A few questions about gaining more Hard Drive space

[Hecklerdanny]

Hi everyone. I've very recently purchased a new 2.8 24" iMac with 4GB's of RAM and a 500 GB Hard Drive. I don't even have the system yet, it's supposed to be here in a few days. But i've got a question about gaining a little bit of extra Hard Drive space.

I've read a few posts about certain programs that come loaded onto a Mac that you don't necessarily need depending on your specific situation. If I remember correctly, one of these programs is a language pack that Apple pre-installs. I will never use anything like that, so that's one example.

Can anyone tell me how to uninstall that particular program along with any other programs like that, that are possible to just uninstall if not needed.

I'm a minimalist, I don't like "stuff" on my computer if I'll never, ever use it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[suneohair]

Reinstall the OS and remove components you don't want. Get AppZapper to remove apps completely.

 

[yippy]

There are two ways to do this. The simplest being the first thing you do is put in the install disks and do a clean install of the system only putting on the things you want.

The second is to uninstall like you said. If there is a program you don't need do a spotlight search for it and delete all related files. For languages I believe Monolingual still works to get rid of those you don't need. And lastly in /Library/Printers there are several hundred MB (possibly a GB) of printer drivers. If you delete the contents and then only reinstall the drivers for your printers you can save a lot of space there.

 

[emptyCup]

You can also remove the iApps that you don't use. They can be reinstalled from the disks that come with your computer. However, I suggest trying them out before getting rid of them.

 

[mchfandrews]

I have used CleanApp to successfully remove any unwanted languages and applications. CleanApp will also look through your HD to remove any preferences etc. associated with the application you wish to remove. CleanApp is a freeware, which I found on the Apple Downloads site.

 

[RafMac]

Don't rely on your internal HD for size and everything. Go buy yourself an external HD if your primary fails you'll lose all your files, photos, videos, etc. and you'll cry cry. Future Shop and Best Buy have Lacie Porsche 500Gb 7200 rpm external HD on sale this week for $119.00!

 

[MK2007]

You might want to buy the Macaroni utility. It allows you to select which languages you removed. Macaroni also runs your daily, weekly, and monthly system clean up scripts.