Mac OS X 10.6: Increasing disk space
To increase available space on your computer’s internal disk, try these suggestions.
Note:To see how much available space your disk has, select it and choose File > Get Info. The amount of available space appears in the Info window.
Delete items you don’t need:
-
Move items you don’t need to the Trash. Then press and hold the Trash icon in the Dock and choose Empty Trash.
-
In Mail, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items > In All Accounts, and Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail.
-
In iPhoto, choose iPhoto > Empty iPhoto Trash.
-
In iMovie, choose File > “Move to Trash” or File > “Move Rejected Clips to Trash” to delete unwanted items. Or, choose File > Space Saver to delete all excess video from an Event.
Check the other applications you use for ways to remove or compress items.
Remove downloaded items you no longer need:
When you download items from the Internet, they are stored in the Downloads stack in the Dock. Over time, unneeded items may accumulate.
-
Press and hold the Downloads icon in the Dock and choose Open Downloads.
-
Drag any unneeded items from Downloads to the Trash, and then choose Finder > Empty Trash.
If you don’t see the Downloads icon in the Dock, open a Finder window, select your home folder in the sidebar, and then double-click the Downloads folder.
Locate large files:
You can find your largest files, and then compress them or move them to another disk.
-
Click the Finder icon in the Dock.
-
Choose Go > Home.
-
Choose File > Find.
-
Open the Kind pop-up menu and choose Other.
-
Under “Select a search attribute” select Size, and then click OK.
-
Change the “equals” pop-up menu to “is greater than,” and change the “KB” pop-up menu to “MB.”
-
Enter a minimum file size. 100 MB is a good starting point. You can change the value to see more or fewer results.
Searching begins as soon as you type a file size. It make take a moment for all the search results to appear.
Compress large files and folders:
You can compress files and folders into an archive to remove excess space. If you need to use the items later, you can expand the archive.
Move files to another disk:
-
Move files and folders you don’t often use to an external disk, such as a USB or FireWire disk, or to a disk connected to your AirPort or other network.
-
Burn files and folders to a CD or DVD.
After the files are copied, you can delete the copies on your computer.