Hey guys, new to the community. I've encountered some problems recently with my computer and was hoping someone might be able to help me out. Sorry if this is a little long-winded, I wanted to try to give as much info as possible…
I run a discrete 15-inch MacBook Pro with 10.5.8; 2.4 gHz Core 2 Duo with 2 Gb RAM and a 200 Gb HDD.
I recently began encountering issues with phantom storage usage. Of the 190or so Gb not used for critical OS files, etc. I should have about 90 completely free and unused. I’ve added up the totals of all of my critical files… Music is approximately 60 Gb, Applications + Application support about 20 Gb, iPhoto 9Gb, and negligible volumes, files and folders that I have amalgamated over time (documents and miscellaneous) add up to about an additional 10 Gb. All in all, about 100 Gb of used storage space; you catch my drift.
Going off of this, I should have around 90 Gb of free storage space, however, the OS calculates it at about 40 Gb which severely slows down my operating system and cuts down on the usable space remaining on the HDD. I believe that the phantom used-space is a result of my use of Vuze (which I have since completely erased from my computer). When using Vuze to download audio or video files, I use my desktop as the destination folder and move the files to a removable storage drive when they are complete. I then completely delete the files from my computer. I recently noticed that even complete deletion of the files does not give me back as much space as it should and invariably eats up my free HDD space little by little. I have painstakingly combed through every volume, deleting completely any unwanted files and looking for the source of the phantom storage usage but haven’t had much luck. I’ve run system clean-ups with Onyx and have run free-space deletion on both 1x and 7x with no luck.
At this point I’m prepared to do a full system restore wipeout of my computer and upgrade to Snow Leopard in the process. I have full, up-to-date time machine backups of my system but had a few questions about the restoration process.
-If I do a full system restore, will I have to port back the entire database backup, or can I selectively choose to back up only certain file systems? I think that at this point the easiest solution to the problem that I went into detail about above would be a system restore; I’d then (hopefully) afterward restore my iTunes library, my documents, and my applications (at least whatever could be carried over without install discs) but NOT my entire HDD as it is now. Is this easy to do through time machine?
-If I restore iTunes, will my play counts, dates added, playlists, etc. be preserved? Will I have to reset permissions? I’m worried that if I wipe the system and then attempt to port my iTunes library over the machine will confront me with an error message saying I don’t have sufficient permissions, which will cause me huge headaches if I can’t retrieve a 60-some Gb library of a little over 10,000 songs.
-I have an update disc for Snow Leopard and am running 10.5.8 right now. If I wipe the system clean through disc utility and then update to Snow Leopard, will it then be possible to access and utilize time machine backups from 10.5.8?
Thanks for any help anyone can provide.
I run a discrete 15-inch MacBook Pro with 10.5.8; 2.4 gHz Core 2 Duo with 2 Gb RAM and a 200 Gb HDD.
I recently began encountering issues with phantom storage usage. Of the 190or so Gb not used for critical OS files, etc. I should have about 90 completely free and unused. I’ve added up the totals of all of my critical files… Music is approximately 60 Gb, Applications + Application support about 20 Gb, iPhoto 9Gb, and negligible volumes, files and folders that I have amalgamated over time (documents and miscellaneous) add up to about an additional 10 Gb. All in all, about 100 Gb of used storage space; you catch my drift.
Going off of this, I should have around 90 Gb of free storage space, however, the OS calculates it at about 40 Gb which severely slows down my operating system and cuts down on the usable space remaining on the HDD. I believe that the phantom used-space is a result of my use of Vuze (which I have since completely erased from my computer). When using Vuze to download audio or video files, I use my desktop as the destination folder and move the files to a removable storage drive when they are complete. I then completely delete the files from my computer. I recently noticed that even complete deletion of the files does not give me back as much space as it should and invariably eats up my free HDD space little by little. I have painstakingly combed through every volume, deleting completely any unwanted files and looking for the source of the phantom storage usage but haven’t had much luck. I’ve run system clean-ups with Onyx and have run free-space deletion on both 1x and 7x with no luck.
At this point I’m prepared to do a full system restore wipeout of my computer and upgrade to Snow Leopard in the process. I have full, up-to-date time machine backups of my system but had a few questions about the restoration process.
-If I do a full system restore, will I have to port back the entire database backup, or can I selectively choose to back up only certain file systems? I think that at this point the easiest solution to the problem that I went into detail about above would be a system restore; I’d then (hopefully) afterward restore my iTunes library, my documents, and my applications (at least whatever could be carried over without install discs) but NOT my entire HDD as it is now. Is this easy to do through time machine?
-If I restore iTunes, will my play counts, dates added, playlists, etc. be preserved? Will I have to reset permissions? I’m worried that if I wipe the system and then attempt to port my iTunes library over the machine will confront me with an error message saying I don’t have sufficient permissions, which will cause me huge headaches if I can’t retrieve a 60-some Gb library of a little over 10,000 songs.
-I have an update disc for Snow Leopard and am running 10.5.8 right now. If I wipe the system clean through disc utility and then update to Snow Leopard, will it then be possible to access and utilize time machine backups from 10.5.8?
Thanks for any help anyone can provide.
