Running out of HD space

[in77out]

I have an aluminium PowerBook with 500MHz PowerPC G4, 512 MB SDRAM, 18.63 GB harddrive.
I'm getting a message that says that my start up disk is full. I checked my hard drive space and I'm getting very low. I think that the only thing that may be taking up space are music and iPhoto files. I have an external hard drive that I can use as back up. Is there a particular way that I should move them off of my system or is it just drag and drop. And how do I then access them again when I need them. Will moving them affect them in any way?
Is there a way to make my external HD the primary storage for my iPhoto Library that I can still easily access.
I am very much a newbie when it comes to this stuff. That's why I like the mac platform. Any help is much appreciated. THNX

[alc6379]

If we're just talking data, not actual program files, dragging and dropping would probably be the best, if not the only way, that you'd want to do it. So long as you're not dragging over program files, or files needed by programs, you'll be in good shape.

[yellow]

You can use OmniDiskSweeper to help you discover where your disk space is gone.

Since you don't know, you should NOT be running with any less then ~1.5GB of free disk space on your computer. You put your data in serious jeopardy, as the OS has no room to expand and the potential for files to get accidently overwritten increases dramatically.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

To clarify Yellow's point, make sure that 1.5 GB is available on the SYSTEM drive. I like the design of partitioning the hard disk, allowing for certain protections that are otherwise not available.

You might also consider archiving your music and photos to CD/DVD, as if this information is not backed up, it is in danger of being lost with a hardware problem. The time to think about backing up is NOW before you lose the data.

Applications are the easy things to restore; your settings and data are far more difficult.

Christian

[in77out]

If we're just talking data, not actual program files, dragging and dropping would probably be the best, if not the only way, that you'd want to do it. So long as you're not dragging over program files, or files needed by programs, you'll be in good shape.

Thanks you for the advice. I appreciate it.

[bretbenz]

Is there a way to make my external HD the primary storage for my iPhoto Library that I can still easily access.

Yes and it's quite simple. Simply move your iPhoto Library folder to your external drive, while iPhoto is closed. Then make sure the original is not there. When you run iPhoto the next time, it will say your library is missing and ask you to show it where it is. From then on your pictures are on your external drive.

[Kezz]

If you drag and drop files over to your external drive, your Mac will copy the files, not move them.
Remember to delete them from the internal drive otherwise you won't have saved any space at all.
Sorry if that sounds obvious and condescending.