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New iBook, what can be deleted to free up space?

B

blodwyn

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 28, 2004
1,147
1
Portland, Oregon
After my 2 months of Powerbook switcher bliss, a friend of mine just took the plunge and bought his first Mac, an iBook with a 30Gb hard drive. It arrived with 9.5Gb already used up so he's asked me if there are any files that can safely be deleted to free up a bit more space, either deleted altogether or which can be moved to an external firewire drive. As ex-Windows users, the first task was always to get rid of all the bundled demo products that came with it to get back to a clean system, so he wants to do the same here.

TIA
 
download Delocalizer from versiontracker.com, it removes language files you dont want to use. also, delete programs or games you dont need. be careful though, dont just delete random files.
 
First, any apps you won't use can be deleted. If you remove GarageBand, also delete it's support files. The app itself is only about 23MB but the support files are 4.5GB--eh, maybe less. I have the Jam Pack so it's probably less, but still substantial. Same deal if he deletes iDVD.

Language packs and printer drivers will shave off about a gigabyte.

Other than that you're only going to get a megabyte or 2 per "thing" that you delete. Sure it adds up, but if you're that desperate for disk space you've got problems.

Stay the hell out of the System folder! You don't need free space that bad.
 
Agreed - he's got 20GB free. Why worry now? These are quality apps, not Windows demo apps. I'd move them to an external, not delete them altogether, even if he gets rid of them - except for the language files. Those can go, and good riddance to them.
 
Unfortunately if your friend is in that great of a need for more HD space then he should see what he can do about getting a bigger one installed. I just got a new ibook w/30g drive and I was concerned about the lack of drive space at first, but I figure if I need more storage I'll either upgrade or just get an external.

But 30gig should be enough for your apps and any games. Just might run into problems when you start cramming on movies/mp3's/pics.
 
Thanks for all your suggestions

Space is obviously not an issue for him right now, but I know that it's pretty easy to fill up a hard disk with multimedia files, so it's good to start with as clean a slate as possible.
 
i was acyually going to ask this same question. If i don't want to delete apps but rather move them like was suggested earlier, is it ok to chuck them in a folder on my windows pc? Of will they **** up and corrupt? I have a large hardrive on my pc and don't use it for much. Trying to keep all my movies on my ibook as i got a tv adapter and its good for watching films on my widescreen
 
There are quite a few demo movies if he has iDVD. They take up about 250MB if I remember rightly.
 
Hi all,

I'm the friend blodwyn asked the original question for.

When I asked the question, I was more concerned at the fact that a third of the disk was already used up and annoyed that I hadn't taken out the opportunity of the disk upgrade when I bought it.

Having played for a few days and loaded all of my digital camera pictures over from my 'wintel' laptop I am more than happy that the apps are worth keeping and that I have plenty of space. Someone mentioned that GarageBand took 4.5Gb - I thought I would remove that, then I had a play and thought I kinda like that so I'll keep it.

I just need to get away from the MS mindset.

Thanks for all of the suggestions,
Hippo
 
Everytime i get a new mac, i reinstall the OS, wipe everything and choose what I want inside it, saves loads of space and its the only time I actually install the OS, after that there isn't anything else left to tinker with...or any need.

For me I removed the printer drivers except for HP's, that saved 400-600MB's.
Lost all the languages except for the few I needed, that saved me tons of space.
Removed GarageBand, iMovie, WorldBook, OS9 and so forth, everything i think for the OS was just under a 1GB. Don't forget, a 30GB is actually 27GB when formatted so you lost 3 GB's there are well.

Plus I have the same iBook with drive, my other solution was to buy an external Lacie drive, now i have another 140GB's as well.
 
CrackedButter said:
Everytime i get a new mac, i reinstall the OS, wipe everything and choose what I want inside it, saves loads of space and its the only time I actually install the OS, after that there isn't anything else left to tinker with...or any need.

For me I removed the printer drivers except for HP's, that saved 400-600MB's.
Lost all the languages except for the few I needed, that saved me tons of space.
Removed GarageBand, iMovie, WorldBook, OS9 and so forth, everything i think for the OS was just under a 1GB. Don't forget, a 30GB is actually 27GB when formatted so you lost 3 GB's there are well.

Plus I have the same iBook with drive, my other solution was to buy an external Lacie drive, now i have another 140GB's as well.
Click to expand...

Ditto on the fresh install. I did that on my 12'' Powerbook after using it for about 2 months and I saved a ton of space. I have a 40gig drive in mine and reinstalling OSX and removing all the extra crap made the install about 1gig. I haven't had any use for classic or any of the other stuff that comes preinstalled. If he wants to use things like iDVD, iMovie, or Garageband, he can always reinstall it later.

Reinstalling OSX is quick, only took about 15-20 minutes on my PB.
 
CrackedButter / Celeron,

I understand what you are saying, but as someone who has been mac aware for only a few days, can you elaborate.

When I switched the machine on for the first time, it asked for a CD to be inserted and performed what I thought was a fresh install of OS X - obviously not - what did that do then ?

Hippo
 
hippotech said:
CrackedButter / Celeron,

I understand what you are saying, but as someone who has been mac aware for only a few days, can you elaborate.

When I switched the machine on for the first time, it asked for a CD to be inserted and performed what I thought was a fresh install of OS X - obviously not - what did that do then ?

Hippo
Click to expand...

Being a relatively new Mac user myself I'm not sure I can provide you with a whole lot of extra info. When I turned on my PB for the first time it went through the initial setup but I wasn't required to insert any cds. The fresh install I'm referring to requires that you insert your OSX cd and reboot your machine. On my Powerbook it simply booted off the CD and I followed the on screen instructions to do erase and resinstall OSX. Before clicking the install button I went through and customized the installation to remove the items I didn't want installed like MS Internet Explorer and Classic. The button is easy to miss and I almost didn't see it, but its there in the installation program.

Sorry, I'm not sure why you had to insert your CD the first time around.
 
With a mac you just use the CD's provided, put the first installation disk back into the machine and it will run the installer, reboot and then go through the process of wiping your machine and putting the new OS on it.

Back up your stuff first though. :)
 
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