[sktanu]

I just got my new 2GHz white macbook yesterday. It came with the std. 60GB SATA drive. I did upgrade the RAM to 2GB and haven't had enough time to determine the percentage of performance boost. Bottomline, I just don't want to see the beachball anymore (is that possible?).

Now my concern is on the HD space. When I turned it on I opted to import the data from my G4 powerbook. The total import was close to 20GB. Now, after the import, when I see the available space it is only a little more 16GB. That is bad. I mean if I ignore my 20GB import the OS had already occupied 25GB of space on the 60 GB drive. Is that correct? It comes with MS office 04 trial and iWork trial. Do they take up much space?

NOW I am really falling short of space for what I have in mind. is there something I can do to restore some space by deleting some useless (to me) apps. I will probably run monolingual. But that usually only saves 2-3GB.

any suggestions? I have installed parallels on this one and if I consider the std. 8GB that I allocate to the Windows XP VM I am into single digits.


Thanks.

[freakboy2]

yeah you need a bigger drive.. the biggest notebook drive right now is 160 gigs and runs just over 200$. hd's are insanely easy to swap out of macbooks (takes about 3 minutes).

i think a lot of people are buying the macbook stock and then just getting the 160 gig drive. maybe putting the 60 gig into an external firewire case.

[sktanu]

I did consider that option. But before I spend $200+ on a HD I wanted to find out if there were any other options to clear up some space on the current one.

Also if I do buy another drive how do i move all the contents on this current one to the new one..i.e the OS, library etc. Sorry. may be an amateurish inquiry. Just want to know.

Is OWC ( I bought my memory there) a good one for HD as well?

Thanks.

[freakboy2]

i'd check the prices at newegg too. Last i looked i think the 160 was around 220$?

what i'd do: buy an external firewire enclosure.. put the new drive into the enclosure, use carbon copy cloner to clone everything on the internal drive to the external one and then swap them. (I'd do it first in the external just so you can test it before installing it into the macbook - but with the ease of installation it doesn't really matter).

fb

[ChrisF]

Originally Posted by sktanu

Now my concern is on the HD space. When I turned it on I opted to import the data from my G4 powerbook. The total import was close to 20GB. Now, after the import, when I see the available space it is only a little more 16GB.

Yeah, the 60GB disk is kinda small, but by default, Apple installs all the printer drivers as well as all the language support files. You can easily knock off a couple of GB by reinstalling, and doing a custom install with only the applications, drivers, and language files you want. If you'll never use Garageband, that will save a couple GB; removing iDVD will save a similar amount of space.
The down side is that you will need to transfer your Powerbook data once again.

[luckyjoe]

Similar situation but I have the 80gig HD!

Since I've been using the MB for a month now, can I transfer all my settings/users/data back to my iBook, then the reformat/install on the MB, then transfer settings/users/data back to the MB? Or will I run into trouble with the older OS version on teh iBook?

Tom P.

[Dr. DDS]

Do a new custom install of OS with just what you need. It will save some space.
I have a 60Gb HD in my ibook and my OS installation took 5Gb, so i have actually 19Gb free space with 30Gb of stuff installed.
Note: a 60Gb HD has actually 55Gb to use.

[uicandrew]

garageband and the loops take up an extraordinary amount of space. the printer drivers will also take up a bunch, as well as the language files. if you do a clean install, the bare minimum for Tiger is roughly 2.2gb (no iLife, no Office, just Tiger).

do a clean install first before plunking money down on a hard drive upgrade. see how much space you actually use.

[Michael T. Doyle]

You do NOT need to do reinstall the OS or wipe your drive by any means. There are much easier alternatives.

For starters, simply download and run Monolingual and Maintenance 3.5. Monolingual will allow you to quickly and easily clear out several gigs of foreign language support files. Just don't get rid of any version of English or use the option to get rid of the PPC half of universal binaries (or Rosetta will never run). Also know that some Adobe apps will balk at opening if several useless language support files are missing.

Maintenance 3.5 will run several system diagnostics and clear out stale caches, recovering likely another gig or two (you'll want to run this every month or so to keep getting rid of bloated cache files).

If you don't need (one or all of) Garage Band, iDVD, iMovie, or the iWork trial applications (Pages and Keynote), simply drag them and their associated library files to the trash. Together they take up several gigs of space. If you find you need one of them in the future, you can easily reinstall it from the software-restore DVD that came with your Mac.

For unwanted printer drivers (in HD : Library : Printers), you can simply manually drag the folders you don't want or need to the trash. Although for a laptop, I'd keep as many of these as possible. You never know when, where, and on what printer in the field you may need to print something out.

Finally, you might as well use this as an occasion to cull out any apps or files you really haven't been using or don't need. When in doubt, burn it to a CD and get it off your computer.

You can do all of this in the space of 30 minutes, likely recovering 5 to 8 gigs in the process, with absolutely no need to put yourself through the trouble of wiping your hard drive and reinstalling everything.

All of this worked like a charm for me when I got my 60-Gb MacBook three weeks ago.

[uicandrew]

i'd also like to make a plug for AppZapper (i do not have any affiliation with them. i just think it is GREAT program). it is like an uninstaller program. it will get rid of plist files and little orphan files associated with the different programs.

this is more useful down the road when getting rid of unused programs, but it may prove useful when you start to delete 3rd party unwanted programs.

[bklam]

How long does it usually take to do a fresh os install?

[sktanu]

I think I will try the procedure that Mike has suggested before dumping money on a new HD. Also I have a 120GB Firewire external HD that I have been using for 3 years now and added to that I just ordered a 60GB iPod (went for 60GB considering the need for space as time progresses).

So for now I will try to manufacture space with the on-hand options.

Thanks for all the help.

[Michael T. Doyle]

Remember, too, sktanu, that you can let your iTunes library live on your external FireWire HD instead of your MacBook HD. Likely, wherever you go with your MacBook you'll also take your iPod, so you probably won't need the music library on the MacBook when you're on the road.

[techtrucker]

Lot of good ideas here. I bit the bullet and spent ~$289 for a 160GB HD. I plugged in an external Firewire drive, used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the original 60 GB drive, installed the new HD (as others have mentioned it's pretty straightforward), then used CCC to clone to the new drive. So far it's worked great, I've loaded up all my stuff, tons of apps including Parallels with XP and Linux, and I've still got about 60 GB free.

[Elektrix]

What 160GB HD costs $289? Last I checked the Samsung one was in the $250 range, and the Hitachi one was around $220.

[soulboy]

This is going to sound a bit of a stupid question, but bear with me as I am still fairly new to macs. How do I find out how much space I have left on my HD........

[SpaceMonkey]

Originally Posted by soulboy

This is going to sound a bit of a stupid question, but bear with me as I am still fairly new to macs. How do I find out how much space I have left on my HD........

Select your hard drive icon on the desktop, then go to the "File" menu and select "Get Info" (or press command+i). You will see figures for total capacity, amount used, and amount available.

The current amount of available space is also at the bottom of every Finder window, if you are navigating through folders on your hard drive.

[soulboy]

Thanks for you quick reply, still getting used to OS. But getting there...slowly... ....Hav had a look and still have loads left....again thanks.

[techtrucker]

Originally Posted by Elektrix

What 160GB HD costs $289? Last I checked the Samsung one was in the $250 range, and the Hitachi one was around $220.

It was actually $279, I opted for this one:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST9160821ASK/