Insufficient disk space to install 10.6.6 combo update

[Dreamkatcha]

I've just tried upgrading from 10.6.4 and have been told by Software Update "Your hard disk does not have enough space. You need 6.66 GB of available space to download and install the updates. To increase available space, remove files from your startup disk, and then try again."

I deliberately partitioned my drive to keep my OS separate from everything else and make fresh installs easier. Am I the only one who thinks this is getting ridiculous? I mean, 6.66GB to perform a two-step update. I know how to go about freeing up disk space, but there's no way I'm going to find an extra 3.66GB without trashing essential files... so what options does that leave me with?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You only have 3GB left on your system partition?
That is a bit low, especially when swapping RAM to the HDD.
Do you have a notebook or a desktop? If you have a notebook, you could delete the sleepimage file, which could get you 2 or more GB, depending on the size of your RAM.

You could also delete printer drivers or languages (Monolingual).

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....what if you go to Apple's download page and grab the 10.6.5 updater and the 10.6.6 updater and apply them individually instead of using software update combo updater...that may get you where you want to be, then you can deal with the space issue later....oh yeah!

 

[Dreamkatcha]

It wasn't low before Apple started with this OS bloat-creep nonsense they've long accused Microsoft of, and it's still 25% of the partition so well above the recommended amount of free space.

It's a Mac Mini with no sleepimage to kill and I've already trimmed the fat with Monolingual, but thanks for the tips anyway.

That did the trick Duff-Man, thanks. I'm now up to date. Not that that will stop me pouting in annoyance.

I can't get my head around why Apple wouldn't just let you use another partition to store the temporary files needed to install these combo updates.

 

[TonyK]

Well, there is a lot of code involved just to find and validate those "extra" partitions that not everyone will have.

It would be nice if when the message is triggered, they allowed you to select a partition. No other partitions, show the error. That is more straightforward.

Why not suggest it to Apple?

...

I can't get my head around why Apple wouldn't just let you use another partition to store the temporary files needed to install these combo updates.