boot camp -- size of disk after uninstalling?

[Straitsfan]

Got my new mac and installed bootcamp, then uninstalled it (thought I wasn't going to use it.). I followed the instructions from bootcamp assistant, but when I went back just now to reinstall it, I'm not sure the hd size was the same as when I did it the first time. How much space is available to use (or rather, how much space does the os and all the features take up on the disk), and if one uninstalls windows, what exactly happens?

Is windows and all it's applications really deleted or what? my mac says that the hd capacity right now is 465 gb with 449 useable. Is there supposed to be more available to me or no (if not, then there's quite a bit of space taken up by all the apple software)

 

[Noels]

Straitsfan,

Before offering any advice, I have to ask if you mean there are 449 GB available, and not 449 bytes?

449GB would be fine - that would mean you have only used 16GB of your hard drive.

If it really is only 449 bytes, open Disk Utility (in Applications/Utility folder) and select the Macintosh HD on the left and click on Verify Disk on the right. If Repair Disc is also showing, click on it and see what it tells you.

Uninstalling the Windows partition (using Boot Camp Assistant) should have recovered all the space it and other Windows programs used.

Let us know what shows up and we can advise you better on what to do,

Noel

 

[Straitsfan]

yeah, it's 449 gb. I know that while the hd is 500 gb, I didn't expect that much space to be taken up by the os software (40-50 gb is I'm understanding it correectly. I'm going to have to uninstall and reinstall, because I set the partition size too low. I only chose seven, and when I checked on the amount of space taken, it was almost full. I'd like to have more. Any recommendations on how much is enough, or should I just take the whole 32 gb, since I'm using FAT32?

Just to be sure, If I uninstall the windows partition, that will free up all the space I can have with just os x on the mac partition, right?

 

[Noels]

Straitsfan,

You have plenty of space on your hard drive, and the numbers look to be correct for OS X on a 500GB hard drive. Here's a little info on your 500GB hard drive. Because of the way Gigabytes are measured, you'll end up with about 466GB usable on your drive. Take a look here:
http://blog.backblaze.com/2008/03/21/how-many-bytes-are-in-a-megabyte-really/

I would use a 32GB partition and you'll have plenty of space for all the Windows activity you want...

The answer to your question is "Yes," if you remove the Windows partition all you should have left is OS X...

You're good to go. Good luck with your new Macbook,

Noel