disc space

gdoggdog
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
how does disc space get used up over time and how do i dump those files. i found that safari and quicktime both have caches that can be emptied but still over time hd gets used. where are temp files or swapfiles and can they be empied. i think restart does all this but i like to keep imac on all the time until next update comes out. i have a lot of space but i like to get rid of extra wasted stuff and keep everything runnig at full speed. thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    manyourismsmanyourisms Posts: 50member
    For the most part, emptying your /Users/HOMEFOLDER/Cache folder into the trashcan is a valid way to clear up space. Remove applications you don't use. If you use the iTunes store, be sure to dump that stuff off on a dvd or cd, or external drive now and again. You always want about 10% of your overall disk space available so if you can reach that, youre laughing. Be sure to empty the trash when you are finished.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    With the exception of some caches (Safari, etc), using disk space will speed things *up*, not slow things down. That's what caching is *for*. Unless you're below a couple gigs of free space, don't worry about it.



    That being said, anything in /Library/Caches and ~/Library/Caches is safe to delete, as long as the apps using the data aren't running. The virtual memory swap space is in /var/vm, and should never be messed with. It will get purged on reboot, and is a good thing to have around.



    The Safari caches only slow things down when they get so big that it takes longer to find something in it than to just grab it off the network again. Hit menu item Safari -> Empty Caches every once in a while and you'll be fine.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    manyourismsmanyourisms Posts: 50member
    True Cache is there to speed things up, but when we are just talking about freeing disk space, its not bad to get rid of it. Seriously though Cache is fairly minimal in size, your best bet is to backup movies and such onto dvds. If you have redundant users on your computer you might want to remove them from the account preferences as well.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    gdoggdog Posts: 224member
    thanks for info
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