Squeezing SSD space from a Lion factory install?

[PecanEater]

Just recieved my 11" i5 MBA. I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions or links to help squeeze extra SSD space from a MBA with factory install of Lion? What can I delete?

There's a nice tutorial on performing a clean OS X reinstall for a MBA over in the guides section but since Lion came out it's not up to date.

Is the best approach to do a clean install of Lion? If so what the best approach with out paying for an additional copy.

 

[MattZani]

You currently can't, the version of Lion available WILL NOT boot on the new models.

 

[jdechko]

A lot of stuff was removed with the Lion install in order to cut space. There are no printer drivers installed like there used to be (that took up 1-2GB). Maybe there are some additional languages that can be removed using Monolingual. Removing (or not installing if doing a clean install) iLife can also save some space if you don't plan on using the apps.

The point is, since Leopard came out, Mac OS X has actually gone down in install size. And the installation has actually simplified to the point where the only "option" is where to install Lion.

 

[-tWv-]

If lion is installed on your MBA, there is also a Lion recovery partition that you can use to perform a clean install. But a factory install is the same as a clean install in Lion anyways, because you can't choose not to install anything. Don't worry about doing a clean install.

You can use monolingual to delete some of the language packages that you don't need

Also, you can remove some voices Link

This will free up some space but there really isn't much else. Things like printer drivers will be downloaded as needed.. Other than that Lion itself doesn't take up a lot of space

 

[PecanEater]

Thanks for the help.

 

[Krevnik]

If lion is installed on your MBA, there is also a Lion recovery partition that you can use to perform a clean install. But a factory install is the same as a clean install in Lion anyways, because you can't choose not to install anything. Don't worry about doing a clean install.

A clean install doesn't include iLife apps in it. It really depends on how much you trust a tool like AppZapper to clean those out (iMovie and Garageband add a couple gigs by themselves).

 

[h00ligan]

Download Xslimmer and see what kind of savings it could offer you.

 

[aleni]

Download Xslimmer and see what kind of savings it could offer you.

is it the same as monolingual? because i can remove the old architecture with that app too. and it's free.

what i remembered, xslimmer is a paying app right?

 

[uicandrew]

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Xslimmer is free for the first 50mb of freed space. It's big advantage is stripping away ppc code from universal binaries but since lion is intel only, universal binary may be irrelevant for lion, specifically

 

[h00ligan]

It's also much safer than monolingual.

I own a license (bundle buy) I'll run it and see what it spits out.

 

[aleni]

what makes it safer than monolingual? is it because u can
choose apps one by one? i used monolingual last week and haven't noticed any issue yet.

 

[GGJstudios]

It's also much safer than monolingual.

No, it's not safer than Monolingual, which is free.

Be aware that extreme caution should be exercised when using such apps, as deleting certain languages or architectures can create significant problems. At best, deleting these things may buy you 1-2GB of drive space, but will not improve your system's performance. If you're not certain about what you're doing, don't delete anything. The small drive space savings are not worth the risk of potential problems.

Also, app removal software doesn't do a thorough job of deleting files/folders related to deleted apps. For more information, read this. The only effective method for complete app removal is manual deletion:

Best way to FULLY DELETE a program​

 

[nph]

Size of clean Lion installation (no iLife)

My understanding was the Lion took roughly 4-5 GB but after a clean install om my MBA I now see only 110 GB available of a max of 120GB.
Does Lion really take 10Gig?

I should mention I have not installed any iLife application.
This is a clean Command R install after I wiped the disk clean...