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"Other" space on HD - how do I get rid of it?

M

mikefly

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 4, 2007
183
0
Hi,

I have done some searching, and found a couple posts on this topic, but the solutions offered (i.e. omni sweeper) don't work for me.

I have a 120GB SSD macbook air.

By system profiler
Currently
16GB free
59GB files
45GB other
=120GB total

by omnidisksweeper
53GB users
5GB private
4GB apps
2.5GB system
2GB library
240MB assorted
=67MB total

by grand perspective
largest file is a 4GB sleepimage
no other large, unexpected files

What the hell is that 45MB? (some is OSX, some are docs.. but 45GB?)

instead of having 50 free gigs, I have only slightly more than 10% of the HD.

Thanks,

Mike
 
Hey,

I do indeed use TM, but if I disable it, the 45GB do not disappear - and if I immediately backup to TM, the 45GB does not disappear.

I have tried sudo tmutil disablelocal
let's see what happens!

Mike
 
The "other" files might be anything, not only system files (for instance those in /System and /Library). I had a similar problem (80GB+ of "other" files) and discovered that I had a lot of forgotten ISO images on my drive - deleting them cleared the "other" category (at that point I had 50GB+ of "other" files). Also, if you disable the local snapshots all the space occupied by them goes under the "other" category too until it gets automatically deleted. Backing up in TM does not delete the local snapshots.

I'd double check the stuff you have in your home folder. GarageBand projects, iMovie projects, ISO files, ZIP/RAR/7z files, download folder all goes (IIRC) under the "other" category
 
For space issues, there are a few things you can try, some of which may or may not apply:
  • Begin by restarting your computer as a first step. This sometimes resolves issues.
  • For Time Machine users on notebooks running Lion, space may being consumed by Time Machine local snapshots, which can be disabled.
    OS X Lion: About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs
  • 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
  • Use OmniDiskSweeper, JDisk Report, Disk Inventory X 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.
 
J disk reveals a total of 65GB used.
DIX reveals a total of 69GB used (including a 4gb sleepimage)
ODS reveals a total of 67GB used
System Profiler shows 104GB used
Finder reveals only 1 file larger than 1GB (a movie)

I don't have any ISOs or other files kicking around.
I have disabled local snapshots.

I have run mainmenu to tidy up everything and shut down several times.
Also run Time Machine to backup drive, and restarted.
 
Last edited:
mikefly said:
J disk reveals a total of 65GB used.
DIX reveals a total of 69GB used (including a 4gb sleepimage)
ODS reveals a total of 67GB used
System Profiler shows 104GB used
Finder reveals only 1 file larger than 1GB (a movie)

I don't have any ISOs or other files kicking around.
I have disabled local snapshots.

I have run mainmenu to tidy up everything and shut down several times.
Click to expand...
Maybe this will help explain: What is this "Other" in the storage tab? What is eating my space
 
Thanks GGJ.

I've turned off TM. Right now, I'm uninterested in working harder to stop my operating system from stealing hard drive space. At some point in the future, I'll have no choice, and will refer back to your post.

--

This wouldn't be such a big issue - except I'm working with a 128GB flash drive - theoretically sufficient for my needs.

It's not like the space appears out of the blue when I'm close to capacity - I have had the HD with only a couple gig remaining (movies), and it does not free up space.

Judging by the percentages of posts about this topic, this is a major problem for many. Get your merde together apple.
 
well, i lied. I have followed the instructions after all.
here are the results.

name of harddrive replaced by xx to protect the innocent.


Last login: Sun Feb 26 15:35:19 on console
Mikes-MacBook-Air:~ xx$ cd ~
Mikes-MacBook-Air:~ xx$ du -h -d1
12M ./.dropbox
3.1M ./.fontconfig
1.6M ./.fonts
4.0K ./.mplayer
980K ./.swt
707M ./.Trash
100M ./Calibre Library
18M ./Desktop
49M ./Documents
9.8G ./Downloads
710M ./Dropbox
631M ./Library
0B ./Movies
35G ./Music
6.7G ./Pictures
0B ./Public
54G .

Mikes-MacBook-Air:~ xx$ cd /
Mikes-MacBook-Air:/ xx$ sudo du -h -d1
Password:
180K ./.DocumentRevisions-V100
12M ./.fseventsd
173M ./.Spotlight-V100
0B ./.Trashes
0B ./.vol
3.9G ./Applications
4.1M ./bin
0B ./cores
4.5K ./dev
1.0K ./home
1.9G ./Library
1.0K ./net
0B ./Network
5.9G ./private
2.3M ./sbin
2.7G ./System
54G ./Users
407M ./usr
4.0K ./Volumes
69G .
Mikes-MacBook-Air:/ xx$
 
Disk Utility!

Well, TM is still off for now.. but..

Ran disk utility, and found some issues. Repaired, and now have 47GB free space. 14GB Other - including the OS.

More manageable.

Thanks for the help.
 

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mikefly said:
Well, TM is still off for now.. but..

Ran disk utility, and found some issues. Repaired, and now have 47GB free space. 14GB Other - including the OS.

More manageable.

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Hey, facing the same issue here, did you simply press "Repair Permissions" ?
 
Verified the HD - indicated problems as in screen cap. Did a restart and repair from restart screen.

Good luck!
 
I'm also having this issue :p It's beyond awful. At this point, I'm just going to wait for mountain Lion to do a clean install.


This type of this is what I really hate about technology... :p Lion feels pretty unpolished to me :/
 
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