I have read about defragmenting a hard drive, but I can't seem to find it on my Mac, can I do it?

The simple answer is not you can't

Apple Macintosh's operating system, OS X, is different to Windows so it is not always stuck with the same problems as the Microsoft programme has. 

The big difference is the way the the programme looks after itself. While Windows is known for breaking up parts of files and storing them randomly on a hard drive OSX is some what more organised and as such doesn't have a major problem with file fragmentation. 

I have read about defragmenting a hard drive, but I can't seem to find it on my Mac, can I do it?

The simple answer is not you can't

Apple Macintosh's operating system, OS X, is different to Windows so it is not always stuck with the same problems as the Microsoft programme has. 

The big difference is the way the the programme looks after itself. While Windows is known for breaking up parts of files and storing them randomly on a hard drive OSX is some what more organised and as such doesn't have a major problem with file fragmentation.

While there are programmes on the market that offer the ability to defragment you OSX hard drive, performance advantage will not be any where near as great as a Windows user will get from doing the same thing.

Due to the more intelegent way that OSX stores data on your computer the only thing you have to worry about is the ability to read and write files to the hard drive. Luckily, even if the permissions on files get corrupted over time and use you can easily fix them. To do that open your Finder and go to Applications. Then go to Utilities and open your Disk Utilities programmes.

Using this programme you can not only fix the  permissions for files on your computer, you can also delete CD RW and DVD RW's partition your hard drive into smaller disks and even wipe your hard drive clean.

To fix the permissions make sure you are in the "First Aid" section and click on "Verify Disk Permissions". Once it has completed the check you should have some idea of how corrupted the permissions have become. If the windows didn't have a lot to display your system is fine. If it showed a lot you should then click on "Repair Disk Permissions" to fix the errors. 

That is all you actually need to do to keep OS X's hard drive in order. Simple quick and easy to do.