Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hp-sde!hpcea!hpcilzb!tedj
From: tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: question about disk compaction
Message-ID: <870169@hpcilzb.HP.COM>
Date: 21 May 88 07:02:11 GMT
References: <32435@linus.UUCP>
Organization: HP Design Tech Center - Santa Clara, CA
Lines: 13


It's not the act of compacting your disk that gives you the speed up.  It's the
act of *unfragmenting* your disk.  When your Mac writes files to disk, it
puts things in the first place it finds room.  If there isn't enough room
to store a file contiguously (sp?) on the disk, then it writes sections of
it all over.  The reason fragmented programs run slower is that the disk
drive has to seek all over the place for pieces of the program.  A disk
defragmenter tries to make all your applications contiguous again.  I use
Disk Express on my SE HD20 once every week or so.  The speedup is noticeable,
but not outstanding.  The Mac boots quicker, and programs start up quicker.
BTW, Disk Express isn't share/freeware.  I got it for $30.00 from MacConnection.

-Ted