Clean install needed?

[Jackaroo]

I've been having trouble with my IMac, 600 mhz, Power pc G3, running OSX 10.2.8. If I run Disk first aide it says I have errors that cannot be fixed. I occasionally can't load a blank cd, it says the disk is full. Sometimes my ITunes has a message saying the disk is full (even if I'm not saving anything). And most recently, my Appleworks won't open, saying that the library sharing is having a problem. (Perhaps brought on by recently adding "Word" for Mac to my computer).
Someone suggested I get an external hard drive and move files to it. I did that, but I'm still having problems, though probably not as frequently. It was suggested I do a clean install ... sounds scary to me. Sound reasonable?
My next question, for things like my Itunes and Iphoto, can I just drag the icon from my harddrive to my external harddrive and is that considered backed up? I'd hate to lose my music, especially, because it can't be saved to a disk very practicably.
Thanks for your help.

 

[barhar]

'It was suggested I do a clean install ... Sound reasonable?' - yes. It is also, possibly, over kill. Click once on the upper right hard disk drive icon (the boot drive), select 'Finder's 'File, Get info' menu item, and then reply with the 'Capacity:' and 'Available:' (and optionally - the 'Used:') values.

'... can I just drag the icon from my harddrive to my external harddrive and is that considered backed up?' - you can drag the boot drive's icon onto the external hard disk drive; but, a true backup action will not occur.

You can drag the '~/Music/' or '~/Music/iTunes/' folder onto the external hard disk drive's icon, and a backup of the respective folder will occur.

 

[Jackaroo]

Capacity is 38.15 GB
Available is 900.5 MB
Used (for what it is worth) is 37.27 GB on disk (40,023,511,040 bytes)

In regard to your second point, it's not really backed up, so if I were to delete that icon (and its files) from my harddrive I could lose it? How then do I back up my IPhoto, since it does not show any individual files in the harddrive (it just holds the icon -- I have many photos stored in it though).

Is my inclination to move my ITunes music to the external drive and then deleting it from my main harddrive valid? Will that free up space?

Thanks for this help.

 

[barhar]

900 MB remaining may seem as a lot of storage space; however, if MacOS X attempts to create one or more 'swapfiles' (in the '/var/vm/' folder) - the 900 MB of space could vanish quickly.

MacOS X is nothing like 'System 9' and earlier. Particularly when one is copying files and / or folders; - especially, 'System' related files, or files and / or folders of users.
There are files and folders that are invisible - that will not be copied should you click on and drag the upper right hard disk drive's (hdd) icon (the 'boot' drive) to another hdd.
There are files within the boot drive that will not be copied properly as well.

That said - should you want to literally copy every of the current boot drive to another hdd download and use either 'Carbon Copy Cloner' (freeware) or 'SuperDuper!' (freeware [simple features] and shareware [advanced features] versions). Which is best - is personal; there are many who prefer one over the other, and there are other who use both.

'Is my inclination to move my ITunes music to the external drive and then deleting it from my main harddrive valid? Will that free up space?' - yes; but by moving (copying the original items to another hdd, and then deleting the original items) 'iTunes' will not be able to access (in order to play) those files. To move the files and still have 'iTunes' access to them - read this iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder Apple release. In the release is another link - 'How to back up your media in iTunes 5 or iTunes 6'.