HELP!!!- Two Library folders on my Mac

benj · August 7, 2006 7:22PM

Hi - I got my Power Mac G5 second hand with a load of stuff I didn't need on it and have been using it for about a year and a half- However I have noticed that there are two "Library" folders on the machine- one is under my user account and shows (in the info window) a modified date of "today"

The second "Library" file (which is about 20GB) is in the "Macintosh HD" folder, shows a modified date of November 2005. I have changed the name of it and moved it to my desktop as a test to see if deleting it would do my computer any harm and it appears not to have.

NOW the 1st question

Does anyone have two Library folders on their Mac- one in the Macintosh HD folder and one in their user account folder?

Secondly

Would it be really stupid to delete the folder that is eating up a lot of disc space? Should I risk messing my computer up for that extra 20GB of space? (My HD holds up to 80GB)

I would appreciate the help!

BENj

SpamSandwich · August 7, 2006 7:36PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BenJ

Would it be really stupid to delete the folder that is eating up a lot of disc space? Should I risk messing my computer up for that extra 20GB of space? (My HD holds up to 80GB)

BENj

DON'T RENAME OR DELETE THAT FILE!

People better versed will explain to you why...

mr beardsley · August 7, 2006 8:55PM

You have 2 Library folders because one contains preferences and support files for you as a user, and one contains preferences and support files for all users. The Library folder in your user directory contains all the preferences and files that are for you only. Mail items, address book contacts, preferences for your applications, and stored passwords in keychain are just some examples. The other Library folder that you found on your Macintosh HD contains things like loops for GarageBand, fonts for the system, templates for iDVD, the default desktop pictures, preference panes for System Preferences, etc.

I would strongly urge you not to delete either Library folder. Your system would probably still boot, but many, many things would not work right. I'm not even sure you could log in to the system if you delete the main Library folder. If you delete the library folder in your user folder you will lose all the items in your address book, and all the mail you've received if you use Apple's mail. Sadly without Time Machine you'd be pretty sad I'm afraid.

benj · August 8, 2006 4:21PM

DELETED :P

I deleted the MAC HD Library folder- some files said they were still in use- Only my Garageband Jampack instruments had gone and a few extra quicktime components - with a reinstallation of Tiger and the reinstallation of a minimal number of components everything was as it usually is. (Airport also needed reconfiguring)

Mail is how I left it

All iLife Apps are how I left them

Photoshop and Office work without having to re-register

All my user accounts and general appearance of the finder remained in tact

On the plus side I managed to free up 20GB of HD space- on the downside a few minor things needed reinstalling.

Overall space-freeing experiment success

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

It worked for me but I have a feeling it may screw some machines up!

BENj

Still alive to tell the tale!

kickaha · August 8, 2006 4:32PM

Jesus christ, dude, that was...

I'm aghast. Really.

You just blew away all the preferences for your machine. You lost all the non-Apple fonts. You probably lost a good amount of critical information for networks, etc.

Yeah, that was a really REALLY bad idea, as you found out.

*twitch*

benj · August 8, 2006 6:30PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kickaha

Jesus christ, dude, that was...

I'm aghast. Really.

You just blew away all the preferences for your machine. You lost all the non-Apple fonts. You probably lost a good amount of critical information for networks, etc.

Yeah, that was a really REALLY bad idea, as you found out.

*twitch*

You know it wasn't that much effort to make things right again- Just a quick half hours work. As I said I wouldn't advise it coz your computer could be different- most of my system settings were in my user account library- I have saved 20GB in the process of getting rid of some of the crap that was in that folder. Tiger just created me a new one when I reinstalled the system- now all the stuff I need is in there.

I haven't lost any fonts whatsoever!

Thank God I've been working long enough with Macs to know how to put things right quickly!

BENj

kickaha · August 8, 2006 6:42PM

You *so* lucked out. That's all I can say. :}

benj · August 8, 2006 7:21PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kickaha

You *so* lucked out. That's all I can say. :}

Yeh- I'm surprised my computer isn't just a grey mash of mess now!

outsider · August 8, 2006 9:35PM

This is the dumbest thing I ever heard. You killed all your printer drivers, fonts, and prefs to free up 20GB? You could have done that by going into Applications Support and delete the garageband, iDVD, iMovie folders and NOT screw up your Mac.

Hey, did you know there's a Library folder in your System folder too? I bet that one has a ton of junk in it!

monkeyastronaut · August 9, 2006 12:11PM

thanks for the tip! i'm going to try that on my powerbook g4, i'm almost out of space hehe. just kidding.

benj · August 11, 2006 9:54AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeyastronaut

thanks for the tip! i'm going to try that on my powerbook g4, i'm almost out of space hehe. just kidding.

Yeh don't! :P I'm not that dumb though you know- it didn't screw my computer up that much and for some reason GBs of space keep appearing after every re-start! The important files that I really needed came back after I re-installed Tiger. It's my mistake but it turned out well in the end! I just wish there was more support about what the library actually does in the Mac help- afterall library is a new feature in OS X that wasn't in 9. Oh well, I won't be doing it again!

BENj

HELP!!!- Two Library folders on my Mac

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