help my computer's full

[pureeclipse]

Hi can any one help. My imac memory is full. If i buy a 1tb external hard drive i Know i can save all my files etc on it, but can i also put all my applications on to it then unplug it from the i mac. At which point i thought i would wipe the imac and then upgrade to snow leopard. Can i then bring back my folders and applications. Also is it possible to install photoshop on the external hard drive only and use that drive to store all my raw files etc. ie use the external drive just for photographic stuff. Any help greatly appreciated

[GeoffR]

Its a Mac, you don't need to move your applications because they aren't stored within the operating system but separately so to upgrade to Snow Leopard, move your files to an external drive and then load Snow Leopard, it doesn't wipe the hard drive, it replaces the OS and nothing else.

[pureeclipse]

so if i just move the raw photos onto the external hard drive will that automatically free up some space on the hard drive or will i need to reformat it or something

[pureeclipse]

The main problem i am having is my computer will no longer open photos in photoshop as it says there is no memory space left.

[Bawbee]

I'll let the Mac experts enlighten you but that seems to be a RAM problem rather than HD space. Best buy a PC

[Fen]

I'll let the Mac experts enlighten you but that seems to be a RAM problem rather than HD space. Best buy a PC

Not quite... You can set HD space as 'RAM' which programmes can use.

But if the HD is full then there is no 'extra' RAM for the programmes. Using a PC for Photoshop you will know this as the 'scratch disk'

[GeoffR]

so if I just move the raw photos onto the external hard drive will that automatically free up some space on the hard drive or will I need to reformat it or something

No. you don't need to reformat your hard disc.

Just copy your photos to an external hard disc and delete them from the computer. Then insert the Snow Leopard disc and you should be OK.

All computers like there to be space on the internal hard disc, Windows computers like a lot of space, you need about 20% to defrag properly with some versions of Windows.

[james19]

Hi can any one help. My imac memory is full. If i buy a 1tb external hard drive i Know i can save all my files etc on it, but can i also put all my applications on to it then unplug it from the i mac. At which point i thought i would wipe the imac and then upgrade to snow leopard. Can i then bring back my folders and applications. Also is it possible to install photoshop on the external hard drive only and use that drive to store all my raw files etc. ie use the external drive just for photographic stuff. Any help greatly appreciated

There is no need to wipe your iMac, it's not Windows
Get a 1TB external drive, move ALL your photos,files and documents over to it, then upgrade to Snow Leopard. Don't move the applications.

When the upgrade is finished just move back the documents that you really need to keep on the internal drive. Otherwise just access them from the external drive when you need them.

I would recommend keeping your applications on the iMac internal drive, it will be faster. The only exceptions would be apps such as Logic Audio which comes with about 50GB of loops and samples.

You can tell Photoshop to use the external drive as a scratch disk, it will dump all the temporary stuff there.

Like the other poster said, you should always keep some free space on the internal drive for the operating system to work properly. OS X is better than Windows but I would still aim to keep at least 20% free.

[Mortimer]

I'm a Mac user, and there is some strange advice being given here, james19 has been the closest to my experience and understanding of Macs.

First of all it isn't clear if the OP is complaining about lack of memory or the hard drive is actually full.

If it is the memory, how much has the OP got in there already, and if it isn't at the maximum the computer can take, then upgrading the memory might be cost effective.

Secondly if it is the hard drive that needs upgrading, there are plenty of techniques for doing this and transferring the entire system to the new drive without having to reinstall and all that malarkey.

My third and last point, an upgrade to Snow Leopard doesn't require the machine to be installed from scratch. Leopard can be upgraded to Snow Leopard whilst leaving applications and user data intact. I have done this, and this has the added benefit of freeing up quite a significant chunk of drive space, because Snow Leopard removes all the fat binaries, and replaces them with Intel CPU specific ones.

Oh! All right, one last thing...

If you are using Time Machine (You are aren't you?) to keep backups of your machine. This too can be used to restore all applications and user data to a newly built system.

[GeoffR]

The OP is talking about getting an external hard drive so I suggested moving the files to that and removing them from the internal drive simply because I connected "Full" and "External hard disc" to mean no disc space remaining.

There is no need, with a Mac, to touch anything else when upgrading the operating system. However, if the hard disc is full moving the files on to an external drive would be a good idea.

[pureeclipse]

Thanks to everyone for their advice new 1tb external hard drive on it's way.