On Aug 30, 2006, at 8:09 PM, loss1234 wrote: > someone on the list recommended clearing more space on my system > drive but right now that is near impossible due to all the programs > i have on there that look for their information on the drive (most > of the gigs are in the system library) > > so what i am wondering is if i can copy the whole drive to a new > internal drive. > > i know that some programs can be made to look for aliases of their > data but some wont work that way (ezdrummer is one of the top of my > head that wont allow it) so i dont think i can just MOVE stuff off > of my hard drive right now. > > so that only leaves either starting ALL over (no way) or copying the > drive off to a bigger system drive > > there isnt a way to start over the whole system and just copy back > in the preferences and plugin data is there? i would lose all my > serials,etc. > > please help!! my system drive is left with only about 10gigs and i > need more i think. i am willing to buy a new drive if it means > improved performance and i wont lose all my settings > > thanks in advance You should never let the free space on an OS10 system disk go below 10 gigs or you are asking for trouble in the worst way. OS10 uses the system disk as a kind of Virtual memory and unfortunately there is just no way to take control of this and turn it off even if you have tons of RAM and no need of that kind of virtual memory. (This is actually one of the things I really hate about OS10, OS9 was much superior in this particular regard IMO). You have a few options. First: You can and should use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your system disk to an equal sized or larger disk. You should do this even if you don't plan to move your system to another HD. You should ****always**** have a bootable back up of the most recent version of your system. Carbon Copy Cloner will help you do this and maintain it, it even lets you update only the files that have changed so you don't end up having to write your whole system all over again. Second you can make room on your system HD by putting the files for things like iTunes on a second HD and then creating an alias that points to them. The bad news is if you find you have to migrate to a larger disk you will probably have a couple entertaining days of renewing software authorizations, and you will get to spend a lot of fun time at the Native Instruments website jumping through flaming hoops and getting your bottom spanked.