Since most MacBooks are SSD-only, one would think Apple would be careful about leaving junk around on the drive. But many people are finding 5 GB wasted for a years-old leftover Mac OS X install image! Here's how to reclaim that space if you're missing it... Lost+Found In a brief DuckDuckGo search, I discovered that it's fairly common for a Mac OS X upgrade to leave … [Read more...] about Check Your Mac’s Drive and Reclaim 5 GB of Wasted Space!
file system
The Four Horsemen of Storage System Performance: Get Smart
Why do some data storage solutions perform better than others? What tradeoffs are made for economy and how do they affect the system as a whole? These questions can be puzzling, but there are core truths that are difficult to avoid. Mechanical disk drives can only move a certain amount of data. RAM caching can improve performance, but only until it runs out. I/O channels can be … [Read more...] about The Four Horsemen of Storage System Performance: Get Smart
Microsoft Adds Data Deduplication to NTFS in Windows 8
The next version of Microsoft Windows Server includes integrated data deduplication technology. Microsoft is positioning this as a boon for server virtualization and claims it has very little performance impact. But how exactly does Microsoft's de-duplication technology work? Introducing Windows 8 Deduplication Let's make one thing clear right from the start: Microsoft … [Read more...] about Microsoft Adds Data Deduplication to NTFS in Windows 8
AncientFS Opens Archaic Filesystems To Mac OS X
Just a quick note: Google's Amit Singh recently introduced a new addition to the MacFUSE user-space filesystem software for OS X: AncientFS allows the Mac to read a host of archaic file systems and data container formats, from DECtape to Dump to the various flavors of the standard UNIX file system. This ought to be useful for those of us who have standardized our desktops on … [Read more...] about AncientFS Opens Archaic Filesystems To Mac OS X
Symantec’s Thin API: The Plot Thickens
Last week, I lauded Symantec for introducing an API in Storage Foundation which will interact with the thin storage capabilities of supported arrays. Since then, I've learned more about this capability, and I am writing this update to share that knowledge. As I noted last week, the press release was a bit hard to follow and comprehend (and not just for me), and one of my … [Read more...] about Symantec’s Thin API: The Plot Thickens