HD space-uninstalling and re-installing your O.S.

Question

ok so i know ive asked this question before
*MY HARD DRIVE :* 70GB
*I currently have:* 35GB
*i Currently have installed*: Traktor DJ studio, VUZE,some music,apple Loops,
Question: If i un installed my O.S. and resinstalled with my CD's would your HD make a back up file of that, and if so where would you find that at.Im trying to find out where all my HD space went. i read alot of what people told me to do in previous post.and heres what i did to look at what went where.....
1*)Empty the Trash* check did that
2)*Archive old file*- did not do yet but did move a 15gb folder to external HD
3)*Clean up system logs and temporary files*-I downloaded a third party app called cocktail and cleared casche and temp files
4*Remove unused localization file*,did not do that but its only 200mb
5)*Delete the Previous Systems folder from a prior Archive and Install*-not sure how to find this folder but i did delete my O.S. and had to reinstall it from cd,so do I have to delte this folder?and if so where is it
6)*Uninstall unused applications*- i deleted some programs that came with mac mini to save some space
7) I did download "what this" ,not to sure how to use it,but it can only look for file no bigger than 20GB.
also my buddy told me that even though i have 70 GB total ,he said just everything that makes my computer run will take that much ,,example: the O.S./APPS/updates/etc etc.. so if i bought a mac mini brand new with out installing anything would i still have something close to 70 gb or not..thanks

Answer 1

ermac4482 wrote:
Question: If i un installed my O.S. and resinstalled with my CD's would your HD make a back up file of that
if you're on Leo, you get the option to do an *archive & install*. a folder called +previous system+ would be created on the top level of your HD. once you moved everything you need to the fresh system (documents, pictures, etc.), this folder can be safely deleted.
other than that, you will have to make backups of your startup disk yourself. get an external HD (USB or, better yet, firewire) and use e.g. Carbon Copy Cloner to regularly clone your internal drive to the external.
also my buddy told me that even though i have 70 GB total ,he said just everything that makes my computer run will take that much ,,example: the O.S./APPS/updates/etc etc.. so if i bought a mac mini brand new with out installing anything would i still have something close to 70 gb or not..thanks
i got my mini roughly 2 months ago. the biggest non-Apple additions where *Office 2008* and *Toast 10*. my mini has used up about 50 gig HD space (i keep my iTunes library on an external drive), so 70 gigs can't be correct.
as for freeing up HD space, you might want to work yourself through these reads:
Your Mac needs adequate hard drive space to operate normally. How full can a drive be before it's too full? There is no hard and fast rule that says “X” amount or “%” of free drive space is needed. A low amount of RAM requires more drive space for Virtual Memory’s swap files.
Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space are discussed in this link
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/lackofram.html
Here’s some general guidelines for minimum hard drive free space:
1. As a general rule, your available space should be 5GB as an absolute minimum as it generally requires that much free space to perform an Archive and Install of Mac OS X and still preserve some free space for VM swap files.
2. Some say that your hard drive should have at least 5% of it's capacity available for use. Still others say 10% to 15%. If you routinely process complex graphics and videos, even more space is required.
With your 19.7GB of free space, you should be OK. Usually it's best to not state a percentage, but state an amount of free space. There's a big difference in having 10% free space (20GB) on a 200GB hard drive compared 10% (4GB) to a 40GB hard drive.
Look at these links about freeing up more space.
Where did my disk space go?
http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38&Number=770243
Download & use WhatSize described in this link or Disk Inventory X @ http://www.derlien.com/
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
Amazing Disappearing Drive Space
http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html
Increase HD Free Space
http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/275191-how-easily-increase-hd-free-space-lap top.html
How to free up my disk space
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
JGG