What is Safe to Trash?


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skiziks

skiziks

Technology Fan
I had the Apple store move everything from the almost 8 year old flat panel G4 to a new 21.5" iMac and a lot of old stuff got migrated over, for instance, OS9. Files from an old printer that I no longer have, etc. How do I know what can be safely trashed? Do you suppose that cleaning out anything that is no longer needed or won't work be considered a "Personal Project" by the Apple store and be accepted under my One-to-One plan?
 
This isn't something I can say, but certainly they can give you guidance about what is safe to remove. Certainly the key that you cannot remove files from System, and most things in your Library folders, often consisting of preference panes, preferences and key program settings, can be left intact. More to the point, with today's huge hard drives on any Mac, it doesn't usually matter, except for old apps in the Mac OS 9 Applications folder and perhaps documents you no longer have a purpose for.
 
Withe the new Intel Mac and Snow Leopard I highly suggest bookmarking the ac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard compatibility table to keep track of the programs that are for 10.6.x.

Plus trashing all programs is just a little tougher on OS X since some programs leave bit & pieces scattered all over OS X. Take a look at either the freeware application AppCleaner or the sharewares AppDelete or AppZapper. These programs will clean all parts of the program out of your OS X system.

Now the things you should keep are videos, music and saved documents. Don't count on any of your old programs to work on the new system. Plus enjoy the new speed you have!
 
I just wanted to add that app remover utilities are not always complete in what they do. But if an app doesn't have it's own uninstaller and trashing the file in the Applications folder isn't enough, that may be your only reasonable option.
 
Can going by a date help? I view your question and will be doing the same soon.
 
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