How much free space on MBA 80gb?

[grahamtearne]

Hi guys, my MacBook Air is arriving tomorrow and I am just wandering how much free space is left on the hard drive with the OS installed and the lower actual capacity (around 74gb formatted?).

I normally re-install the OS when I get a new computer to get rid of all the excess printer drivers and such but I can imagine the process being pretty slow on the Air over remote disk sharing so Ill give that a miss I think. Is there anyway of removing them from within the OS?

Just want an idea of the free space so I can select some media ready to transfer to the Air.

 

[killmoms]

Here's an easy way to figure out the actual capacity of a hard drive (to an approximate degree):

1. Take GB number (in this case 80)
2. Multiply by 1 billion
3. Divide by 1024 3 times
4. ???
5. PROFIT!

In your case, it's about 74.5GB.

 

[yoavcs]

Here's an easy way to figure out the actual capacity of a hard drive (to an approximate degree):

1. Take GB number (in this case 80)
2. Multiply by 1 billion
3. Divide by 1024 3 times
4. ???
5. PROFIT!

In your case, it's about 74.5GB.

Unfortunately that is not what the OP was asking.

As to the OP: around 55-60GB free space if I remember correctly, more towards the 55.

I reinstalled and removed languages and printer drivers. Freed up an extra 5GB.

Have no idea why Apple installs printer drivers since Leopard can d/l them over the internet, and as for languages: why would I ever want Polish, Russian, etc..., if I just selected English for my install language?

 

[Olvenskol]

Not exactly what you asked, but should give you a pretty close idea...

Default install
Added iWork '08 and MS Office '08 (less Entourage)
Added a tiny amount of data files (< 1 GB)

Remaining free space: 56.23 GB

 

[killmoms]

Unfortunately that is not what the OP was asking.

I'm aware what the OP was asking. Was just clarifying on actual capacity since he seemed unsure.

Have no idea why Apple installs printer drivers since Leopard can d/l them over the internet, and as for languages: why would I ever want Polish, Russian, etc..., if I just selected English for my install language?

Probably a holdover for people still not on broadband, since the printer drivers total a pretty hefty chunk of space. As for languages, it's simply convenient, especially if you travel and someone who's not as comfortable with English needs to use your computer. I know there are several people on this very forum who use separate user accounts to provide a significant other whose first language is not English with an interface they'll be more comfortable using (often Japanese).

Really, with hard drive sizes increasing pretty steadily over the last few years, a few GB worth is really not that significant, even in an MBA (a machine which presumes you won't be storing that many LARGE files).

 

[wordy]

They stuff all those drivers on there to make it convenient for the average user. If we didn't own Airs, would anyone care about 5GB considering how cheap HDD storage is?

Fortunately for us, it's also quite easy to remove them.

 

[akm3]

Does the MBA version of Leopard (and all it's application iLife etc) use the fat binaries? Could significant space be saved using an application like xSlimmer?

I use it on my Mac Mini and like it. We have an Air on the way so I'm figuring out how best to optimize it.

I'm just wondering if because space is at such a premium, Apple sends it 'slimmed' from the factory. Especially since there is no firewire or removable hard drive to put into another (possibly powerPC) Mac anyway.

 

[wordy]

It's not slimmed or anything like that. Xslimmer saved me 2-3GB. YMMV!

 

[grahamtearne]

Cheers for all the replies guys, ive got a selection of my media ready and waiting now. I am so excited

Ill take a look at that Xslimmer, looks interesting. As far as printer drivers and additional languages go...is there a way to uninstall them without having to re-install the OS or is it strictly an OS reinstall that is needed?

 

[NC MacGuy]

Cheers for all the replies guys, ive got a selection of my media ready and waiting now. I am so excited

Ill take a look at that Xslimmer, looks interesting. As far as printer drivers and additional languages go...is there a way to uninstall them without having to re-install the OS or is it strictly an OS reinstall that is needed?

Xslimmer should do just that. I didn't reinstall software on my Air. Just took it out of box, migrated from old MB and then Xlimmered. You can pick what you want removed like Kyocera, Ricoh, etc. print drivers and the languages you'd like deleted.

 

[wordy]

Basically the printer drivers are just in a folder and "uninstalling" the drivers is actually just dragging them to the trash. They're organized by manufacturer, so if you only have, say, Canon printers, it should be pretty quick to just delete the rest. I'm not sure if there's an app that can help you do this, but really it's so easy I'd say an app wouldn't be of much use anyhow.

As for languages, Xslimmer does remove extra languages from apps (but more importantly it remove the PPC version from the universal binary), but you should also check out Monolingual which is a great freeware app that removes localization files for languages you'll likely never use.

 

[NC MacGuy]

Basically the printer drivers are just in a folder and "uninstalling" the drivers is actually just dragging them to the trash. They're organized by manufacturer, so if you only have, say, Canon printers, it should be pretty quick to just delete the rest. I'm not sure if there's an app that can help you do this, but really it's so easy I'd say an app wouldn't be of much use anyhow.

As for languages, Xslimmer does remove extra languages from apps (but more importantly it remove the PPC version from the universal binary), but you should also check out Monolingual which is a great freeware app that removes localization files for languages you'll likely never use.

What wordy said! Monolingual definitely the way to go along w. drag & drop for drivers. Monolingual for free can't be beat. Xlsimmer is okay but a bit trickier to use.