[timind]

I use an external 2TB hard drive with my Mac Mini for music storage and playback. I'm wondering if it needs any maintenance type actions.
I do back it up every so often.

[R_burke]

It's a hard drive and it doesn't really matter what is stored on it.  How often do you defrag your internal hard drive, or any other drives you have

[FullRangeMan]

In W XP you should do defrag periodically,
in W7 it do it automatic.

[Vincent Kars]

You can try to defrag, won't do harm.
As it is a Mini = Unix it won't have the same fragmentation problems as Windows

http://www.howtogeek.com/115229/htg-explains-why-linux-doesnt-need-defragmenting/

[dB Cooper]

As Kars notes, since he has a Mac, Windows doesn't apply.

I'd say it's not critical especially if you are playing using software that loads the current song into memory. But it can't hurt.

[ctviggen]

I haven't defragged a drive in Windows in many, many years.   

[timind]

My windows computer defrags automatically. With the Mac I have no clue so I guess I'll let it alone.
Thanks for the responses.

[RDavidson]

There's no need to defrag a solid state drive (assuming that's what you have). In fact, it could be detrimental to performance if you do so. The way data is written to and retrieved from a solid state drive is very different from old, mechanical, hard disc drives (which needed to be defragged periodically). Check this out:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047513/fragging-wonderful-the-truth-about-defragging-your-ssd.html

[Nalor]

The more modern file systems have gotten away from the need schedule a defragmentation. Many of them will already do some optimizations in the background. And in the case of SSD, its not really needed.