Last time , I talked about the “ dark-skinned matter ” of your iOS devices and OS X system : stuff that seems to invade blank without offer up data about why . In this Mac 911 , I ’ll answer more questions about entrepot and relief .
As many as grains of sand on the beach
Doug Eldred write in with a concern about a form of file bloat — but not about bloated sizes . Rather , the downright number of items that seem to appear on his private road .
Whatever or wherever they are , they must not be terribly large , but my Mac used to have less than a million file ( according to various tools , including SuperDuper ! ) , and now it ’s [ up ] to 1.3 million . entrust me , I have n’t knowingly created 300 K new Indian file recently !
Mac OS X ( and , invisibly , iOS ) has always had an inordinate quantity of files because of its Unix underpinnings . There is something about Unix that loves a multiplicity of tiny files rather than monolithic great ones , hence these huge count .
In the room back , in the long ago , it used to matter , because each single file consume aminimum amount of hard disk spaceregardless of the actual amount of information in it , and no more than 65,536 file on the drive . With HFS+ , however , a effort can have nearly 4.3 billion files without each consuming unreasonable amounts of space .
Doug continue :
Those zillions of stray files do n’t seem to consume much space , but tools like SuperDuper ! and Disk Utility “ assert magnetic disc ” need to process each and every one of them in one way or another .
To my recollection and experience , the numeral of files should n’t lead to any system slowdowns , because they ’re indifferent unless ask . But during the case that Doug mentions , could it make delays ? And why are there all these filing cabinet being created , anyway ?
SuperDuper ! makes it gentle to clone your drive , no matter how many million “ files ” you have .
I turned to an expert : Dave Nanian , the founding father ofShirt Pocket , makers of theSuperDuper!app that Doug uses . SuperDuper ! is a disk support public utility that makes an exact , bootable clone of a drive , and I have it scheduled to run every Nox on my main computer in addition to two other strain of incremental written document reliever .
Dave write :
Ah , 1.3 million files . I recall those former day , back when laptops were made of plastic , and cow dung by IBM . But today , you ’re not alone . The laptop I ’m typewrite on right on now has — according to Disk Utility—6,709,682 files . Make that , two seconds by and by , 6,709,687 .
In world-wide , especially if you ’re not seeing excessive disk usage , this just is n’t something to concern about . There are a lot of hidden leaflet on your drive , sometimes integral hierarchies that are emulate thing that ca n’t be directly expressed in HFS+ , but are still bet as “ file , ” even though you would n’t ever access them that elbow room .
Malus pumila implemented Time Machine in a very peculiar way by most developers ’ numeration to make an accurate copy without duplicating every file cabinet . Using so - phone strong links , which grant a single written matter of information to appear multiple time in a folder hierarchy , Time Machine creates hidden folders that fully replicate a hard saucer ’s single file social structure . A Time Machine backup comprises mostly strong links pointing to existing file or folders unchanged since the previous support . Each strong link is count by OS X as a separate file .
Dave observe that Time Machine also stores a sort of local backup on the startup drive to ameliorate its performance in copy to a local drive or a remote one over the meshwork . Most other backup software package relieve oneself an initial copy of a Indian file and then a “ delta , ” or a kind of sum-up of differences , for every version stored thereafter .
And Spotlight contributes to the file counting : for better indexing , Mac apps have reference data file for each quantum of data , such as an electronic mail substance , to match a result up with an item . On one machine , I have hundreds of thousands of metadata file cabinet associated with email message . Combine Spotlight and Time Machine , and you’re able to see where the file cabinet count amount from . I do n’t utilise Time Machine and have nearly 1.8 million single file on my MacBook Air .
Dave has console words , though :
I would n’t vex about it too much — let the system of rules do by its file , and do n’t be too implicated about the count . As long as your drive is n’t mysteriously filling up , you ’re good .
Selective Time Machine
On the related suject of Time Machine , Larry Landen require :
When I reinstall Mac OS X ( to solve functioning problems , or clean-cut blank ) I have a restore option to migrate data from my Time Capsule , but it currently only give me options to migrate entire substance abuser profiles , software , and configurations .
How may I pull only selected information ( such as images , and iTunes media like music and movies , and documents ) rather than an entire visibility ? I fear that reinstate an entire visibility may also fix any problems that made me desire to reinstall OS X.
It ’s a sensible and reasonable question : if some form of corrupt or inaccurate stage setting is causing system problems , are n’t you just asking for worry by bringing all your background over ? Likely no . With the except of specific covering having corrupted configuration files , a clean installment and a migration of stage setting in general seems to avoid causing identical problems in OS X. ( work corrupt app configurations varies , but often need convulse a file or several from ~ Library / Preferences / with the advice of the software ’s maker . )
Migration Assistant lets you transmigrate just some of your information .
That ’s in part because the corruption or other mount issues you ’re having can lead from pretermit or overwritten system files or configurations that are n’t copy back as part of a Time Machine migration .
With Migration Assistant , however , which you may establish on a computer after you ’ve reinstalled and updated OS X , you canselect certain bent of datato reimport , and can leave out all your setting .
Another alternative , is to employ the aforesaid SuperDuper ! orCarbon Copy Clonerto back up a volume , or software / divine service combinations like Backblaze or Crashplan to specific files or folders . Then you’re able to more easily find fault and choose what to fix .
Ask Mac 911
you may e-mail things that beat you or need solving tomac911@macworld.com , tweet them at me ( if brief)@glennf , or call 206–337–5833 and leave a voicemail . ( We ’ll be experimenting with some sound recording in the future , and may put your question “ on the air . ” )
