The Apple Core

Jason D. O'Grady & David Morgenstern

Putting your HDD on an 80GB diet (Redux)

By | February 6, 2008, 5:36am PST

Summary: (This is a follow-up to my original piece from 16 January 2008–Putting your HDD on an 80GB diet). As I pointed out last month: 80GB is not 80GB. It actually formats down to a paltry 74.3GB. Add to that an 11.4GB full Leopard install and you’re down to around 63GB of effective free space. The MacBook Air’s tiny [...]

(This is a follow-up to my original piece from 16 January 2008–Putting your HDD on an 80GB diet).

As I pointed out last month:

80GB is not 80GB. It actually formats down to a paltry 74.3GB. Add to that an 11.4GB full Leopard install and you’re down to around 63GB of effective free space.

The MacBook Air’s tiny 80GB hard drive requires dramatic measures to fit the average user’s data onto such a small platter. Here’s my approach:

Before migrating to the MBA, I archived my Music, Pictures, Movies and Downloads folders to a portable USB hard drive. Then I made a backup of my Applications folder to the same external USB hard drive. I recommend making a second backup to another hard drive, but then again I tend to obsess about my backups).

If you use Apple’s Migration Assistant to move your data to the MBA I recommend that you read MacBook Air Diary-Day 3: Migration assistance and following these tips: 1) use Ethernet, 2) just migrate “Library,” not “Files and Folders” and not “Applications.” Curiously, “Library” includes your Documents folder in addition to your Library folder (which contains the Application Support folders that allow you to run most of your applications).

Install your key productivity apps from CD or DVD over Remote Disk or the USB SuperDrive (which is much faster). These are the applications that have to “just work” or that have stringent copy protection and don’t usually tolerate a drag copy to a new machine. For me these applications were Microsoft Office 2008 and Adobe Creative Suite 3. Surprisingly Aperture and iWork ‘08 tolerated a drag copy to the MacBook Air, presumably because I had already migrated my Library.

Resist the urge to install the “kitchen sink” standard installations of any software–remember space is precious. I customized my Office 2008 to install just Word and Excel, I don’t need PowerPoint because I use Keynote and I don’t need Entourage because I use Mail.app. I customized my Adobe CS3 install to only install Photoshop, InDesign and Acrobat Professional. Then I trashed Adobe Bridge, Device Central and Stock Photos which came along for the ride with my CS3 install, saving me another 600MB.

Make sure that you “customize” every piece of software that you install and uncheck options for bloatware like companion applications, extra fonts, languages and printer drivers.

The next thing to do is to install the excellent freeware program Disk Inventory X, which is a MacBook Air owner’s best friend. In fact, send a donation to Tjark Derlien to encourage him to keep developing this amazing little piece of code.

Run Disk Inventory X click on the “Select Folder …” button and choose Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support and decide if you really want 3GB of bloat that ships with Leopard:

  • iDVD > Themes (1.5GB)
  • GarageBand > Instrument Library (573MB)
  • GarageBand > Magic GarageBand (407MB)
  • GarageBand > GarageBand Demo Songs (404MB)
  • Adobe > Templates (131MB)

Trashing the items above saved me over 3GB which amounts to almost five percent of a formatted 80GB hard drive with OS X on it–which is nothing to sneeze at. Avoid the temptation to go nuts and trash everything (even though Adobe’s camera RAW plug-in is 20MB!). Although I’m seriously thinking of ditching Alex.SpeechVoice which weighs in at a hefty 670MB.

Another good place to go looking is in Macintosh HD > Library > Printers. The default install is over 3.2GB. I trashed all but the three printers that I regularly print to and saved another 2.5GB.

Take a long hard look at your iTunes library too. If you subscribe to a lot of podcasts consider slimming down your Podcast > Settings… to:

  • When new episodes are available: Download the most recent one
  • Keep: Most recent episode

And once you’ve already watched the Macworld Expo 2008 keynote address you can probably better use that 891MB too.

I started brand new copies iTunes and Aperture because I can always load the larger databases from my external HDD if I need to. I’m putting a bare bones minimal amount of music (my 80s favorites, currently) into iTunes and starting from scratch with Aperture.

Now I just need to figure out a strategy to get a bare bones Parallels setup running with Windows. Suggestions? Post ‘em in the TalkBack below.

What’s your strategy for slimming down your data footprint?

Update: Jason Snell posted some excellent data thinning tips in his MacBook Air austerity program. I gained another gig or so by thinning out ~/Library/Caches.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve
  • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

42
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: Putting your HDD on a 80GB diet (Redux)
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
Quite a few many thanks a fantastic cheap authentic nfl jersey offer for sharing this outstanding content pieces! Looking in advance to seeintg increased!
0 Votes
+ -
Typo.
Hallowed are the Ori 6th Feb 2008
Then I trashed Adobe Bridge, Device Central and Stock Photos which came along for the ride with my CS3 install, saving me another 600GB.

600GB. Typo, I hope. happy
0 Votes
+ -
Contributr
Oops, fixing it now.
Jason D. O'Grady 6th Feb 2008
Obviously, I meant 600MB.Thanks for the find.
- Jason
0 Votes
+ -
Another typo
jim@... 6th Feb 2008
Trashing the items above saved me over 3GB which on a formatted 80GB hard drive is almost xx percent

4% happy
0 Votes
+ -
Contributr
Fixed that one too...
Jason D. O'Grady 6th Feb 2008
And it actually 4.7 percent of a formatted HDD with OS X on it...

- Jason
0 Votes
+ -
Arrrrggghhh!!!!!
frgough 6th Feb 2008
"80GB is not 80GB. It actually formats down to a paltry
74.3GB."

Why do supposedly intelligent and educated tech
journalists keep spouting this myth?

80 GB is precisely 80 GB. Do a get info on your hard drive.
You will see the capacity as 80 billion and some odd
number of bytes. That's 80 billion bytes.

The reason the formatted capacity is shown differently is
because developers defined a kilobyte as 2^10 bytes. A
megabyte as 2^20 bytes and a gigabyte as 2^30 bytes. IT
IS A DIFFERENT UNIT OF MEASURE WITH THE SAME NAME.

Repeat it until you get it.
0 Votes
+ -
It's the old GB vs GiB argument
Scrat 6th Feb 2008
...
0 Votes
+ -
No, it isn't.
frgough 6th Feb 2008
It's people claiming GB = GiB and not even realizing that's what they are doing.
0 Votes
+ -
Contributr
i fully understand that...
Jason D. O'Grady 6th Feb 2008
frgough -

i was trying to make your exact point in the post.

can't we just all get along without all the vitriol?
- Jason
0 Votes
+ -
You don't get it.
frgough 6th Feb 2008
Or you wouldn't say the formatted capacity was less.

It isn't. Formatted capacity is stated using 2^x units. The amount actually lost to
formatting is small. Look it up. You'll find total space is 80 billion some-odd.
Formatted capacity will be something like 79 billion bytes.

So the formatted capacity is trivially less than the stated capacity.
0 Votes
+ -
He's right.... It IS 74.6 GB...
Wolfie2K3 7th Feb 2008
One Kilobyte is 1024 bytes. The problem of capacity arises when drive makers ignore that extra 24 bytes per Kilobyte and use the figure 1000 bytes instead. As numbers get larger - Megabytes, (1024x1024=1.048,576 bytes), Gigabytes (1024x1024x1024=1,073,741,824 bytes) and Terabytes (1024x1024x1024x1024=1,099,511,627,776, the capacity figure gets further out of whack. As you can see - a real Terabyte is a little over 99 BILLION bytes larger than what a 1 TB drive should be.

Why do they do this? Because 80 GB sounds sexier than 74.6. 250 GB is more appealing than 232.6, 500 GB sounds better than 464.8 and so on. It's all about marketing.
0 Votes
+ -
Yes and no.
frgough 8th Feb 2008
The issue is that developers use a different unit of measure with the same name.

And you don't get it either.

The drive is both 74.6 GB and 80 GB. It's two different units of measure with the
same name.

Where the author got it wrong was in saying that the hard drive space was smaller
than 80 GB. It isn't.

It may be about marketing, but it's also about using correct ISO prefixes. In every
technical field outside of computing, the prefix for billion is giga. Only in the world
of computing software does giga refer to the number 2^30.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Putting your HDD on a 80GB diet (Redux)
KieronAlsmith 6th Feb 2008
I've managed to survive on a 40GB desktop hard-drive for the last decade -- mostly through a caffeine-like addiction to keeping personal files nearly entirely externally. My CS(1!!) barely opens 600dpi files these days and I spend 2-3 minutes waiting for file loads. Anyway, I've had to do a lot of similar program-trimming and I think Jason has it pretty well covered. One thing I'd suggest would be keeping to a "working" directory, where you save about a week's worth of files along with rotating iTunes music (sadly my compy can't play music while working in Photoshop, so I just use my cd player). Then, just drag-and-drop that folder onto a backup drive/compy over the weekend, label it by date, and either RDP or even FTP into it whenever you need to find legacy files. Hope that keeps it even more scary-real!
"As I pointed out last month:

80GB is not 80GB. It actually formats down to a paltry 74.3GB. Add to that an 11.4GB full Leopard install and you???re down to around 63GB of effective free space.

The MacBook Air???s tiny 80GB hard drive requires dramatic measures to fit the average user???s data onto such a small platter."


Compromise #1:
If the MBA had a proper HD and not a 1.8" iPod drive, you wouldn't be stuck with the "paltry" amount of space available. Mind you , it does fit in an envelope.

"Before migrating to the MBA, I archived my Music, Pictures, Movies and Downloads folders to a portable USB hard drive."

Compromise #2:
Now you have to carry round the MBA AND an external USB drive. Looks like the envelope just got a whole lot bigger!

"If you use Apple???s Migration Assistant to move your data to the MBA I recommend that you read MacBook Air Diary-Day 3: Migration assistance and following these tips: 1) use Ethernet..."

Compromise #3:
Now you also need to purchase a USB ethernet adapter. Not only are you now $1829.00 out of pocket, but you also have ANOTHER device to fit in the envelope.

"Install your key productivity apps from CD or DVD over Remote Disk or the USB SuperDrive (which is much faster)."

Compromise #4:
The envelope has now gone out the window, in favour of a cardboard box. Remote disc requires the use of someone elses CD/DVD drive, failing that you now need to have a USB Superdrive. Oh, and that requires more expenditure and packaging space.

"Resist the urge to install the ???kitchen sink??? standard installations of any software???remember space is precious.

[...]

The next thing to do is to install the excellent freeware program Disk Inventory X, which is a MacBook Air owner???s best friend. In fact, send a donation to Tjark Derlien to encourage him to keep developing this amazing little piece of code.

Run Disk Inventory X click on the ???Select Folder ?????? button and choose Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support and decide if you really want 3GB of bloat that ships with Leopard"


Compromise #5:
Leo is bloated? (I thought only Microsoft made bloatware, the Apple fans keep telling us so..), however this would be fine IF you weren't using such a crippled version of a Mac.
Oh, and we how need to make a donation to Tjark Derlien (who is rubbing his hands together at the prospect of all the traffic you have just generated, and thanking SJ for the rip-off that is the MBA).

What are you really left with Jason? A severe dent in the finances, and DHL to carry all the extra stuff you need because SJ thought it was a good idea to leave it all out in favour of being the 'thinnest'

I wonder what is next on the Mac horizon? The Apple Disturbingly Useless Mac Book (D.U.M.B)?
0 Votes
+ -
Contributr
wow, the haters are out in force today!
Jason D. O'Grady 6th Feb 2008
Scrat -

A subnotebook is a compromise *by nature* it's a "sub" notebook. It's *less than* a full notebook.

While you definitely need Ethernet to migrate and the USB SuperDisk drive is faster to install software, by no means do I carry them with me every day.

In fact, I leave an AC and DVI adapter at the office and just carry the MBA. Life is good my friend! (ask my lower back!)

Nowhere does Apple (or anyone else that I can see) claim that the MBA should be your only machine or a Pro machine. It's a niche machine at best!

But for my niche it fits quite nicely. I still think that the MBA is the ultimate blogger machine.

- Jason
If you criticise an Apple product, you are naturally branded a "hater".

My criticism is valid, if only by pointing out the fact that YOU found the MBA wanting in certain areas.

Given the choice, I would have an MBP. IMHO there isn't a single valid reason for choosing a crippled notebook which requires so many compromises, and then pay through the nose for the privilege.

Just my $0.02, and please drop the hater name calling.

Thanks.
0 Votes
+ -
All notebooks are crippled.
Bruizer 6th Feb 2008
It is all in the tradeoffs of weight and size.

Or do you not understand simple concepts?
0 Votes
+ -
Why are all notebooks crippled?
Scrat 7th Feb 2008
High end notebooks are just as powerful as their desktop cousins, have just as much memory, have all the same accessories and can do all the same work.

Where do you dream up these ridiculous ideas?

Even as a sub-notebook, the MBA only has one advantage over the rest of the market, and that is the processor speed. That is likely to be nullified as soon as Intel bring out their latest ultra-mobile chips.

The MBA is all about style and form. If you cannot see that then you must be the most myopic person going.
0 Votes
+ -
Show me the 8 core laptop. Show me the laptop with 4TB RAID 5 storage. Show me
the laptop with 4+ hard-drives and multiple optical drives. Show the laptop with
32GB of ram.

If you don't see even the most powerful laptops as crippled, then you are 100%
clueless IMO.
0 Votes
+ -
8 core desktops with 4TB RAID 5 storage and 32GB of ram?

That sounds suspiciously like a workstation setup, NOT a desktop, plus how many desktops do you know that have that kind of setup?

Get a clue before making yourself look so desperate next time.
0 Votes
+ -
Can you comprehend what you wrote?
Bruizer 8th Feb 2008
Or are you just a mac hater zealot?

"High end notebooks are just as powerful as their desktop cousins, have just as
much memory, have all the same accessories and can do all the same work."

This is 100% false and sounds like a delusional fantasy.

It is true if you are comparing to your 300 USD Dell computer but that is it.
Compare your high-end notebook to a similar priced desktop and you are showing
your complete lack of knowledge in anything IT (but you do that on most of your
posts anyway) if you think the high-end notebook will come close to the power,
performance, memory, HD space of the same priced desktop. It might match a few
things like running Word/surfing the internet but will fall short of running apps like
Maya, Mathlab, Mathmatica, Aperture, Lightroom...

Game, set, match. All laptops are compromises even by your own definition.
0 Votes
+ -
He's right. Extremes aren't the norm
hasta la Vista, bah-bie 8th Feb 2008
"Show me the 8 core laptop. Show me the laptop with 4TB RAID 5 storage. Show me the laptop with 4+ hard-drives and multiple optical drives. Show the laptop with 32GB of ram."

Show me the average person who has a set up like that, beyond the Mac Pro fanboys and the power workstation users. Your comparison is specious at best.
0 Votes
+ -
You didn't read what he wrote.
Bruizer 8th Feb 2008
Something along the lines of: High end laptops are just as powerful as their desktop
cousins. This is a pipe-dream of laptop users and simply not even close to
remotely true. It never has been true and may never be true.

Almost everyone I know has more powerful desktops in one of the areas that I
listed. 1TB RAID 5 (I have several friends running this (not Mac people BTW.
Windows freaks)). Dual quad core motherboards (both mac and PC). Some even
have 16GB memory (all mac). Multiple optical drives (very very common). Me, I
have 8GB of memory in my 3+ year old desktop. Still not an option on high-end
laptops.

I never said it had to be all installed at the same time, just where is the laptop with
those options. Even the laptops on the extremes that Scrat was referencing).
High-end laptops ARE the extreme. Most people do not have high-end laptops.
You HAVE to compare to similar priced HIGHEND desktops.

Anyone that even remotely thinks laptops can compete with desktops (note: no
qualifier of WHAT TYPE of desktop computer) in performance of memory, speed
AND hard-drive space at the same time (as Scrat specifically said) needs to wake
up out of whatever dream they are in and take a cold cold shower.

So yes, high-end laptops are as powerful in some areas as their low-end desktop
cousins. But that was not the qualifier was it?

Of course, using logic is not a Windows Fanboy's (like Scrat) forte.

So yes, all laptops are a compromise.
0 Votes
+ -
No, YOU didn't read what I wrote
hasta la Vista, bah-bie 11th Feb 2008
"Almost everyone I know has more powerful desktops in one of the areas that I listed. 1TB RAID 5 (I have several friends running this (not Mac people BTW. Windows freaks)). Dual quad core motherboards (both mac and PC). Some even have 16GB memory (all mac). Multiple optical drives (very very common). Me, I have 8GB of memory in my 3+ year old desktop. Still not an option on high-end laptops."

Jeez, you still don't get it, do you.... Are you dense or what?

Once again, you still can't think beyond the extremer's box. I know of only a couple of people who have that kind of a set up and they are hard core gamers.

What does a typical desktop out there in the REAL world have?

-Prolly just a 80 - 120GB SATA drive @ 5400 RPM with NO RAID setup using just the ONE hard drive

-ONE optical drive

-Core Duo or Core 2 Duo in the 1.6 - 2.0 GHz range or in many cases are still working off older single-core P4s or Pentium M's

-512mb - 1GB of RAM is still the average on XP machines

That's typically what you're going to find in most work and home environments and it's also comparable to what you see on laptops today.

Stop thinking about what you and your gamer friends have and start looking at what most other people have out there.

Your argument is still specious at best.
0 Votes
+ -
You are barking about high extremes
Kid Icarus-21097050858087920245213802267493 12th Feb 2008
And here you are belting out extremes in the other direction. No modern day computer has those measly specs, especially a PC running Vista. Laughable at best.
0 Votes
+ -
Are you serious?
hasta la Vista, bah-bie 12th Feb 2008
Oh really?

Then you tell me what the average home or business desktop user would buy. Beyond a setup, extreme gaming fanboys would buy.

Go to the Dell, Gateway or HP websites and look at the typical builds they offer when you buy a machine. Tell me what they are. I'd really like to know, since you pretend to know something.

That is, unless you're too lazy to look and just throw around unsubstantiated comments
0 Votes
+ -
See, the problem with what you are saying is,
Kid Icarus-21097050858087920245213802267493 12th Feb 2008
you are implying that notebooks have no compromises but then you list compromised specs. You're not making sense.
0 Votes
+ -
No, I'm saying that..
hasta la Vista, bah-bie 12th Feb 2008
Many of todays notebooks are as powerful as the standard desktop builds that you would find typically find at an OEM's website.

To YOU, a MacPro user, those specs look compromised. Anything less than 8 cores, 4 HDs and a RAID 5 desktop setup WOULD be a compromise. Try thinking outside the box beyond the confines of what YOU would buy as opposed to what the typical home user would buy.

For someone who surfs the internet, reads email and does standard Office Word and spreadsheets, something like what Bruizer said earlier would be a ridiculous, wasted setup. Unless they wanna blow more bread than they really need to.

But if that's all you know...
0 Votes
+ -
I think that someone who..
msalzberg 6th Feb 2008
constantly criticizes every Apple product, and continually posts idiotic items
such as http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-11408-0.html?
forumID=1&threadID=43935&messageID=812250&start=0
can be branded a
'hater.'

Naturally.
...I posted a similar post about the iPhone when Matthew Miller rushed out to buy his. The exact thing I predicted happened and he returned some of them and went back to using his other mobile products instead.

I truly believe, as with most Apple purchases, the novelty will wear off and I wouldn't be surprised if Jason ends up going back to his MBP.

Lose the cider goggles for a while msalzberg and stop with the pathetic attempts to label people who don't succumb to the RDF.

Naturally.
0 Votes
+ -
Who hates?
online@... 7th Feb 2008
I think he was responding to your tone of message, Scrat. You were needlessly sarcastic while making some valid (and some not-so-valid) points. You practically say you hate the MBA. A little thought before writing would have shown the logical reply that Jason made...you don't have to carry all that stuff with you all the time. Your point about cost may be valid, but that's subjective. Finally, no modern computer is "useless" unless it simply doesn't work. It may not be your cup of tea, but I'll bet if it was your choice of machine (or the only available machine) you'd make it "useful."
0 Votes
+ -
Are you always this thick headed?
Bruizer 6th Feb 2008
Notebooks, are by their very nature, a compromise. Sub-notebooks even more so.
What, your notebook does not allow 1 TB on line storage in a RAID-5
configuration?

For many people, my self included, I do not need to travel with all the junk in the
"card-board box". That stuff stays in the box until needed but I only need travel
with an envelope. Had I the option to get the MBA when I got my Core-Duo MBP, I
would have jumped on it. I never use my DVD/CD in the field. The 80 GB my MBP
has is enough. I don't use more than 1 USB port at a time on laptop.

Basically, I could have accepted the compromises for the ultimate in thinness.
0 Votes
+ -
Once again, extremes
hasta la Vista, bah-bie 8th Feb 2008
"What, your notebook does not allow 1 TB on line storage in a RAID-5 configuration?"

Do you really think the average desktop user out there has this kind of a configuration?

Get real...
0 Votes
+ -
Leo is bloated?
nix_hed 6th Feb 2008
Every version of OS X, if you leave everything as the default installation, has a lot of bloat in it. Leopard has at least 1 GB worth of print drivers alone, if I remember correctly.

Of course, if you know what you're doing, you can install Leo in under 7 GB, and it's functional.
0 Votes
+ -
Don't forget the lanuage packs
Kid Icarus-21097050858087920245213802267493 12th Feb 2008
First thing I did when I got my MacPro was do a re-install eliminating everything I didn't need like useless language packs and printer drivers I would never need. Probably took 30mins. Those two items right there will save GBs.
0 Votes
+ -
i get your point scrat
dorkiedorkfromdorktown 7th Feb 2008
i get your point dude. i get that its a "sub" notebook but for people like me, its frustrating to have something so close to what i want and then not deliver. some people want everything. it's not bad. i want an ultralight laptop / tablet pc that i can view in the sun. it's almost worse when a product gets so close but then misses the mark (take the psp). it has video but doesn't have video out (the new version has component out). it has audio but it's too big and bulky. it goes on the internet but doesn't have a keyboard (limits 90% of what i do). give credit where credit is due but i'm with scrat here. for me and what i want to do, its missing the boat.
0 Votes
+ -
You're missing the point of the MBA
Vesicant 6th Feb 2008
You're trying to make your MBA a desktop replacement. Do you really think the MBA's intended audience is going to be running CS3 et al? Why do you think the product's acronym is "MBA"? Doesn't that tell you something?
0 Votes
+ -
Yeah, it tells me it's a nice pretty appliance...
hasta la Vista, bah-bie 8th Feb 2008
Like one of those Krups cappuccino machines or those BrAun shavers...

:^D
0 Votes
+ -
Playlists for your Computer?
Urkel 6th Feb 2008
For many of us, creating playlists to cut your 40gig music library down to 8GB for your Nano is a tough but necessary task. But with the iPod then the size tradeoff is pretty big and there are tools that help you manage that. But when it comes to computers then chopping down you data library is tough to understand. Most people think of upgrading to higher capacities while the Air is telling people to cut things out.

It's a tough task because getting caught on a plane without that old spreadsheet isn't the same as being caught jogging without an obscure Bob Dylan gem.

(I'm really not against the Airbook, I just feel that they compromised too much by going for a non-standard 1.8" HDD rather than the normal 2.5" drives)
0 Votes
+ -
Xslimmer
Zitz 6th Feb 2008
Hey do you know xslimmer.

Yesterday I purged 1,5 gigs from my applications. It removes localizations and ppc-support from apps.

Be careful though, I accidentally slimmed all my apps, nothing seems broken though, but maybe, there is a surprise waiting for me somewhere.

It is shareware and reasonably priced.

Zits
0 Votes
+ -
Um...
nix_hed 6th Feb 2008
Haven't you ever installed anything on your Mac with it's installer? You get these wonderful things called OPTIONS that let you pick and choose what goes into your computer, and there's not one program that you mentioned with bloat that doesn't give you the option not to install the bloat.

Also, if you're that desperate to carry your life with you, go buy a USB-powered external hard drive. You can get them up to 250 GB, and they work just fine for what it sounds like what you want to do.
0 Votes
+ -
Another useless Apple product
jpr75_z 7th Feb 2008
I guess you have to be a ******** Apple fan to buy into these silly devices Apple comes out with every so often. BTW - Whatever happened to that lamp shaped PC? This latest toy is just one of many that will be bought by the diehard Apple fans and then disappear into quiet obscurity in a few months. "If Apple makes it, we must buy it !"
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Putting your HDD on a 80GB diet (Redux)
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
Quite a few many thanks a fantastic cheap authentic nfl jersey offer for sharing this outstanding content pieces! Looking in advance to seeintg increased!

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix
ie8 fix