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[xochi]

Originally Posted by dnanian

One thing to check here, xochi, is whether that folder is exceptionally fragmented. Since we're going to be accessing every one of the files' information, it's quite possible that a fragmented, large folder will cause OSX itself trouble.

Good question. As it happens, I was using SuperDuper prior to installing a larger hard drive in my powerbook, which was nearly full. So fragmentation could be an issue.

I'm now duplicating the tests on my 120 gig drive (40 gig free) which would have no fragmentation at all (since it was just copied over from scratch).

Test 1
1. In apple Mail, I renamed a mail folder that has about 5000 messages.
2. Ran super-duper using smart update option.
Results: although it slowed down when got to the 5000 files, it still was able to process several hundred files per second (not the 10 or so that I was seeing before). SuperDuper was able to scan 80 gigs (updating about 225mb) in about 9 minutes. No problems here.


Test 2
1. In apple Mail, I renamed the mail folder that holds ALL my list mail (about 70,000 files).
2. Ran super-duper using smart update option.

Results: slower, but still was able to do things pretty fast (about 24 minutes).


So, maybe my original problem was related more to file system fragmentation than anything else?