01-06-2011, 02:46 PM

I'm NOT a mac user. My client ask me to increase the hard drive space on her imac (not sure which imac, probably doesn't matter) She said there wasn't enough room for ms office to install its update. SO my stupid question is this:
If I have her purchase an external hard drive, does mac's os allow you to choose the installation directory for new software. (To uninstall and reinstall office)
AND are there any guidelines I should be aware of when shopping for her drive?

01-06-2011, 09:02 PM

Most Mac (OS X) applications will default to being installed on the internal drive (MacIntosh HD). Some will give the option to change the installation location, but as a rule it's not a good idea to install an application on an external hard drive. That rule also applies to Windows.

Changing out an internal hard drive on an iMac is a moderately difficult task, and if you have never done it, be prepared for some work. For one, the entire front panel and display must be removed before you can gain entry into the machine. You can get an idea of what's involved by going to iFixit: The free repair manual and look up the disassembly instructions for her model.

01-07-2011, 04:06 PM

Ok, I'm going to suggest she buy an external drive, and relocate her Photoshop and Premiere files to the new drive. I'm assuming buying a drive for this would be the same as for the pc. All I need to do is make sure they have the same cable right? ie. firewire or usb

01-07-2011, 09:46 PM

That should work fine. Most likely the drive will need to be formatted but that is easily done in Disk Utility. If she is interested in doing that all of the data file could probably be moved to an external drive.

01-07-2011, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by johnhouk

Ok, I'm going to suggest she buy an external drive, and relocate her Photoshop and Premiere files to the new drive.

If she is one of those people who never cleans out or deletes old unused files then there will probably more than just Photoshop and Premiere files that should be either moved or deleted.

Install this application OmniDiskSweeper to easily locate and see what is taking up all the hard drive space. An external hard drive is a good idea though because you will probably not delete enough files to free up a lot of space for future usage. She also sounds like a person who doesn't keep track of her disk space usage so it'll probably fill up quickly again.