Looking at HFS+ fragmentation under Mac OS X
updated 02:25 pm EDT, Wed May 19, 2004
HFS+ fragmentation
An article on introduces hfsdebug, a tool for exploring internals of HFS+ volumes and also describes a procedure for quantifying fragmentation in HFS+ volumes, and list the results of applying this procedure to a few volumes: "As we have seen, an HFS+ volume seems to resist fragmentation rather well on Mac OS X 10.3.x, and I don't envision fragmentation to be a problem bad enough to require proactive remedies (such as a defragmenting tool)....Defragmentation on HFS+ volumes should not be necessary at all, or worthwhile, in most cases, because the system seems to do a very good job of avoiding/countering fragmentation."
