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Deleting "Other" on Hard Drive

PsstGreek

PsstGreek

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 21, 2010
3,776
59
Tampa Bay
How would I go about deleting "other" on my hard drive? A few days ago I tried to partition the hard drive so I can install Windows 7. Long story short, I couldn't for some reason. Now I discover, there's almost 400GB of other and iMac is a little sluggish.

I'm using Mountain Lion. Any help would be great.
 

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Seen this before and "other" turned out to be images (photographs) in need of transfer to an external HDD.
 
Take a look at your personal files, see if there is a folder that is excessively large and could account for (a large part of) the "other" files.
 
There are posts on this forum which will explain what other is. I've created a detailed one. However, your case is quite specific. Other is many different files, but in your case it is probably mainly the remains of the failed partition operation. I would not recommend trying to fix this yourself, unless you have a good understanding of os x and the terminal. Doing a restore from a previous backup, as per the above advice, is the best option. You did do a backup before trying to repartition your hard drive? Right?
 
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theSeb said:
There are posts on this forum which will explain what other is. I've created a detailed one. However, your case is quite specific. Other is many different files, but I your case it is probably mainly the remains of the failed partition operation. I would not recommend trying to fix this yourself, unless you have a good understanding of os x and the terminal. Doing a restore from a previous backup, as per the above advice, is the best option. You did do a backup before trying to repartition your hard drive? Right?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I do not have a backup of my computer. The only important things are my photos and music that I just transfered to my flash drive. I have a somewhat decent understanding of OS X but can follow a guide to a tee.
 
Trace down where all the files are. You can start by doing a get 'get info' on each folder starting with your home directory. Or use a program like 'Disk Inventory X' and trace down the folder tree were all the space is.
 
tyche said:
Trace down where all the files are. You can start by doing a get 'get info' on each folder starting with your home directory. Or use a program like 'Disk Inventory X' and trace down the folder tree were all the space is.
Click to expand...

I used the app but there's nothing that consumes 400GB. Should I follow theSeb's guide?
 
Well the "other" is definitely from the failed attempts at my iMac trying to partition the hard drive and install Windows 7.
 
Then absolutely format and start fresh if you have all your applications available to reinstall, and have backed up your personal data. 400GB is a lot for a Windows partition, especially on a 500GB drive! Good Luck
 
The odd thing is, there aren't any partitions showed in Disk Utilities.
 

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PsstGreek said:
The odd thing is, there aren't any partitions showed in Disk Utilities.
Click to expand...

Don't waste more time. Pull the files you need and just format. You can haven been done with this and back up and running several hours ago. Just do it. Format.
 
PsstGreek said:
The odd thing is, there aren't any partitions showed in Disk Utilities.
Click to expand...

That's what you would expect if it was a 'failed' attempt to create a partition. It allocated the space, but never wrote the new partition table. I have seen Boot Camp Assistant do this a few times.

Have you tried clicking on the physical disk itself in Disk Utility (not the volume) and running 'repair disk'?

That runs a partition repair, not a disk repair.
 
MatthewAMEL said:
That's what you would expect if it was a 'failed' attempt to create a partition. It allocated the space, but never wrote the new partition table. I have seen Boot Camp Assistant do this a few times.

Have you tried clicking on the physical disk itself in Disk Utility (not the volume) and running 'repair disk'?

That runs a partition repair, not a disk repair.
Click to expand...

I did that and nothing seemed to work. I formatted the drive and re-installed ML. All is well now. Thanks for the help guys.
 
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