Deleting private/var folder

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Level 1

8 points

Deleting private/var folder

Hi all,

I'm doing some spring cleaning to free up disk space. Using OmniSweeper, I came across a folder called private/var that takes up a whopping 8.2GB! I did some research and learned that it contains log files and such.

My question is this, is it safe to delete private/var, or is it system critical?

Thanks,

Ryan

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Aug 3, 2009 5:35 PM

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Answer 1

Lyssa

Level 8

41,405 points

Aug 3, 2009 5:39 PM in response to potatonator

You can delete anything in private/var/log without causing troubles. However, the rest of the folders in there shouldn't be messed with, especially private/var/vm.

Yes, 8GB is a lot, but if you're looking to delete it from a system folder, you're looking at the wrong place to free up space!

~Lyssa

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Answer 2

potatonator Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2009 7:01 PM in response to Lyssa

Thanks for the quick reply, Lyssa.

Normally, I would agree with you about deleting from a system folder, but I'm borderline desperate :P

Thanks again

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Answer 3

Lyssa

Level 8

41,405 points

Aug 3, 2009 7:18 PM in response to potatonator

If you're that desperate, what you really want to do is upgrade your internal hard drive.

Do you use Filevault?

How large is the current internal drive, and how much space is free?

~Lyssa

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Answer 4

potatonator Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2009 7:23 PM in response to Lyssa

I'm exploring other options before resulting to upgrading my drive. Bit short of money at the moment.

I don't use Filevault. What is it?

I'm actually freeing up space because I want to install Logic Studio. The original space is 120GB, and I've managed to get the free space to 15GB. I have a boot camp partition which I'm also going to delete.

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Answer 5

Lyssa

Level 8

41,405 points

Aug 3, 2009 7:27 PM in response to potatonator

If you've got an external hard drive, you could scoot data over there. If you've got a lot of videos on the drive, those chew up space quickly.

You can move your entire iTunes and/or iPhoto library to an external drive as well--but you do want to have it backed up elsewhere, just in case!

~Lyssa

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Answer 6

potatonator Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2009 7:29 PM in response to Lyssa

I plan to that too... Got to free up space in my external drive too. Hehe... :P

Thanks for all your help 🙂

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Answer 7

Lyssa

Level 8

41,405 points

Aug 3, 2009 7:36 PM in response to potatonator

Not a problem and thanks for that star! 🙂

Oh, and FileVault is a security measure in OS X that is used for encrypting a user's entire home folder. I don't think too many people use it (and I'm not fond of it, personally!).

~Lyssa

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Answer 8

potatonator Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 3, 2009 7:37 PM in response to Lyssa

Oh right... Filevault yeah... Takes up too much space :P

No prob 🙂

Message was edited by: potatonator

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Answer 9

Aug 4, 2009 2:32 PM in response to potatonator

I find this odd. iDefrag has this folder added by default in it's "delete these files before defragmentation"....

/private/var/vm

as well as

/private/tmp

and

/private/var/tmp

Message was edited by: swolbynos

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