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New Macbook Pro C2D - comes with 18gigs USED on HD!!

R

RestlessCaviar

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 27, 2006
207
56
Hi

I was utterly astonished to find that the preinstalled Mac OS X and software takes no less that 18 gigs!!!

Can someone tell me how I can significantly reduce that please?

Thanks

Marcos
 
3 or 4 Gigs (seriously) is taken by the templates and loops for iWeb, iDVD and GarageBand. If you are not going to use one or more of these applications remove all of the support files.

Quite a lot of space is normally taken up with the resources for other languages. Something like Monligual can remove these but if used without care you can end up breaking Rosetta...
 
Crikey - looking further, I'm further stunned to note there is no equivlent of the Windows Software Add/Remove program!

This is not a good start with OS X

Should come with a warning - A 111GB formatted disk will only leave you 93 GB to play with...
 
Problem solved

Reinstalling the OS from scratch - saw an option for 'custom' install on one of the screens.

I deselected everything I could, then just added back only the extra fonts, a few european languages, and the CPU tools.

Down to 3 gigs - more like it!!!
 
RestlessCaviar said:
Problem solved

Reinstalling the OS from scratch - saw an option for 'custom' install on one of the screens.!
Click to expand...

That's the first thing I always do when I buy a new Mac, wipe the HD (zeroing all data, it's a purity thing ;)) and then install without all the crap Apple insists on installing as default.
 
iGav said:
That's the first thing I always do when I buy a new Mac, wipe the HD (zeroing all data, it's a purity thing ;)) and then install without all the crap Apple insists on installing as default.
Click to expand...

Quite - I didn't feel happy about chipping away here and there at an 18 gigabyte mountain of bloatware! Nuke the lot and start again

Does take quite a bit of time though - I'd say 45 minutes
 
RestlessCaviar said:
Crikey - looking further, I'm further stunned to note there is no equivlent of the Windows Software Add/Remove program!

This is not a good start with OS X
Click to expand...
You don't need an app like this. To install you normally just drag an app into the Applications folder and to delete you drag it into the trash. That's it.
 
Veldek said:
You don't need an app like this. To install you normally just drag an app into the Applications folder and to delete you drag it into the trash. That's it.
Click to expand...

Hmm - I challenge you, Mister Veldek, to get an 18 gig install to a 3 gig install, without reinstalling as I did. I'd bet anything you like you couldn't do it :) :) :)
 
RestlessCaviar said:
Hmm - I challenge you, Mister Veldek, to get an 18 gig install to a 3 gig install, without reinstalling as I did. I'd bet anything you like you couldn't do it :) :) :)
Click to expand...
It wasn't my intention to say I could do it like that. To me, the question seemed to be about another context, so I gave a seperate answer. I'm wondering though, if you could do this task with the Windows add/remove software. I don't use Windows, so I don't know.
 
Veldek said:
It wasn't my intention to say I could do it like that. To me, the question seemed to be about another context, so I gave a seperate answer. I'm wondering though, if you could do this task with the Windows add/remove software. I don't use Windows, so I don't know.
Click to expand...

Oh I see.

Well, I find the XP Add/remove software tool pretty good. It does depend a little on how well the software vendor implemented the removal process, but generally if you've got 10 gigs of software to remove, you can do it with a few clicks, rather than hunting through directories, individually sending stuff to the trashcan
 
RestlessCaviar said:
Oh I see.

Well, I find the XP Add/remove software tool pretty good. It does depend a little on how well the software vendor implemented the removal process, but generally if you've got 10 gigs of software to remove, you can do it with a few clicks, rather than hunting through directories, individually sending stuff to the trashcan
Click to expand...

OSX is even better. Apart from some specific apps with large amounts of support files outside the application bundle (normally Apple apps strangely) you simply drag the application to the trash.

Applications in OSX are folders that contain the code and resources for the application so there should not need to be and rooting through folders...
 
18GB used isn't much as my first Macbook came with 25GB used :eek: A clean install does the trick, depending on what apps you need I was able to save 18GB :)
 
Yeah...

RestlessCaviar said:
Crikey - looking further, I'm further stunned to note there is no equivlent of the Windows Software Add/Remove program!

This is not a good start with OS X

Should come with a warning - A 111GB formatted disk will only leave you 93 GB to play with...
Click to expand...

That's because all you have to do when you want to get rid of an application is drag it to the trash...
 
You actually can get OS X down to about 3 gigs without doing a clean reinstall. I've done it before, although it is easier on a ppc mac since you don't have to worry about accidently destroying rosetta.

You may want to look into a program called appzapper. It's sort of the equivalent of the windows add/remove programs dialog box. Note that it does cost something.

The whole reason that windows requires that add/remove dialog box is because of the registry. With macs there is no registry and most apps are self contained so they can just be dragged to the trash. As other have said some apps have additional files, logs, folders, etc... found throughout the system folders. I've found that a spotlight search with the name of the app is generally enough to get rid of those.

Finally, that extra 18 GB of stuff isn't bloatware. Most of it is the iLife suite, which I certainly wouldn't qualify as bloatware.
 
panoz7 said:
You actually can get OS X down to about 3 gigs without doing a clean reinstall. I've done it before, although it is easier on a ppc mac since you don't have to worry about accidently destroying rosetta.

You may want to look into a program called appzapper. It's sort of the equivalent of the windows add/remove programs dialog box. Note that it does cost something.

The whole reason that windows requires that add/remove dialog box is because of the registry. With macs there is no registry and most apps are self contained so they can just be dragged to the trash. As other have said some apps have additional files, logs, folders, etc... found throughout the system folders. I've found that a spotlight search with the name of the app is generally enough to get rid of those.

Finally, that extra 18 GB of stuff isn't bloatware. Most of it is the iLife suite, which I certainly wouldn't qualify as bloatware.
Click to expand...


Appzapper is a ripoff when you can get the same thing for free

http://reggie.ashworth.googlepages.com/appdelete
App delete

Does the same job :)

I was amazed as well at the default install size of os x on new macs but if you reinstall it can be reduced massively.
 
Veldek said:
It wasn't my intention to say I could do it like that. To me, the question seemed to be about another context, so I gave a seperate answer. I'm wondering though, if you could do this task with the Windows add/remove software. I don't use Windows, so I don't know.
Click to expand...

the best you can do is hack a config file and remove some of the bloat, but the short answer is no, you can't do that with windows add/remove programs.
 
panoz7 said:
You actually can get OS X down to about 3 gigs without doing a clean reinstall. I've done it before, although it is easier on a ppc mac since you don't have to worry about accidently destroying rosetta.

You may want to look into a program called appzapper. It's sort of the equivalent of the windows add/remove programs dialog box. Note that it does cost something.

The whole reason that windows requires that add/remove dialog box is because of the registry. With macs there is no registry and most apps are self contained so they can just be dragged to the trash. As other have said some apps have additional files, logs, folders, etc... found throughout the system folders. I've found that a spotlight search with the name of the app is generally enough to get rid of those.

Finally, that extra 18 GB of stuff isn't bloatware. Most of it is the iLife suite, which I certainly wouldn't qualify as bloatware.
Click to expand...

This is true. But how many applications have you uninstalled and seen the registry keys get deleted with it. Very few vendors delete reg keys. Hell I've seen a few times where the app doesn't even get deleted. The just remove the app from the Add/Remove list. Bastards.
 
would this be possible

I already have alot of programs ie. photoshop, illustrator, office preloaded on my mbp cd2 from the shop i bought it... Is it possible to copy these programs to dvd or external hard drive, then reinstall osx.. then copy back my software???:confused:

...Or am I better off going back to the shop and getting the programs on disk?
 
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