new mac, new to mac, and a couple of questions

First, the easy one -- I don't know the answer to the Spanish keyboard question, but this will let you find out the answer and also other similar answers:

Open Sys Prefs -> International Pane -> Input Menu tab and check Keyboard Viewer in the list. You will get a flag in the menu bar, and if you click on it, you can open the keyboard viewer. When you press Shift and Option and so on, you will see what keys do. The "@" is most likely some combination of a key with option and/or shift.

Now, for the free space. Two things. First, the formatted capacity issue. By tradition, hard drive manufacturers and computer software measure hard drive sizes differently. For the former, 1 megabyte = 1 million bytes, whereas for the latter, 1 megabyte = 1024^2 bytes, and so on. As a result of this stackup, a hard drive has a smaller formatted capacity than labelled -- the full formatted capacity of an 80GB drive is only about 75GB. That's not an OS X issue -- it's true on all computers.

But that's not your whole issue... 20GB does seem like a lot. OSX should take up about 4GB, and then GarageBand and iLife take up another 2-3GB. If apps take up 2GB more, that's still only < 10GB, whereas you have 20GB of space used so far. Start by opening Disk Utility (in the Applications/Utilities folder) and seeing what it says the formatted capacity of the drive is -- it should be about 75GB. So make sure you were not accidentally shipped the wrong drive.

Probably it's OS X, iLife and some other apps bundled with the system...but then again mkrishnan is right there...

In the event that your drive is indeed the expected size then you can trace where your disk space has gone to using OmniDiskSweeper, which is free and will scan your disk and show you the biggest directories in order of size. You can uninstall software such as GarageBand if you don't need it (and GarageBand takes up a fair amount of space) but you'll want to search for instructions on how to do it since uninstalling Apple's own applications can tend to cause problems later unless you did it right. In my case I did not install GarageBand at all since I've see before how much space it consumes with its loops.

Best way to free up HDD space on a new Mac is to pop in the restore DVD and do a fresh install. Follow all the initial instructions and when you get to the page that asks you where to install the OS to there should be a "customise" button, hit this and go through all the stuff, languages, bundled applications, printer drivers etc and uncheck everything you don't feel like you'll need.

If you get rid of all the printer drivers you don't need, languages you don't speak, Garageband and it's loops, iDVD and it's themes, you'll gain back a fair whack of that space. You can also decide to kick off some of the bundled apps like ComicLife if you don't feel the need for them.

Chundles' suggestion is the easiest way to get the most free space out of a brand new computer--since you haven't put anything on the drive yet, there's no hassle involved in wiping it clean and reinstalling.

And a note on those printer drivers listed in the installer: Note that they're called "Additional" printer drivers, and that's for a reason--there is a VERY good chance, at least in my experience, that if you have a common printer model you don't need ANY of them, even the one for your printer's manufacturer. Those extra drivers are just that--drivers for obscure and older printers by those makers, and consume quite a bit of space.

If you end up without a driver for your printer, you can always download it from the manufacturer's website, or just go back to the installer and install those extra drivers later--they can be added after the fact I believe, though I've never done it.

garageband came with my MBP. should i delete it? i'll never use it.

d wade said:

garageband came with my MBP. should i delete it? i'll never use it.

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It's on the install discs with the rest of iLife, so you can if you would like to. But note that the majority of the bulk of GB is *not* in the application package -- it's one of those few apps that store a significant amount of data elsewhere. Peruse this thread for more details.

mkrishnan said:

It's on the install discs with the rest of iLife, so you can if you would like to. But note that the majority of the bulk of GB is *not* in the application package -- it's one of those few apps that store a significant amount of data elsewhere. Peruse this thread for more details.

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cool. thanks. i probly wont delete it anyway. im not struggling for HD space, so ill just keep it. i dont wanna mess with default stuff. i got like 35gb available... so for now i'll be fine i think

all the preinstalled stuff takes up 16gigs, i would recommend you format and reinstall os x... i didnt install the printer drivers and word, garageband sounds... etc and is now only like 4gigs, ilife is all there tho.. i wouldnt not recommend you uninstall garageband if you plan on using your line-in and listen to it on your macbook because thats the only program that i know of that lets you do that..

galloman said:

how do I create a "favorites" folder in Safari?

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Bookmarks > Add Bookmark Folder.