6 yr old iMac FULL

[Michaellezamiz]

Ok I have an old iMac with a 250g hardrive. As you can imagine over the years it has filled up and slowed down. I upgraded the ram a year ago and it seemed to be working like a champ. Then when I saw it was just about full I bought a 1Tb external hard drive. the Ehd drive has the 250g of info from my iMac on it, but my Mac is still full. For some reason I have the habit of duplicating things and my 15,000 iTunes library and over 10,000 pics seem larger than they are.

How the heck do I put all that music and pics on my EHD and free up all this space on my iMac while not changing the way I know how to use my Mac.
ex. When I plug in my iPad, wife's iPhone, my iPhone, my 2 kids iPod touches, etc.... Will it still find everything even though it's on the EHD? I'm very close to buying a new iMac, but not sure if it's necessary. Lastly what happens to my aperture program, office and other programs I don't have discs for? Please keep the Mac lingo for a pro, I need to be spoon fed when it comes to computers Thank you all in advance.

 

[afd]

Have you thought of replacing the internal HD? Depending on the version of iMac you have, it's not that difficult.
Failing that if you copy your iTunes library from your Music folder to a folder on your external drive and do the same for the iPhoto folder in photos, then providing you have backed up these folders you can delete them from your internal drive. the next time you start iTunes or iPhoto it will say it cant find the library and you can choose the library that you just moved over to the external.

 

[Sijmen]

Firstly, if you’re otherwise happy with the iMac there’s no reason or need to get a new one.

The iMac’s 250GB is plenty for the apps themselves, that is, the stuff in the Applications folder and your settings files. It’s the data, your music, photos, etc., that you want to move.

It’s wise to make a backup (e.g. using Time Machine) before doing anything listed below.

For iTunes: move your iTunes Media (or iTunes Music) folder from the Music folder to your external disk. To move instead of copy, you have to hold the Command key while dragging. Next, start iTunes while holding the Option key (Alt). Click “Choose Library” browse to find the new library. iTunes will now use the library on your external disk.

For iPhoto: likewise, move your iPhoto Library folder from Pictures to your external disk. Hold Option while launching and locate your library. Same deal as with iTunes.

Most other content-heavy apps such as Aperture likely have similar features for moving the library, you’ll find them if you search the web for the app’s name and terms like “move library”.

Also consider using an app like DaisyDisk to see where the disk space is going.