i was just wondering if i need classic os on my iBook. i have a G4 that runs OSX. i never used mac before OSX, and i was wondering if it would be safe to remove classic from my hard drive and all of the classic applications? i NEVER use it, nor do i forsee ever using it. and if i remove it how much hard drive space will that free up. (that is more important to me)

If you don't use it then delete it. You can always re-install it from the restore disks if you need it.

I think the disk space it takes up is ~ 1 GB. Apps and OS. the OS itself is around 300MB.

HI the only reason to use Classic on any Mac is to run Applications that will only run in Classic.

Also there is some old hardware that only runs on OS 9 or earlier. The problem here is that although you can run classic from OS X, you don't actually boot into it, so if you have hardware that was made for the earlier OS9 and earlier, you would have t oboot directly into OS 9 rather than try to boot in to OS X and then run Classic.

So if you have no old software or hardware that needs classic or OS 9 I would save the space and get rid of it.

I cannot think of any useful purpose it can offer you if you started with Macs from the Os X level.

In some ways the earlier OS was faster that X on some systems, but when any part of it crashed the entire machine crashed and you lost everything.

Woth OS X you can lose an application but still save the data from other open appsl

Nowadays none of the new Macs will even run classic so it is slowly fading into history where it belongs.

I cannot say off hand how much space you will save but any space saved is worth it. You will not damage your system as it is not dependant on OS 9 or earlier and in the long run OS X is much more reliable.

There are some links between OS X and Classic that will no longer be used and that fact that you are removing Classic and all of the little Patches and applications that enable it to run, should actually let you boot into OS X faster and as there is less material on your HD for OS X to manage, you should see some increase in performance. Not a lot but every little counts.

From what you say in your original post, you do not need Classic and it is completely safe to remove it from your HD.

As each different installation of Classic had different extensions and other items in the System Folder, the general size varies. A good indicator of how much space you will gain would be to locate the Folder (System Folder), NOT the folder System. Slect the Folder and do a get Info CMD I on the System Folder. The size of the folder is how much space the Classic OS is taking on your system. There are some small files that are shared between OS X and Classic and due to the way different HD's store information the actual ampount of space will vary slightly, but that would be a good indicator of how much space you will gain.

If you really never use it, get rid of it, but only if you need the real estate, else, wait till next time you do the format thing and install a new OS.