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SJ27CAL

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 28, 2010
31
1
Hi,

I have a 1TB external LaCie hard drive. Presently, it is loaded with about 300GBs of space so I should have around 650GBs left. However, it is only showing about 240GBs left. I think the problem is that I used to use this hard drive for Time Machine backups, I deleted them via the recycle bin. I checked the recycle bin, nothing there. I verified the disk, everything ok, I repaired it as well. I even erased the empty space. Does anyone know what i can do to remedy this situation?

Thanks!
 
Hi... How big does Disk Utility say the drive is? What file system was your external drive formatted with? Mac or PC... If necessary can you copy the data to your Mac and reformat the external ???
 
The Disk Utility says the capacity is 966GBs. It says it has 724GBs used. When I opened the hard drive up I made it calculate all the folders I have and they are only about 300GBs. I think somehow I need to rebuild the index or something.

Hi... How big does Disk Utility say the drive is? What file system was your external drive formatted with? Mac or PC... If necessary can you copy the data to your Mac and reformat the external ???
 
I would certainly copy off what ever I would hate to loose, start there. You do as you wish, I would then reformat it using a Mac file system and not FAT. Then I would copy the folders back to the drive. That really should fix the issue... there has to be a hidden directory or files or trashed files not really trashed; in any event, formatting it should fix it...

ps... if you are not in a hurry, then wait for other replies... for sure...
 
Another thing you could try is to mount it to the computer you "trashed" the files on. See if anything shows up in the trash bin. If not, command+shift+n on your desktop to make a new "untitled folder", trash it and empty the trash. Restart the computer with the external attached and see if that solved the problem. If not, follow the back up and reformat method above!
 
empty your recycle bin

If you read, he said he checked the recycle bin and it was empty. This probably happened when it was ejected so the files no longer appear there. To empty the recycle bin without force emptying is to quickly throw something in there and empty it, ie, why I told him to make an untitled folder, throw it away and empty. This is a trick that has been around for eons.
 
Look for hidden files. Probably you thrashed something, but finder didn't delete it. I think you can use Onyx to show hidden files (I did that long ago). With hidden files shown, you can see if there is some huge file with a name that starts with ".", find it and thrash it. Then empty thrash :)
Don't delete small hidden files, they are probably system files (I think there is two small hidden system files in each directory, one called something like "ds store").

If you are up for it, you can also use terminal.

open terminal, enter "cd /Volumes"
then "cd harddrive" where harddrive is the name of your external drive.
enter "ls -al", and see if there are any huge files that starts with ".".
If there is, enter "rm -R filename", where filename is the name of your huge hidden file.
 
So I am having a similar problem but it is on my Startup Volume

I deleted over 60GB of files on my hard drive to make some space (i had about 5.5GB free at the time), I look now and see that I only have 7.24GB free, which obviously makes no sense.

I tried starting in Target Disk Mode and using another Mac to run Disk Utility and repair the volume. It said it found minor errors in the volume header and that they were repaired successfully.

I STILL only have 7.24GB free! I tried making an empty folder and deleting it and emptying the trash as recommended, and I also just deleted an actual file that I didn't really need and emptied the trash, still no change.

Are there any more suggestions about what I can do?
 
no highjacking

aoberoi:
Please create a new question, otherwise we could be offering a solution to you that the OP would think is intended for him or vice versa, everyone cross-talking, a mess.

Even if you have exactly the same problem, don't highjack. We are helping the OP, so the reason to reply is to help the OP or anyone with the same issue.

Any target disk mode connection could create a .trashes on the other Mac, so reconnect by target disk and empty trash. Also, look carefully at all .ds_store files for super-sizing.
 
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