Starting over with my Macbook

[Kaphias]

Specs:

1st Gen Macbook (late 2006)

Mac OSX 10.5.8

Intel Core Duo 2GHz

64 GB Hard drive

2 GB RAM

Intel GMA 950 64 MB VRAM

 

Simply put, I'm out of space on it's hard drive. I haven't had more than 5GB of empty space for over a year, and I've at less than 2GB for about 4 months. While an external drive is on my list, I'd also like to try and regain some of the space on the computer's drive. I've deleted just about everything I can, so I figure reformatting (or whatever the process is called) would be a good option.

Basically I'd like back up my pictures, documents, and music to a small external drive I have now, wipe the computer's hard drive, and re-install using the OSX 10.5 disks I have. Have any Mac users here done that or something similar, or have a guide outlining the process? Any possible issues that may arise? Thanks. :)

[Sy_Accursed]

There's not a lot of point in reformatting without a good reason eg OS has gone wrong.

 

you can achieve the same result simply by actually deleting all the applications and documents you do not wish to back-up

[Kaphias]

There's not a lot of point in reformatting without a good reason eg OS has gone wrong.

 

you can achieve the same result simply by actually deleting all the applications and documents you do not wish to back-up

The problem is that I've basically done that, but I'm still stuck with a full hard drive even when I only have ~20GB of files I need to keep. As I see it, starting over would be the simplest way to get rid of the stuff I don't really want to take the time to find and delete.

[Guy]

>64GB HDD

 

That would be why. It's rather hard nowadays to cope with only 64GB. Assuming macs use standard SATA 2.5 inch drives, I'd go ahead and just buy a new HDD entirely.

[Kaphias]

>64GB HDD

 

That would be why. It's rather hard nowadays to cope with only 64GB. Assuming macs use standard SATA 2.5 inch drives, I'd go ahead and just buy a new HDD entirely.

I'll only have this computer another year and a half or so, I don't want to invest any more in it.

So I just did the math: 2GB of pictures, 3GB of music, 7GB flightsim installation, and 6GB of other files. System info says I should have 55GB of useable space (I assume this is with the OS installed) but I really only have less than 20GB of stuff that I'd save.

[Ember]

.

[Guy]

>64GB HDD

 

That would be why. It's rather hard nowadays to cope with only 64GB. Assuming macs use standard SATA 2.5 inch drives, I'd go ahead and just buy a new HDD entirely.

I'll only have this computer another year and a half or so, I don't want to invest any more in it.

So I just did the math: 2GB of pictures, 3GB of music, 7GB flightsim installation, and 6GB of other files. System info says I should have 55GB of useable space (I assume this is with the OS installed) but I really only have less than 20GB of stuff that I'd save.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136391 $40

 

If you aren't geting another laptop, you could use it in a desktop, or even in a laptop with 2 harddrive bays. Out of curiosity, what FS are you running? I assume x-plane, seeing as FSX won't run on OSX..?

[Kaphias]

The problem is that I've basically done that, but I'm still stuck with a full hard drive even when I only have ~20GB of files I need to keep. As I see it, starting over would be the simplest way to get rid of the stuff I don't really want to take the time to find and delete.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about the OS X install process, but I do have a few suggestions for freeing disk space.

Running Disk Inventory X or similar may be worthwhile if you haven't already. It might save some time tracking down large (sets of) files you might have missed.

I assume you've been through the trash, but are you keeping backup archives which could be removed?

I've used programs like DIX before (Daisy Disk) before. DIX tells me I have 7.3GB of plain text, 7.1GB of documents, and 6.6GB of "iTunes documents" when my music folder is only 3.1GB. It's stuff like that that I'd be trying to clean, I guess.

3.1GB of iPhone backups.

 

>64GB HDD

 

That would be why. It's rather hard nowadays to cope with only 64GB. Assuming macs use standard SATA 2.5 inch drives, I'd go ahead and just buy a new HDD entirely.

I'll only have this computer another year and a half or so, I don't want to invest any more in it.

So I just did the math: 2GB of pictures, 3GB of music, 7GB flightsim installation, and 6GB of other files. System info says I should have 55GB of useable space (I assume this is with the OS installed) but I really only have less than 20GB of stuff that I'd save.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136391 $40

 

If you aren't geting another laptop, you could use it in a desktop, or even in a laptop with 2 harddrive bays. Out of curiosity, what FS are you running? I assume x-plane, seeing as FSX won't run on OSX..?

Ok, $40 is awful convincing. Will seriously consider that, but I'd still like to do a reformat beforehand.

Yeah, X-Plane. I keep a small install on my Mac for testing and repaints, and the full 100GB+ install on my Windows machine.

[Guy]

Ok, $40 is awful convincing. Will seriously consider that, but I'd still like to do a reformat beforehand.

Yeah, X-Plane. I keep a small install on my Mac for testing and repaints, and the full 100GB+ install on my Windows machine.

I'm not sure reformatting will do much apart from save a couple gigs, and give you a headache.

And eww, x-plane on windows :P FSX all the way, and MS Fly or whatever it's called looks promising, too. 100GB is rather a lot, I thought the 40GB I had in my FSX folder was a lot o.O

[Kaphias]

Ok, $40 is awful convincing. Will seriously consider that, but I'd still like to do a reformat beforehand.

Yeah, X-Plane. I keep a small install on my Mac for testing and repaints, and the full 100GB+ install on my Windows machine.

I'm not sure reformatting will do much apart from save a couple gigs, and give you a headache.

And eww, x-plane on windows :P FSX all the way, and MS Fly or whatever it's called looks promising, too. 100GB is rather a lot, I thought the 40GB I had in my FSX folder was a lot o.O

The idea behind reformatting would be to delete everything, then only put the files I absolutely need back on my computer. Much easier than going through and trying to delete everything I don't use.

The X-Plane default install is 70GB, the rest is made of of planes and custom scenery.

[Ember]

.

[Kaphias]

Is there any chance you could borrow some disk space (maybe on that Windows machine) while you do the new install? I know you mentioned a small external disk, but you'd need something with enough free space to hold all the data from your current disk.

If you're concerned about potential data loss, you could use dd to create an image which could be restored if necessary. Doing this, even a botched install won't leave you any worse off than you are now.

 

My standard procedure is to zero free space for better compression, then dd>gzip>netcat on the source host, and netcat>file on the destination. The end result is a file which shouldn't be larger than the size of the disk minus free space.

Yep, that "small external disk" was just big enough to hold my entire hard drive. Thanks for the reminder, it would not be fun to forget to back something up and then find out you needed it after you deleted it.