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From: Dudley Brooks <dbrooks@runforyourlife.org>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: How much HD space needed for memory swapping
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2025 12:24:28 -0800
Organization: Run For Your Life! ... it's a dance company
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On 1/17/25 4:33 PM, Your Name wrote:
> On 2025-01-17 21:45:25 +0000, Dudley Brooks said:
>
>> On 1/17/25 1:33 PM, Your Name wrote:
>>
>>> On 2025-01-17 21:13:51 +0000, Dudley Brooks said:
>>>
>>>> On 1/16/25 4:49 PM, Jolly Roger wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 2025-01-16, Dudley Brooks <dbrooks@runforyourlife.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 1/16/25 11:16 AM, Jolly Roger wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 2025-01-16, Dudley Brooks <dbrooks@runforyourlife.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> (I hope that "memory swapping" is the correct term.)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Model:    Late 2013 Macbook Pro
>>>>>>>> OS:    OS X 10.13.6 High Sierra
>>>>>>>> HD:    1 TB, 954.34 GB used, 44.27 GB available
>>>>>>>> CPU:    2.6 GHz Intel
>>>>>>>> Mem:    16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> As you see, my HD is very full.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> As it fills up, I have seen a big dropoff in function -- 
>>>>>>>> programs load
>>>>>>>> much more slowly, can only have a few programs open at the same 
>>>>>>>> time,
>>>>>>>> windows don't open at full size, etc.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I assume this is because of not enough swap space on the HD.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> What is the recommended amount of HD space to keep free for good
>>>>>>>> performance?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> That would depend on how much RAM you actually use, but the general
>>>>>>> recommendation is to keep 10-20% free on the startup drive, 
>>>>>>> depending on how much your system swaps due to low memory 
>>>>>>> conditions. You're way short of that 100 GB (10%).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> OK, thanks!  Now I know what to aim for.  Luckily, it will not be too
>>>>>> difficult to accomplish -- loads of stuff I can get rid of.
>>>>>
>>>>> 🙂👍🏼
>>>>>
>>>>>> Should I defrag afterwards?  Or does the OS (10.13.6 High Sierra) 
>>>>>> make
>>>>>> it somehow unnecessarry
>>>>>
>>>>> That's not something you need to do with flash storage (SSDs).
>>>>
>>>> Ah!  Excellent!  Thanks!
>>>
>>> The original post says "HD", as in hard drive, not SSD flash storage. 
>>> As usual Jolly Roger didn't bother actually reading the question.
>>>
>>> Having noted that, defragging isn't really neccessary on MacOS hard 
>>> drives either.
>>
>> My apologies -- it actually is an SSD.  I just have been using 
>> computers for so long that I still say "HD" generically -- anything 
>> that's not a floppy or a tape!
> 
> It's an easy mistake to make, especially as Apple kept on labelling the 
> main storage drive "Macintosh HD" even long after they were switched 
> over to using SSDs instead.
> 
> But whether you made a mistake or not, it was typed as HD and Jolly 
> Roger replied about SSDs.

And Thank You to both of you.

>>>     Do Mac hard drives need to be defragmented?
>>>     macOS does not include a built-in defragmentation tool
>>>     because it is deemed unnecessary. macOS is designed to
>>>     handle file fragmentation automatically, especially for
>>>     small files. Using an external defragmentation tool on
>>>     a Mac is not recommended.
>>>     <https://www.crucial.com/articles/mac-users/how-to-defragment-a-mac

-- 
Dudley Brooks, Artistic Director
Run For Your Life! ... it's a dance company!
San Francisco