I've installed 10.5 - what happened to 10.4?

[joefinan]

Something that Macs do (and one of my biggest bugbears) is the way it copies files all over the place rather than moving them/deleting the original. For example, import photos in iPhoto and it copies them into a folder deep in the system and leaves the originals for me to delete. Same with iTunes.

Has it done the same with the OS? Has it installed several GBs of 10.5 whilst leaving all the 10.4 data too?

If so, can I delete it? Cos my HDD is getting very, very full...

 

[Littleodie914]

It shouldn't have left any of the 10.4 system files behind. If you did an archive and install, there will be a folder at the base of your hard drive titled "Previous Systems" which will have your saved applications, user information/data, etc. which you can import into the new apps.

If you did an Upgrade, and you don't have a "Previous Systems" folder, then that's pretty much as consolidated as you're going to get.

But to answer your first question, if I were to import some songs from a friend's USB thumb drive, I certainly wouldn't want iTunes to delete the originals. Same for photos, though it would be a convenience in some situations, you really *don't* want the OS assuming you want it to delete things.

 

[Slip]

I think that the installation of a new OS totally wipes the drive if you go for a Erase & Install, hence when you start up for the first time you have around about 10GB on the HD *IIRC* as everything else has been erased to make way for the new files.
And like Littleodie914 said, you don't especially want it to delete the originals straight out, even if it is a little annoying and time consuming.

 

[HLdan]

Something that Macs do (and one of my biggest bugbears) is the way it copies files all over the place rather than moving them/deleting the original. For example, import photos in iPhoto and it copies them into a folder deep in the system and leaves the originals for me to delete. Same with iTunes.

Has it done the same with the OS? Has it installed several GBs of 10.5 whilst leaving all the 10.4 data too?

If so, can I delete it? Cos my HDD is getting very, very full...

Not to be rude and question your intelligence but did you know that you can simply go into the preferences menu on iPhoto and choose the advanced tab and uncheck "Copy items to the iPhoto Library"?

You can do the same for iTunes , Preferences, Advanced, uncheck "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library".

Now, in iPhoto this may be fine since you can drag and drop your pics from the UI in order to save them but if you have tons of pics it's best to keep it the original way.

In iTunes, if you don't copy to the music folder then you can't back up your music. This function is best suited for when you want to back up your music to an external hard disk so to prevent two copies of your music.

Please go beyond the UI and check preferences before you get upset and blame the OS over something you actually have control over.

 

[apfhex]

In iTunes, if you don't copy to the music folder then you can't back up your music.

How does keeping your music files in a different directory stop you from backing them up? Rhetorical question — it doesn't. Unless you're talking about a backup solution I've not used, like .Mac?

Something that Macs do (and one of my biggest bugbears) is the way it copies files all over the place rather than moving them/deleting the original.

This isn't "something that Macs do", it's something a few specific programs (albeit made by Apple) do. To answer your question, it depends on what kind of install you did. If you just did a regular Upgrade, it would have overwritten the old OS files with the new. If you chose Archive Install, then it would have archived the old system in a folder on the HDD for you to do with as you please.