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juusan · Apr 27, 2006, 11:58 AM

when you're trying to kill drive bloat, what are the things/files/directories *you*, personally, most often delete (ie, cache files, tmp files, etc)?

everyone's got a different style and set of priorities, and I'm curious.

Catfish_Man · Apr 27, 2006, 02:26 PM

Stuff that won't be regenerated as soon as the app notices it's gone... i.e. not cache or temp files. Generally extra CD images I have lying around, or extra copies of the Adium source (I had 8 at one point... o_O).

cybergoober · Apr 27, 2006, 02:29 PM

A great way to free up some space is to run an app like DeLocalizer or Monolingual to remove any languages that you don't use (i.e. - make them English-only). It's possible to save hundreds of MB using these apps.

Tomchu · Apr 27, 2006, 02:39 PM

That depends on whether you're asking about routine maintenance, or what I do after I first install OS X. :-)

Maintenance I do every 3-5 months, and that includes:
- Removing /System/Library/Caches/*, /System/Library/Extensions.* (not the Extensions directory), /Library/Caches/*, /Library/Logs/*, /Users/Tom/Library/Caches/*, /Users/Tom/Library/Logs/*, /tmp/*, /var/tmp/*, and *.gz in/var/log
- Disable Spotlight indexing, re-enable (to generate a fresh index, you wouldn't believe how much faster Spotlight behaves if you do this every once in a while)
- Repair disk permissions, rebuild directories with DiskWarrior

I'll then reboot a few times to rebuild all the system caches, and things behave a lot faster all around. I realize that most of this stuff isn't absolutely needed, but OS X ain't perfect, and I like to give it a fresh start once in a while.

Fresh installations I do like this:
- Install OS X without any printer/X/language junk
- Install the latest combo updater, followed by any remaining updates
- Delete the apps I don't use (iSync, iChat, Sherlock, etc.)
- Delete the extensions I don't need (seriously, don't touch this if you have no idea what you're doing)
- Delete system components I don't need from /System and /Library (Automator feature on right-click, Folder Actions on right-click, all Asian-language components, ChineseTextConverter service [WTF is this in a stock OS X installation?], most Asian fonts [they're like 20 MB each], Java 1.3, scripts I don't need, etc.) This step basically involves sitting in a Terminal for 1-1.5 hours and knowing your way around OS X's internals extremely well. I don't recommend it for anyone else.
- Run Monolingual, remove all languages except English, then remove all architectures except PowerPC G4+ and below (since I'm on an iBook G4)
- Delete all caches like I showed above
- Reboot a few times

My /System directory is down to about 690-710 MB after all of this.

Before anyone starts freaking out that my OS X is guaranteed to break, or that I really shouldn't be doing this -- don't. I know my way around. I haven't had any problems whatsoever with my installations, and I'm no granny-like user.

Chuckit · Apr 27, 2006, 03:12 PM

I use OmniDiskSweeper to see where the bloat is and clear out anything that will not be useful in the near future.

Chris Grande · Apr 27, 2006, 03:37 PM

Another vote for OmniDiskSweeper, very handy. http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/

sknapp351 · Apr 27, 2006, 07:10 PM

Anyone using an Intel Mac should be carefull when using Monolingual or other such apps. If it gives the option to remove architectures do not, DO NOT let it remove PPC. You will not be able to use Rosetta apps if it does. Trust Me.
SAm

chris v · Apr 28, 2006, 06:44 AM

Printer drivers.

If you've got iLife, but don't use Garage Band, it's got a huge folder in /Library/Application Suport.

Maflynn · Apr 28, 2006, 07:02 AM

Another vote for disk sweeper.
I reinstall OSX on a new computer to select the options that I want for instance I only install the HP printer drivers.
I also get rid of any iLife apps I don't use such as garage band.
Run delocalizer to remove the unwanted language stuff.

Mike

ksloan2 · 07:21 AM

I haven't heard of disk sweeper, but I'm going to check it out now.

However, this application was extrememly good in locating bloat:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20598

A quick glance at the Disk Sweeper site seems that JDiskReport does the same thing, though the latter is freeware.

EDIT: Oh, my god! Omni Disk Sweeper is one of the ugliest OS X applications I've ever seen. I mean, especially for such a boring technical task as this, the presentation should try to make the task more intersting and fun. *shudder* I had to launch JDiskReport just so I wouldn't go blind. Do yourself a favour and get JDiskReport instead!

jasong · Apr 28, 2006, 09:50 AM

I'm not freaking out about the chances of Tomchu's OS breaking, and I'm certainly not going to tell him it's a bad idea, but I am going to tell that to anyone who's thinking of following his lead. This is a bad idea, and honestly a complete waste of time. If you have a 20 GB hard drive, for all that work you are recovering less than 1/20th of your drive, and you have to keep doing the process every few months! Does Spotlight really get so much faster that it makes up for the performance penalty incurred while reindexing your drive? And think for one moment, "reboot a few times"? What happens during the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th reboot that doesn't happen the 1st time?

Luckily Tomchu is "no granny-like user" and I wouldn't think of telling him his "maintenance" plan is insanity, but to anyone else thinking of doing it, don't. It's guaranteed to waste your time and break your installation at some point (and the only thing that's worse than your computer crashing, is knowing that it's your fault it did so).

Chuckit · Apr 28, 2006, 11:09 AM

Originally Posted by eobet

I haven't heard of disk sweeper, but I'm going to check it out now.

However, this application was extrememly good in locating bloat:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20598

A quick glance at the Disk Sweeper site seems that JDiskReport does the same thing, though the latter is freeware.

EDIT: Oh, my god! Omni Disk Sweeper is one of the ugliest OS X applications I've ever seen. I mean, especially for such a boring technical task as this, the presentation should try to make the task more intersting and fun. *shudder* I had to launch JDiskReport just so I wouldn't go blind. Do yourself a favour and get JDiskReport instead!

I have tried other freeware options and they were both slower and missed things. Haven't tried JDiskReport, though. I'll check it out.

Tomchu · Apr 28, 2006, 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by jasong

If you have a 20 GB hard drive, for all that work you are recovering less than 1/20th of your drive, and you have to keep doing the process every few months!

It's not just about the space -- OS X boots faster and uses less RAM when it has less to deal with. If I never use half the right-click options for a folder in the Finder, why should OS X be loading the components for it? And who says I have to keep doing the process every few months?

Originally Posted by jasong

Does Spotlight really get so much faster that it makes up for the performance penalty incurred while reindexing your drive?

Uh, what performance penalty? You mean the 10 minutes it takes to index my drive while I'm downstairs watching TV or eating lunch? And yes, Spotlight does get quite a bit faster if you re-index your drive every few months -- especially if you use a lot of indexable files that don't stay on your hard drive permanently.

Originally Posted by jasong

And think for one moment, "reboot a few times"? What happens during the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th reboot that doesn't happen the 1st time?

Caches continue to be rebuilt/optimized. Something clearly happens the next few times that doesn't happen the first time, because with every reboot, the computer takes less time to start. :-)

Originally Posted by jasong

It's guaranteed to waste your time and break your installation at some point ...

And you're sure about that? I have something to prove you wrong -- a Mac Mini that has been running flawlessly for over 7 months.

Anyway, obviously I'm not recommending that anyone do my uber-tweaking of OS X -- I do it purely for fun and learning. The routine maintenance (deleting caches, rebooting), however, does speed things up. I have more than one Mac-owning friend who'd agree with me after they complained that their machine was starting to get sluggish.

jasong · Apr 28, 2006, 11:01 PM

Originally Posted by Tomchu

And who says I have to keep doing the process every few months?

You do. "Maintenance I do every 3-5 months, and that includes:"

Anyway, I don't mean to challenge what works for you, simply to put out there that most users will gain little to nothing by following in your footsteps. Let's remember that we have our computers to get work done, not to work on them (well, most of us at least).

Tomchu · Apr 28, 2006, 11:29 PM

I didn't say that I "have" to keep doing it -- I simply choose to.

And I realize that pretty much no one has anything to gain from following in my footsteps. As I said, I enjoy exploring systems, and I've learned a lot about OS X's internal workings by playing with its components, and seeing what breaks what, and what is dependent on what.

However, I'm talking more about the post-install stuff I do. Clearing caches is something that I think everyone should do once in a while. There's a lot of cruft that builds up in your user cache directory -- mostly from programs you rarely use, or even no longer have around.