Good cleanup utility?

[ckuttner]

OK....we got our new MacBook Pro Retina 4Gb/256Gb, migrated over our stuff from our 160 Gb SSD on the old MacBook, copied some files from another Mac...and the new SSD is within about 20 Gb of being full.

In the old days, there was Spring Cleaning, an app which would find outdated software, duplicates, unnecessary stuff, and help you delete all that. These days, Spring Cleaning has really low review ratings.

Any suggestions? Obviously, want to avoid almost-malware, as some threads here identify Clean My Mac.

Thanks in advance! (meanwhile, I'm backing up with Carbon Copy Cloner just in case our cleaning messes something up)

ck

 

[maflynn]

I find, when going to a new computer, setting it up as new and only restoring the data, this is probably the best way. Plus you only restore what you want. It takes a bit more work but you're left with a clean computer.

As for apps, I'd manually go through ~/Library and /Library to see what doesn't belong there, I never really trusted those apps, they frequently caused more issues then they solved - YMMV however.

 

[Evren Carven]

256Gb-160Gb=96Gb. How many some files do you copy from another Mac? I think it's 76Gb(96Gb-20Gb). wow

 

[ckuttner]

That's my point...I think there are some phantom files that have come into the mix, some duplicates (particularly in iTunes). I opted for the MacLife Bundle yesterday, got Daisy Disk and Drive Genius, so I'll see what I find out.
On a tangent that might become a thread: I recently read a review of a gadget and app, I think in MacLife or MacWorld, but I can't find the article now: A memory card plugs into the SDXC slot, and the software makes the memory look contiguous to the SSD. In other words, a 256 Gb SSD can be expanded by, say, 128 Gb. Now if I could only find that article... (but I still need to clean out some stuff)

 

[monokakata]

I've used an app called "Gemini," which is good at finding duplicates. I'm sure there are many like it, but Gemini worked well for me. I don't think that Gemini works on iTunes, though.

Are you beyond the 14 day return limit? It may be that what you're wanting to do is just impractical with a 256 GB SSD.

 

[Bending Pixels]

Utilities like this are somewhat unnecessary and most either waste your money or can slow your rMBP down.

That said, what sort of "stuff" did you copy over? i.e. just stuff from Documents, Music, Movies and Pictures? Or did you copy over applications and system files too?

 

[ckuttner]

Thanks, folks...besides what we migrated, it was some documents from wife's desktop, plus probably the biggest space hog, all her photos. Found a utility to weed out duplicate photos, and we can also use Disk Genius to help find duplicate files otherwise. I've been manually finding old apps that won't run and deleting them.
So far, if I recall correctly--I'm at the office now--I have gotten several Gb free.
Didn't find that app + hardware I saw the review for, but did find this intriguing option:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AOTJB5C...UTF8&colid=YVSP0V0NG6IX&coliid=I2C7O3WTNZDNZ5