iLife 06 HD space

[remlemasi]

Hey Friends,

I have the currrent model 12" iBook. I was going to upgrade to an 80GB hard drive, but I couldn't wait for the BTO so I decided to get a standard one at the Apple Store w/40GB. Bad decision. Truly regretting it (just some advice for any future buyers).

Anyway, to the real question:

I have about 11GB left and I want to upgrade to iLife'06. The specs say I need 10GB.

I don't want my hard drive to be too full after I install the apps. Do the actuall installed files take up 10GB or is that just how much you need to run it? How much is acutally installed?

I also have a 160Gb external FireWire HD. Could that be of any help?

On a side note, how much space should I leave free for OS X to run optimally?

Thanks in advance.

-Elmer

[Fahrenheit]

I would use the external HD for all your files/porn/movies/music that you save, and just use the 40GB for apps. I cant think what you have on there which is filling it so much, if its not saves.

[Dorian Gray]

10 GB is for adequate space to run iLife, especially iMovie, etc. I think you can configure these apps to use files (including temp files) on an external disk, but you'd need to check for certain if this is important for you. Your iBook already has iLife, so upgrading to '06 will probably use little additional space.

For best performance, you shouldn't let your disk fill up much more than it is now (11 GB free). Having that free space ensures file fragmentation remains low, and you also benefit because OS X writes to the fastest tracks first, which means files written when the disk is close to full are written to slower tracks. That said, you probably won't actually do any harm unless you hit zero free space; however, this can easily happen without your knowing if you have less than say, 2 GB free (because of temp files and virtual memory). (Having only 2 GB free also leads to a lot of file fragmentation and massively reduced performance.) If you're working with video you might not notice the space running out even if you have 10 GB free. So keep an eye on free space when your hard disk is working, and try not to let it drop much below its current value.

[wecallitfall]

haha! i am in the same boat as you pretty much

following MWSF i was pissed with no intel ibooks, so i went out and ordered the stock 12" wednesday morning after it, and truly regret not getting at least 60GB HD i only have 8GB of space left with iLife 06

you should be ok, it doesnt take up much room

i dont use iMovie/iDvd, if i delete these will i have more room?
also i heard if you reinstall OS X again and take out simplified chinese language packs etc this saves space, would this lose all my music/docs etc?

[Spike87]

There is an app called Monolingual that will get rid of all the unwanted localization files for you. Saves around 200~300MB.

http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/

[BlueRabbit]

iDVD and GarageBand are the biggest apps - around 2-3 GB each, including themes and loops. I've installed mine to my external hard drive (much like yours), and they work fine, aside from the updaters not working correctly - they (VERY stupidly) only look for the apps in /Applications, so you'll need to use a program like Pacifist (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6812) to install them manually. Other than that, everything seems to work well.

[rasmits]

Well, if you've already got iLife '05 or '04, it will just replace all those apps with the new versions and it wont take 10 GB. I had the same problem on my laptop with only 3 or 4 GB left, and it upgraded '05 just fine.