Advice needed from Mac experts!

[Claire]

I've just had a message pop up on screen saying my startup disc space is low on memory and I need to do something or other! What do I do?? :confused:

[Keith]

I've just had a message pop up on screen saying my startup disc space is low on memory and I need to do something or other! What do I do?? :confused:

hiya!

and eek! need to see how much disk space you have left

Can you select "machintosh hd" and do a properties on it?

[Claire]

Is that under finder Keith? Is so I select Macintosh HD and I get no properties option come up.

[Keith]

Is that under finder Keith? Is so I select Macintosh HD and I get no properties option come up.

hi

ok select the disk on your desktop by clicking it ... on mine it's called MACOSX but it may be Macintosh HD etc...

Once it's clicked, go to the file menu and choose "get into"

Look at how much capacity it has and how much is available

[Claire]

Ok, this is what I can see. It's says

Kind: Volume
Created: Sat 4th Aug 2007
Modified: Sat 12 July 2008
Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Capacity: 111.47 GB
Available: 575 MB
Used: 110.91 GB on Disk
(119,087,222,784 bytes

Is this what you need?

[Keith]

It sure is... now the bad news is, you've got almost no space left!!!!!

Have you got tons of music or photos on there perhaps?

[Claire]

It sure is... now the bad news is, you've got almost no space left!!!!!

Have you got tons of music or photos on there perhaps?

Well itunes is 17.41 GBs and iphoto contains 379 MBs. 568 MBs in Pictures. 19.1 GB in Movies. I have Rollercoaster tycoon 3 installed plus The Sims, a couple of other small games but Poppy has a file with a shedload of DVD installed that she can watch on her ipod.

[Keith]

sounds to me like it's all those DVD files! they'll be taking up loads :/

You could always buy an external drive and move some stuff across to it, but you definitely need to move/delete somethings before you totally fill up

[Claire]

Thanks Keith. I'll give it an overhaul I think. Poppy shouldn't be putting stuff on here anyway!

[Keith]

If I can help, let me know :yes:

[Claire]

Keith I've just found a folder in music called itunes music and it contains 43 GB of stuff!! I wonder how it got so big!

[Keith]

Keith I've just found a folder in music called itunes music and it contains 43 GB of stuff!! I wonder how it got so big!

If you're not very very careful, everything gets put on multiple times!

The way it works is, you copy a music file onto your machine and tell itunes to find it but then it tends to copy it into its own folder itunes music which it keeps organised. All of a sudden you now have two copies! Add to that duplicates and all the rest and suddenly loads of space gone

[Claire]

So far I've freed up 15 GB just by getting Poppy to clear out stuff she doesn't need anymore.

[Keith]

So far I've freed up 15 GB just by getting Poppy to clear out stuff she doesn't need anymore.

YAYAYAYAYA *excellent* 15GB is a fair bit of breathing room! phew!

[josh.p.]

LOL- Thats the only flaw of itunes- it just stores everything a multitude of times!

[Claire]

It seems I've got masses of images that have multiplied! I'm wondering if every time I connect my camera to the laptop it dumps every photo into images again as I don't delete them from my camera.

[Keith]

It seems I've got masses of images that have multiplied! I'm wondering if every time I connect my camera to the laptop it dumps every photo into images again as I don't delete them from my camera.

yep! almost certainly if you dont delete the from the camera

[josh.p.]

Do you not use Iphoto? It makes it so easy- connect your cam, it pops up, you select and click import and then it will tell you if you are importing the same pics again- its probably my fave app!

[Claire]

For some reason Josh it imports them into Pictures. Can I change a setting to make sure they go into iPhoto?

[josh.p.]

ermm.. ask keith LOL I'm not a mac-expert... mine just works! LOL

[Keith]

Call up iphoto
Choose "iphoto menu" Preferences
then in the general tab change "connecting camera opens:" to iphoto

see if that helps

[Claire]

Thanks guys. I've selected those settings and next time I connect the camera we'll see what happens!