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| Thread ID: 87288 | 2008-02-15 06:13:00 | Reinstalling OSX | limepile (96) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 640616 | 2008-02-15 06:13:00 | Just bought a cheap Mac off trade me, running Osx 10.4. It has software installed ,Office for mac and a couple of others but no discs, I do have OSX install discs. As I bought this off a student it has loads of stuff that I don't want and as I'm unused to the os and deleting programs i figured the easiest way would be to back up the various programs to an external drive and reinstall OSX, culling the rubbish. Is this feasible ? I've cleaned out all I can find but there still seems to be a lot of disc space taken up, over 40 gigs...that can't be just the os and a few programs surely??!! |
limepile (96) | ||
| 640617 | 2008-02-15 06:21:00 | Why not? | beeswax34 (63) | ||
| 640618 | 2008-02-15 06:24:00 | Sure there is no other user accounts on there you don't know about? "disk inventory x" (freeware) will find what is chewing up the space. It is also possible the filesystem is messed up in some way and isn't reporting the correct free space. Run Disk Utility (in the utilities folder, inside the applications folder). If you reinstall (and wipe the disk clean) carefully check the install options as by default you end up with many language translations and printer drivers that suck up space. An install of Tiger is somewhere near 6 GB (if I remember correctly) including iLife. |
gibler (49) | ||
| 640619 | 2008-02-15 06:32:00 | If OSX is similar to Windows (as far as installing programs goes), you wont be able to 'back up the various programs to an external drive', doesnt work that way ;), you'll need to reinstall them. You could do a full backup, to another drive, to restore the old system if something goes wrong with your plan. Do Apple do recovery partitions? |
feersumendjinn (64) | ||
| 640620 | 2008-02-15 06:48:00 | Its as I feared, without the discs I'm at a loss. I'll try the options from Gibler, I would have thought that 10 gig was a reasonable amount for all the programs etc. Info reports 74 gig hdd (so much for 80!) 16 free. There are a few assignments left on here, a bunch of photos...banking details....more than I need to know about this person...but that leaves about 50 gig unaccounted for.I'll keep looking. |
limepile (96) | ||
| 640621 | 2008-02-15 07:15:00 | Just bought a cheap Mac off trade me, running Osx 10.4. It has software installed ,Office for mac and a couple of others but no discs, I do have OSX install discs. As I bought this off a student it has loads of stuff that I don't want and as I'm unused to the os and deleting programs i figured the easiest way would be to back up the various programs to an external drive and reinstall OSX, culling the rubbish. Is this feasible ? I've cleaned out all I can find but there still seems to be a lot of disc space taken up, over 40 gigs...that can't be just the os and a few programs surely??!! Tiger comes with a lot of drivers installed for all major brands of printers, cameras as well as system fonts and other stuff. You could just do a clean install. OS X comes with Disk Utility in which is located in Finder>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility Plus there is also this Doc docs.info.apple.com |
vitalstatistix (9182) | ||
| 640622 | 2008-02-15 07:17:00 | If OSX is similar to Windows (as far as installing programs goes), you wont be able to 'back up the various programs to an external drive', doesnt work that way ;), you'll need to reinstall them. You could do a full backup, to another drive, to restore the old system if something goes wrong with your plan. Do Apple do recovery partitions? Er, no, the majority of apps are self-contained in the Applications folder. Many "install" by just copying them to the Applications folder. You could run into problems if you don't backup your user preferences though. You could do a full backup with "carbon copy cloner" or the like, Apple don't have recovery partitions. They do throw on a hidden partition with the Apple Hardware Test though. The supplied CDs/DVD with the mac will restore it to how it left the factory. Of course people lose these :annoyed: |
gibler (49) | ||
| 640623 | 2008-02-15 07:39:00 | Well I'm impressed. Disk inventory is amazing!!!! Thank you Gribler ! Now as its got Gband on it (the reason i bought it) can i dump all the demo songs (4.9 gb ) without hurting GB ? Is it like windows and has a temp file that needs emptying ? And for any windows users, try these ; http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ w3.win.tue.nl |
limepile (96) | ||
| 640624 | 2008-02-15 07:48:00 | WhatSize is a simple tool that allows the user to quickly measure the size in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. mac.softpedia.com Some more suggestions here www.askdavetaylor.com |
Safari (3993) | ||
| 640625 | 2008-02-15 08:04:00 | Well I'm impressed. Disk inventory is amazing!!!! Thank you Gribler ! Now as its got Gband on it (the reason i bought it) can i dump all the demo songs (4.9 gb ) without hurting GB ? Is it like windows and has a temp file that needs emptying ? And for any windows users, try these ; http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ w3.win.tue.nl You can dump all the stuff you don't need out of Garage Band without affecting anything else. There are no temp files that "need" emptying. List View in Finder also allows you to see the file size of each file - although not what is in them - for that you control click on the folder icon for Get Info. These might be some useful sites for you http://mac.softpedia.com/ www.versiontracker.com usefulk info here too about re installing. www.index-site.com |
vitalstatistix (9182) | ||
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