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What's normal size for "other" files

illegalprelude

illegalprelude

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 10, 2005
1,583
121
Los Angeles, California
Hey everyone, I'm trying to figure out on Lion, what's a normal amount for the famous "other" part of your hard drive space to take up.

I have a MacBookPro (late 2010) with 250GB drive and other is taking up 82GB. Girlfriend has a MacBookAir (late 2011) with a 120GB drive and her other is taking up 70GB.

I've tried turning off the local time machine backup (both from System Preference and Terminal) and I've deleted the system cache (not just Safari). Still, seems like that's a bit too high isn't it?
 
There are a few things you can try:
  • Search with Finder to see if the space is being consumed by a very large file or several large files. Adjust the 50GB in the illustration to whatever size you deem appropriate.
    attachment.php
  • For Time Machine users on Lion, Time Machine local snapshots may be consuming space.
  • Use DiskInventory X (pre-Lion), OmniDiskSweeper, JDisk Report or GrandPerspective to see how space is being used on your drive. Some of these apps may show more detail than others, so try several.
 
GGJstudios said:
There are a few things you can try:
  • Search with Finder to see if the space is being consumed by a very large file or several large files. Adjust the 50GB in the illustration to whatever size you deem appropriate.
    attachment.php
  • For Time Machine users on Lion, Time Machine local snapshots may be consuming space.
  • Use DiskInventory X (pre-Lion), OmniDiskSweeper, JDisk Report or GrandPerspective to see how space is being used on your drive. Some of these apps may show more detail than others, so try several.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the great information. With that said, is there a normal amount that one should expect from the "other" amount?
 
I only have 30 GB of other.

My Applications folder is 25 GB, however OSX tells me that only 17 GB are used for Applications. It's very simple... everything where OSX can't figure out what it is becomes "Other"

I guess there is a lot of stuff like the sleepimage, system files, temporary files, caches, and on top of that everything that doesn't qualify as music or movies or one of the other categories.
 
This "other" section is really frustrating. Why doesn't Apple add a "System" section to help. That way important system files can go into its own category. My "other" section is 50GB, I used WhatSizeMac and deleted a few things and it didn't even budge in size. I did find out though, that sleepimage will be the same size as the amount of RAM you have.
 
lgwells1 said:
This "other" section is really frustrating. Why doesn't Apple add a "System" section to help. That way important system files can go into its own category. My "other" section is 50GB, I used WhatSizeMac and deleted a few things and it didn't even budge in size. I did find out though, that sleepimage will be the same size as the amount of RAM you have.
Click to expand...

The breakdown of disc usage that OSX provides is relatively useless overall to determine what is using up your space. There are better tools available, e.g. the ones that GJJstudios suggested.

The only valuable information there is the "Backups" part, since it tells you how much the local TimeMachine snapshots currently occupy.
 
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