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Cannot Free Hard Drive Space

B

B.Chang

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 9, 2011
63
0
Hello,

I have just upgraded to Lion not too long ago and I've been trying to free up space on my MBP.

I have a 15" mid 2010 MBP with a 256 SSD.

For some reason, when I delete things (I move them to the trash and then empty it) it does not show that I have added any free space to my hard drive. In fact, sometimes I have less free space. I just moved all of my iTunes library >50GB to my external drive to see if there's something wrong, and the amount of free space has not changed. I have tried restarting and I have checked for any software updates already.

Thanks,
Brian
 
To clarify, I backed up my iTunes library and then deleted it from my SSD.

Brian
 
mrapplegate said:
Or activity monitor, Disk Usage view. Are you getting the same results from each? What about the output from daily.out in the console? Does it report the same disk space?
Click to expand...

No I'm actually getting very different results. About 80 gb different actually.

I guess the About This Mac thing doesn't update when you free space and only updates when you use space . . .

Brian
 
B.Chang said:
No I'm actually getting very different results. About 80 gb different actually.

I guess the About This Mac thing doesn't update when you free space and only updates when you use space . . .

Brian
Click to expand...

Hmm, might be the issue. I usually use Disk Utility other means to check disk usage. It does not explain your problem.
 
mrapplegate said:
Hmm, might be the issue. I usually use Disk Utility other means to check disk usage. It does not explain your problem.
Click to expand...

I actually searched around and found that other people have this issue as well. Probably a glitch with SSDs.


Brian
 
Same Here with 750gb 7200rpm scorpio black

I have the same Problem with my late 2010 Macbook Pro.

After Lion installation every time I delete something the amount of free space dosnt change.

I noticed that in Macintosh HD (Get Info) is the only place that updates the disk space.

iStat, Disk Utility, and other programs don't update the free space.
 
crcc23 said:
I have the same Problem with my late 2010 Macbook Pro.

After Lion installation every time I delete something the amount of free space dosnt change.

I noticed that in Macintosh HD (Get Info) is the only place that updates the disk space.

iStat, Disk Utility, and other programs don't update the free space.
Click to expand...

Same exact situation for me. Macintosh HD shows correct free space - all other indicators do not. Looks like a Lion bug that will hopefully be addressed soon.

I encourage everyone experiencing the problem to file a bug at the following link:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
 
Last edited:
Try these few tips:

1) Erase the free space of your ssd:cool:
2) Use a mac cleaning app (cleanmymac, mackeeper, etc...):eek:
3) Check your ssd for any disk problems by using disk utility:D
4) Use "secure empty trash" and this will delete the file(s) so many times you can't get them back (this takes a long time):eek:
 
SSD and TRIM

I don't have an SSD, but didn't Lion start using TRIM. Maybe it only runs at certain times or situations. I know its new in Lion. :confused:
 
Sorry guys, I've done a few searches and still couldn't find a way to fix this.
No matter how much I try to delete, the disk space is the same: about 440MB left!! Sometimes, an error box popped up saying I don't have any disc space left :-s?

I don't quite get the part where I have to free up some of the "SSD" that some of the posters mentioned in this thread, cos as far as I know, I don't have any SSD attached to this MBP. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

(Mine is a late 2008 MBP 15" model)
 
I had the same issue to. Sometimes, I would delete files, and instead of teh "Free space" meter going up, it went down! Here's the quick fix:


1. Delete the necessary files.
2. RESTART YOUR MAC!
 
Do you have Time Machine turned on? I noticed the same space issue, but I chalked it up to local Time Machine keeping a copy.
 
I'm having this issue in my MacBook Pro with Lion and a Samsung 470 256GB; I normally boot from the SSD. I have both the 470 and a 500GB Momentus XT installed. The Momentus also has a Lion installation I keep as a backup.

After deleting a bunch of files from my SSD, the space only appears as free in Finder, but not in Activity Monitor or Disk Utility. I find that if I boot into my Momentus's Lion install, the space in the 470 magically appears there. If I then switch back to my regular Lion install on the 470, the space also appears there as well.

So: As a stopgap until this apparent bug is fixed, you might look into installing Lion onto a 8GB flash drive. Whenever you need your space back, boot to that drive, which restores the space, then reboot to your SSD.

The Recovery HD partition doesn't do anything for me, nor did my attempts to secureErase freespace from Terminal. I originally had this issue without TRIM enabled (the default for non-Apple SSDs). I thought activating TRIM might help, so I used the Terminal hack to enable it (not the Trim Enabler app). I still have the issue, even with TRIM enabled.
 
B.Chang said:
No I'm actually getting very different results. About 80 gb different actually.

I guess the About This Mac thing doesn't update when you free space and only updates when you use space . . .

Brian
Click to expand...

It updates at log in. You could also hit command / while in Finder and voila, old school disk info appears at the bottom of your finder window. :) I use this especially considering that I have 5TB on my network that "about this mac" won't show me stats for.
 
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