Space on New Hard Drive

[sann1657]

So I bought a MacBook, with an 80GB hard drive. Fresh out of the box, the hard drive already has 18GB used up - 9GB of which seems to be the main system library folder. Any suggestions? I need some space back!

 

[yellow]

It's because of iDVD and GarageBand. If you don't want to use either then you can nuke their turds left in /Library/Application Support/.. but if you do want to use them... well...

 

[Pressure]

I strongly suggest you do a customized reinstall and leave out the options you do not use.

Office for Mac Test Drive
GarageBand
iDVD
iWorks '06
Various language files that you do not use.

 

[crees!]

I strongly suggest you do a customized reinstall and leave out the options you do not use.

Office for Mac Test Drive
GarageBand
iDVD
iWorks '06
Various language files that you do not use.

Not installing printer drivers is a big thing too. Only include the brand you have. The rest just sit there and take up space. iDVD, Garageband, and iWorks is so big because they contain templates and audio loops.

 

[Pressure]

Not installing printer drivers is a big thing too. Only include the brand you have. The rest just sit there and take up space. iDVD, Garageband, and iWorks is so big because they contain templates and audio loops.

If he studies or anything it would be wise to keep those printer drivers. You never know what models the university/college uses heh

 

[ftaok]

So I bought a MacBook, with an 80GB hard drive. Fresh out of the box, the hard drive already has 18GB used up - 9GB of which seems to be the main system library folder. Any suggestions? I need some space back!

Also keep in mind that the the definition of a GB is different depending on who you ask. A marketer or advertiser will tell you that a GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes. A computer guy will tell you that a GB is 1,073,741,824 bytes. Because of this, a computer will report the overall space of a hard drive to be 93% of the advertised space (as long as we're still in the GB range).

 

[wstohner]

So is it better to just delete (ie drag to trash) these programs you don't use (garage band, iworks, etc) or do a custom reinstall? I am expecting a mbp in a couple days and before I move files over I'd like to have those programs gone.

 

[Markleshark]

Custom reinstall. Just stick the restore disks in as the first thing you do. Don't do what I did, get over excited, install everything then remember you need to do it... lol

 

[yellow]

I don't see the need for a custom reinstall.. this isn't a Dell, there really isn't a million pieces of junk applications scattered all over the place effecting performance. Just trashing and deleteing the appropriate files, and using a 3rd party app like Monolingual to remove unneeded languages (amounting to a gig or more disk space) is just fine.

 

[crees!]

I don't see the need for a custom reinstall.. this isn't a Dell, there really isn't a million pieces of junk applications scattered all over the place effecting performance. Just trashing and deleteing the appropriate files, and using a 3rd party app like Monolingual to remove unneeded languages (amounting to a gig or more disk space) is just fine.

Monolingual.... Yeah, I thought it was worth using it but in the end it wasn't. At least concerning Photoshop. Monolingual removed all the unnecessary language files but when I ran a Photoshop update it couldn't find those "unnecessary" languages to patch. So the update failed and it ended up borking the whole Suite and I had to do a painfully manual uninstall and then reload the entire suite.

The only thing I see needing to be removed from a default OS X install are the printer drivers (assuming you're at a home setup and know which printers you have).

 

[yellow]

Odd.. I've used Monolingual on hundreds of Macs that have come through my hands and never have had that problem with any version of Photoshop 7-9.

 

[crees!]

Odd.. I've used Monolingual on hundreds of Macs that have come through my hands and never have had that problem with any version of Photoshop 7-9.

It was from an update Adobe put out that failed when it couldn't find the languages to patch. I don't want to go through that again, so like I said I only do the reinstalls to remove unneeded printer drivers.

 

[yellow]

Reinstall?
Seems excessive when you can just trash the unneeded drivers from /Library/Printers/.

 

[crees!]

Reinstall?
Seems excessive when you can just trash the unneeded drivers from /Library/Printers/.

Ah, you learn something new every day. Thanks.

 

[bankshot]

Reinstall?
Seems excessive when you can just trash the unneeded drivers from /Library/Printers/.

From my perspective, a reinstall just gives the extra peace of mind that it's the most robust and foolproof way of accomplishing the goal. The installer is (should be) well tested for all installation options so that it leaves you with a perfectly working system regardless of what options you chose. Haphazardly removing stuff may work fine... until maybe the next OS update makes an assumption about something that should be there that you (or a program like Monolingual) removed. Why even take that tiny chance when a reinstall on a fresh machine is just as easy?

 

[xJulianx]

From my perspective, a reinstall just gives the extra peace of mind that it's the most robust and foolproof way of accomplishing the goal. The installer is (should be) well tested for all installation options so that it leaves you with a perfectly working system regardless of what options you chose. Haphazardly removing stuff may work fine... until maybe the next OS update makes an assumption about something that should be there that you (or a program like Monolingual) removed. Why even take that tiny chance when a reinstall on a fresh machine is just as easy?

Took the words out of my mouth

 

[yellow]

Dude, there's nothing haphazzard about it..

Printer PPDs are in /Library/Printers/

GarangeBand & iDVD turdsare in /Library/Application Support/

This is not Windows and it's not rocket science. A complete reinstall just ISN'T necessary to accomplish these goals.