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Hi everyone, i am going to be soon switching to OS X when i buy my new macbook for graduation. I have questions and concerns. From a friend i have heard that you cannot fully remove all information and applications when you delete them. He told me the apps and information will be compressed and stored in case you want to back up. How would one completely remove unneeded software or information from a Mac. This is also a concern on my pc, if someone could help me that would be greatly appreciated. I have a vague idea on pc, because i think you can delete all but the most restoration point. Also how do you create restoration points on a mac or pc; or set the computer to automatically do that?

im sorry, my questions may not be too clear but your help would be appreciated.

thank you
 
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Never go by what you 'hear from a friend' about the Mac OS X experience. Only go by what you get from forum posts like this one. Random strangers on the internet are always much more reliable when it comes to these situations. :robot:

However, to the point, this random stranger says that Mac applications are treated rather differently from those under Windows. In Windows programs sprinkle parts of themselves all about the file system and in the registry. Under Mac OS there is no registry, and applications are usually contained within their little bundled package. The icon for an application? It's actually a folder (or container) which holds all the 'stuff' that said app needs to run. In 99% of cases to install, you drag the icon from wherever you got it from to your applications folder. For uninstalling, you drag the icon from your Applications folder to the trash. Empty the trash and it's gone.

There are some exceptions to this (I'm looking at you Adobe and Microsoft) but for the most part your friend is wrong, and internet strangers posting on a Mac Forum are correct!
 
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I'm not sure if you're talking apps or simply personal information. If you're getting rid of your pc it's a good idea to simply destroy the hard drive... if that's not an option you can purchase a decent shredding program (BCWipe and others) are available for a price. I'm sure someone in here can recommend an open-source program (I've only been around mac for a month now). Hope this helps...
 
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thanks guys, i really appreciate it.

what i was getting at was, when you delete information, it not fully deleted; i dont know the exact techno lingo, but it is somewhat saved so if you want to restore your pc to an previous restore point, all that information is returned. Or am i wrong?

also i did hear that some apps wont fully remove themselves, so you need apps like appzapper or something.

thanks guys
 
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also how much memory does OS X take up because i plan on getting a 120 gb macbook. And what is defragmentation and how does that work on a mac?
 
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also how much memory does OS X take up because i plan on getting a 120 gb macbook. And what is defragmentation and how does that work on a mac?
I couldn't imagine OS X taking up more then 5GB.

As for defragmenting, you never have to. OS X does it in the background. You can do a more serious defrag, but very little advantage is gained most of the time.
 

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also how much memory does OS X take up because i plan on getting a 120 gb macbook. And what is defragmentation and how does that work on a mac?

I believe you may be confusing hard disk space with memory. Your hard disk is where your data is stored, memory is a space that programs (already stored on the hard disk) are loaded into so that they can be processed by the CPU. OS X and the accompanying iLife suite and trial software take up about 40GB of space, but you can easily pare that down by trashing some of the preinstalled demos. 120GB should be plenty for your hard disk, 1GB is highly recommended for memory.

Fragmentation occurs when your hard disk is written to in an inefficient manner. This is a major problem on Windows machines, but is less likely to occur on a Mac where defragmentation chores happen automatically as long as there is sufficient free space (about 20% of the disk space free as I understand it). Most users will never need to run a defragmentation program. If you feel the need to do so, programs like iDefrag will accomplish this task.
 
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Use CleanApp --
 
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Regardless of any misunderstandings due to terminology...

Here's how much the main OS X components take up on my machine:
System- 1.6 GB
Library- 8.74 GB
Applications (I have 61 total, not including utilities or MS office stuff)- 2.99 GB

TOTAL: 13.33 GB

I'm still new to the operating system, so if i'm wrong in assuming that these are the folders that house the main components of the operating system, please correct me.

But just to get an idea of things, I have an 80GB HD. About 74.5GB available after formatting and such. I have about 2.5 GB of pictures, 6.5 GB of music, 1GB of video, and probably another 1 GB of random stuff on my machine (documents, PDF files, ect). That makes for about 11 GB of my stuff on there.

I have 27 GB used, and 47.5 GB available. So of the 27 GB used, 11 GB of it is personal files, leaving 16 GB taken up by other stuff. I know that some things like the language files can take up as much as 2GB, which some people delete.

Based on all this, i'd say that you use up between 13 GB and 16 GB of disk space towards OS X and applications on your machine. This will vary depending on which version you have, how updated your software is, how many applications you have, ect. I have over 60 applications loaded on mine. I have 4 web browsers...just because. The music I have will play continuously for almost 4 days straight. With an 80 GB HD, I think 47 GB of free space after that stuff is reasonable.

Again, i'm not extremely familiar with the architecture of the OS, but that's what I see going on in my machine. Hope it helps.

-Nick
 
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any one have an answer to how to permanently delete files off, meaning to completely remove it as to when you restore it wont come back
 
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AppZaper or AppDelet should work fine, AppZapper will cost u about $12, AppDelete is free.

They WIll delete everything u throw in them and u can't restore.
 
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acash0902,

I can tell by your worries that you are deeply afflicted by the disease that is Windows. You seem to be trying to pre-emptively remedy problems that probably won't exist. Get the Mac and put your mind at ease. If you have any problems, you know where to come.
 
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acash0902,

I can tell by your worries that you are deeply afflicted by the disease that is Windows. You seem to be trying to pre-emptively remedy problems that probably won't exist. Get the Mac and put your mind at ease. If you have any problems, you know where to come.

I am afflicted by windows as well... it's been tough. I love trying new freewares, just to play with the programs. And I hate it when it's uninstalling time, you never know what gets left behind lurking in your hard drive and before you realize it there's this garble of things scattered all over taking up space! And I'd be too afraid to delete anything since another programs might still be using that file (as the machine tells me) and stop working.

I'm getting my macbook in 20 days... and I hope I won't have to worry about these things anymore (^__^)
 

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