately, it is also the only defragmentation program available on Mac OS X.
• The “Quick” mode isn’t quick.
• All the powerful algorithms have to be used in the “offline mode.”  Can you say “boot disk?”
• To create the boot disk, you have to download a second program.

Similar Posts:

• Mac OS X doesn’t need to be defragmented? Yeah, right.
• How to Scrub a PC Hard Drive
• Backup, Share and Sync – Part 2: Hard Drive Preparation and Server Configuration
• Backup, Share and Sync – Part 1: Introduction
• Backup, Sync and Share – Part 4: Apple Time Machine and Samba

Categories: Computer, Rants
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