Yes, how much space does it take..and why does my hard drive say available 27.94 GB when its capacity is 30 GB..? Is this difference equal to the space taken by the OS?
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how much space does mac os x 10.3.2 take
- Thread starter abhishekit
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The amount that the system takes up is quite variable, depending on what you install. My Library and System folders combined are 2 GB, then you have to add the size of all the standard applications, the Mac OS 9 system folder if you have Classic, the invisible system files (I can't remember how much space they use), and the Developer folder if you want that. You could get it much smaller though, for instance I have a few things installed that most people won't use, like X11.
You're a little vague in your explanation of the hard disk space. Is this with an empty disk? If so, then the reason is probably to do with gigabytes (10^9) and gibibytes (2^30). When the manufacturer says that it's a 30 GB hard drive, what they actually mean is that it is a 30 gibibyte hard drive, or contains 30 000 000 000 bytes. The OS then displays this in GB, so it looks like less (about 27 GB).
You're a little vague in your explanation of the hard disk space. Is this with an empty disk? If so, then the reason is probably to do with gigabytes (10^9) and gibibytes (2^30). When the manufacturer says that it's a 30 GB hard drive, what they actually mean is that it is a 30 gibibyte hard drive, or contains 30 000 000 000 bytes. The OS then displays this in GB, so it looks like less (about 27 GB).
This is a good clear explanation, but you reversed the terms; hard drive manufacturers give sizes in Gigabytes (multiples of ten, hence 30GB=30 million bytes), while the OS (both the MacOS and Windows, for whatever reason) use Gibibytes, which are a bit bigger (hence 30GB = ~27GiB).
And I agree that about 2GB is a pretty good estimate for the OS and a very basic set of applications. The developer tools add a few hundred megabytes, as do all those extra printer drivers, extra language files, and big applications like iLife (iDVD and Garage Band in particular).
My understanding is that if you do a clean install, the system will be quite compact--like the others say, 2 GB or so. However, if you do an archive and install, it's going to be a lot bigger--because your old system is still intact, plus all the libraries will be copied over to the new system. So it really could be *much* bigger. That's part of why it's a good idea to do a clean install.
I'm a fan of clean installs, but if you archive and install you can delete the old system when you're done. Then it takes up no space.
But aren't the libraries, fonts, etc, copied over? So it could conceivably be very large, even if you delete the old system. And why would you delete it if you did an archive and install? Isn't the point to archive it so you can revert to the old system if you find an unacceptable problem with the new version? So wouldn't you want to keep it for a month or two, just to be sure? This would be a problem if you were low on HD space.
Sorry to be vague, but you got me right. 27.94 GB is the total capacity of the harddrive shown in activity monitor or info.
And its an interesting explanation, because both the manufacturer and system use 'GB' as the unit, so its fairly misleading.
Also, as I noted most guys said, the OS takes about 2 GB, and the difference in the numbers between the capacity on my ibook is 2.06 GB. And I have x11. So may it be possible that the capacity shown is after systema llocation..Just a thought
thanks
I've just recently installed Panther followed by the 10.3.2 update and my Custom install takes up approx. 1.5Gb in total. I opted out of all the language packs, iMovie and iPhoto and this saves alot of space.
I'm wondering if there are further foreign language files I can remove (I remember there used to be utilities to do this) or if the Installer did this already.
I'm wondering if there are further foreign language files I can remove (I remember there used to be utilities to do this) or if the Installer did this already.
It's a good thought, but System Profiler et al report the full, empty size--system files are files just like everything else, so they don't affect the capacity reported by utilities, only the amount of free space left.
By the way, for what it's worth and as confusing as it is, the hard drive manufacturers are actually more right in their numbering scheme; OSes, with their reports in binary "gigabytes" (why can't they just use GiB and call it good) are in the wrong from a scientific standpoint, showing you smaller numbers than you'd expect to see.
As far as your newly installed system being bloated by your old system files being moved over, probably only by a little bit--what gets moved are preferences, fonts, and some (not all) other system utilities/extension type stuff, which for most people only amount to a few dozen megabytes at most. So although your upgraded system will be a bit larger than a virgin one, once you delete the previous system folder the difference is probably minimal.
It is true. though, that the whole point of doing an archive is to keep the old one around in case something goes wrong, which will add an entire extra system folder worth of mostly unnecessary junk for as long as you leave it there. Some people don't modify much and would notice quickly if they're missing something, though, so for them deleting the new folder quickly wouldn't be an issue.
You can use "Delocalizer" found on MacUpdate.com... Most programs you install will install their own localization files. Every month I run this program and it usually frees up about 300MB worth of files. On a clean system install, it wiped out about 250MB or files.
My system install (customized) took about 1.7 GB of space, with most everything being installed (I forget what I didn't install). Also, if you buy a new Mac, some installers (like Developer Tools, AOL) will be put on your HD. If you don't need 'em, trash 'em
Archive and Install is a VERY good option for preserving your OWN data in the /Users/ folder... not the data thats in the /System/ and /Library/ folders. The old folders are copied to a folder called Previous Systems, which you can delete. These folders are kept in case you have some specific files that you find you need after installing the new system (say for instance some web documents in the root webserver directory). Most people would keep this for a week or more, to make sure all their programs work first, but then delete the backup copy. Most OS X Apps install all files in your Home library folder (~/Library/) so that it will not mess up the overall system. Many people will mistake a problem isolated to their user to the entire system, and inappropriately reinstall the entire OS.