Safest/Easiest way to clear space on hard drive

I'm using a MacBook with OS X 10.5.8, and have recently been finding it running more and more slowly. I've used 80GB of the HD, and have 30GB free, which I didn't think would be a problem, but I figured I could probably free up some space and see if that improved things.
Looking for suggestions about the easiest/safest way to do that - I don't want to delete anything crucially important by mistake. I can probably shift a lot of my photos and music onto a USB stick, but is there a program I can run to find other things on the HD that I don't use and could delete?
I've read about something you can run that deletes unnecessary language packages, but I've got some Adobe programs installed and I think it can cause problems with them.
Many thanks in advance!

The reason your laptop is running slow isn't because of the space on the hard drive. It's everything being stored off the hard drive. Unfortunately, Snow Leopard was the first OS that actually had an application for defragmentation. For whatever reason, they thought their "superior" OS didn't need such a silly thing. But now they do. And anyone who doesn't buy Snow Leopard is screwed.
I have an external hard drive myself, and frequently reformat my computer just to keep it running optimally. I believe there is a private software company that has a Defrag for Mac. It's called iDefrag by Coriolis Systems, and you can download a free trial, but you really can't do what you need to do with it in trial. The full version is $29.95 and you can find it here: http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php
You can also read what Mac has to say about defragmentation: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1634 but they're underexaggerating the issue by a mile.

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I clearing space on hard drive,wheel deleted.I'm told it's important,how do I return this user called 'wheel',on hard drive.On my MacBook air 11(Late).

HELP! In attempt clearing space on hard drive,user called 'wheel' got deleted.I'm told it's important,how do I return this user called 'wheel',on hard drive.On my MacBook air 11(Late).

Back up all data.
Boot into Recovery by holding down the key combination command-R at the startup chime. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.
Note: You need an always-on Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection to the Internet to use Recovery. It won’t work with USB or PPPoE modems, or with proxy servers, or with networks that require a certificate for authentication.
When the OS X Utilities screen appears, follow the prompts to reinstall the OS. You don't need to erase the boot volume, and you won't need your backup unless something goes wrong. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade, so make a note of those before you begin.

Trying to locate a large backup file to clear space on hard drive

A while ago I backed up my Mac Book Pro to an external hard drive through time machine. I purchased a Time Capsale and when I went to change my backup data to that device I stored the 300+ gb of back up on my computer as a just in case place. Everything worked out and I a trying to clear that space up on my computer, but I can not seem to locate it. As you can see in the picture below, I am being told that I have a ton of space being taken up by back up data. Any ideas on how i can locate it? FYI, I have already used omni sweep and cannot locate it as well as created a smart folder, which I used to try a narrow down files larger than 1 gb and nothing showed up. Much thanks!

This may find it. I obviously can't replacte the problem on my system disk but I can can guess how to find it on yours.
Click on the system disk image (Macintosh HD) on your desktop and the command-F. Tell it so search on "This Mac". Search for Backups.backupdb. Then option-click Show in Enclosing Folder.

Putting photos etc into trash does not clear space on hard drive

When I move photos etc into the trash there is no increase in available space on the hard drive.

If you've installed third-party software called "Disk Drill," I suggest you remove it according to the developer's instructions. If you prefer to keep the software, refer to the developer for support. Otherwise, see below.
For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

How do you clear space on hard drive

How do you clear space on your hard drive on a mac book pro?

Hope this helps.
1. Empty Trash.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677
2. Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
    Hold the option key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.
    Select "Library" from the dropdown.
    Library > Mail > V2 > Mailboxes
    Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
    Empty Trash. Restart.
3. Repair Disk
    Steps 1 through 7
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
4. For more on this and very helpful tips:
    http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
    http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html

Can i Move 20,000 Photo's to either iCloud or External Drive to clear space on hard drive

Hi
We operate older Mac (abt 6 yrs) with OS X 10.7.5
Getting message "startup disc is full".
We have Twenty Thousand (20,000) photo's on it.
Can we move them either to iCloud or to a external hard drive to clear space.
If so how & is it easy to acces & work with them
Thanks

After you move the library, you should seriously consider getting a drive to back up your library. All hard drives fail sooner or later and you do not want to lose 20,000 photos....

Deleting Originals to Clear Space on Hard Drive

Hello!
I am undertaking the endeavor of going through the 20,000 pictures I have stored on my MacBook/first external hard drive. I am deleting the unnecessary images and am planning on exporting the ones I want to keep to another external hard drive. My question is: once I've exported the images I want to keep, can I then delete the original images taking up space on my hard drive? If I have the export (JPG) but not the original file (RAW), will it show up as "image is missing" or cause some type of pathway problem? I'm hoping to keep this as streamlined as possible but also want to preserve the integrity of my images.
Thanks so much for any help you can offer!
Beka

Thank you all for your advice! You are probably confused because I'M confused - so thanks for bearing with me!
So, it sounds like deleting anything would be a bad solution. Jimtron, I think your second point ("If you want to keep images, but move them to a different drive, you can move them in Lightroom (which can be a little awkward, but that way you don't have to reset any paths). Or, if there are entire folders that you want to move to a separate drive, it shouldn't be a problem to move the folder to another drive, and then tell Lightroom where that folder now resides.") will be my best bet. My new questions are as follows:
I'll need to move entire folders to a separate drive. How do I tell Lightroom where that folder now resides?
I'm considering moving older editions of Lightroom (2 & 3) to a separate drive as well, and only keeping the current edition on my laptop hard drive. How do I navigate that without going crazy and making a mess of everything? Is there a good tutorial for how to do this so that I don't end up with all of my photos "missing"?
Once everything is moved and in order (and I regain my sanity), can I then do what Silkrooster advised and compress the original files so that they don't take up quite as much space?
Thank you in advance!
Beka (OP)

How to clear space on hard drive

my 80g hard drive has 6g left. i thought my itunes library was culprit but it only shows 25g of space in library. how do i determine what is using so much space? is there any way besides using "get info" on every folder? i only use word, excel, safari, mail and itunes consistantly and idon't know of any large files.
i am getting an external HD anyway.
thanks

What is "so big"? Your user Library folder may have lots of cache data that is safe to delete. Anything in app support is likely to be required by applications. Delete that at your own risk.

Clearing Space on hard drive

How do you clear up your mac book pro? Mine has been running really slow lately and i think its because I have a lot of things i dont need on it. Also how do you download things onto the applications folder and not on the hard drive?

If you want to look at what is taking up a lot of space on your hard drive (or any particular folder on your hard drive), I recommend using Grant Perspective (http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/). It's a small utility that will visually display the large folder/files as large colored boxes. A very cool little app.
The Applications folder is on the hard drive. Usually when you download applications from the Internet, they will be placed in your Downloads folder. If the download is a Disk Image (.dmg file), then you'll want to run the disk image, and then drag the application from the Disk Image into your Applications folder. Be sure to read the README files or installation instructions for any application you download.

Need easiest way to transfer my old hard drive into a new purchased one

I recently upgraded my 80GB internal HD with a 120GB. I just need to transfer everything I have onto my new one. Mac certified stores charge around 95$/hour so no way am I going to do that. However, I'm not really knowledgeable when it comes to backing up/cloning HD. My friend has a 160GB Western Digital external so I plan on using that. I downloaded Carbon Copy Cloner but got confused when it asked me what kind of drive I wanted it (ex: read only). I heard TimeMachine can copy your whole hard drive also?

Kyle Kim wrote:
sorry for sounding stupid, but what's an "enclosure?" All I have is my friends 160GB Western Digital external HD
An enclosure is a box that allows a drive to communicate via the USB and/or FireWire interface. The external drive you mentioned is just an "enclosure" around a commodity hard drive. I did read that you said you had access to an external hard drive, but I just sort of buzzed it with what I remember from the top of my head. That being said, let me revise (this is how I actually did it when I installed my Hitachi Travelstar 7K200):
1) Run Disk Utility from your current drive, and format your new external drive(GUID Partition Map).
2) Install Carbon Copy Cloner on your current drive. Clone your current drive to the external drive.
3) Shut down and try and boot from the external drive (hold option during power up?). Verify it can boot.
4) Take the original drive from the MacBook and replace it with the new drive.
5) Boot up from the external drive.
6) Run Disk Utility and format your new internal drive in GUID Partition Map.
7) Clone the contents of your external drive to your new internal drive, then shut down.
8) Start up your machine and make sure it boots from your new internal drive.
9) Wait while Spotlight reindexes the new drive. It'll be loud while the CPU heats up and the fan cranks up.
If you're using an external drive, you'll need to perform the cloning process twice.

What's the easiest way to back up a hard drive on a macbook 2,1

I'm upgrading the hard drive in my macbook 2,1 and need to back it up...it's an 80gb drive and I'm only using 32 gb...can I back up to a simple pyn 34gb pocket drive ? if not, what's quick and easy??

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion's Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.

There is no space to store video on my computer. I am am looking at getting 1 terabyte on the cloud in hope i can edit video off of the cloud the same way I can with a hard drive. Is this possible?

There is no space to store video on my computer. I am am looking at getting 1 terabyte on the cloud in hope i can edit video off of the cloud the same way I can with a hard drive. Is this possible?

Buy another hard drive. They're cheap these days.
In fact, buy a couple of 'em. I recommend a minimum of five internal hard drives.
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D: Project, graphic and audio files
E: Cache and Scratch
F: Media
G: Export

How do I get Finder windows to display free space on hard drive?

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Stop blaming yourself. You're not an idiot and it's never the user's fault. It's always the designer's fault. Read "The Design of Everyday Things' by Donald Norman. It's a gerat book about how everyday things can be just difficult to use. He's been also a former Apple employee. Great reading!

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You can only tell TM what to exclude from a backup, not what to include.

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Cloning doesn't cause the resulting system to slow down in and of itself, but it does retain any previous problems, which can build up over time and result in poor performance. (The same can be said of installing new system versions on top of old versions.)
A clean OS X installation will give you a clean base to start from. Mass-restoring data and applications will undo some of that benefit, but by no means all.

Safest/Easiest way to clear space on hard drive

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