And apparently that’s a bad thing, and I need to delete some files to make some room.
Which, OK, no problem, I can do that, except…
Where’s my startup disk?
Yes, I am computer illiterate, thanks for asking! It’s an eMac running OS 10.4.8.
Your start-up disk is the hard drive in your eMac, assuming you don’t have any external drives attached and set up as such.
Well damn, I only have 156 Mb left open on it. Better start on that deleting I guess.
So what’s a .png file and why do I have 892 of them?
A .png file is a graphic in a (IIRC) lossless format. What folder are you seeing these in?
Meant to add - you might want to empty your browser cache for starters, because an amazing amount of stuff can accumulate in there. Which browser are you using?
The .png files are sitting in the first level of the startup disk. Can I get rid of them? They aren’t taking up any space but they bug me.
I’m running whatever the latest Safari build is.
I cleared out a huge chunk of space getting rid of some mpegs that I had moved into my iTunes library but still had sitting on the hard drive too. So that freed up about 4 GB.
I wish I knew what the hell all this crap on my HD is. I have a feeling I don’t use about 80% or more of it but I don’t know enough about the debbil machine to risk deleting stuff.
Really? That sounds funny. The first level directory of my startup disk has only the major folders (Applications, Library, System and Users).
Since they are only graphics files, double-click on one to open it in Preview. Maybe that will give you a better sense of what they are, and whether you should be ditching them or not. Btw, how big is your startup disk to begin with?
Since you’re using Safari, open Safari and go to Safari-> Empty cache, and click the button to say yes.
There is a handy little freeware program called Grand Perspective that you can use to help figure out where your space problems lie. It lets you get a graphic overview of where your bulkiest files reside, and when you mouse over it will tell you the name, type of file and size. You can also get info on file locations, the easier to delete the rascals.
Getting rid of the 4 gigs was good. How large is your hard drive to begin with?
Computers don’t like being too full. They need some free space to play with and can behave pretty funky when they don’t have it.
Move all your porn to DVDs. Just keep a small selection of good stuff on the hard drive.
I tried opening one when I discovered them. “Couldn’t open the file. It may be corrupt or a file format that Preview doesn’t recognize.” They’re img000001.png through img000892.png.
I already said I deleted the 4 gigs, what more do you want from me?
And god, now my OS X is quitting randomly and making me restart. I downloaded an update Sunday and this started happening Monday. I wonder if they’re related?
I would recommend you, like right now sooner than later, get yourself a copy of DiskWarrior and run it off the bootdisc. There could be all sorts of little and not-so-little problems that have developed over time that are building up now.
Otto, you really shouldn’t delete stuff without knowing what it is. It could screw up your system if you manage to circumvent the usual protections the system has for protecting essential files. Do not poke into the System or Library folders. Any of your stuff (i.e.: Documents, Music, Movies, Pictures) is okay to delete, but don’t mess in your library or the system library folders, or you risk screwing up the system, losing your settings, or creating other problems. You can delete some Applications that you don’t use, some of those are pretty sizable, but I suggest you stay away from the Utilities subfolder in your Applications folder. And don’t delete anything that you’re unfamiliar with unless you’re absolutely sure that it’s not an essential program.
You should run Disk Utility, if you haven’t already, to check for disk problems. Disk Warrior is about $80, but probably worth it to avoid disk problems. If you’re paranoid, you should make backups before running any disk utilities.
If you’re running really close to the line on disk space, and you have about 2-3 GB free, you can reinstall the system, but do a custom installation. With that option, you can get rid of unneeded language translations of OS X (at about 26 MB a pop) and only install printer drivers and fonts that you absolutely need. I believe an Archive and Install will save your settings and files while still allowing you to install a clean system. This will also usually get rid of any kernel extensions and other detrius that you may have accumulated from installing random stuff. After the install finishes, you can delete the old system, gaining back the 2-3 GB you had to use temporarily for the install and keep your new, leaner system install instead. The drawback to this is that you have to install all the system updates again, and any haxies or stuff that modifies your system at a low level will need to be reinstalled.
Here are two articles that tell you some things that you can do to free up some disk space. They go into more detail in some areas than I did here and have resources that I wasn’t aware of until I looked them up.