Finder Problems

[narrow]

Just recently (three days ago), my Finder System has been having some... difficulties. I came here since it's a large Mac User Forum that definitely knows what they're talking about!

I have Finder/OS X 10.5.8, by the way.

At the bottom of the Finder, it reads "125.53GB Remaining", referring to my memory. However, something is causing it to consistently decrease, usually by about 1GB at a time. Whenever I restart the computer, the number returns up from 123.53GB back up to 125.53GB. No, I haven't downloaded ANYTHING in the past three days that would cause this to happen. I've run scans with ClamXav Virus Scanner, and haven't found anything.

It also slows down the computer immensely, allowing me to do absolutely nothing, so I have to shut it down manually.

Any help/advice?

 

[spinnerlys]

That is the RAM swapping some data onto the HDD, which causes the temporary existence of so-called swap files, which get deleted upon restart.

Also the term "memory" refers to the RAM, "storage capacity" is used in conjunction with HDD/SSDs.

 

[narrow]

So, can I just let it sit overnight, for awhile, and it'll be completely fine? In other words, there's nothing wrong with it, it just has to copy files or something like that?

 

[-aggie-]

IDK. How much of a decrease? 2 or 3 GB could be swap, but not a lot more than that. Much more points to a log issue.

 

[narrow]

It continues to decrease. The most I've let it down to is 117.53GB. As far as I know, it continues to go down by visible amounts of 1GB.

 

[spinnerlys]

iStat Menus and Activity Monitor > System Memory lets you view the file size.

Also if you have an Apple notebook, there is a sleepimage created when you put your Mac to sleep, but it gets deleted during a restart.

 

[narrow]

So how do I get this to stop? Sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding. It just starts over and over again when I restart. And the swap meter is gradually increasing. And I also have an iMac.

 

[spinnerlys]

So how do I get this to stop? Sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding. It just starts over and over again when I restart. And the swap meter is gradually increasing.

You don't get it to stop. It's a part of the system. You have a finite amount of RAM, and if it gets to full, data has to be stored elsewhere, thus the system swaps it to the HDD for it to store it there, so that it can access it at a later time if needed.

Maybe you can disable SWAPPING somehow, but since you still have enough storage I wouldn't worry about it.

You can also get more RAM.

I currently have 4GB of RAM in my 2GHz iMac and I still experience swapping, right now the Swap file is 3.00GB in size of which 2.54GB are used. I also have 15 applications open at the time of these letters being typed into this text field.

Maybe you can use MRoogle to get more detailed information though.

 

[-aggie-]

^^^^
Let's make sure this is not continuing to decrease though. 6 GB is pretty high. What do you think?

FYI, mine is 0.7 GB

 

[spinnerlys]

^^^^
Let's make sure this is not continuing to decrease though. 6 GB is pretty high. What do you think?

It depends on the amount of available RAM and the number of open applications and how much resources they need. Safari can take up such a big amount with twenty or more open windows and tabs, that it can outrank any professional compositing application.


OP, maybe you can use Disk Inventory X, OmniDiskSweeper or Grand Perspective to scan your HDD for big files and folders and see what those are...

 

[narrow]

Thankyou! Another question though. I only have 1GB of Memory, sadly, but I've been able to open quite a few programs up at once and never had a problem. From my understanding, just run fewer programs at one time, and problem solved?

 

[-aggie-]

Thankyou! Another question though. I only have 1GB of Memory, sadly, but I've been able to open quite a few programs up at once and never had a problem. From my understanding, just run fewer programs at one time, and problem solved?

Maybe, but you need more memory!!! Jeez, that's small.

@spinnerlys: I have a large number of junk open (iphoto, Firefox, Safari with a large number of windows, Activity monitor (normally I have even more)) and I only have 2GB of RAM.

 

[spinnerlys]

Thankyou! Another question though. I only have 1GB of Memory, sadly, but I've been able to open quite a few programs up at once and never had a problem. From my understanding, just run fewer programs at one time, and problem solved?

You had no problem due to swapping. Either use less applications if you are really that concerned about temporary files which will get deleted anyway or get more RAM. Two to four GB might be supported with your iMac.
Look here for more information about that: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

Or here for actually getting RAM:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac

@spinnerlys: I have a large number of junk open (iphoto, Firefox, Safari with a large number of windows, Activity monitor (normally I have even more)) and I only have 2GB of RAM.

It most likely depends on the junk's contents? I don't really know, iStat shows me that I have still 1.14GB free (of which 1.04GB is Inactive), so I still might fare okay with 2GBm but once I had the opportunity (money) I got more. I'm a RAM person, I got 1.5GB in my Windows computer when everyone else had 256 to 512MB. I don't know. I don't need the fastest, although the i7 iMac would be sweet for opening up Text Edit faster.

Okay, I think I have made too (not two) many posts today (thrice your daily post count), so I'm off to bed now.

Good luck with your iMac, narrow.

 

[narrow]

yeah, I realize that! But thankyou! Helps a lot. Just don't run so many programs at once, and problem solved... That's a pain in the but with GarageBand but oh well.

Thankyou!