Managing file space - Rendering in the background

Hey all - 

Newbie here.

I just filled up my hard drive, with my library files growing fast!  I think I have an odd workflow, since I'm just now begun editing 5 years worth of content.  I'm new to FCPX and various options of using the software to manage performance and data space.  I tried to organized data before starting the editing process, but it was so overwhelming, I'm just starting from the beginning and doing it all chronologically.  I have about 35 videos in rough cut form, accounting for about 750GB.

I noticed I had a switch on to render files in the background.  This is turning the average 10GB library into 100GB. I just turned that off, as I don't really need it for rough cuts.   Is there any issue with me simply deleting all the render files for all the rough cut projects/libraries in progress?

What about proxy or optimized files?  Do I need any of that?  I'm on a MBP M1 Max and it doesn't seem to have any performance issues thus far.

Thanks for any info you can offer!

Switch off background rendering. Select the library in FCP and use File >Delete Generated Library files. You probably don’t need render, Proxy, or optimized media. If you do you can always regenerate them when necessary.

Thank you so much for the reply!  I'll do that!  I think that will save a lot of space!

Tom Wolsky wrote:

Switch off background rendering. Select the library in FCP and use File >Delete Generated Library files. You probably don’t need render, Proxy, or optimized media. If you do you can always regenerate them when necessary.