Question about MacBook

[mekaakaa]

Just got a macbook and re-install OS X. The question is, i realize that OS X actually take up 17.4GB of hard drive space? Is that normal. That amount seem rather huge, and also my hard drive is only 60gb so should i upgrade my hard drive.

Thanks in advances.

[Outphase]

that sounds about right, theres a bunch of trial software you could remove if i remember (microsoft office being one of them). As well, it installs a bunch of printer drivers and such (which is why its so big). you still have 35 gb ish to play around with, or you could upgrade to a new drive (they're coming down in prices these days).

[mekaakaa]

oh ic, cool thanks. I guess I will see how far 35gb take me. worst come to worst just upgrade the hard drive. thanks again

[deadprez]

I would upgrade it right away.
Once you upgrade your harddrive your going to have to re-install all your programs and trust me with only 35 gigz you will be doing that pretty soon.

Unless you just buy an externall hard drive where you can just store your pictures, music, movies.

[vric]

Just got a macbook and re-install OS X. The question is, i realize that OS X actually take up 17.4GB of hard drive space? Is that normal. That amount seem rather huge, and also my hard drive is only 60gb so should i upgrade my hard drive.

Thanks in advances.

It's normal. GarageBand take a lot of space. There is also about 1.5gb of Printer Drivers.. You can unselect both on install and save a good 3gb.
Office crappy trial take about 200mb and iWork take over 1gb too. So, if you take a look at option, you can make OSX lot smaller.

Personally, my Macbook had a 80gb drive, but I changed it for a 160gb. Having a 20gb Vista partition and making DVD was just too big for 80gb drive.

[bfurtado]

Localization takes up a lot of space as well. There are tools, such as monolingual which will allow you to remove any language support you don't require (Farsi or Swahili anyone?), to save hundreds of megabytes from what I've read. However, some have claimed that monolingual pooched their OS X install and forced them to format/reinstall the OS so be forewarned. Google for tips and tricks to slim down os x. Because of Apple's desire for a true plug and play experience (no driver disk required-peripherals work right out of the box), there is a huge amount of software and driver support for things you'll never use.

Brian

[Xtahse]

yup,
upgrade the hd

I upgraded from 60g to 120g

[HBP]

Just take off all the trash software that you'll never use. And all the languages.

[deadprez]

Here is a link to a quick video on how to replace your hard drive and boost your ram.

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macw...ideo/index.php


Does anyone know when you put in the new hard drive do you have to reboot the system with the operating system software in the cd bay or will it ask you to reinstall it ?????

[CoinSaver]

Before you go and spend the money to upgrade the drive, consider cleaning it up.

Start with Disk Inventory X a free tool to visually see what is taking up all the space on your drive.

Try these two links that talk about removing the international support for languages you don't need.
http://www.bresink.com/osx/193281/Do...rnational.html

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...60126080300807

[Brandon]

I originally had a Macbook C2D with an 80GB drive and upgraded it to a 160GB Samsung drive later on. It is easy to do, both the physical installation plus the software end of things. All I did was when I bought the 160GB drive was buy a 2.5" external USB enclosure and installed the 80GB drive from the Macbook into it, and put the 160GB drive into the Macbook. I booted from the USB drive, then used SuperDuper (like Ghost) to copy from the 80GB drive to the 160GB. I then rebooted, disconnected the USB drive and booted from the 160GB drive now in my Macbook. It was smooth and problem free.

My suggestion is to just clean up the installation as others have suggested, and if down the road you need more space, the process is easy.

[deadprez]

Excellet informative post... thank you !

[Brandon]

Here's the link for Super Duper:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDup...scription.html

It's free and I use it regularly for my overnight backups.

[deadprez]

WOOhooo...

Just placed my order:


MacBook 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo - White
13.3-inch glossy widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
1GB memory (2x512MB SODIMMs)
80GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Built-in iSight camera

Now the new important question becomes how do i supress my excitement untill may 17, ( the day its supposed to arive )

[jason9945]

I would upgrade it right away.
Once you upgrade your harddrive your going to have to re-install all your programs and trust me with only 35 gigz you will be doing that pretty soon.

Unless you just buy an externall hard drive where you can just store your pictures, music, movies.

Nah, just clone the first drive onto the new one. It should work.