Move which files to external drive? and how?

[Bandita]

Hi, Everyone.

Well, I went and broke me budget to buy a lovely LaCie 250 GB (!) external drive as I was getting the dreaded Disk Full message. I also busted for 256 MB of RAM, and as soon as I get this sorted out, I'm sure I'll be once more a happy Mac fan.

I need advice on which files I can transfer to the hard drive, and also I read something somewhere once about clogged log files that it's safe to delete. Can't remember anything more about it. I trashed a lot of caches and plist files, only to find my Address Book is gone. So I still need to clean up the original disk, safely.

Am I right, logically, to think of my external hard drive as a big storage disk?

I was trying to move some of the huge applications like ArcSoftware for my Epson all-in-one, and others, but kept getting the message that the file names meant they couldn't be moved. This is defeating the purpose. I'll try not to freak out here.

Any help most appreciated. Daydreamer, thanks for the fast response.

Cheers.
Bandita

Machine Model: Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics)
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.9)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 400 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 576 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1

 

[Ric]

Hi there Bandita and welcome !

External drives are best for storing data on them...and keeping your 'Applications' on your internal drive.

What type of 'stuff' is filling your internal drive ? Photos, videos, iTunes ?

regards

Ric

 

[Bandita]

Hi, Ric. Good to meet you.

Yes, my iTunes is taking up a whopping 591.8 MB. So is my desktop, but that's partly because I'm saving my MS Office there; I tried to move it, but got those error messages. So that should stay? Only 2 MB movies; already tossed most images.

What is the data02e5.000 file? At 25 MB.

More urgent at the moment: at every startup or restart, lots of preferences that I have not deleted are returning to default. Dock, Finder, Mail, ColorSync, etc. Oy.

In Safari, I keep getting the notice on clicking a link that Keychain needs to return to default prefs. All my keychain info seems gone.

I'm starting to get confused again. Times like this, I NEED a little Vivaldi to calm me down. I've got about 1 G moved to the external drive, but some of that is software that I need to bring back to my original disk.

Advice?

And Happy New Year.

Best,
Bandita

Power Mac G4 (AGP graphics)
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.9)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 400 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 576 MB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.8f1
OSX 10.3.9

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

can you do 'command and i' on the hard disk icon and let me know what it says, ie how much is used and how much is free...

regards

Ric

 

[Bandita]

Hi again.

My internal drive? 9.54 capacity, 4.51 available. LaCie = 232.74 G, 232.66 available.

I erased the external hard drive. At the LaCie website, it said that if the drive is not formatted as Mac OS extended, files were being written to DOS which rejected the file names. However, info says that it IS formatted as extended (journaled).

Should I try reformatting the external drive? and how?

ALSO: I just reinstalled BSD susbystem and ran disk utility from the OSX disk; it says my internal drive is OK. Still getting the keychain message in Safari.

Is it possible to just reinstall Safari or other native apps from the original disks? Will I need to update everything?

Many thanks. Still tweaking in January.

Bandita

 

[bluekatt]

best thing you should do is like ric said
give the 10 gig hd totally to os x
move your personal files to the external hd your mp3's the movies photo's everything

 

[darock]

<tt>I trashed a lot of caches and plist files, only to find my Address Book is gone</tt>



Your Settings for all your Applications are stored in your "Preferences" .plist files When you trash them they will return to the default when application is restarted

<tt>More urgent at the moment: at every startup or restart, lots of preferences that I have not deleted are returning to default. Dock, Finder, Mail, ColorSync, etc. Oy.

In Safari, I keep getting the notice on clicking a link that Keychain needs to return to default prefs. All my keychain info seems gone.</tt>


You may have lost your keychain but you can try to repair it by going to "Keychain Access" in Utilities and running "Keychain first Aid" under the Keychain Access menu