So your old laptop is a bit long in the tooth – working well but the hard disk space is all used up.
Here’s a few ways to get some extra space.
Remove all the extra language files to gain a few hundred MB.
1. Download Monolingual from here
2. Run it and it will remove all the language files you don’t need. It defaults to keeping english, gets rid of Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic etc. (Don’t use the other features of monolingual – just the language removal.)
Use Disk Inventory to see where your space is being taken.
1. Download Disk Inventory X from here.
2. Run it, go have a cup of coffee – it can take a while.
3. Look at the results, they will be a picture like this:
You can mouse over the colors to see which files they are on the hard drive, and then manually delete the folders to create free space. I found lots of thinks I did not need with this program, like old movies hiding away, folders full of microsoft junk, etc. Don’t delete anything if you don’t know what it is though.
Clear out your Library/Application Support folder
Have a look in your Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support folder and there may be some old folders from applications you have deleted but no longer use. You can delete them.
Clear out your Printers
Have a look in Macintosh HD/Library/Printers and delete any folders for printers you don’t need. For example my Epson library contains 1.4G yet I don’t have an Epson printer!
To see how much space a folder takes, go to Menu ‘View/Show View options’ then select the box that says ‘calculate all sizes’.
One may also use our DaisyDisk product for finding out disk wasters. It’s about twice as fast as Disk Inventory X and gives more useful information.
P.S.: cache files and torrents are likely to be the first candidates to deletion.
Yes, except it costs $20 and Disk Inventory is free.