Deleting files and folders

Hello there.

I am in need of more space on the harddrive of my G4 Powerbook (OS 10.3.6). As a fairly new mac user I am not sure which files can be deleted without problems. I have a few questions I hope someone can answer:

1. On the Macintosh HD there are a folder called "Developer" and one called "sw" - what are they for? Can I delete them without problems?
2. Do I need Applications and System Folder for Mac OS 9 (I am using the OS 10)?
3. Does anyone have tips to get more space (of course I've deleted programs and files I don't need)?

Thanks.

1. what do those folders have in them? I think those are things installed with developer tools, if you're not developing any apps, you dont need them.
2.if you have any applications that open in os 9(classic), you need the one named "system folder" and the one called Applications(os 9), the folder "Applications" is where applications for use in os x are kept.
3. if you have a lot of fonts, screensavers, etc, you can probably delete some of that. I recommend you try the app called WhatSize , it will tell you the size of all the files on your mac, go through its results, nd delete any files you created that are un necessary.
and welcome to mac-forums.:mac:

Macman said:

1. what do those folders have in them? I think those are things installed with developer tools, if you're not developing any apps, you dont need them.

Click to expand...

Thank you Macman.
The "Developer" folder has the following subfolders: Applications, Documentations, Examples, Extras, Headers, Java, Makefiles, Palettes, Private, Tools.
The "sw" folder looks really strange. It has tons of files and subfolders, the first subfolders are called: bin, etc, fink, include, lib, sbin, share, src, var.

yea, those are for developer tools, if you don't plan on developing any apps, you can delete them, and you can always reinstall them later if you need to.

Also get a copy of DeLocalizer. You can use it to remove unwanted localization resources. That should clear up some space. I have seen up to 800mb. You may want to look at removing printer drivers that you don't need.

yea, when I used that, it saved 1005 mb, almost a gb.

DanishDude said:

Hello there.

I am in need of more space on the harddrive of my G4 Powerbook (OS 10.3.6). As a fairly new mac user I am not sure which files can be deleted without problems. I have a few questions I hope someone can answer:

1. On the Macintosh HD there are a folder called "Developer" and one called "sw" - what are they for? Can I delete them without problems?
2. Do I need Applications and System Folder for Mac OS 9 (I am using the OS 10)?
3. Does anyone have tips to get more space (of course I've deleted programs and files I don't need)?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

/sw is a directory created by fink for software and libraries that it uses so as not to pollute OS X's main tree. If you are not using any program from fink you can safely delete it. Ergo if you are using some program or library from fink you should keep it.