Hard drive full and shouldn't be!

[PhoenixDawn]

I run OS X, and although I keep ALL my files etc on an external drive, I'm now exceedingly low on space. I've always suspected this might be due to iPhoto. Unlike iTunes where I've been able to direct it to look on the external drive for the library, I never figured out how to do this with iPhoto. I moved all the piccies anyhow, though this has made no real difference and when I go into iPhoto it still brings up a thumbnail of the photo's I've moved.

So 1) what kind of files do I need to look for to delete?

2) Is there actually a way I can get iPhoto to library on an external drive instead like iTunes does?

3) What else can I do to see what's clogging up my hard drive and clear out the space?

All I want to have on my hard drive is the applications, nothing else, and I now need free space as a matter of urgency.

Can anyone help me please?

Dawn

 

[Egidio]

(1) As far as iPhoto goes, one thing that is misleading is when you trash photos. iPhoto keeps them in its own trash. So, be sure to empty iPhoto's trash.

(2) How about simply copying the photos to an external drive or DVD and deleting them from your computer?

(3) Sort your user folder by size and see what's taking the most space. You can then decide what can be trashed, saved externally, etc.

Try a good maintenance program: MainMenu, Cocktail, MacJanitor. They can eliminate font and browser caches.

 

[PhoenixDawn]

Hi Edigio, thanks for the quick response

1) I've always emptied the Trash, so there's nothing in there.

2) I did just that, copied them all to external and then delete them. However, the library still says it has 875 photo's and I don't know where to locate the files - hence why I asked what type of file extensions I need to look for to get rid of the rest.

3) I'm sure someone recently told me that there IS a way to get iPhoto to external library like iTunes does, but that there's a 'secret' way to put it into action rather than it being under normal settings.

Any further ideas?

Dawn