Where did all my Hard Drive space go?

[JD92]

I just installed Tiger on my iMac DV 400 (512mb RAM). It has a 10 GB hard drive in it, but it only has about 3gb of free space left.
I think Tiger put a lot of extra stuff on it, because in the installation guide it shows in the little picture that 2.6gb was all that was needed for that installation (if you don't know what I'm talking about, look at page 6 of the installation guide). On that screen in my installation it said 4gb was needed . I thought maybe it needed extra files or drivers because it was older hardware, but now that I look back through the manual, I don't remember it asking me about what software packages I wanted, so I think it just instaled them all .
Does anyone know how to remove certain software packagers? I don't need all printer drivers, only Epson and I only think I need the English language pack (it installed every language pack on the DVD)

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Did you do an Archive and Install? In that case, there should be an Old Systems folder on the root of your HD, which you can delete (when you're sure everything works properly), that should clear a couple of GBs...

There's also an issue some has experienced that Tiger slowly eats up HD space if you just keep it running (some unidentified temp files or virtual memory is not released properly) and a simple restart might give you upwards of 1-2 GB back (at least at my iBook with a 60 GB HD) after 2-5 days uptime...

 

[spinne1]

You might also check and see if your HD is formatted with HFS+ or plain HFS. If it is HFS, then a bunch of hard drive space is being wasted. To fix it, you would have to backup your hard drive, wipe it with Disk Utility (choosing Extended), then reinstall everything.

Also, throw away all the language stuff you will never use (google it for a tutorial and you may find one), and any other unnecessary files. BUT, what I REALLY suggest you do if you want to keep this computer is to simply buy a much bigger hard drive off ebay (80-120GB). This should only cost you $40-$70. Then repeat the above steps about backing up and reformatting and reinstalling.

 

[ITASOR]

I would suggest you do the following:

1. Start up with the Tiger disk and open Disk Utility from one of the menus.
2. Reformat and zero the drive formatting it as MacOS Extended (Journaled)
3. Start the Tiger installer and do a custom install.
4. Choose only to install the printer drivers of the brand of printer you have/might get in the future (you can always use the disk with the printer if you don't install the drivers now, so don't worry)
5. Choose to only install English (if that's what you want, or maybe English and a few more). By removing all languages except English, I have ~2GB more space.
6. Get an external firewire enclosure and a 3.5" hard drive (cheaper then buying them together, usually). 10GB isn't really enough to get by with anymore, especially if you do ANY iMovie, etc. A 30 Minute movie can take up 10GB...


*Remember* when you reformat the drive, you delete all files on the drive and start from scratch. Back-up and files and applications that you have installed/made before reformatting!

 

[JD92]

I'll definately get an external hard drive soon.
The format is 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'.
I do have an old System 9 folder with lots of stuff in it, but I'm not sure if I can delete it as my uncle just gave it to me from his school, and they may want it back someday (although that's not very likely), would I be able to back up the System 9 stuff onto my iPod, transfer it to my Windows PC (because it has a bigger hard drive) and then put the stuff back on later if I need to?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[CanadaRAM]

In hindsight, it may have been better to customize your installation and turn off all the foreign language support in the install. DeLocalizer is shareware that can remove foreign language files after the fact - however I don't know if it is Tiger compatible. It usually reclaims about 800 Mb of space.

Search for it and other utilities through http://www.versiontracker.com

You can reclaim a bit of space (1 - 10 Mb) by going into the OS9 System Folder, Preferences, and deleting the cache folders for Internet Explorer and/or Netscape.

 

[yellow]

Monolingual is Tiger aware and recently stripped 1GB (!!) of language data from a fresh Tiger install.

 

[asif786]

hey,

i had a space issue a lil' while ago too..

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/126613/

that's my thread. some of the apps have already been mentioned, but it's still worth a read.

 

[ITASOR]

Wait did you just upgrade Panther to Tiger or do a clean install? I'm guessing you upgraded if you still have an OS 9 folder...

I've found that clean installs take less room because you're getting rid of all the temporary files, etc. of panther.

If he ever needs it back, you could just install 9 again, someone here will show you how if you don't know!

 

[JD92]

Wait did you just upgrade Panther to Tiger or do a clean install? I'm guessing you upgraded if you still have an OS 9 folder...

I've found that clean installs take less room because you're getting rid of all the temporary files, etc. of panther.

If he ever needs it back, you could just install 9 again, someone here will show you how if you don't know!

I upgraded from OS 9, would I need an OS 9 setup CD to re-install it or is it included on the Tiger DVD? (I don''t have an OS 9 CD by the way)

And thanks to asif786 for the link

 

[spinne1]

You would need an OS 9 cd to reinstall OS 9, but Tiger (and Panther for that matter) install a version of OS 9 called Classic when installing them. But you can't boot into OS 9 using the folder Classic (afaik).

As to backing up using an ipod--I have had trouble with files shuffled between macs and pcs. Sometimes something gets messed up in the translation. Maybe someone can shed more light on how to do it safely, but I would just get an external hard drive like mentioned above and WAIT until I had it to do any wiping or reinstalling.