How to clean up hard drive?

If you have a suitable externally enclosed hard disk drive which
can support OS X clones and booting the computer from them,
you could make a full backup clone of your Mac's hard drive
contents including the operating system; then when that is done
and tested to be capable of booting the computer from that clone
in an external hard drive, then you could proceed in using the
OS X Installer's version of Disk Utility, with the install disc used as
a boot volume, so you can access its tools, and run Secure Erase
(at least one-pass) to obliterate the content of the hard disk drive.

Then, with all the content on the computer's internal hard drive gone,
over-written with at least one-pass (to zero the hard drive) then it
would need to be further prepared for use by being certain the correct
Partition Map is used. A PPC-based Mac would use Apple Partition Map;
while an Intel-based Mac would use the GUID Partition Map. Then, a
next step would be to Format the drive, to HFS+ (journaled) prior to either
a fully new installation from scratch, or prior to re-cloning the entire HDD
content from the external drive back into the computer.

But, if the computer's hard disk drive is too full already, re-cloning the
entire collected user generated excess would not be a valid idea. So,
you would have to consider how to best archive that user-created stuff
so the resulting computer drive content would be much less full; so the
OSX and apps would have working space, or plenty of free-space.

And the costs of being able to make decent backups of your computer
to a reliable means of maintaining it, and repairing it periodically, is not
a bad investment; a newer external drive enclosure can work with new
and older Macs and PCs, the better ones support booting from clones.

In your previous post(s) a few months ago, you asked about fixing the
issues of the optical drive not working correctly and that pointed to a
need to free-up space in the computer (at least) and maybe perform
a totally new installation on a wiped hard disk drive.

re: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11677392#

And, there is also a chance that that old of a computer may have the
original hard disk drive still running inside; it may need a replacement.
Plus, depending on the amount of chip RAM installed, the computer may
also benefit greatly from an upgrade to the highest capacity it can use.

So, your computer probably needs some upkeep; more than maintenance.
Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

picky7 wrote:
I am not able to see my any CD or DVD icon when ever I insert it in the computer.

In Finder > Preferences > Sidebar, you have CDs/DVDs and external disks check marked?

If by chance it comes up and then I am not able to make my back or burn any thing on them. I have lot of stuff on the hard drive.

Is the CD/DVD mounted and can you see them in Disk Utility?
If they are not mounted, then use the mount button.

It also could also be your DVD drive.

Please help me to make a back up and clean up my hard drive. Currently I am using Mac OS X 10.5.8.

The best way to backup is to another hard drive using SuperDuper or CarbonCopy Cloner.

Is there any problem with this system?

No. What problems are you encountering, other than DVDs?



-mj

The online site Other World Computing seems to have some external drive sets
that should be capable of supporting the tasks required, one of them I had been
looking at here: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEAQ7500GB16/
may have been superseded by another model, but it would do the tasks adequately.

+{If the link above fails to register, use the first part of it, and their search engine to find+
+the model number MEAQ7500GB16 and the page referenced should appear OK. Or:+
+this link should work: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATAFW800_FW400USB.}+

The utility, Carbon Copy Cloner from Bombich Software, is a free-running download
and considered to be a 'donationware' which runs unfettered, and unlimited to use.

Learning the details on how to use the software, and steps involved in making a good
backup clone, testing it, and then trying it out first (before wiping the computer's HDD)
is part of the learning curve.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

{ edited to add reference link correction }