Weeding Out Hard-Drive Files, Manually, in Mac OS X Panther

By Larry Ullman and Marc Liyanage

As a general rule, Mac OS X does not use uninstallers for either the operating system or for individual applications. Thus, after you've installed the junk . . . um, files . . . on your computer and realize that you no longer need them, you must delete them manually. You might want to do some judicious weeding in these four general areas: your Home folder, the Applications folder, the System folder, and other volumes. As you weed out files, remember to

Use Command+Delete to send a selected item (or items) to the Trash.

Back up the contents of your computer before going hog-wild deleting items that you believe to be unnecessary. A good backup makes restoring items a snap if you inadvertently delete something important in your housecleaning frenzy.

Pruning your Home directory

Your Home directory is where you're most likely to get rid of extraneous stuff. Fortunately for you, it's generally the safest place to make cuts as well. Here's what you can do:

Clean up the contents of your Desktop folder.

Delete anything that you no longer want in the Documents folder.

Free up some space in the Movies, Music, and Pictures folders.

Get rid of anything that you don't want in the Public folder unless it's still needed by others on your computer or network.

Remove files from the Sites directory. The Sites directory is where you store Web pages. As any Web developer knows, these directories easily become cluttered with old versions of files. Remove them to save some room here and there.

If the contents of the Movies, Music, or Pictures folders are managed by iMovie, iTunes, or iPhoto, you'll be better off deleting these files from within those applications because they have associations with the physical files.

Thinning out no-longer-required applications

Applications can take up a huge amount of space on your computer. Don't install shareware or demos of applications that we don't reasonably expect to buy. Doing so only wastes time and clutters up your hard drive. If you're actually using the applications, it's no big deal. But after you've stopped playing a certain game or found a better alternative to an application, you may want to get rid of it.

Because you normally won't find an uninstaller for an application, here are the steps to take:

1. Locate the application's file or folder within the Applications directory.

Simple applications are wrapped in a single icon, which can be deleted (like Internet Explorer). More involved applications have their own folder (for example, Netscape Navigator).

2. Move the file or folder to a temporary location.

Instead of deleting the files immediately, set them aside temporarily as a just-in-case measure. You can create a folder on the Desktop for this purpose or move them onto an external driver or CD.

3. Open the Library folder of your Home directory.

If you really want to clean house, you should also get rid of the corresponding application stuff that was placed within your directory. This includes supporting materials and preferences.

4. Check the Application Support folder for files associated with the application and move any applicable items to the temporary folder.

Only a few applications have files here — but if you want to be thorough, it's worth checking out.

5. Repeat Step 4 for the Preferences directory.

Pretty much every application adds at least one file to your Preferences folder. Although these files are small, they're still worth getting rid of.

6. Wait a few days. Then, if you don't see any problems caused by moving these files, delete the temporary folder.

If you installed an application, it should be safe for you to remove it. You shouldn't mess with applications installed by Panther — this includes items in the Applications folder such as System Preferences and Internet Connect.

Cleaning out your System and Library folders

If you check out the size of your system files, stored both in the Library and the System folders, you'll see that they take up a lot of space. That being said, you don't want to go traipsing through there to remove files. The reward for clearing up some room is slight, while the risk that you take will be grave. As the worst case, it's possible that you would trash something that renders your computer inoperable. For the most part, you're better off leaving these files as-is.

However, here's one thing that you can do with system files: If you performed an Archive and Install installation of Panther, the installer creates a Previous Systems folder to store the old system files. If everything's running okay with the new operating system, you can delete this entire folder.

Don't remove anything (anything!) from the System or the Library folders unless you really, really know what you're doing and have backed up the entire computer.

Cleaning other volumes

Most computer users have already established multiple volumes for their computer. You do this by either installing extra hard drives or partitioning larger hard drives into separate volumes. If you've done this, you're probably using the other volumes purely for storage purposes (because the main volume is running the operating system and should have your Home directory). Your other volumes, therefore, are a good place to get rid of no-longer-needed files.

Classic and OS 9

If you're still running Classic or dual-booting into OS 9 (gasp!), you have another area where you can trim down files. Some considerations include the following:

Drop OS 9 applications for which there are good OS X alternatives. There's no reason to keep two applications that do the same thing.

If you're using Classic, there are many system extensions you won't be using. For example, if you won't be using QuickTime or a printer within Classic, you can drop many megabytes of deadwood. Getting rid of these will save space and make Classic launch faster.