Mac woes

Well not woes but, my hard drive on my MacBook Pro is filling up.
Between my music library and aperture library that puppy is nearing capacity. I've struggled particularly on this recently because of the BibleSoft program and library I purchased. My VMware environment had to be doubled from 10gig to 20 and so I'm eating into the little free space that I have.

I'm not sure what to do, since the computer is still in warranty and I really do not relish the idea of opening up the MBP and installing a new hard drive. I've worked on computers before, and taken apart other laptops. The last one I worked on was a MB and found it a challange, so much so, I'm not sure if I have the intestinal fortitude to under take such an invasive and risky operation.

maflynn wrote:

Well not woes but, my hard drive on my MacBook Pro is filling up.
Between my music library and aperture library that puppy is nearing capacity. I've struggled particularly on this recently because of the BibleSoft program and library I purchased. My VMware environment had to be doubled from 10gig to 20 and so I'm eating into the little free space that I have.

I'm not sure what to do, since the computer is still in warranty and I really do not relish the idea of opening up the MBP and installing a new hard drive. I've worked on computers before, and taken apart other laptops. The last one I worked on was a MB and found it a challange, so much so, I'm not sure if I have the intestinal fortitude to under take such an invasive and risky operation.

delete your downloads folder, and then your movies,
also if you dont use garage band and you delete the stuff that came with that (there's a buttload of sounds and stuff that come with it) you should free up several gigs...

there was a great application out a little while back that showed you visually where your disc space all went... you may already know but i was shocked at some of it when i did it... i couldn't find exactly the app i was looking for but this might do the trick:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/File-managers/Disk-Space-Finder.shtml

nope nope... I found it... here is the one i used... loved it:
http://www.derlien.com/

Thanks, for the info, my download folder is on an external disk and I don't have any movies - already cleaned it out. My itunes library is >25gb, my aperture library is approaching 70gig and now my vmware disk image is 20gig. I moved my itunes over to my external drive so that freed up some space but I don't want to do that with my aperture library since I use my laptop to store the images when I go away.

your other option is to own a macbook for a bit (my first gen one was only 60 gigs.. .so when i moved to a pro and got 120 i was shocked at it... i'm nowhere near using it up... nor do i suspect i will as almost ALL of what i do on my puter is work email and blog related)

I've freed up more space to give me about 43gig, depending on how many swap files get created during the course of the computers uptime.

That sounds like a lot and it is, to a degree, to get the most savings as I mentioned in my prior post, my itunes library is on an external disk. This situation is less then ideal since I'll need that library on the laptop so when I travel I can listen to music/watch movies.

I think I'm facing the inevitable, purchasing a new hard drive, I'll probably post a request on a mac forum regarding what drive/interface (sata 1.5gb vs 3.0gb) and size restrictions I may be facing.

I see that newegg has some 320gb drives, but they may not be a compatible type or from a good manufacturer.

I went on ifixit to see what the process of disassembling the MBP would be and found that its not too bad, except for a couple of spots where its a tad dicey.

FYI, thanks to folks over at macnn, I placed an order for a Hitachi 320gb drive. Now I'll have install it myself but at least that will double the storage for me and alleviate my problems

Thanks for your help in providing suggestions

maflynn wrote:

...my aperture library is approaching 70gig ... I use my laptop to store the images when I go away.

Wow, you should really be archiving photographs. The laptop is great for temporary storage, but it's so easy for something to go wrong — drive crash, damage, theft, etc. Original photos are not replaceable like purchased music is. I would suggest a system of off-loading images to DVD's, and maybe even picking up a terabyte drive that you use only for photos and do not travel with even or use much (to protect it's integrity). They are getting rather cheap, although you don't want to get a real cheap one.

My library is backed up not only onto an external drive, via time machine, but also I use Aperture's vault to create backups on another external drive.

I'm not sure Aperture allows for creating archive libraries that are offline but nonetheless, I do take the business of backing up my library serious.

Got my hard drive today and I slapped that puppy into my MBP.

Installation wasn't too bad, though I'd not recommend it for the squeamish or those folks who are not accustomed to taking apart their computers and/or laptops.

I followed the ifixit.com guides for the most part and found that it disassembly wasn't too bad. Removing the keyboard assembly at the front was tricky because of retaining clips and the glued ribbon cable on the hard drive itself were two problem areas I was most nervous about and what gave me the most headaches.

I now have a brand new 320 meg HD whirring away in my MBP, I'm copying stuff back over to it tonight.

Very happy I took the plunge, I needed to have my music library on my laptop because of a trip occurring this year and my growing aperture library was taking over the HD.