MY PRECIOUS Hard Drive Space

Question

First time posting a question.
So I have an iBook g4. My problem has to do with my Hard Drive. I am down to my last 2GB of hard drive space --oh no! What do I do to get more hard drive space??? I LOVE DOWNLOADING PODCASTS TO LISTEN TO WHEN I'M RELAXING AND DL MUSIC AND PHOTOS. I LOVE MY MAC and I'm really stupid when it comes to technical computer stuff. But i'm willing to do ANYTHING to keep my files intact. I need some help...
ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATION

Answer 1

Hi Heyitsme and welcome to Apple Discussions.
"First time posting a question".. and a very good one it is too. You are sailing very close to the wind with only 2 GB of free space. !0% of free space is considered to be the absolute bare minimum with 15% or greater considered to be ideal.
In the long term you need to consider getting an external drive to store, perhaps, your iTunes library if it is large, and/or your iPhoto library. A better long term solution would be to, not only have an external for back up, but also have a larger internal drive installed. I believe 250 GB is the current largest size available for iBooks which require a PATA/EIDE 2½" drive. The drives themselves are relatively inexpensive, the installation more expensive unless you feel confident in DIY. Post back if you require more info.
In the short term you need to clear some space if only for the immediate health of your HD, OSX, and your data.
There are a few quick fixes that you can do immediately with no ill effects.
For example, on my iBook, I have removed GarageBand from Applications and its Loops from HD/Library/Application Support. As my iBook only has a combo drive and I'm not into video editing anyway I have trashed iDVD & iMovie. (Not DVD player). I have also trashed preloaded games and World Book, and its associated files.
OS X comes with a vast library of printer drivers, the large proportion of which will never be used by the average user.
Printer drivers are in the HD/Library/Printers folder. You can safely delete any named drivers that you don't have a printer for. For example, if you have a Canon, you can remove Epson, Lexmark, Hewlett Packard & Brother drivers. Epson alone takes up close to 1gb. You can even remove specific drivers from within the manufacturer's folder. For example, if you have an Epson C86 you can safely trash any other specific drivers in the Epson folder like C46, C66 etc. If, at a later date, you buy a printer whose driver you removed they can be added from your install disk, the disk that comes with the printer or downloaded.
A word of warning: More cautious heads than mine advise against messing in the HD/Library, but if you stick to the examples above, i.e. GarageBand loops, World Book and printer drivers you will be OK.
Certainly, I have had no problems with my system after removing those examples.
Check, too, in your music folder. If you have 'Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library' selected in iTunes preferences/Advanced it is possible that you have, say, 'xyz song' in the first level of your Music folder and the same song in Music/iTunes/iTunes Library. If you are sure that you do have 'xyz song' in iTunes, it is safe to delete from 'Music'. The same principle can apply to your Pictures folder and iPhoto Library, but staying with iTunes for a moment, with iTunes open select Edit in the menu bar, then 'Show duplicate songs'. You can trash duplicates if you are sure that they are true duplicates, i.e. exact name, artist and file size. Another little note of caution, neither iTunes nor iPhoto likes having its library messed with from within a Finder window. Resolve duplicates from within the respective application only.
If you are downloading a lot of stuff it is possible that you have a large 'Incomplete' folder built up over time from aborted downloads. This folder can be found in your 'Home' folder. It is perfectly safe to remove any and all files from this folder.
Downloaded applications can be a cause of wasted space. An application is usually downloaded as a .DMG (Disk Image). Once the app is installed in your Applications folder there is no necessity to keep the .DMG, although if it is a 'paid for' app it would be wise to back it up to an external/burn to a CD before removing it from your internal. Sometimes apps are downloaded as .zip files, leaving two largely redundant duplicates of the same thing. Again, back up one or the other file type to another medium before trashing if the app is paid for or difficult to find again.
Some excellent advice has been posted by ~JB~ , with corresponding words of caution.
Edit: The application Whatsize, linked to in ~JB~'s advice above, used to be a free application. It is now shareware, though I believe it is still free to use on smaller drives such as yours. You can get similar information using Finder, however.
Open a new Finder window, select Command (⌘) 2, for list view, then Command (⌘) J. Check the 'This window only' button and the 'Size' and 'Calculate all Sizes' boxes. Wait a few moments while it 'calculates'. You should be able to see which folders are taking up the most space. DO NOT REMOVE OR MESS WITHIN THE "SYSTEM" FOLDER or, with the exception of GarageBand loops and printers, the Library folder.
Dr Smoke has some advice here too.
Last but by no means least, when you have finished dumping your unwanted stuff in the trash, don't forget to empty it. You haven't regained the space until you do
…and definitely last this time: If in doubt leave it alone and ask!
Have fun,
Adrian