How much disk space does SL need to operate?

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I am down to 26GB free on my drive. How low can I go to keep SL running properly? I also have 4GB's of RAM which has drastically helped the Mac run smoother over the 2GB my MacBook shipped with. One of these days I am gonna get a larger internal drive. I fear having to recreate my bootcamp partition and reinstall Windows, as it was a painful process.


Thanks..
 

pigoo3

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I am down to 26GB free on my drive. How low can I go to keep SL running properly?

Since you're aware that your free HD space is getting low...it's probably time to do something about it.:) I'm sure you must have items on your HD that can be permanently deleted, copied to an external HD, or burned to a CD or DVD.

There is no absolute rule of thumb that says SL needs xxx amount of free HD space to operate properly. But with 26gig free...you may be entering a "zone" where productivity will start being effected. Let the free space get to zero (or close to it)...and the computer will "lock-up"...and then you have some real hassles!

The time is now (not later) to address things!:)

- Nick

p.s. BTW...do you have a backup of your computers HD?...if not...it may be time to take care of that as well.;)
 
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Someone on one of the other Mac boards I am on said dont let it go lower than 10% which would be 13GB's in my case. However I am calling Other World Computing and ordering a drive today. Got a school in town that I have used before that will charge me way less money to install and do the transfer. Not sure if they will be successful doing the boot camp transfer but if not then its a great idea that I still have my Windows and software CD's and the key's.


Since you're aware that your free HD space is getting low...it's probably time to do something about it.:) I'm sure you must have items on your HD that can be permanently deleted, copied to an external HD, or burned to a CD or DVD.

There is no absolute rule of thumb that says SL needs xxx amount of free HD space to operate properly. But with 26gig free...you may be entering a "zone" where productivity will start being effected. Let the free space get to zero (or close to it)...and the computer will "lock-up"...and then you have some real hassles!

The time is now (not later) to address things!:)

- Nick

p.s. BTW...do you have a backup of your computers HD?...if not...it may be time to take care of that as well.;)
 

pigoo3

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Someone on one of the other Mac boards I am on said dont let it go lower than 10% which would be 13GB's in my case.

I've heard folks say keep 10-20% free. Of course the larger the drive...the smaller this percentage can be:

- 10-20% on an 80 gig drive is 8-16gig free
- 10-20% on a 500gig drive is 50-100gig free

...BIG difference!

Here are a few articles on the topic:

How Much Free Drive Space Do I Need - Minimum Free Drive Space to Run OS X
Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space
Hands-On Mac: Maintaining Minimum Free Space On Your Hard Drive - Applelinks.com

HTH,:)

- Nick
 
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I've heard folks say keep 10-20% free. Of course the larger the drive...the smaller this percentage can be:

- 10-20% on an 80 gig drive is 8-16gig free
- 10-20% on a 500gig drive is 50-100gig free

...BIG difference!

Here are a few articles on the topic:

How Much Free Drive Space Do I Need - Minimum Free Drive Space to Run OS X
Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space
Hands-On Mac: Maintaining Minimum Free Space On Your Hard Drive - Applelinks.com

HTH,:)

- Nick

As a general rule of thumb: if the Available space on the Mac OS X startup disk is less than 10 GB, it is time to free some disk space. We suggest 10 GB as an absolute minimum as this is generally the amount of free space required to reinstall Mac OS X 10.5 and earlier via an Archive and Install and still preserve space for VM swap files. More free space is better. For example, users of FileVault may want to retain more free space than that occupied by their encrypted Home folder: disabling FileVault requires free space somewhat greater than the size of your encrypted Home folder.


10GB. Thanks..
 
C

chas_m

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I don't disagree with the quoted article but the words "ABSOLUTE MINIMUM" weren't nearly emphasised enough for my liking. 10GB would be the minimum if you do NOTHING of any importance on your computer, maybe.

If you actually work with your computer at all, you'd want that to be at least 20GB or more.
 

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