MacBook Air Owners: How to Save HD Space

[jwkitche]

AppZapper

What about AppZapper? Can it remove the native programs (like Garageband and iDVD) effectively? It seems to do a great job with thing that I have installed and would be a ton easier to use than to do a re-install utilizing another computer's DVD drive to reinstall OS 10.5 via the air disk utility.

Would using a combination of AppZapper and Monolingual be the best solution?

Also, do any of these programs (iMovie/iDVD/Garageband) rely on each other? Will I run into a problem using iMovie if I have unistalled Garageband?

Thanks,

John

 

[uber gorilla]

Should I be living with the Flintstones?

Maybe I'm stuck in the proverbial stone-age here, people, but even on the SSD MBA there seems to be ample space for files etc. The laptop I currently own (and will be glad to chuck out in the bin!) is an eight-year old Toshiba Satellite. It's HD has only 6GB capacity, and I'm only using half of that with everything I need in place. So why do I need dozens of GB on ANY computer these days?

Unless I'm missing some really super obvious fact here....

 

[eddietr]

Maybe I'm stuck in the proverbial stone-age here, people, but even on the SSD MBA there seems to be ample space for files etc. The laptop I currently own (and will be glad to chuck out in the bin!) is an eight-year old Toshiba Satellite. It's HD has only 6GB capacity, and I'm only using half of that with everything I need in place. So why do I need dozens of GB on ANY computer these days?

Unless I'm missing some really super obvious fact here....

Well, for one thing modern OSes and Apps are much larger than 8 years ago.

I doubt Leopard can be squeezed into a 6GB drive.

And then people have lot of media now. Documents are much larger, especially Office 2008 docs I'm seeing.

It's not unusual with fast internet connection for your downloads folder alone to swell to several GB even if you are in the habit of cleaning it regularly.

For me, I think 64 will be tight. I plan to re-install the OS, drop Apps I don't need, and keep my media on my MP. But still.

 

[bmpwe]

And certainly something akin to AppZapper should be able to handle the removal of select applications if you plan to keep most everything and avoid a reinstall.

I can attest that AppZapper is a great program. If you want to "zap" default Apple apps, be sure to unselect "Keep default apps safe" option in the preferences.

AppZapper safely removed sever default apps for me.

 

[ubercool]

My thoughts are that you really don't need to put much on your MBA if you have another Mac at home with broadband and .Mac you can take advantage of the Back to My Mac browsing and Screen Sharing to control your home machine or grab files from it. As long as you have a wifi signal where you are that is.

That's a great tip, thanks roland!

 

[QCassidy352]

I do a fresh install to remove the ibloat on every new mac.

 

[ViperrepiV]

this will be my first mac....how do you wipe and reinstall the OS / iLife? what are the steps you need to take?

 

[ubercool]

this will be my first mac....how do you wipe and reinstall the OS / iLife? what are the steps you need to take?

You use the installer to control what you reinstall. I know for iLife that means skipping over iDVD and iMovie, assuming you don't use those.

 

[johnkountz]

Try disabling encryption

couple of questions with the reinstalling of leopard and doing a customization to save space.

i first tried to do this remotely but to no avail. when I got to the part where it has you select your wireless network...well for some reason mine isn't listed, but it is listed when I connect to the internet? what's up with that?

so then I manually type in my networks name and password... and It continuously searches for it... but never finds it!

anyone have any ideas as to why I can't connect remotely? but I can connect to the network to access the internet?

so then about saving all the unneeded items. I also bought the external optical drive. and went ahead and tried a customized install... but ... it is very limited on what you can delete or not delete?

for instance, I do not want garageband, but if I don't install that then I don't install iDVD which I want. So can I install it and then delete it at later time? like right now!!!

lastly, my questions is with the printer files. What exactly is the consequence of deleting it? In my wireless network I have a hp printer, so I would want to keep the hp pinter file right?

and then if I would delete all of the other printer files (samsung,canon, etc), does that mean if I am ever in someone else's network I couldn't use their wireless printer if it is some name that i deleted?

sorry for the length. I'm just really bummed that my remote disk is not working the way it should. I really hope it is not faulty!!!

thanks in advance

I read a comment elsewhere indicating that you have to disable encryption on your wireless during network installation. Maybe try disabling WEP (or whatever encryption you may be using) on your Wireless network and give it another try.

 

[Thomi]

I read a comment elsewhere indicating that you have to disable encryption on your wireless during network installation. Maybe try disabling WEP (or whatever encryption you may be using) on your Wireless network and give it another try.

I thought having read that WEB encription will be ok for using the MBA but not work for reinstalling the OS on it. In this case you shall encrypt with WPA.

 

[uber gorilla]

thanks, eddietr, I think I'm up to date now

 

[etorres]

I would strongly suggest leaving the printer drivers, as they are pretty well integrated into the operating system and you never know when you might need them. Get rid of the programs you know you will never use. I just deleted Garageband using Appzapper and that freed up 1 Gb of free space. iDVD and mail are probably next to go. Do a manual install when installing office to get rid of the unnecessary language packs.
Another thing I did was download a free program called youpi optimizer... it permitted me to get rid of all the language packs that came preinstalled with leopard. That permitted me to free up almost 4 Gb of space! So far I have freed up almost 6 Gb of space and looking to free up some more. Believe me, that space will come in handy some time. So as of now I have 56.72 GB of free space to play with.

Until affordable 128 Gb SSD hard drives appear in the market I will have to make do with my 80 Gb of space.