Alright I'm running a G3 iMac, so my hard drive has to have a primary partition of about 7 gig or less. I just realized that I only have 800mb of free space left on this partition. I had a few gigs free when I first installed tiger. I have all my music on the other partition and I'm not too sure what is taking up so much space, and if there is anything I can move to the other partition. I checked the info on some of the main folders, and my library folder is over 3 gigs. Any ideas? thanks.
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Running low on hd space
- Thread starter supermario19
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Your library would be the most likely source of "phantom" stuff, and if it's three gigs that's probably where all the new data is.
A lot of stuff is stored in your Library folder; your email would be the first thing I'd check--3 gigs is a lot, but if you get a lot of attachments or have a huge backlog, then that's possibly the source. This can, I think, be moved to another partition, but I've never done it myself.
The other two parts of the library to look at are "Application Support", which stores "extra" data for various apps and may be bloated with something unnecessary (don't just haphazardly chuck all this, though, or it might break some apps), and "Caches" which does just what it sounds like. The stuff in caches can usually be junked (and can definitely be tossed if there's a cache for a program you don't use anymore), but be careful you don't delete something important.
You could also try downloading Tiger Cache Cleaner and see if running the maintenance routines, tossing old log files, and maybe clearing some basic caches frees you up some space.
A lot of stuff is stored in your Library folder; your email would be the first thing I'd check--3 gigs is a lot, but if you get a lot of attachments or have a huge backlog, then that's possibly the source. This can, I think, be moved to another partition, but I've never done it myself.
The other two parts of the library to look at are "Application Support", which stores "extra" data for various apps and may be bloated with something unnecessary (don't just haphazardly chuck all this, though, or it might break some apps), and "Caches" which does just what it sounds like. The stuff in caches can usually be junked (and can definitely be tossed if there's a cache for a program you don't use anymore), but be careful you don't delete something important.
You could also try downloading Tiger Cache Cleaner and see if running the maintenance routines, tossing old log files, and maybe clearing some basic caches frees you up some space.
I was down to 2gb and I deleted a bunch of applications, including some that take up a lot of space (1gb each) and i never use. I now have 7gb available. So just through your applications folder and delete unneeded apps. I also went thru my documents and deleted stuff there... though as it turns out also deleted some stuff I needed :/
Also, if you want to reinstall os x, you can disable other languages and that will save you a couple gigs.
Also, if you want to reinstall os x, you can disable other languages and that will save you a couple gigs.
It may be a good idea to check out /cores as when some apps crash, they leave core dumps that can take up a couple of GB. Any of the core.* files can be deleted from /cores.
Run 'open /cores' to bring up a Finder window with the cores folder and drag any core.* files in it to the trash.
Info:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031001203255412
Run 'open /cores' to bring up a Finder window with the cores folder and drag any core.* files in it to the trash.
Info:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031001203255412
Ooh, I just remembered another good place to check for extra junk, if you haven't already done this: If you go to /Library/Printers (that's the main library, not the one in your home folder), there are hundreds of print drivers that are installed by default. Even without the "extra" drivers, this can be several hundred MB, and the chances are you only need one or two drivers out of all that.
Find the print driver (or two) you use, and chuck the folders for manufacturers of printers you don't own and/or the drivers for particular printers you don't use.
For example, the Epson folder on my computer is chewing up over 600MB, and I don't even own an Epson printer so the only good it would do me is if I found myself with one for some reason and couldn't find the driver on Epson's website.
Find the print driver (or two) you use, and chuck the folders for manufacturers of printers you don't own and/or the drivers for particular printers you don't use.
For example, the Epson folder on my computer is chewing up over 600MB, and I don't even own an Epson printer so the only good it would do me is if I found myself with one for some reason and couldn't find the driver on Epson's website.
Try using Disk Inventory X to get a visual map of what's using up your space. It's really quite useful.