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Disappearing HDD space?

e93to

e93to

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 23, 2015
824
184
Toronto
I noticed my 10gb of my iMac's HDD space disappeared over the past couple of days. I know that there were 588gb remaining on my HDD space before. Then yesterday, I noticed the free space shrunk down to 583. And now today there is 579 remaining! I did add some files to my computers, but they were songs that were probably 50mb at most. I looked at backup snapshot, Library/Cache folder, Mail folder, iTunes folder, MobileSync folder, etc., but I found nothing out of ordinary. I repaired permissions as well. However, when I ran Disk Inventory X, I noticed files in /private/var/vm are 8.5gb. Do these files (sleep image, swap files, etc) have anything to do with what I am experiencing?

My iMac is on 10.8.5

Thanks
 
The "sleepimage" file is related to the amount of RAM that you have in your iMac. That file will be constant, and does not contribute to a _change_ in storage used.
The swap files will go away if you simply restart.

An app like "OmniDiskSweeper" can scan your drive, and show you where you have large files. If the files are caches - and located in a Caches folder, you can safely delete those files at any time. Your system will make new ones as it needs them.

Do you use Time Machine, and do you leave the Time Machine external backup attached to your iMac?
 
DeltaMac said:
The "sleepimage" file is related to the amount of RAM that you have in your iMac. That file will be constant, and does not contribute to a _change_ in storage used.
The swap files will go away if you simply restart.

An app like "OmniDiskSweeper" can scan your drive, and show you where you have large files. If the files are caches - and located in a Caches folder, you can safely delete those files at any time. Your system will make new ones as it needs them.

Do you use Time Machine, and do you leave the Time Machine external backup attached to your iMac?
Click to expand...

Thanks for reply.

I checked Caches folder, and and there was nothing unusual. And yes, I use an external drive for Time Machine, and I don't leave it attached.
 
Time Machine keeps track of files that you need to backup, on your hard drive.
You should also see "Backups" in the Storage tab (from your About This Mac info window
Plug in your Time Machine backup drive, then give Time Machine some time to complete the backup to the external.
You might need to restart, also.
If the space is taken by the on-drive backup file, then you should get the space back after doing that.
 
DeltaMac said:
Time Machine keeps track of files that you need to backup, on your hard drive.
You should also see "Backups" in the Storage tab (from your About This Mac info window
Plug in your Time Machine backup drive, then give Time Machine some time to complete the backup to the external.
You might need to restart, also.
If the space is taken by the on-drive backup file, then you should get the space back after doing that.
Click to expand...

Prior to posting this thread, I did a backup with Time Machine. This didn't do anything. And like I said in my first post, the backup snap shot was zero.
 
Well, i tried everything at this point - PRAM reset, repair permissions in recovery mode, safe boot, AHT, Onyx, reindex Spotlight, examined files/folders that could have been used/accessed past 3 days or so. Now free space is down to 578!
 
You have not "tried everything" yet. :D
How much space is used by your Caches folder? That's the Caches folder in YOUR home folder/Library folder.
(Not the Caches folder in either the /System/Library, or the /Library folder at the root of your hard drive.

You can find out where that space is going. Run OmniDiskSweeper.

You may simply have an out of control process. I have seen that happen where an error gets reported to the Console, and will record multiple identical errors many times a second, and filling up a hard drive within a few days, and it's all error messages listed in the console. You can also monitor your Activity Monitor, which can show you which processes take up a lot of processor time, or use a lot of memory, or write to your hard drive excessively.

Here's a thread that may point you in another direction - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/free-space-disappeared-in-mountain-lion.1513421/
 
e93to said:
Prior to posting this thread, I did a backup with Time Machine. This didn't do anything. And like I said in my first post, the backup snap shot was zero.
Click to expand...
Even if you have backed up, Time Machine still keeps a copy of recently changed and deleted files in a hidden folder that uses space.

Run the command below in Terminal to show how much space that folder is using and let us know.

Code: 
sudo du -hs /.MobileBackups
 
DeltaMac said:
You have not "tried everything" yet. :D
How much space is used by your Caches folder? That's the Caches folder in YOUR home folder/Library folder.
(Not the Caches folder in either the /System/Library, or the /Library folder at the root of your hard drive.

You can find out where that space is going. Run OmniDiskSweeper.

You may simply have an out of control process. I have seen that happen where an error gets reported to the Console, and will record multiple identical errors many times a second, and filling up a hard drive within a few days, and it's all error messages listed in the console. You can also monitor your Activity Monitor, which can show you which processes take up a lot of processor time, or use a lot of memory, or write to your hard drive excessively.

Here's a thread that may point you in another direction - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/free-space-disappeared-in-mountain-lion.1513421/
Click to expand...

Yeah, I looked at Cache folders in both home and system. Again, nothing unusual. I didn't mention in my previous post, but I monitored Console and Activity Monitor for unusual messages/errors, but again nothing out of ordinary.

Does OmniDiskSweeper show real-time progress/history of which files of any sizes have been written in any locations? I already have Disk Inventory X, and from what I've read, it seems to do the same thing.

I already checked that post (and many other posts and YouTube videos). It didn't do the trick.
 
Weaselboy said:
Even if you have backed up, Time Machine still keeps a copy of recently changed and deleted files in a hidden folder that uses space.

Run the command below in Terminal to show how much space that folder is using and let us know.

Code: 
sudo du -hs /.MobileBackups
Click to expand...

Ran the command, but it said no such directory exists..
 
e93to said:
Ran the command, but it said no such directory exists..
Click to expand...
So you turned off Time Machine then? Or you disabled those local snapshots from Terminal? Because with Time Machine on there would always be some space used by that /.Mobilebackups folder.

Try this command that will show all the base folders and size used in GB. That may point the way. This command will show some hidden and system files that apps like OmniDisksweeper won't.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /
 
Weaselboy said:
So you turned off Time Machine then? Or you disabled those local snapshots from Terminal? Because with Time Machine on there would always be some space used by that /.Mobilebackups folder.

Try this command that will show all the base folders and size used in GB. That may point the way. This command will show some hidden and system files that apps like OmniDisksweeper won't.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have Time Machine set as "off" (never left it as "on"). And I re-enabled the snapshot after doing the disable trick in the other thread. I believe the system default is "on" even though Time Machine is "off"?

I'll run that command, and see if there are any unusual files/folders.
 
e93to said:
Yeah, I have Time Machine set as "off" (never left it as "on"). And I re-enabled the snapshot after doing the disable trick in the other thread. I believe the system default is "on" even though Time Machine is "off"?
Click to expand...

Ahhh... that explains it. If you turn TM off it wipes that Mobilebackups folder and it will stay gone on its own. You don't really need to run the command to reenable. If you just turn TM off then back on it will reenable the local snapshots.
 
Weaselboy said:
Ahhh... that explains it. If you turn TM off it wipes that Mobilebackups folder and it will stay gone on its own. You don't really need to run the command to reenable. If you just turn TM off then back on it will reenable the local snapshots.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Then I guess this issue is not Time Machine/backup-related.
 
e93to said:
Thanks. Then I guess this issue is not Time Machine/backup-related.
Click to expand...
Nope... you turned it off and that folder does not exist, so that's not it. What can happen is sometimes files can get stuck in there and the folder won't empty, and that is what I was looking for, but that is not the issue here.
 
You can use terminal commands to find out where space is being used.
This article can help you out on that.
The best hint on how to use it, is to remember that it only shows the folders in the directory that you are currently viewing - so you need to navigate to the directory that you want to view, with a cd command for the folder path.
 
DeltaMac said:
You can use terminal commands to find out where space is being used.
This article can help you out on that.
The best hint on how to use it, is to remember that it only shows the folders in the directory that you are currently viewing - so you need to navigate to the directory that you want to view, with a cd command for the folder path.
Click to expand...

Ran the commands, but I didn't find any abnormally large files/folders.
 
But, you are losing space somewhere. So, something is "abnormal", for you, anyway. You just haven't identified it yet. It can take some experimenting, looking though different folders, and that can take some time.

Be sure to start that dl process from the root of the hard drive, and not just your user folder. Then, you can change the path, so you work your way down through the folders that use the most space.
You can ALSO do this same check in a few days to see what has changed.

Plus, your drive space is not close to critically low, yet - so, keep an eye out on the folders that are your largest storage. In a week or two, check again to see what has changed (and what still seems "normal" )
 
DeltaMac said:
But, you are losing space somewhere. So, something is "abnormal", for you, anyway. You just haven't identified it yet. It can take some experimenting, looking though different folders, and that can take some time.

Be sure to start that dl process from the root of the hard drive, and not just your user folder. Then, you can change the path, so you work your way down through the folders that use the most space.
You can ALSO do this same check in a few days to see what has changed.

Plus, your drive space is not close to critically low, yet - so, keep an eye out on the folders that are your largest storage. In a week or two, check again to see what has changed (and what still seems "normal" )
Click to expand...

I think I looked at every folder possible in both home and system folders. I checked every invisible file in every path. I've even booted into my clone drive (created on Dec 23) to compare file sizes. And… well… everything perfectly matches… The only difference is 6 - 10gb of remaining storage.

Restarted the computer yesterday, and the free space was back to 584. Now it's down at 580.

My next step is to check Activity Monitor and Console when free storage drops. But I guess this will be quite difficult to do since I can't always keep my eye on free space.

Thanks for all your input so far. I really appreciate it
 
I came across this post by @maflynn concerning a different matter but it might help you to track down what's using your space :

Other is an obtuse catchall it seems that OS X uses that confuses and confounds people more then it helps

I recommend that you download and use OmniDiskSweeper. It will provide a sorted list of what's consuming your space.

If you run it with sudo (As shown below), it will include some system files that it woud not normally have access to scan. That is a more accurate representation of what's consuming your drive. I generally don't go this far, but if you want a complete list its helpful. I think the default option of just running it is just fine and I do that then run manually.
Code:
Code: 
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Click to expand...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-reduce-other-storage-in-ios.1947637/#post-22415988
 
e93to said:
Thanks. Looks like I have to download Omni Disk Sweeper. Unless I can run the same command with Disk Inventory X? Is it possible to do so?
Click to expand...
I think it will be something like

Code: 
sudo /Applications/DiskInventoryX.app/Contents/MacOS/DiskInventoryX

You may need to adjust the spelling or upper/lowercase to match what's in our application folder
 
maflynn said:
I think it will be something like

Code: 
sudo /Applications/DiskInventoryX.app/Contents/MacOS/DiskInventoryX

You may need to adjust the spelling or upper/lowercase to match what's in our application folder
Click to expand...

Thanks!
 
Well, even Apple Support has no clue where that missing storage could have gone. A representative remote-controlled my iMac for more than half an hour, but he said there is nothing wrong with my computer.
 
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