[malcolm347]

I am currently cleaning up my harddrive, and i used disk inventory x to analyze my HD, and I found that a few of my 'private files' specifically, private>var>vm>sleepimage, sleepimage is like 3 GB....way too big....this happenned to me before and i just can't remember how to access and delete/trim it down....

any help would be great !!

[Chuckit]

Restart. The vm directory is wiped between boots.

[Art Vandelay]

The sleepimage file size is equal to the amount of RAM installed. It will not change size.

[reader50]

If you want to get into invisible folders like /private/, use a utility like TinkerTool to make all files visible. If you want to make a file or folder remain visible (or turn invisible), you can use several tools to toggle the invisibility flag. I've long used MuchoFileInfo for this purpose.

If you just want to find & zap big files, you don't need to fiddle with visibility at all. Download OmniDiskSweeper - Omni made it a free download some months back. While you are there, grab OmniDazzle too for some neat effects. It's another one they made free, and it lets you do cool effects on screen.

[Simon]

In the Finder select Go to Folder... and enter /private/var/vm. Boom.

Art is right. The sleepimage file will always be the size of your RAM. Deleting it won't work. As soon as you sleep your Mac it will be recreated from scratch. If you want to permanently get rid of it, you'd have to shut off Safe Sleep.

You can disable Safe Sleep by opening the Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities) and entering the following command:
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
then press return. Enter your password when prompted.
You can then select "Go to Folder" under the "Go" menu in the Finder, and enter: /private/var/vm then press return, and drag the file sleepimage to the Trash.
In order to re-enable Safe Sleep, use the command:
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3
in the Terminal.

Be sure to read up on what Safe Sleep does to be sure if you can really turn it off without running into trouble.

[davidbk1]

You should probably leave anything in /private alone. Mucking about in system files is a good way to render your machine inoperable. Folders that are hidden usually hold essential OS files and generally don't get too bloated. You're better off removing printer drivers you don't use, iDVD themes, Garage Band loops, etc.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Simon 

Boom.

Oh no, you didn't.

-t

[Simon]

Originally Posted by davidbk1 

You should probably leave anything in /private alone. Mucking about in system files is a good way to render your machine inoperable. Folders that are hidden usually hold essential OS files and generally don't get too bloated. You're better off removing printer drivers you don't use, iDVD themes, Garage Band loops, etc.

That advice actually holds for /System.

/private isn't off limits per se. /tmp for example is in there too and you can definitely delete its contents w/o ruining your system.

[davidbk1]

Originally Posted by Simon 

That advice actually holds for /System.

/private isn't off limits per se. /tmp for example is in there too and you can definitely delete its contents w/o ruining your system.

Very true, the best rule for exploring the filesystem is if you aren't 100% sure exactly what it does, don't touch it. I neglected to get into /tmp because I think it falls under shouldn't get too bloated, and if you don't know how to access it (Terminal, Go To, etc) you probably don't know the FHS well enough to recognize it as non-essential.