BUMBLEB  Good answer, true about the zeroing out mapping out bad blocks.  
(Version 1.7.1)

DJEFIS  I never had a problem with this software!!!

N° of Defrag 50 (?), on three Mac.

I don't succeed in understanding as is possible that someone complains it.

They will also have their good motives, but I believe both the case not to exceed.

I understand that when an utility as iDefrag it fails they are damages, but great it is the damage to have for years an approximate OS.

Fortunately I am very happy to have it....

In this way nobody can understand the utility of iDefrag:To reduce the time of StartUp and the start of all the Applications, In sure and excellent way!  
(Version 1.7)

MAC ADAM  Please update for snowleopard 64bits…  
(Version 1.6.9)

TIMBARNES  Any software that deals with the low-level structure of your computer's file system has to be 1000% robust. Errors and crashes are an absolute no-no for these kinds of utilities.

Unfortunately, I have had a number of hangs while using iDefrag's latest version, and I've also seen file system corruption that has required me to run utilities like DiskWarrior to repair the file system.

So while I think there may well be a case for doing defragmentation from time to time, I can't recommend this application.  
(Version 1.6.9)

HARV  I am not (yet) an iDefrag user, and my knowledge/understanding of defraging/optimization is nil, so I well understand if my question is off base.

SuperDuper allows me the option to erase a drive/volume prior to copying the backup. Doesn’t the erasing accomplish the same thing?

I know iDefrag has more bells and whistles (some are of no benefit to me) and it may defrag faster, but as I use/schedule SuperDuper while I sleep, I see no advantage there.

So for folks such as me, why use iDefrag?

No offense is intended to the developers, I just don’t understand.  
(Version 1.6.9)

DOM21  What exactly does the "on-line" in "on-line defragmentation" mean? Does it make your hard drive viewable or accessible to Coriolis in any way? If not, then what does it mean?  
(Version 1.6.9)

SHOTGUNWEDDINGS  Where's the iDefrag 1.6.9 demo?

I download from here it is 1.6.8 and I download from Coriolis website same thing.

1.6.8 demo did not work for me. Kept hanging when I launched it. It would go into a endless loop looking for drives.

eMac PPC with 10.5.7  
(Version 1.6.9)

DANA SUTTON  Question: does iDefrag work with RAID arrays?   
(Version 1.6.9)

DANNY365  I have recently purchased iDefrag to help my PowerBook 12'' *60 GB* disk survive after several years of moderate use. The disk was about half full, and I suspected it caused some slowing down. The app. worked fine for me (nothing special, 2 hour job after booting from the disk the supplied app. created.) I do sense some quickening, not dramatic, though. I would still buy the app. not to take the risk of a fragmented disk.  
(Version 1.6.8)

DRDUL  As a previous reviewer noted, running iDefrag on a Mac with Time Machine enabled results in Time Machine backing up many of the defragged files. Too bad I didn't realize this before I ran iDefrag. Time Machine is now backing up a whopping 371 GB of files, none of which have actually changed. My 1 TB Time Machine volume was full, which means I have now lost a whole bunch of backups from several months ago so that Time Machine can squeeze in 371 GB of not-at-all-new files.

Because of this, I will no longer be using iDefrag. I'd rather have a fragmented disk and keep my old backups.  
(Version 1.6.8)

XPLICIT  "EDITOR NOTES

Note: The demo only works on 100MB drives and smaller."

Is that so?! Who has such a drive? Even my USB stick has 1GB ...  
(Version 1.6.8)

NOTAFOOL  This application has yet to complete a single defragmention job for me successfully. On every occasion the process "freezes" about halfway. A message appears at the foot of the application stating that it is "Allowing disk to cool" and "Temperature 56.0 C". But it never seems to resume the job. I have to quit it, to reclaim my computer. What on earth is it that is going on ? I have NEVER encountered anything quite so bizarre with any other defragmenting program that I have used, and am starting to wonder with iDefrag is in fact a total lemon. Can anyone advise me what the heck is going on here ? It is very disappointing indeed. I am using an iMac G5 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, running Mac OSX Version 10.5.6  
(Version 1.6.8)

JGROVE  The best (by far) MAC defrag program on the market.  
(Version 1.6.7)

CHRISWAN  Could significantly improve performance on regularly used Macs

In general if it has been used for about 4-6 months (download, browsing, working with, many larger than, 20MB files) and have less than 30% free HDD space, this app can improve the performance of your Mac

But, as with marriage and tax evasion, your mileage may vary...

I would like to see individual file defragmentation and file/folder exclusion in future versions (it's already there, but you have to do some scripting, which is not my kind of thing, I'm expecting simple checkboxex and stuffs)

Highly recommended  
(Version 1.6.6)

CHRISWAN  Has more capabilities than any Defrag apps on the market

competitor usually only have the 'Compact' or 'Quick' algorithm

would like to see individual file defragmentation capabilities though...  
(Version 1.6.6)

L0XBY  Booted up from my backup drive and started a full defrag of my main boot volume (60GB, 50% full, OS 10.5.6, journaled). About 20 minutes into defragging, iDefrag stalls and it shows the spinning beachball of death (I no longer hear the hdd reading/writing). Unable to shut down from Apple menu, I do a hard reboot by holding down the power button. I boot up from the backup drive again and start the full defrag of the main boot volume. This time it stalls after about 30 minutes of defragging, I get the spinning beachball and have to do a hard reboot again.

Full defrag runs fine on non-journaled volumes that don't have OS files on it. Maybe there's some incompatibility with OS 10.5.6? But it also stalled when I tried it on a 10.5.5 boot volume.  
(Version 1.6.6)

DABOW  I bought this product the other day and it is giving me some rather worrying problems. I'm trying to defrag an internal 1GB drive with around 300GB of data on it. The drive has been repaired and shows as fine in Disk Utility. Yet iDefrag constantly hangs when it tries to do a defrag, and this is after it has been defragging for a few minutes, so i just hope I haven't lost any data. NOT HAPPY!!!  
(Version 1.6.6)

SHADOW RAY  I read up on drive fragmentation in OS X and subsequently bought this about a year ago. I've used it on a few different systems and it's always worked smoothly and really sped up startup times for fragmented drives. If your drive has ever gotten to 90% or more full this will likely make a big difference in system speed. I think my system startup time after i first used it was cut by around 5-10 seconds. If you never fill your drives up and aren't working with media drives this will be less useful. I've always run Applejack and backed up before using it but it's never given me a problem or error.

Based on the reviews for Drive Genius, this is definitely the program you want if you're defragging your OS X drives. I was annoyed by the useless demo mode, and the lengthy documentation should be read before using it, but I was very happy upon purchasing fortunately, it's definitely a good buy. I recommend that any media company working on OS X buy this for their media storage drives as well.  
(Version 1.6.6)

REPEATER75  Jan13 is wrong. I ran this on a 200GB firewire boot disc used on a first gen Mac mini 1.42ghz. The difference in speed for system startup and app launch times was very noticeable. I believe this is a utility you only need to run once a year or so, but is well worth $35 for the time you'll save over that year!  
(Version 1.6.6)

ELGRECO  Awesome defrag tool!!

If you work with large files, this is the one for you.  
(Version 1.6.6)

NORAA  This version doesn't seem to work with TechTool Protogo anymore. The last version I was using (1.5.8, hadn't upgraded in a little while) worked just fine when loaded onto a TechTool Protogo device. Now, with this new version, when I try to open it when booted up from a TechTool Protogo device, the whole system hangs. I just get that wonderful spinning beachball, and nothing. Anybody else have this problem (or even use TechTool Protogo for that matter)?  
(Version 1.6.6)

JAN13  Again ... I am reading these silly “POSIVE REVIWS” on how greatly this software improve Mac OS 10.5 system ...

Please get it strait people. This software is like a dancer with wooden leg, trying to win competition in tango!

Your Mac OS 10.5 DOES NOT NEED NEED THIS. If you see your CPU performing it is a disillusion. Get it STRAIT!  
(Version 1.6.6)

MACINTOSH SAUCE  I purchased this program for Leopard, just before the Leopard incompatibility issue notice came out. It's been six months since I have been able to use iDefrag. I defragmented my four HDs on my Mac Pro and everything is running much snappier now. This program is worth the expense IMHO.  
(Version 1.6.6)

JOSDANS  The missing software from Apple!

Despite all claiming defrag-software isn't needed in Mac OS X, the software makes my Mac much snappier, especially the start-up.  
(Version 1.6.6)

CHRISWAN  The frickin' software was released on June 18, 2008. I was wondering why MU and VT need 15 days to update their entries on iDefrag

I don't think updating the demo version is an urgency (altough a nice thing to do), looking at that version potential customer will already now what is being offered  
(Version 1.6.6)

SHOTGUNWEDDINGS  Things never change, same boneheads claim its nots needed.

Get this through your thick skulls, OSX will only defragment small files , those of use with larger files there is no other program that comes close to the excellent job iDefrag does.

Not to mention it speeds up my boot time every month I use it.

Now for the demo comment, I guess someone at Coriolis should be emailed about the 1.6.4 demo. It is kind of silly to display a dusty version instead of the current release :)

But for those us that use iDefrag, I wouldn't waste my time with other options or ignore the option to defrag. Makes my Mac happy and fast, and that makes me happy.  
(Version 1.6.6)

BRUCE_Y  There is no way to accurately test this product.

It is quite disengenuous of the developer to (a) pass of an old demo version on a new update page -- the demo is version 1.6.4 from 2007; (b) allow you to only test if drive volume is 100 MB or less.

My smallest volume partition is 39 GB, on a physical 250GB, so no way to test this product, even with their sneaky older version.

Go to any store or HD vendor, pretty much any disk you buy today or within last year is going to be 100GB or larger for desktop computer.

Therefore their true evaluation policy is: pay full price and then you can see if it works for you.  
(Version 1.6.6)

SUCKERPUNCH86  Great piece of software. It made a great difference in booting up my MacBook Pro, and in intensive programs such as Final Cut Express, PhotoShop & more.

Even though Mac OSX is able to defrag small fiIes, the dynamic environment of OS X and the continuous creation/ deletion will makes things worse.

Highly recommend this to anyone.  
(Version 1.6.6)

MOOGAN  iDefrag is an excellent application - reliable and effective. Plenty of options (algorithms) and a surfeit of information on exactly what state your drives are in. Useful if you are working with large audio or video files where defragging does make a difference. I have used iDefrag for over a year and it's never failed or locked up.

Mac OS X does a decent job of reducing fragmentation of smaller files but like most built in defragging systems doesn't address free space fragmentation at all.

I'm not sure how they could offer a fully functional demo as you don't use an app like this often, people would simply use the demo and not buy the application after it had done its job.

Overall recommended for users of applications which handle large files etc.  
(Version 1.6.6)

MAULRAT  I have to agree with Zangief ... the smallest drive I have is a 500GB external .... cant see myself partitioning a drive just to test a demo .... how sbout a time limit instead?  
(Version 1.6.6)

DOM21  Do registered users have to buy this version all over again to get the improvements?? Unless I'm overlooking it I see nothing saying 'free upgrade to registered users.'  
(Version 1.6.6)

FARDILHA  I don't like to buy Apps that I can't truly test before, so I almost gave up of the idea of buying this one.

Since most programs that I use tend to create huge temp files (from Photoshop to Final Cut Pro) and my other main Util app (DiskWarrior) couldn't defrag on a file level I decided to give this a try.

I'm glad I did, because it's working very well. I already defrag a dozen hard drive without any problem and Final Cut Pro is complaining about real time problems less often.

Besides that this nice app finally allowed my almost full and heavily fragmented laptop to allow Boot Camp to be installed. (Before the Boot Camp utility would fail trying to move all the files from the end of the drive to make room for the new partition).  
(Version 1.6.5)

ZANGIEF  Most people don't have anything 100MB and smaller to test this on. Useless demo, boo.  
(Version 1.6.5)

DJEFIS  This utility with the time will become necessary. . . . .

Apple must put himself to comparison with the potentialities of this utility. The only one which can actually change the performances of your Mac, unquestionably!.

After to have deframmented my Mac (after three months of use) Leopard seems just installed and everything works perfectly!

If I will found some problems next days I will advise you certainly asap.  
(Version 1.6.5)

ADVIDATA  I purchased 2 licenses for iDefrag as I have 2 iMacs. Both are identical iMacs, but one is used mainly for personal use and the other for Video Editing.

My Video Editing iMac was heavily fragmented and slow.

I found the online algorithm "ok" in speeding up the iMac: it helped. It took around 2 hours to complete. The only issue I discovered later was that it could not move files at the end of my drive which was preventing me from creating a BOOTCAMP partition.

I additionally tested the offline OPTIMIZE algorithm using the boot disk the software created for me. The test was performed using iDefrags 10.4.9 version of Mac OS on my 10.5.1 software version iMac.

The OPTIMIZE algorithm on my first try failed after my hard drive became too hot, and despite no matter what I did, after 2 hours the drive would not cool. I shut down the iMac for the night and tried again the next day. This time I placed my 14000 BTU aircon at 18 degrees Celsius in front of the iMac and repeated the process. The iMac again overheated and would not cool down.

I decided to change the temperature settings inside the software to allow my hard drive to reach 60 degrees and not 55 as is the default. This time the process completed and it took under 5 hours. The average temperature in my office is 28 degrees Celsius.

There was a huge increase in speed after the degragmentation.

I decided to go one step further, as despite the speed increase, my iMac still had some quirks where it would "think" for prolonged periods of time (however this was the case before defragmentation too).

I mirrored my Macintosh hard drive to an external USB 2.0 drive, and reformatted my main drive and then restored it. (As advised by Apple as the best form of degragmentation). This process took 7 hours. After reboot, I had no quirks whatsoever and my iMac runs as if out of the box, with all my files, software and settings in tact.

Overall iDefrag does have something to offer. For a quick speed boost I would use it when needed. For a complete degrag I would use the Apple suggested route instead: it is faster and the performance boost is much better then what iDefrag's offline algorithms have to offer.  
(Version 1.6.5)

MMCSHANE63  Having read a number of reviews here, and elsewhere I bought this and have now used it on my Intel Core2 duo, 20 inch iMac in target disk mode (from a MacBook) and also on an external FW Drive (LaCie). My conclusion is that it works and it makes a significant difference. It does not seem to have made much difference to startup, but apps open considerably faster. I store large(ish) video projects on the external drive and this has to be worth it.

Full iMac defrag in approx 9 hours. Full external HD defrag in approx six hours. I'll be using this regularly.   
(Version 1.6.5)

AKROBAT  Hmm, "Demo works on 100MB Disks or smaller." Well I can't use that on my new MacBook then.

I'd better dust off my Macintosh LC from 1990 in order to test this demo... heck I might even give it a go on my PowerBook 160 from 1992!  
(Version 1.6.5)

MACPROG  One thing i noticed when I ran iDefrag on a Leopard partition, it caused Time Machine to do a complete backup of everything (because iDefrag moves all your files I guess). In my case this was 100 GB, assuming it does this every time you run iDefrag you can wipe out even a large Terabyte drive pretty fast.  
(Version 1.6.5)

NICOLASD  "Added a workaround for a bug in Leopard's AHCI block storage driver," does not inspire a whole lot of confidence when it comes to a defragmenting utility.

If it's not rock-solid compatible for Leopard, it's useless.  
(Version 1.6.5)

BRUCE_Y  one thing I have never understood about the Coriolis demos - they are always at least one (sometimes two) versions older than the version being released. Thus this MacUpdate page is about the alleged new v1.6.5, but the demo is numbered 1.6.4 from early December. (same with their ipartition product, which is even further behind the supposed latest release).

so how is one to evaluate if the new version fixes anything, when their Demo-only download is always several months, and one or several versions older?  
(Version 1.6.5)

SHOTGUNWEDDINGS  BLAH BLAH BLAH, Apple says, MaxFixit says, ya right!

Every time an update to iDefrag is announced someone has to jump on the same old dead horse.

You do need to defragment your HD once in a while. Regardless of what any one ignorant has said.

OSX only defrags small files and only optimizes the "Metadata zone".

If your like me with huge audio and video files, then you will need to use iDefrag, or if you would like to shave a few seconds (or microseconds) from your Mac's boot up or application launches.

Anyways, by far the best of the lot for defragmenting your drives.

Get it , got it, good!  
(Version 1.6.5)

MACPROG  Apple makes it clear that you don't need to defrag your computer...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25668  
(Version 1.6.5)

ADVIDATA  iDefrag disproves the argument that Mac OS does not need defragmentation.

Apple should consider incorporating this product into its Mac OS.

4 stars.  
(Version 1.6.4)

TEXASSTARGAZER  I have been a computer programmer for over 18 years. Support is very important consideration when purchasing any application. I would not recommend this application based on what I consider rude emails from the support personnel. If I pay $35 for an application that only defrags drives, then in my opinion it's reasonable to expect professional, courteous support.  
(Version 1.6.4)

TJW7676  I was at first skeptical that this program may not work, but after completing a full defrag via boot cd my machine feels much faster and loads programs in half the time. The full process did not take more than 2 to 3 hours and made a huge difference in the time for loading iphoto and itunes. If your machine feels sluggish, this might be the cure! Highly recommend.  
(Version 1.6.4)

SGHUEBNER  Whoever said defragmentation is useless on OSX was wrong. Accorrding to iDefrag, all my data was scattered among my HD (though 30 of 80 GB are still free). I mainly tried out this App because the Mac didn't work fluently anymore as it used to when I first installed OSX. And after a five-to-seven-hours defragmentation over firewire I can say that this App was worth every penny. Not only does the Mac start up so much faster now, but I can finally work with it again without seing the spinning beachball all the time. Absolutely great!

Also, the Diskmaker thing worked without any problems. Though I didn't like the fact, that the downloaded diskimage resides in the Apps' caches-folder. It would be nice if one would have the option to delete it as the diskimage is quite big and probably not needed anymore after the boot-cd is burned.

And two things about iDefrage (hope I didn't miss this in the manual): It would be nice if the manual would explain what the different algorithms do. Plus, some kind of logging would be nice, something that, after defragmentation, give a summary on how successful the process was. Something that tells me, if (and what) could ne be defragmented because of size or whatever. for example.  
(Version 1.6.4)

JOSDANS  How to make it work under Leopard:

The best thing for you to do is to create a bootable CD/DVD using CDMaker (with a template from the Internet) and use that with the off-line algorithms. That will work fine with your Leopard volume.  
(Version 1.6.4)

CHRISWAN  Great program,

Use the optimize algorithm once in a while and the quick algorithm every 2-3 weeks to keep my Mac in tip top shape

technical support is good (fast and friendly)  
(Version 1.6.4)

RAY16  I got the feeback, I'm posting it for others who may have the same problem.

Users, keep in mind to use password and username to get to the links

Hi Ray,

Yes, sorry about this. You're right that it presently won't work on 10.3; we

will be releasing (another) update next week to fix that---it only happened

because we upgraded our build server to Leopard. The program code itself is still

10.3 compatible, it's just that the way it was built by the new developer tools

means that it won't work, so we need to do another build to fix that.

In the meantime, you can download any previous version from the Atom feed,

here:

http://www.coriolis-systems.com/updates/iDefrag

For your convenience, the link to version 1.6.2 is:

https://secure.coriolis-systems.com/updates/get/iDefrag-1.6.2.dmg  
(Version 1.6.3)

RAY16  1.6.3 does not launch on 10.3.9 Panther. Is it meant for Tiger & Leo???

I emailed the Developer, waiting for feedback, when promted for the update, I did it, and idefrag didn't relaunch.

Hope it's a bug, I like the program very much.  
(Version 1.6.3)

GARY30  I took a look at this one. I definitely see the benefit of defragging--especially if you are slinging huge files around. My solution ended up being Carbon Copy Cloner. I clone my drive, check to be sure the clone is bootable, than clone it back using the file by file methiod. This causes the system files to be written to the inner disk and so on, the general way they should be. Speed benefit is great and you get a full backup out of the deal every time. It is also much faster then iDefrag or others.

For what it does, iDefrag is fine. But at least for me there is a way that meets my needs better.  
(Version 1.6.2)

SOUNDMAN  Been using iDefrag for about a year now. Used to use TechTools or DriveGenius but I used to notice that when I would defrag in DriveGenius and then check for fragmentation in TechTools (optimization tool), there would still be areas that were still fragmented.

I tried out iDefrag and never went back! Gives you much more info on what is happening with your disk. Many more optimation options. It's fast, effective and hassle free.

So now I start with DiskWarrior to make sure directories and files are A-OK and then go on to iDefrag. I do this once a week and ALL my drives are trouble free.

Why once a week? I work with audio files and when I compose, I am using 6 drives at once. Users folder is on a separate drive. Sample audio on another drive, record onto a scratch drive. Current projects on another drive, etc.

There's a crazy debate about whether defragmening is necessary at all on OS X. No doubt at all in my mind that it IS. And beyond that, OPTIMIZATION, which is putting directories in their proper order on the drive.

Now, I have a performance setup. Use 10,000 rpm Raptor drives for the OS and scratch drives. When all drives are optimized, it's like driving a Jaguar and I am happy.

This developer is seriously talented and has my thanks!  
(Version 1.6.2)

DOM21  I stand corrected, it's admin, not root, pw. You are correct. Nevertheless, checking for updates should be OFF by default. Let the user enable it if he wants to. Just MHO.  
(Version 1.6.2)

DOM21  Security breach? Upon first launch Little Snitch popped up an alert that "iDefrag Demo wants to connect to faraday.coriolis-systems.com on TCP port 80 (http). After that's established _then_ iDefrag asks you type in your root password. No Sale, Coriolis.  
(Version 1.6.2)

LARRY2  Wonderful application in conjunction with Techtool ProtoGo. Loaded on a 2gb flash drive included iDefrag and now I have the best of both world since I don't care fro the optimizer in Techtool, it take far longer than iDefrag. If you don't have Techtool this program alone on a flash drive, with an OS of course, is well worth it. Does what it is written to do.  
(Version 1.6.1)

CASCADEHUSH  I was about to replace the HD in my iBook, something I was not eager to do, but my system performace was so poor I was seeing the spinning beachball about 50% of the time the system was on.

I purchased iDefrag, set my iBook up in Firewire Target mode and left it overnight do do a full defrag.

The difference is amazing. The HD used to be constantly making noise... now it's so quiet. I don't think I've seen a spinning beachball since I did the defrag.

The idea the OSX and HFS automatically defrag seems to be a bit of a myth. I had many fragmented files, and many small chunks of free space.

This program has saved me a lot of grief. When I've used it some more, I'll write a proper review.   
(Version 1.6.1)

PEANUT BUTTER  Additionally, OS X does NOT optimize.

That is, it OS X will not reorganize the location of the files on your hard drive. This may not seem like a big deal, but if all of your library and system files are scattered across the drive, that adds to the amount of work the spindle must do moving back and forth across the entire platter over and over again. It would be worse if those same files were also fragmented and the fragments were scattered across the drive.

With the size of hard drives outpacing speed (throughput and seek times), I am starting lean back toward defrag and optimization as ways to help the drives keep up with today's fast computers.  
(Version 1.6.1)

BEN_MARKO  This is really only for external volumes, the dev needs to specify that in the release notes. Internal Mac HDs will auto-defrag anyway.  
(Version 1.6.1)

NORAA  Actually, you can defragment your startup volume - just not do a full optimization. Choosing the Quick On-line mode doens't require the disk to be unmounted, and only defragments files (those that aren't in use at least). For a full optimization of the disk (where the used space is compacted to create the largest possible contiguous amount of free space) you need to boot up from the cd, or another volume.  
(Version 1.6)

TUISHIMI  This would be of more value if it could defrag the system disk without having to boot from another volume. It would be an instant purchase for me, but otherwise... I run websites on my mac and don't want to have to shutdown and boot off a CD or some other disk to defrag. It would be easier just to perform an image backup and run off that.

Maybe it cannot be done with HFS+, I don't know... I know it can be done with NTFS and RMS but perhaps that's because of how the file system flags read operations or something...  
(Version 1.6)

RAYCON  Er, um, who has a 100 MB hard drive anymore? That's the size of the old Zip Disk and way less than you can put on a CD. Unless that's a typo and it should be 100 GB, no one will be able to even try this application.  
(Version 1.5.7)

BRUCE_Y  FYI, the 'demo' download from MU, and from developer's own page is version 1.5.1 from Sep 13 2006.

Not sure what value there is in even listing a new version of the program if they only allow demo review of older version.  
(Version 1.5.7)

JDURSTON  I recently purchased this software and am very pleased with it.

There seems to be some misconceptions as to what it does. It optimizes as well as defrags. Optimizing means that it positions files on the drive in such a way that access delays are minimized and performance is maximized. This is what causes multi-hour times for a full defrag. Virtually every file on the drive may have to be shuffled several times if the drive is close to being full.

The customizable algorithims could be of good use to to specialized users.

OS X is limited in the built in defrag, large files will not be defragmented (eg. Virtual HDs for Parallels). This program is well worth the cost and really helps to get the most out of slower laptop drives.

Sorry if there are typos, I've got terrible typing in the evening without my glasses.  
(Version 1.5.2)

AMERGIN  Just bought version 1.5.2. Tried defragging 25gb on my iBook but gave up when it had done less than half and had taken over three hours! Had used Carbon Copy Cloner to backup the drive beforehand so I just copied that back and am now fine again. I have techtool pro as well but the constant upgrade fees put me off. I'll bite the bullet now and pay the upgrade to ttp and just write this $25 down to experience (although I should have been suspicious when the demo only allows you to defrag up to 100mb!).  
(Version 1.5.2)

COOLFACTOR  Mac OS x has built-in defragging every time a file is saved. That aspect is unnecessary by a third-party utility.

In the developer's favor, it looks like they've added some advanced features that may provide some benefit to users, but plain-old defragging is not one of them.  
(Version 1.5.2)

KWOJNIAK  I bought it previously for my PowerMac, but redownloaded the new universal version for my MacBook, and ran through the quick defrag. Looks like it worked fine.  
(Version 1.5.1)

STEPHEN LOHSE  So I downloaded and it's not very user friendly. I just have been able to make it even work for me? Is it my intel chip?  
(Version 1.2.2)

NINJABOY  Crashes on launch.   
(Version 1.2.2)

BOBWEINER  I purchased iDefrag based on positive comments I had read online. I ran it from a secondary drive, defragging my primary drive in the process. Everything ran smoothly (I chose the full optimization routine) - it took about 4 hours to run on my 400GB hard drive (the drive is less than half-full). Did I notice any significant speed-ups after defragging? Yes - applications launch appreciably faster now than compared to before. Is it worth $30? That's really up to you. I think a fair price for this app should be $20.  
(Version 1.2.2)

LANNY  I bought a copy of this software 3 days ago and tried it on a 20 Gig hard drive in an iBook 2001 using it in Firewire target mode from a Dual G4 desktop. It stopped and froze after 4 hours with an error message. I tried it again with the minimum "Compact" setting and it gave me same error message.

I sent a copy of the error message and a short description of the problem to customer support. After 2 days of not getting anything back except an automatic reply, I sent a request for a refund. Within hours, they replied back saying that their developers usually answer the tech questions within 24 hours, appologized for not doing so, then replied on their behalf by saying that there was nothing wrong with their software and that my hard drive must have a bad block. Therefore, they weren’t going to give me a refund.

Giving them the benefit of doubt, I ran iDefrag on a 5 gig iPod, not wanting to risk the 120 Gig hard drive in the G4, and got the same results, an error message after about one third of the way through the minimum "Compact" setting.

Needless to say, this product is useless to the extreme. I can’t recommend it and won’t risk using it on my other drives.

Buyers beware, $30 down the drain.

I rated the features a 4, because if it actually worked, the feature set would be good.

  
(Version 1.2.2)

ð BORN YETERDAY ð  Excellent tool for defragmenting your files.

Great interface & fast if you backed up and skipped the verifies.

With all the various options, this would be the best replacement for the old standard Speed Disk for OS 9-

Not only is the tool smart enough to cluster files by type but is OSX Tiger friendly!

And an added bonus is you can defrag a BootCD or BootDVD and decrease it's boot time drastically by defragmenting the disk image.

If you think this tool is useless than you know jack and you deserve a quick noisy death for your HD while it play's ping-pong looking fo file fragments!  
(Version 1.2.2)

GRAPHIC_INNOVATIONS  Yeah, you really should research before posting silly comments like that. Optimization is a generic term, and in the case of OS X apps optimizing at the end of an install, that has nothing to do with defrag... At All. That has to do with prebinding information and it improves application launch speed. OS X will auto defrag for small files (20 megs or less), but it would be impossible to do that large files (21 meg - 500Gig, etc...) on the fly as it would severely affect performance and I imagine drive life as well. This app is great as it clusters like file together, so the access time require by your HD to jump from like file to like file, or to playback a LARGE media file is reduced.

Any application that moves massive amounts of data around on your harddrive has the risk messing it up (as killing the power mid-defrag would be terrible), but this is true of ANY app that is extensively using your drive and or is moving system components around. This is why the developer suggests backing up first. Carbon Copy Cloner is great for this, as it will create a bootable backup image of your system.

My final comments: This is a great app for optimization of HD data. I have a pair of 500 gig drives filled to the brim with files, and both see their contents exchanges regularly. Thus, the optimization that iDefrag provides is a huge service in reducing latency while browsing / viewing / editing my data. Good work guys, keep it up.  
(Version 1.2.1)

BRAK  Mac OS X does indeed "optimize" files after installs. The problem being is that this optimization and the automated processes that run when your system is idle, only affect files UNDER 20 MB. This program has no such size limitation on defraging. It also has some very usefeful features like being able to defrag a live booted system with apps running etc. It's not quite as clean that way but it does defragment the files that aren't in use. This product's interface reminds me of the old Norton SpeedDisk but updated for a modern operating system. Elegant in it's simplicity but powerful in it's user interface and beautiful representation of your Hard Drive's blocks. I would like to have the ability to sort some of the data tabs by the various columns. The default order is most useful but others would be nice.  
(Version 1.2)

SMTIPS  "Note: The demo only works on 100MB drives and smaller."

Well either that's a typo or it's completely useless unless I buy it :)

Okay, DRAELREN...Mr. "expert"...then please give people some technical data as to why almost every Apple install does an optimization at the end of the install. What is that if not an optimization. I've seen many reviews of so called defrag apps that fry people's OS's. Why would I trust this based on one single good review?  
(Version 1.2)

DRAELREN  It's true that osx defragments itself to a specific degree. In my case it wasn't enough. My system was installed for 1 1/2 year and hd was getting almost full several times. iDefrag showed many file fragmentations and files were spread around the whole hd leaveing whooping 27.000 free space fragments. And if osx can't write its vm in one piece it can be a performance break. Defragmenting the hd so all the free space was available as one piece speeded up my system noticeable. A very nice feature is that it puts system files to the front and not mix it with the rest of the data on the hd.

ps: To all the lamers who just say that osx doesn't need to be defragmented only because they heard it somewhere... GO EDUCATE YOURSELF. It's the same like only going to McDonalds and saying it's the best, never trying out others like BurgerKing. Some people need it, some don't. So please all you lamers, save your stupid comments if you think/researched that you don't need your hd to be defragmented.

It's a great app. works beautiful in 10.3.9 and 10.4.5.  
(Version 1.2)

ILAST2MINUTES  Program works as advertised.

Too much debate whether OSX requires defragging. Probably not required but my system *appears* more lively now. Another utility listed here on MU, ShowVolumeFragmentation, appears to be happy with my results. I just like to have all my freespace in one area - Im stupid like that.

I had a problem with my system which was not allowing me to use this freshly purchased program. I presented the problem to the developer, confessing the issue wasnt with the software, and he appeared willing to help anyway. He pointed me in the right direction. Thanks Chris!  
(Version 1.1.3)

CHRIS SUTER  We have made it so you can create a bootable CD if you need to.  
(Version 1.1.3)

ANONYMOUS  Why defrag a drive that has auto defrag built into the OS ?

With 10.3 and newer Mac OS there is no reason for a defrag tool it's built into the system..  
(Version 1.1.3)

LANOUVELLECHAIR  Cool app but without bootable cd !   
(Version 1.1.3)

ICEGUY@FREENET.DE  Often used (for me) best defrag tool.

Unique: You can also defrag "online/quick", means no need to boot from CD/ Ext. Drive.

This quick mode Defrags most files, but not defrag freespace.

If you want to know why istnt really true:

"Bullshit tools, OS X defrags all itself"

try my freeware app

ShowvolumeFragmentation.

Some of you may be irritated about high disk fragmentation, even if 10 GB of 80 are free.

SFV is also at macupdate.com (search for Showvolume)  
(Version 1.1.3)

LUX  I have just used iDefrag for the first time with total success on my HD and external firewire [LaCie] disk - OS 10.4.2. It ran without a hitch and did exactly what it says on the tin. No perfomance issues after omptimizing. My ibook is so much faster now and very well behaved. Marvellous - thanks.  
(Version 1.1.2)

NCIANCA  I like (and have registered) this program. I simply HATE the license validation process and how it can change on you when there is an update. I feel that this scheme lowers the value and ease of use of this program.

There simply is nothing worse then wanting to defrag a drive when you have a new version installed and you have no way to get on the internet to get a new key. That blows, so I'm giving it 2 stars for Ease of Use and Value (however, once registered the program is pretty easy to use and does indeed have value as it does defrag your drive).

I haven't had any problems using this to defrag drives.

To the developer, I hope that you can come up with a better solution for registration.  
(Version 1.1.2)

ANONYMOUS  Don't waste your money Mac os X has a Defrag built in.  
(Version 1.12)

MACHUB  they state during purchase: '...Entering a VAT number here will not exempt you from paying VAT on your purchase..' -- so I refrain from buying, as this is clearly invalid and wrong for inside EU goods-Xfer between businesses. Fullstop !  
(Version 1.12)

ANONYMOUS  I previously posted on this product stating some performance issues after optimizing. I have found that idefrag was not the source of these problems and since have found the product to deliver in all the areas it claims. So far I have optimized two 160 GB hard drives, some disk images and my ipod. All have shown no problems afterward. I do have to say that I cannot really notice any performance enhancements after optimizing, but this may be because I do not work often with really large files.

About the licensing issues and complaints: this company has been very good at explaining their registration process and helping out if there is a problem. In this age of data sharing and transfer, I am not surprised at all that a small company would want to go to beyond average measures to ensure their products are not being stolen.  
(Version 1.12)

FRITZWIZARD  Update to my previous review: After several rather contentious email exchanges with the developer (hence my harsh comments in the revious review), it finally developed that a dialog box the program puts up during the registration process has an inactive "Next" button until you fill out _and_tab_out_ of the two fields in the dialog box. If you don't tab out of both of the entry fields, you cannot click Next you can only click Quit.

Having said that, once the program is registered and operating, it works very well.  
(Version 1.11)

FRITZWIZARD  The licensing scheme is draconian, doesn't work, and will fail you when you need it to work the most. As a result, my strong recommendation is to avoid this software. The truth is, when it works, it works pretty well. But the bad news is that when you buy it you get a username and a password. You have to use those to download a fully-enabled version. When they upgrade it, they send you an email to use the same username and password. BUT THEY DON'T WORK when you try to get in to upgrade. But wait, there's more. In addition to the username and password, you will also get, but only if you successfully sign on to the website with the fully featured software, a Registered User Name (which is different from the username), and a License Key. When you try to upgrade, it asks for the username and password, but it doesn't recognize them. It will recognize the License Key, but it doesn't put the license key together with either the username or the Registered User Name. This means you are SOL. Of course, the software tells you when a new version is available and downloads it automatically, which means you have lost the working version and can't get the "upgrade" to launch. These people are so paranoid of being ripped off that they have made it so user-unfriendly that my suggestion is to a) don't rip them off; b) don't buy their software at all. F--- them. Let them go out of business because they're assholes.   
(Version 1.11)

ANONYMOUS  Maybe I missed something, but what is so terrible about the new anti-piracy scheme? And what does it have anything to do with paranoia? I just downloaded 1.11 and punched in my username and password from my email and it downloaded my key for me. I'm not sure why that's terrible. So why are you overreacting? Did they foil your attempt to pirate good software?

(I do not work for Coriolis.)  
(Version 1.11)

JAMES REFFNER  The new anti-piracy system for 1.1 is terrible. Another example of a company driven by paranoia who sets their paying customers aside. They should worry about the people who pay their bills before thay worry about those that don't. Also, the verification system that I despise so much didn't install on the 3 of 4 eDrives (TechTool Pro) that I tried. Hence I can't defrag my primary volumes on 3 out of 4 of my Macs thereby rendering this once great app useless. Emails to developers resulted in comments like, "I don't understand why you're overreacting". There are many other defraggers out there. Since Coriolis wants me to spend my money elsewhere I will and suggest others consider doing the same.  
(Version 1.10)

ANDREAS / MITCH  A MUST:

Always check your hfs+ for errors.

Use check/repair Volume, NOT check/repair permissions, first !

Some people may have some unknown(all works, but ...) HFS+ file/structure errors, which are VERY dangerous to such tools.

So not the Tool is buggy or bad, its the little wrong file/strukture table, which tells some wrong allocated used/freespace.  
(Version 1.10)

NICK  What makes iDefrag great is that it can optimize and rebuild your B-Trees and it seperates what is an Application vs. what is a System file vs. what is a Journal file and so on, unlike Windows' defrag utility.

1.06 on Tiger (10.4.1), no problems.

And quote that "HFS doesn't need to be defragged" some more... while it's nice that HFS puts the file in a contiguous space, it doesn't put the file in the best place possible.  
(Version 1.06)

ISA  I did not really like iDefrag 5 because it messed up my OS X 10.3 system. This happened twice. I am unwilling to try 6 because of what happened. Has anyone had better luck?  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  Actually:

http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/29/190237

"OS X 10.3 (or any builds since Darwin 7.0 Kernel) has automatic file defragmentation.

Basically, when a file is accessed, a check is made to see if it is fragmented (split into several different sectors on the Hard Drive), If so, and if it is less than 20 MB in size, the filesystem will copy the file over to a contiguous area on the HD that will hold the file in it's entirety in concurrent sectors, and then free up the HD space the fragmented version used to occupy. "  
(Version 1.06)

DAN  I did try this version on a disk with tiger. After I optimized it and booted from it, the cpu was really busy for a bout 20 minutes with mdimport and other stuff, things also did not boot quickly, they took a while to readjust to the new layout of the drive. I was wondering, is this normal, or is this happening because the tiger bugs haven't been worked out?  
(Version 1.06)

JOSEPH AUSTIN  This defragmenter works beautifully, is downloaded from a British company's website, and costs 50 or 60% less than similar American products I've seen.

The only tricky bit about installing it, is that when one registers at Coriolis' website (to complete the download/get registration key), one must enter one's email address on the line marked "Organization". Starting iDefrag for the first time, I forgot to put my email address on that line, as my Mac autofilled this line with the name of my school. I couldn't figure out why the darn registration key wasn't accepted, until the friendly and very fast tech guy at Coriolis emailed me back (within an hour) to tell me how to fix my problem.

Good product, great price, excellent tech support.  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  Ready to buy, but one small question...

Is iDefrag System Tiger compatible?  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  Um, people who think the mac doesn't need defrag, HDs are big, 10.3 automatically defrags, macs never have problems, and other dumbass horseshit.

Wake up and smell the coffee.

YOU DEFINATELY NEED DEFRAG. If you are creating or deleting a lot of files, working with huge bittorrents, huge games, huge graphics programs, crap will get fragmented. It doesn't matter that you have a big hard drive. Download three large files, delete the 2nd of these, and download a new large file. You now have a fragmented hard drive. And no, if the file is bigger then 20 MB, it WILL NOT automatically be defraged by OS X. It will sit there, fragmented, until you use a tool to defrag it. Plain and simple.

BTW, it drives me crazy when my fellow mac users seem to think "it just works", and put out some crap like OS X handles everything for them. Guess what? It doesn't.  
(Version 1.06)

GARBAGE  Stony silence about 10.4 support.

The developer wants to act like Microsoft or something.  
(Version 1.06)

GARBAGE  Pro's :

+works as advertised (on 10.3 at least)

Con's :

- Recent versions of MacOS (10.3, 10.4 minimise the need for this)

- cost

- time (it takes a long time)

- no real benefit seen on modern fast HDD's

- huffy attitude of the vendor (see what happens if you have trouble with their painful serial number nonsense)

The only use I found for this was defragging a boot cd disk image prior to burning it - the deragged version has a lot less seeks.

On balance considering the "we're a big important software company DONCHA KNOW" attitude & the slim benefits I would not pay for future versions.  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  Current versions are very stable- early versions would put up scary errors, although I never lost data from them (Diskwarrior usually found nothing wrong, or if it did, it fixed it easily). I also like their laid-back attitude about licensing; you want to install it on your iPod and run around the house or company optimizing computers, that's oke-dokey with them. Bravo.

However, most recent versions are excruciatingly slow on volumes that have been in use for a while after initial defragmentation- ie, everything is mostly categorized but there are "holes" and some files out of order. A good example of this is after a week or two of use and a system update or application install. Instead of filling these "holes" in a logical or efficient manner, the entire content of the drive is shifted to fill the hole. As it shifts files, they're copied to the very end of the drive, and then back again- often when there are gigabyte-sized chunks of contiguous space.

If you uncheck the "sort classes" option- it still sorts them! Only in some different way, so it takes EVEN LONGER if you had 'sort classes' on before.

Another example- let's say some free space opened up in the application or system zone, and then you created a bunch of files, and the system put them there. Okay. So when you run iDefrag, does it just move them to where they belong? No, it optimizes the drive from the very beginning. I spent 45 minutes watching iDefrag shuffle my "system" area by a MB or so, instead of actually defragmenting the drive.

I pointed out all these problems to the developers around the start of the year. I was basically told "when we get around to it." They made the program virtually useless now (clients and I have maybe a 30-60 minute window do to maintenance. iDefrag does NOTHING USEFUL for hours on an already optimized volume!). How nice.  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  I see the requirement of 10.3, which already has some automatic defrag built in. Could you please upgrade this to support 10.2.8?

Most of our agents are using older Powerbooks on that version. I read that 10.2.8 doesn't have the automatic defragmentation, so we would probably have more to gain by using this than users of 10.3.

True?

I have always loved the way the Mac shareware developers listen to their supporters. Keep up the good work.  
(Version 1.06)

CORIOLIS SYSTEMS LIMITED  There is no "Trojan Horse" code in the program, active or inactive. Yes, it will try to contact us if you try to pirate it, but that doesn't make it a Trojan Horse. We're just trying to adequately protect our hard work from theft.

As for CDs, you'll have to be patient; we are working on getting the software out on CD, but even then it's unlikely to be pre-registered as we would like to get it into stores, in boxes.  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  I suggest offering the program on CD with the buyer's name and address or something similar encoded into the program, and the "inactive" trojan horse code and anything else that phones home removed.

Does anyone know of an open-source program with similar functionality?  
(Version 1.06)

DAVE MARSH  I purchased a copy of this today to try it out. Symantec says they're discontinuing Norton Utilities/Speed Disk, so I'm concerned about having this future capability. While OS X does automatically defrag files less than 20MB, it doesn't do anything to rearrange files to consolidate free space.

I tried it out today on two Macs, a 600MHz iBook with a 30GB 4200 RPM HD and a 2.5GHz Dual G5 Tower with a 160GB 7200 RPM HD. The iBook had 640MB of RAM and the G5 Tower had 1GB of RAM.

On the iBook it took just over 4 hours to do a Total Defrag of a little over 7GB of stuff. The G5 Tower took about an hour and a half for a similar amount of data. The faster HD made a huge difference. Just to be fair, I was defragging the iBook in Target Disk Mode connected via FireWire to the G5. I thought this would speed things up, but I guess the limiting issue was the 400mbps connection. When defragging the tower, it had the advantage of both the faster HD and the internal 1.25GHz bus.

Norton Speed disk rarely took more than 1 1/2 hours to defrag the iBook in the past (when booted from an external FireWire drive), so I'd hope to see some speed improvements in the future with iDefrag.

I'd also like to see smaller boxes for the data blocks. With Speed Disk it's pretty easy and fast to scroll to a section of the disk to check on its progress. The iDefrag boxes are huge by comparison, and cause the scrolling to fly by the area you want to check out. The overall disk view at the bottom of the window is nice (even if it mirrors Windows' Scan Disk) for moving to a particular area of the disk, and following the overall progress, but it's the detail view in the main window that I focus on. I'd just like to have more of the disk area viewable. Perhaps a preferences option???  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  I'm not sure if it is a drive problem Disk Utility and Disk Warrior both cannot see, or if there is a bug in reading B-tree information. I got a message about two files using the same space. The strange part was that it sounded like it was saying a file overlapped itself (same information given for both - displayed the same number about six digits long and (null)(null) or something similar twice)  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  Fragmentation in HFS Plus Volumes is worthwhile reading for anyone interested in the topic.  
(Version 1.06)

CORIOLIS SYSTEMS  There is *no* spyware code in iDefrag.

(We've put more information in a reply to our own post.)  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  Tell the truth! There is spyware code in iDefrag that is designed to send confidential user data that has nothing to do with iDefrag. This code may not be active all the time, but it is there. It seems to me that this is installing a security vulnerability. Someone with lower-level access could enter a serial number found on the net, then monitor traffic on the machine sniffng out such things as names of applications that are supposed to be kept secret under non-disclosure agreements etc.

It is unthinkable that an application the requires aan admin passowrd to run have such code. If you're going to devote coding time to such things instead of fixes bugs, you could have at least found a more reasonable solution. Play embarassing wierd sounds at random if there's a bad serial number. Flash things on the screen. But don't EVER EVER put in spyware/trojan code.

If you were in retail would you put poison capsules in food, safely digestable a "shoplift" signal was picked up by a RFID chip? You could argue all you wanted that it only affected the shoplifter. If the rest of the people would accept it WHY TRY TO KEEP IT A SECRET????  
(Version 1.06)

CORIOLIS SYSTEMS  iDefrag does not "phone home". There is a software update mechanism, which might be confusing the tinfoil hat brigade into thinking that it does (but you can turn that off).  
(Version 1.06)

LOU KASH  The demo crashes on reading a partition (2 GB). Not ready yet...

The features would be good. I'd like to see some of it in TechTool Pro as well. But at this time, TechTool Pro is still the winner because it works as expected and it's highly reliable (when comparing the defrag tool).  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  Crashed on trying to read my drive. Sorry, but this is not how you instill trust with such a delicate matter as a HD. Any slight speed improvement is not worth the 48 full on hours to reinstall all my stuff. Tech Tool sucks, Norton definitley sucks and this needs to at least read my drive before crashing.   
(Version 1.06)

ANDREAS  Great Tool. Even under Panther, which has some very dump defrag automatism.

But only such tool can defrag FREE SPACE, which Panther never defrag.

No problem if much free space alvailable (> 30 GB normal work, > 50 GB videoedit), but usefull if there is less "free space".

The information OS X gives about "free space" doesnt say anything about how big are the larger no fragmentet free space.

A maybe 10 GB "freepsace" maybe only give one big space > 2 GB and a lot of fragments lower 100 MB.

You can show that with the freeware hfsdebug.

I use this tool (payed at Version 1.6) and had no problems at all. I EVER check the disk before defraging it !  
(Version 1.06)

ANONYMOUS  100 MB demo limit?

Exactly on what disk can I demo this software?  
(Version 1.06)

MCPHEARSOM  I have a question to the devlopers and really to Apple. If you keep an iPod defragmented, reducing the amount of work it does when accessing files, does it improve the battery life?

Just a thought...  
(Version 1.05)

MCPHEARSOM  The best just got better. All it needs now is for the graph to let you see which file each individual block is part of like Norton Utilities does.  
(Version 1.05)

SOUTHPAW  Not to rain on anyone's parade, but while Defraging will speed up your computer in many cases, the actual hard drive speed matters as well.

Let me explain. Many of Apple's computer lines, such as the eMac, iBook, and PowerBook are using 4200rpm hard drives when you purchase them. (rpm - revolutions per minute ; higher is generally significantly faster) With only the exception of the PowerBook, you have no other hard drive options at purchase. (through the Apple online store you can customize a powerbooks hard drive to 5400rpm before purchase) If you upgrade correctly from a 4200rpm hard drive to a 7200rpm hard drive, you're speed will go up significantly, and permanently.

Defragment programs organize your files, making more efficient access, which makes a faster computer... at least until it needs to be defragmented again. So, a defragment program is a temporary solution, as you will have to run it every so often.

Combining both of these solutions is the best choice, if you have the resources for both.   
(Version 1.0.4)

KISSKISS  Does iDefrag construct a graph to let you see how much your HD is fragmented? You know, like DiskWarrior did with their Plus Optimizer. A graph is good as it lets you do a Before and After to see how well the app performed.  
(Version 1.0.4)