Although not discussed in today's keynote, Apple is adding a new "universal" filesystem to iOS and macOS. Apple File System (APFS) will likely replace HFS+ as the default filesystem for Macintosh computers, iPads, and iPhones and brings a wealth of modern features. But judging from the initial developer documentation, that's not going to happen for a few more years. And there's … [Read more...] about macOS Sierra Includes a New Apple File System, APFS
HFS
Check Your Mac’s Drive and Reclaim 5 GB of Wasted Space!
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!
Why Big Disk Drives Require Data Integrity Checking
Hard disk drives keep getting bigger, meaning capacity just keeps getting cheaper. But storage capacity is like money: The more you have, the more you use. And this growth in capacity means that data is at risk from a very old nemesis: Unrecoverable Read Errors (URE). Let's get one thing out of the way from the start: The only thing protecting your data from corruption … [Read more...] about Why Big Disk Drives Require Data Integrity Checking
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
Three Key Storage Features Missing in Mac OS X “Lion”
Last week, at WWDC, Apple introduced many of the features found in their next operating system, OS X “Lion”. At that time, I posted an article about the storage features found in this new release, including integrated revision control, a major update to the FileVault encryption package, and additional enterprise storage protocol support. But, like Snow Leopard, Lion still lacks … [Read more...] about Three Key Storage Features Missing in Mac OS X “Lion”