upgraded, then Archived and Installed... and now my hard drive space is decimated!

[ero87]

Hi,

So I upgraded to Leopard, but i got the BSOD so then i did an Archive and Install. Before all this, I had about 18 GB free on my hard drive. Now I have 3 GB free. What happened? Is there still extra Leopard lying around, not doing anything? ANyone know what i can do?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

That's normal if you do an upgrade followed by an Archive and Install. Most of the space is probably taken up by the archived system. If you checked "Preserve users and network settings" when you did the Archive and Install, you can safely delete the archive. If you didn't, make sure you recover all the user files you want from the archive folder before deleting it.

 

[ero87]

Okay, so I guess I don't actually understand what I did by doing an Archive and Install. Where is this "Archive" you speak of? Can I delete it? What is its purpose?

Thanks for your help

 

[Applespider]

You left your old System directory intact and then OSX moved it to a Previous Systems folder that you'll find in your Macintosh HD.

The idea is that you have it there for a few days just in case you are missing any little bits and bobs - e.g. the Adobe Unit File Types file that is essential if you want to doubleclick a pic to open it in Photoshop but is stored in System rather than in your User file.

If you're that low on HD space, I suspect you may have a couple of previous systems. I'd delete the borked Leopard one and keep the Tiger one until you verify everything is working as expected.