Removing OS9

[Anne]

I have a G4 PowerBook running OS 10.4.11 whose 50 GB drive is crammed, so I am trying to liberate some disk space.  I haven't used OS9 for at least 2 years, and cannot imagine I will ever want to again, so thought I'd get rid of all that.  I tried just dragging the OS9 System Folder to the trash, but was told it was in use.  I've tried searching on the internet for uninstalling and just get diverted to years old advice about dealing with OS9 as your main OS. 

Any advice about the best way to remove OS9 from my G4?

Thanks!

Anne

[Hound]

Hi Anne,

I'm guessing and thinking out loud here (well, "onscreen")...

You might have to start up from another disk and then drag OS9 to the trash.  HOWEVER! I don't know if that will mess up your OSX because it will be looking for an OS9 system folder.  Better get real advice from a real wizard on this before proceeding.

For this reply not to be a total waste, though, the following might help with your space problem:
http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/

It's a little program called "Monolingual" that takes out extra code for languages that you are never going to use on your Mac.  It can save many, many megabytes.

Another space saver is to remove printer drivers that you aren't going to use.  If you only use a Canon, then you don't need Epson, HP, etc.  They can be space hogs too.

Good luck!

-Brian

[Anne]

Thanks for your reply Brian!    I downloaded Monolingual and it took about 30 mins to work, then reported freeing 1.1 GB of HD space! Amazing.  I've also trashed a load of Printer drivers as you suggested - great idea.    I still have only 7GB of space left, so would also like to get rid of OS9.

However, I will wait to hear from other wizards before I reboot from another OS and remove OS9.  Just in case!

Thanks again for your terrific suggestions.

Anne

[Robert Seltman]

I was trying to remember how I did an inventory list of my hard drive (something to do with the Spotlight function? or some other software) which offered the option of putting everything in size order. With every file and application from largest to small I discovered lots of things to throw away. Movies for example I had forgotten. Then I checked years created and could throw away many older applications no longer valid.

Sorry I can not remember how I created an inventory list, perhaps others remember.

[Col]

I have always just removed OS 9 by dragging the System Folder to the trash.

Take great care that you are dragging System Folder (which is OS 9) and not System, which is used by OS X.

If you can once get the System Folder into the trash, you can usually get rid of difficult-to-delete items by holding down the option key as you Empty trash from the Finder menu. I have heard that Secure empty trash will sometimes work when regular Empty trash will not, but it is slow.

You could try restarting and trying again.

Under OS X, fonts that are in the fonts folder in OS 9 are also available to OS X applications, so if you had, say, MS Word open, the System folder might be in use. Quit all apps and/or restart.

Good luck,

Colin

[Anne]

Thanks for the reassurance and advice, Colin.  I did take care to make sure I selected the right System Folder (it had a helpful 9 on it).  But I did have Word open, I think, so perhaps that was the problem.  Will restart and try again with no software in use.

Anne

[Anne]

I was trying to remember how I did an inventory list of my hard drive (something to do with the Spotlight function? or some other software) which offered the option of putting everything in size order. With every file and application from largest to small I discovered lots of things to throw away. Movies for example I had forgotten. Then I checked years created and could throw away many older applications no longer valid.

Sorry I can not remember how I created an inventory list, perhaps others remember.

Thanks Robert - I look for a way to do this - good idea!

Anne

[Hound]

For what it's worth, I just checked the size of my OS 9 system files and OS 9 apps -- barely 500 MB.  Now, that's nice useful space if you can get rid of those files, but it's nothing like the size of OS X these days:  several GB.

Anyway, happy "disk-cleaning"!