Make my Mac go faster!

[monkeychoo]

I am using a Mac (iBook 600Mhz) but recently it has been running really slow. A friend told me the best option is to defragment it but I have no idea how to. Is this the best option, and if so how do I do this? Im quite Mac savvy but cant remember how to defrag it! Thanks everyone!

[honkytonkman]

There is no actual 'defrag' option like on a Windows PC. One piece of essential software if you're running OS9 and earlier is DiskWarrior. This runs off the CD and rebuilds the directories on your HD so your Mac can find it's way around the HD more easily. We used to run it every couple of weeks on our older Macs just to keep everything 'tuned-up'. Norton Utilities is similar but much more invasive so I personally wouldn't recommend it for a Mac. But are you running OSX? If so, it's a real memory-hog and likes at least 3Gb spare HD space to do it's thinking and also uses a fair bit of RAM to do so. Most of the iBooks had a max RAM capacity of 640mb so OSX on one of these would slow things down noticeably. Hope this of some help.