Ridding my iBook of unneeded software. Need Suggestions!

Alright, so I'm running 10.5 on my iBook G4 and I want to use it solely for music, video, and pictures. I have about 5 GB left of available space and I want to start making room. I exclusively use Ableton Live 8 to produce music and occasionally iMovie, and iPhoto regularly so I would like to have space to store my projects. Also, when I'm running a Live set in Ableton it will occasionally lag a bit. Anyway I can prevent this? But basically I'd just like to know what stock programs that arent really necessary to have on my Ibook that won't hurt its performance. Any tips will be appreciated. Thanks!

Also, are there any popular upgrades/mods to increase performance for iBook G4's that are readily available? If so, suggestions please.

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Suggest a much bigger hard drive may be the answer to your problems as with only 5GB of free space you will get all sorts of problems, including slowdowns, freezing etc. And a G4 is getting just a little long in the tooth.

Perhaps your best option may be an external hard drive for those projects.

That's what I was thinking. However, I really want to get my computer working effectively, fast, and dependable. I know that it is a kind of old computer but I'm not naive to the fact that it can't run any better than it does. I just don't want to be spend $1k + on a brand new macbook pro (I'm an unemployed 16 year old), at least not right now.

Besides that, anymore ideas anyone?

I'm not understanding why you think getting rid of software will make your machine more "effective, fast and dependable."

Apps aren't taking up significant amounts of room on your HD. The media stuff is what's taking up the room on your HD. Either move that stuff or get a bigger hard drive.

I'm just simply asking what pre-loaded programs and functions aren't necessary for operation. I would like to remove those things that aren't relevant to what I'm using my iBook for. Also, I have considered buying an external hard drive but that was out of the question/OP. I was seeking advice on how much I could possibly take off on the internal hard drive without damaging its performance. I have regrettably done it before on a previous Macintosh when I was younger, so I would like to take extreme caution this time.

Please re-read my post until you get it.

alright

Yep, you're not getting the picture.

There just do not exist any pre-loaded apps that take up much room - aside from Garageband and iPhoto. You can delete anything from the Applications folder you want to. Do not delete anything from the Utilities folder. Before you do, just take a look at the size of the apps you "think" you want to get rid of - you'll find the space to be insignificant related to the space you need to free up.

It is unlikely that you will find anything above maybe 2GB to delete there that came "pre-installed". Being on the creative side - 2GB is nothing - you will use that space back up in the blink of an eye...

At the amount of free space you have currently, it's likely that freeing up 2GB of space would be almost immediately eaten up be the sleep image and your virtual memory.

The only way out of your dilemma is to upgrade your existing hard drive &/or get a new external hard drive to move your data onto. And don't do either one of those until you have a spare hard drive to back up all your stuff.

Well, there is one more way - delete Ableton, iPhoto and all your music, pics and home made movies and don't create any new ones. That should free up a significant amount of space for you.

All in all, and as a parent, I don't normally recommend this, but, it's seriously time to hit the parents up for a couple of new drives. One for backup only and one for storing your data. You haven't told us what size your current drive is, but I'm guessing 120GB or less? You can get external 500GB - 1TB external drives all day long for $70-$75. It's time.

Thank you, that was all i needed to know and by far a more clear response than above.

Assistance no longer needed. Thanks