How to set noatime for startup drive in Mountain Lion?

Solution 1:

Ok, I think I've got it working.

Add the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.nullvision.noatime.plist with contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" 
        "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.nullvision.noatime</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>mount</string>
            <string>-vuwo</string>
            <string>noatime</string>
            <string>/</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
</plist>

Run these:

• sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.nullvision.noatime.plist
• sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.nullvision.noatime.plist
• sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.nullvision.noatime.plist

The permissions have to be set to that for launchctl not to complain.

Then you've got this on restart:

$ mount | grep " / "
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled, noatime)

You can check if it runs by looking in the console:

29/07/12 2:55:45.334 PM sudo[978]:     Aram : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Library/LaunchDaemons ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.nullvision.noatime.plist

Solution 2:

The tool Chameleon SSD Optimizer will work for this and it also enables TRIM. I did a lot of research and most were directing to TRIM Enabler. Then, I read few but VERY good news about this one and opted for it as it seemed newer, more stable and with no or fewer bugs.

I installed did it on my iMac (2,5 GHz i5, 16GB Ram, OCZ Vertex3 120GB SSD [boot disk] + original 500GB HD) running OS X 10.7.5. Although it was already a nice fast machine, this made things feel even faster. I use my iMac for photo and video editing with Adobe Packages and everything's stable with this addition.

Solution 3:

I was having this same problem in ML. I followed the instructions you linked to and kept getting the same result as you.

Davids-MacBook-Pro:~ davidsilver$ mount | grep " / "
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)

However, Harald Hanche-Olsen's recommendation to run sudo mount -vuwo noatime / seemed to correct the problem.

Davids-MacBook-Pro:~ davidsilver$ mount | grep " / "
/dev/disk0s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled, noatime)