Clean up my clutter on my iMAC

I've had my iMAC since the end of 2004. I have come to the conclusion that many of the built in programs installed will never be used by myself. I was given a program that took away the un-needed languages and that freed up 2Gigs. Does anyone know a way to get rid of programs other that a clean install? I want to get rid of Test Drive, Quicken, Marble Blast, Classic 9, iMovie, iDVD(yes I do not use them), Worldbook and Appleworks (have MS office for MAC).

The combination of Spotlight and the uninstaller on Office is all I have ever used to ditch apps I never use. The Mac OS is not like Windows where you have to run an installer than then spews junk all over your hard drive and makes edits to the registry.
Mac installs and uninstalls are so much cleaner.
BTW, is there a reason that you are still running 10.4.1? There have been 5 OS updates and a security update or two released, so it really would be in your best interests to update to 10.4.6. Besides 1.4.7 has been seeded to developers and should be released shortly.
Clone your HD to a FireWire drive and run the combo updater to get current.. If it goes south, you can always clone the external HD back to the internal and pick up where you left off.

Similar Messages

How Can i clean my memory and make my imac more faster ?

I am new user in mac i have imac 4 g ram and need a way to clean the memory and make my imac more faster ...

You can't "clean" RAM. If the "storage" space on your hard drive isn't enough then put in a larger hard drive or delete any of your data you no longer need or can store on an external drive. Beyond this I cannot say because you have not provided enough information such as the amount of installed RAM, Capacity of your hard drive and the amount of available space on the hard drive, the specific iMac model you have.
You can try reinstalling Lion:
Reinstalling Lion Without the Installer
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alterhatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion: Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You can also re-download the Lion installer by opening the App Store application. Hold down the OPTION key and click on the Purchases icon in the toolbar. You should now see an active Install button to the right of your Lion purchase entry. There are situations in which this will not work. For example, if you are already booted into the Lion you originally purchased with your Apple ID or if an instance of the Lion installer is located anywhere on your computer.
However, if your computer doesn't have enough RAM or your hard drive is full, then reinstalling won't help.

Reinstall Apple software after clean install of Lion on 2009 IMac

Completed a clean install of Lion on 2009 IMac, which initially reacted poorly to an upgrade (my first attempt to move to Lion). How do I reinstall iPhoto, Garageband, Aperture, Final Cut Express, iMovie, Logic Express? These were all preinstalled with original purchase. How would I find the serial numbers that will inevitably be asked for? The App store wants to charge for these items, and other non-Apple software I've purchased for the App store won't download again. Multiple issues! Any suggestions?

You'll need to use the DVD's that should have accompanied your system when you bought it.
Prior to the App Store when you purchased a system from Apple that included installed software such as iLile or Final Cut the DVD's were always included in the box. The serial numbers will be on the DVD boxes or DVD's themselves.
regards
Concerning the App Store purchases if you long into the APp Store using the same Apple ID you used when you bought the software you should be able to download again without charge. At least this is how it works for Apple software don;t know if 3rd party stuff has different rules

I want to clean up unnecessary files from my Imac Pc ?

I have my Mac for over 5 years and never done a clean up, is about time i am sure i have stuff that could be deleted
is an Imac with a Power Pc and running Leopard
i would apriciated if someone can help me,apple wants to charge me by the hour, since there was no manual with this machine
how am i supost to check it?

Unmark this as a question?
A topic can be started as a question or a discussion. A question flags it as a question and provides places for you to mark two replies as helpful and one as having provided the solution to your answer. It encourages people to try to answer your question. A discussion doesn't provide those and people post for the sake of the discussion. Most people leave them as questions because they want to encourage responses.
See "Tutorials" in the right sidebar on https://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa

Clean install of Maverick on my iMac

Hi,
I have an early 2009 24" iMac and ever since my initial purchase, I upgraded my OS to the latest version, and now I have Mavericks. But my machine is performing slower and slower (even before Mavericks). Even for simple tasks like browsing a page with Safari, it takes minutes ! I'm not sure if my machine is adware free, because many ads popup, or are build in the html page.
Anyway, I decided to start all over again with a clean install of Maverick, and only restore the necessary files and apps I need and not the stuff I downloaded during the past 5 years, and never used it again. I also want to add an extra 4GB RAM up to 8GB.
I already did some research and build a bootable Maverick on USB, so I'm prepared to do the clean install.
But before going on, I want to be absolutely sure, I can restore the things I need.
So what is the best method, to take a backup of :
1) My iTunes files (music, apps, videos, books,...)
2) My personal data (documents, ....)
3) My software (most of them I don't have the installation files anymore)
4) My iPhoto library
I also took a backup on my Time Machine, but I read somewhere that this is not ideal for restoring after a clean install, because Time Machine won't recognize the new machine anymore.
So before plugin in my bootable USB drive , please help me out on choosing the right way to backup (and restore) the things I want..

For your iTunes stuff, photos, and documents, you can just navigate to the media files or documents on Time machine and restore them to your new installation.
For the software, I'd get updated versions of good installers, either on disc, or from new downloads, and make sure they are compatible with Mavericks. Just dragging the app over won't work very well.
I wouldn't reinstall any "crapware", such as MacKeeper or CleanMyMac, or anything else that purports to "optimize", "clean", "accelerate", "monitor", or "protect" your Mac. If you have this stuff on your Mac, that is probably what is making it slow in the first place.
Antivirus software, also problematic, and not that useful on Macs; I wouldn't install it.
For any peripherals, look for updated versions of drivers or other software from the manufacturer and install those. Old drivers and kernel extensions are not going to play well with Mavericks.
I just did a clean install. I found it useful to make a list of everything I wanted to move, and wrote down passwords, network settings, and email settings.

Want to clean and reinstall my early 2009 IMAC, but have Snow Leopard and no discs

Have an Early 2009 IMAC. My daughter (14, and an indiscriminate clicker of "OK" buttons on pop ups to get rid of them) has been using it for a year, and is it is now running very slowly, locking up, etc. I am not particularly computer savvy, but would like to do a full clean of hard drive and reinstall. Can't find the Snow leapard discs (My current OS X is 10.6.8), but want to go to yosemite to match my more current mac air. Questions:
1. Yosemite haters, I know there are people who feel that this is a risk, but otherwise this thing is pretty much an attractive paper weight.
2. I could upgrade my RAM to 8 GB (only has 2 slots being an early 2009), is that necessary? I would rather just upgrade and see how it goes.
3. I have backed up to time machine.
4. Yes, I bought a cheap PC (boo hiss) for my daughter, but at least she won't be touching this one anymore
Below is my system information from Etrecheck.
EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)
Report generated December 26, 2014 9:31:48 AM EST
Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.
Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
iMac (24-inch, Early 2009) (Verified)
iMac - model: iMac9,1
1 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
NVIDIA GeForce GT 130 - VRAM: 512 MB
iMac 1920 x 1200
spdisplays_display_connector
System Software: ℹ️
Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) - Uptime: 0:30:14
Disk Information: ℹ️
WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0 disk0 : (931.51 GB)
- (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 999.86 GB (644.62 GB free)
OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Mitsumi Electric Apple Optical USB Mouse
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Kernel Extensions: ℹ️
/System/Library/Extensions
[not loaded] com.marvell.kext.USBGenericPrinterClass (1.0.0) [Support]
Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[not loaded] org.samba.winbindd.plist [Support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist [Details]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]
[running] com.hp.printerAgent.plist [Support]
[running] com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper.plist [Support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
None
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 13.9.8 - SDK 10.6 Check version
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
CANONiMAGEGATEWAYLI: Version: 2.1.0.1 [Support]
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.246 - SDK 10.6 Mismatch! Adobe recommends 16.0.0.235
CANONiMAGEGATEWAYDL: Version: 2.1.0.1 [Support]
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.6.6
OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.0 [Support]
Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 6.1 [Support]
RealPlayer Plugin: Version: Unknown [Support]
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Move-Media-Player: Version: npmnqmp 071503000004 [Support]
Picasa: Version: 1.0 [Support]
Audio Plug-ins: ℹ️
iSightAudio: Version: 7.6.6
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player [Support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Time Machine information requires OS X 10.7 "Lion" or later.
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      20% storeagent
      3% Safari
      2% App Store
      1% WindowServer
      0% ps
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
116 MB App Store
112 MB WebProcess
60 MB mds
52 MB WindowServer
36 MB Safari
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
3.10 GB Free RAM
650 MB Active RAM
286 MB Inactive RAM
256 MB Wired RAM
346 MB Page-ins
197 KB Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Dec 26, 2014, 09:02:06 AM Self test - passed

You need to get rid of MacKeeper (Zeobit). Do not use their uninstaller, follow the instructions here ...
http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/09/21/how-to-uninstall-mackeeper-malware/
When that is done there does not appear to be a lot wrong if you correct the red ink entries.
The 4Gb is sufficient for Yosemite though 6 or 8 Gb would be better. You may find the download slow so be prepared.

How do I wipe my hard drive clean so I can sell my iMac G3?

I have an iMac G3 (model #5521) with OS 9 and need to know how to wipe the hard drive clean so I can safely sell it. I tried following the advice someone gave to an earlier post, but was unable to find the security screen for the Zero All Data option or even Disk Utility on the Installer menu for that matter. I have these discs: Software Install, Software Restore and Apple Hardware Test. If someone would be so kind as to walk me through the process step by step, I would greatly appreciate it. I know very little about Apple computers.

You need to boot to the Software Install CD-ROM that came with the iMac. To do so boot the computer off the CD-ROM by holding down the C key. Once it boots up open the Utilities folder displayed in the open CD-ROM window. Open Drive Setup. Open the Functions menu. Select the option labeled Options. In that window select the Zero All Data option checkbox. Open the initialization menu. Select initialization options. You want to make sure the iMac formats its hard drive in HFS+ or Mac OS Extended. Once you've selected all the initialization options click the Initialize button. It will then format the hard drive & check it for bad sectors. Then reinstall the Mac OS. Then it should be ready to sell.

Want to clean up HD etc to sell iMac

Hello, I know there are various threads about this and if one answers my direct questions please let me know.
We have 2 business 20" iMac (~2008) that we will be selling. I would like to clean out the HD EXCEPT for certain programs. So I do not want to clean out completely etc.
One tends to bog down at times and I am afraid I may have downloaded something I shouldn't have. I would like to do what ever I need to do to clean this up.
* Preferably free
I just do not want to start deleteing and cleaning and mess something up. They both have been upgraded to Maverick
Any help will be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Jim

If it's only applications that you want to retain, the first step is to create a brand new user in System Preferences - Users and Groups. Make it an administrative user. (Make a note of the name and password and pass it on to the new owner.)
Now log out and log back in as that user. Again in Users and Groups, delete all other old users. That should clear out a lot of space.
To delete certain applications, first check whether there are "uninstall" utilities for them. If not, you can usually just drag them to the trash (and empty the trash afterwards). Some preference files, etc, will be left behind, but they're usually not very large.
Bear in mind that in most circumstances, it's much better to completely wipe/reformat the drive before you sell a computer - both for your sake (you don't want a new owner to be able to recover your old files) and for theirs (who knows what malware/spyware may exist on a computer that someone sells you).
Matt

Clean install (?) for handing down iMac

I've just received my MBP and would like to know how to 'clean' my current iMac's drive for use by another family member. I don't have any concerns security wise, but would just like to give them a 'like new' machine to start with (their first mac).
Can I just load the Leopard CD that came with the iMac, will that wipe my stuff off of the machine so they are left with a clean install?

There is no such thing as a "clean install" in OSX. To reset your current Mac to factory as when you got it boot from the OS installer disk (disk 1) that came with your Mac and do an Erase & Install. Proceed with the install using disk 2 when it asks and finally when the Mac reboots and you see the Welcome wait until there is a choice to select your language then Quit and shut down the Mac. the next time it is booted up the new owner can set it up they way they want.

What is the best downloadable clean/anti virus software for the IMac

I want to clean up and protect my iMac but there seems to be so many bogus sites out there. What is a good one?

Check out User Tip: Viruses, Trojans, Malware - and other aspects of Internet Security and Mac Malware Guide.

Need to do a clean install only have OSx for iMAC disk

Cant find original OSX disk but have OSX that came with my sons iMAC but it will not work?

Remote installation of an inappropriate system still results in an inappropriate system. As others have indicated, Burton needs to find or replace his original disk and abandon any thoughts of using his son's iMac disk.
Burton, note that you can call Apple customer service and request a new set of disks for a small shipping and handling fee. You just need to have your machine handy to give them the serial number.

Having continuous issues with my iMac, all I want to do is perform a clean install... at my wit's end. Help please. :(

I apologize in advice if this story is discombobulated or more information is needed to provide me with an answer. I will do my best to provide as much details as possible, but this is a problem that has been occuring for the past few weeks and some things I've forgotten the specifics of.
I will start by explaining that my iMac specs are:
Processor 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Version 10.6.8
I've owned this iMac since about April of 2010. I've never had any problems with it until recently. At one point in time, I had a Boot Camp partition made in order to install Windows, as I wanted to run some games that weren't available to Mac users. After awhile, I eventually bought a Windows Laptop for my gaming needs. When this happened, I decided to erase previously stated Boot Camp partition in order to free up more space on my hard drive.
After a few months, had major issues involving a trojan virus on my laptop, it destroyed my hard drive, and I wasn't able to buy a new one at that time. Recently decided to try and create a new Boot Camp partition to reinstall Windows. When I attempted that, (I apologize, I don't remember the specific error) it wouldn't allow me, and from what I remember after doing some google research, it sounded like somehow my hard drive had become disorganized, and needed to somehow be reorganized.
At some point in my google research I found that using the Repair function in Disk Utilities would possibly help. When I tried that, (the only reason I know this is because I tried just now to get the error to pop up) I'm given a message "This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.
So here I'm thinking, "okay! No big deal! I have the disk still, I will just back up my hard drive to an external hard drive". So I buy an external HDD, back up everything I need. I then put the disk in, and my optical drive spends some time thinking, then spits it back out. It does this repeatedly. I do some more google research, find that optical drives crapping out on mac users isn't all that uncommon. I try to clean it with a trick someone suggested. I then tilted my iMac to one side, it accepts a cd! I try it again, and I'm no longer able to trick my iMac into reading disks. Sad face.
Instead of hefting large sums of cash at Apple to replace my optical drive, I buy a far more affordable external cd/dvd drive that is working perfectly fine. So after waiting for that to be delivered, 3 days later, I'm excited to finally get a clean install with my OS X drive. At this point, I care little about repairing, and have decided to just completely clean install. I restart my iMac, boot from disk, and I get the spinny thing for about 20 minutes. I think, "hmm... should it take this long?" So I reboot and try again. Same thing. I then let it run overnight, and wake up to spinny thing. When my Mac is on, it reads the dvd just fine. It just won't boot from it and let me start the clean install.
So then I get the idea maybe I can do a remote install of the disk from my friend's macbook. No such luck, won't seem to recognize anything. Then I see that I can make a copy of the disk image to my computer, and burn that image to a partition made on my external HDD, so that I can boot from that. Well, the only info I could find was a gentleman burning a downloaded version of OSX Lion, but I figured, "hey, its the same thing, right?" I guess not. I tried copying the image using the restore function in Disk Utilities, and it does indeed show up when I hold Option at start up, but booting from it does not start up properly. It starts up like any normal time I restart. I'm thinking its cause the way I copied it didn't involve a .dmg file.
So I try to copy the image to a file on my computer, but when I do that, I get some sort of input/output error.
What can I do at this point? I thought I originally set up Time Machine but when I checked recently, no such luck. All I want is a fresh reboot of my Mac. I'm guessing somehow my hard drive became corrupted in some way. I mean, it truly doesn't seem to be affecting anything, except somehow even after deleting all known movie, music, game, etc. files, I still am using up 270 gb of space. Maybe I never un-did the Boot Camp partition properly and kinda screwed myself on this one.
I've tried just about everything. I never invested in Apple Care, but even had I done so, I think it would have exceeded the warranty, as I had thought it was 2 years. I could be wrong, either way, its water under the bridge now. I need to fix this myself. I'd still like to use my iMac for general use, and to utilize the 1 TB of storage it possesses.
Any help is greatly appreciated, sorry for the wall of text, its been a complicated few weeks. Thanks!

Whew... never buy an iMac or Laptop from Apple without the 3 year extended AppleCare... well 2 years extended... & I think they should be called on this, they should come with a 5 year Warranty, with more available if you want.
I think, "hmm... should it take this long?"
No way, Houston, we haave a problem, not sure what... RAM, Logic Board, etcd.
Tough without the Install disc, but some things to try...
Does it boot to Single User Mode, CMD+s keys at bootup, if so try...
/sbin/fsck -fy
Repeat until it shows no errors fixed.
(Space between fsck AND -fy important).
Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Report outcome please.

Issues While Attempting to Clean Install Yosemite onto 2010 iMac 27"

Having a number of issues trying to clean install Yosemite onto a 2010 iMac 27.
The original 1TB HDD was about to die so I upgraded the hard drive to a Crucial SSD, via an Apple Authorized shop
Memory was also upgraded to 16GB (from the original 4GB)
The install process won't finish, as I get a disk error message from the computer
Since there's no fan control cable attached to the HDD anymore, the fan is on constantly (but I know this is a known / common issue so I will be fixing it via an app like HDD Fan Control)
The installation process keeps starting over
What is causing this installation issue? How can I fix and move forward?
Thanks in advance for help anyone can provide.

I've also tried an alternate method of installing - installing Yosemite onto an external hard drive then cloning this drive onto the SSD installed on the iMac. The computer keeps rebooting. This is the message that pops up. Growing increasingly frustrated. Is this a hardware issue related to the new SSD?

Could someone help me with instructions for doing a clean install for iMac with mountain lion 10.8.4 ?

   Could someone help me with instructions for doing a clean install for Could someone help me with instructions for doing a clean install for an early 2009 iMac 20" with Mountain Lion 10.8.4 ?
   Thank You,
                            leetruitt

   Barney, William, nbar, Galt\'s Gulch:
   A nephew stayed with us to take a course at the local community college last semester. I allowed him use of my mac for research just after I installed Mountain Lion. He decided to "help out" and ran a 3rd party clean and tune up app., Magician. The tune up wiped over 1200 titles of my music in iTunes, also a path of folders with names containing nothing but more empty folders with names. Almost every program I open and run for a short time crashes, also folders and programs are in wrong places, or cannot be located (the nephew, for instance). Up to this time I have always been able to track a problem far enough to resolve it by careful persistence and good luck, but I do not have the tech savvy to solve this one without getting in deeper. I have run disk utility saveral times and always get variations of this:
ACL found but not expected on
"private/etc/resolve.conf"
"private/etc/raddb/sites-enabled/inner-tunnel"
"private/etc/rabbd/sites-enabled/control-socket"
     Also, after four years of intense daily use it is cluttered with much junk, and every app that I was curious about, and I am a very curious guy.
   So I know my limits, (and now my nephew). I dumped my pc for a Strawberry iMac a few years ago, and so far every problem I've encountered, or brought on myself, the Mac has resolved with its own inner elegance - in spite of my novice bungels - and now I honestly feel ashamed, in addition to the need to apologize to a machine for allowing a peasant into the Royal Grounds - so I am calling the Wise Ones in for this one.
   Crazy, I know, but to me a Mac represents something far beyond the ordinary input ➛ process ➛ output title/function customarily assigned to a machine - I sense an odd kind of morality involved, one that I need to respect.
    So, these are my reasons for wanting to do a clean install, correctly.
        Thank you, Truitt

Did a clean install but still find imac slows significantly as the day goes on. first projects go pretty well. later

did a clean install but still find the imac slows as the hours pass. using photoshop cs5 and lightroom3,
working w/some large files, but previously-like months ago, there was not this slowing problem. even
the internet slows later in the day. and small moves in a program start to take forever. anyone experience this
issue? or have any thoughts on it? thank you

How much free space do you have on your drive?
From the sounds of your problem is sounds like you are approaching a full disk.
Allan

Clean up my clutter on my iMAC

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