macbook help

Hello,

My girl has gone away for a few weeks and left me her old macbook, ive been trying to clean it up for her and i have very little knowledge of a mac. most of my life has sadly been spent on windows. her hd is pretty full so ive been trying to go through the applications and other files to see what is need and what she would like to keep. any suggestions?

also what is the prisim app?
and what is .dmg?
and what is the Macentosh HD that is yellow?
shes got an x through her battery icon, does this mean she needs a new one, it appears to not hold a charge.

all help would be appreciated

it says shes running mac osx 10.4.11 if it helps anyone

folder

it also has a previous system folder
is that needed and what is it?

I sense a disaster looming... My advice is wait until she gets back at least.

HaydenofHearts said:

Hello,

My girl has gone away for a few weeks and left me her old macbook, ive been trying to clean it up for her and i have very little knowledge of a mac. most of my life has sadly been spent on windows. her hd is pretty full so ive been trying to go through the applications and other files to see what is need and what she would like to keep. any suggestions?

also what is the prisim app?
and what is .dmg?
and what is the Macentosh HD that is yellow?
shes got an x through her battery icon, does this mean she needs a new one, it appears to not hold a charge.

all help would be appreciated

it says shes running mac osx 10.4.11 if it helps anyone

Click to expand...

It's nice that you care. However I would not mess with other peoples' computers especially when you don't have their consent to delete stuff. Especially when you don't know what they are.

Even if you did have her permission I wouldn't mess with her computer. You are right about the battery though.

The Yellow HDs is probably her external HD.

dmg is an file extension for the mac, much like exe is for Windows.

before anything is trashed she is informed, and thanks for the dmg knowledge, her computer wasnt working for quite a while due to the track pad being stuck but i got around that by turning it off and just pluging in another mouse, but thank you for the words of wisdom,

ive just really been doing little things that ive picked up from googlein round the net, like finding her internet cashe and clearing it along with others, shes got an external hd but not with me, in order to clear up space i said we should move picture files that she wishes to keep but arnt used to that. and boy does she have a lot of pictures as most art majors do. ive been getting rid of applications she doesnt want or use, and as computer rules go if you dont know what it is dont touch it, after all this isnt my mac. any other little things i can do to increase processing speed while shes gone, when she gets back we may do some of the bigger things eg hardware, but for now im just helping out with the minors

Onyx disk utility might help.

Generally, it is movies and music that is taking up excessive amounts of the average user's HD space, rather than applications, etc.
Being an arts Major you can add the photos to that list.

This being the case, if anything, and only with her consent, I would only transfer all movies, music and pictures to an external drive.
As for the previous system folder, this would have happened after an upgrade from an earlier version of OS X.
Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5: About installation options
Before doing this though, I would use disc inventory x to see what is taking up the HD space. Disk Inventory X
Then I would move the above data.
After that, as mentioned, I would use OnyX to clear out redundant caches, etc.
Be sure to scroll down on the link and select the version for OS X 10.4 Download OnyX for Mac - OS X maintenance & optimization tool. MacUpdate.com
When you use OnyX, select the automation tab, and run it with it's default selections.

*AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE, I WOULD USE CARBON COPY CLONER TO CREATE A BOOTABLE CLONE OF HER HD BEFORE TOUCHING ANYTHING!!!
http://www.bombich.com/download.html