my hard drive is almost completely filled

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im new to macs so this may just be a normal thing, but i still dont know what to do. i am using an ibook g4 1.2 ghz, 1.25 gb ram and a 30 gig hard drive.i just upgraded from tiger to leopard and did a clean install, so i started fresh. i have barely put anything on the computer so far, just updates, iLife, the normal stuff, and my hard drive is almost completely full. I only have 7 gigs of hard drive space left and i cant figure out where it all went. can someone please help me figure this out so i can have some space to put other stuff besides the os
thanks
 
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While installing Leopard did you install all the printer drivers and language files? Cause those take up a lot, and I mean, a lot of space. Also, use Xslimmer to slim down applications by a large amount, especially those iLife apps.
 
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yeah i installed it all, but i still dont see how the os could take up close to 30 gigs off space. im wondering if theres anything drastic that i can do to free up space cause its killing me, im now down to 1 gig and its really limiting what i can do on this machine, i dont want to have to buy a new hard drive, i just want to clean this one up, maybe put my personal stuff on an external hard drive and then clean install? what do you suggest
 
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Welcome to Mac-Forums, CAUTION5697.

Just to let you know that even if you do find a way of eliminating some stuff and saving disk space at the start, a 30GB hard drive, by today's standards, isn't really big. You'll have to change that HD of yours somewhere down the line for sure.

Don't forget the system takes up empty disk space on the internal and uses it as virtual (swap) memory when physical RAM is short.
 
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And if you subscribe to .Mac and are syncing your iDisk, you have 10 gig gone there.......
 
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buy an external.. 30 gigs is ridiculous in this day and age.. this isn't the 80's....they are more than cheap enough.. slickdeals.net

try it out...
 
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i know that external drives are a lot easier, but i want an internal one cause i dont want to have to lug around an external drive all over the place, so im looking for an internal drive, between 100gb and 160 gb
 
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Take a look on Newegg.com. You should be able to find something to fit your computer and swap it out yourself without too much headache.
 
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After formatting, a 30GB HDD will be reduced to about 27 GB and Leopard with those printer drivers installed will take up about 19GB. As the HDD needs to be about 15% empty to operate at its peak, you can see you are pretty close to the line already.

Why not look for a larger HDD and pop the current internal into an external case and use for backups?
 
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thanks for posting this question...........was planning on ugrading to leopard with a 30gb HD
Now i gotta think about HD...

transferring to mac has been the best and worst computing decision i have ever made
 
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Just before you install OS X uncheck the Printer Drives, Additional Languages and the Office or iWork Trials, that should save you about 2-3 GB of space then download XSlimmer and slim down your apps and you will be surprised at how much you can save from it, when i reinstall my OS after the updates i always use xslimmer to slim everything down i save 3-4 GB, even more if you have download apps e.g. firefox, photoshop etc...
 
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transferring to mac has been the best and worst computing decision i have ever made

Start a new thread explaining this, and maybe we can help alleviate some of your frustration...
 

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