[Trygve]

I have a new 1.83 MBP and it has 55GB Free (on an 80GB drive that seems to really be 74). If I reinstall the OS and apps, getting rid of extra languages, how much can I save in hard drive space? I assume disc 2 has all the iApps on it so I won't lose anything?

Thanks,

Trygve

[harrisjamieh]

All hard drives hold less than their advertised size. A 250 gig drive has a formatted size of 232 gig. Just the way it works out with bytes:KB:MB:GB etc.

As for getting rid of languages, use Delocalizer to choose what languages you want to uninstall. You can also delete printer drivers that you do not need, which will save you another ~3 gigs, and you can do this by just going to Library > printers and deleting the brands you know you will not need - ie I only have HP drivers left, as they are the only printers I use.

You can also use a free app called Whatsize, which will tell you what is eating up all the space on your HD.

[Trygve]

Is it safe to use delocalizer on an intel mac?

[Tomchu]

The explanation behind "advertised" size and actual size is that the manufacturers consider one kilobyte to equal 1,000 bytes, whereas computers work in powers of 2 -- meaning that one kilobyte to a computer is actually 1,024 bytes.

When you start getting into the hundreds of gigabytes, this 24-byte shortage really starts to add up.

[harrisjamieh]

I used delocalizer on a intel mac. It was fine

[Trygve]

I am well aware of the 1000 vs 1024 issue... just wondering how much I'd save by reinstalling. I didn't really want the 80GB HD (100 or 120 would be better), but that is what was available here and I needed something quickly.

[michaelb]

Personally, I would re-install, and I'd go through the customized install checkbox list with a fine toothcomb.

It's not just languages, the default OS X install puts almost 2 GB of printer drivers on (Epson, Canon, Brother, HP), which if you're like me and virtually never print (and if I do, I have the manufacturer's disc with just the right printer driver) you won't miss them.

So, I disable all the languages, and only install the GIMP printer drivers (about 570 K).

Plus, if you don't use GarageBand on your laptop, there's well over 1 GB (or 2?) of sample files and loops that can be discarded.

Also a bunch of test drive apps and games (the Big Bang series is a recent one with the Intel Macs, but it probably doesn't take much space, Office Test Drive does though).

You can of course remove everything manually post-install, but it means hunting through the Library and Application Support folders, and some are in the System folder which is always a dangerous thing to poke around in, so most people just leave them there bloating their hard drive. Far easier not to install in the first place.

Every bit helps. An 80GB drive isn't that big these days.