Hard disk space thats just not there . . .

[acearchie]

This may be a very basic question but I dont understand why my computer says my desktop is 800mb (or so) big when the items on it are nowhere near that size!

Here are my pics:

1. My desktop with the items on it!

2. This is the +i (info) on all the items on my desktop, (excluding Macintosh HD) add them all together and you dont get 800mb!

3. Here's the proof that my desktop is 800mb???? but where is it?

Thanks


P.s just incase your wondering why I am being so petty, as you can see I only have 11gb left on my 80gb hard drive so I wont to clear it up a bit but cant find memory?!

 

[rogersmj]

You may have some hidden files in your desktop folder. To see if that's the case, open up a terminal window, cd into your Desktop directory, and do an "ls -al" command and see if there's anything in that list that doesn't appear on your desktop.

FYI, the correct term here is "storage space" or "disk space", not "memory". Memory refers to, well, memory, like your system RAM.

 

[acearchie]

You may have some hidden files in your desktop folder. To see if that's the case, open up a terminal window, cd into your Desktop directory, and do an "ls -al" command and see if there's anything in that list that doesn't appear on your desktop.

Do i just put in "ls -al" Ill try it and see if it works!

P.s thanks for the tip I have changed the title!

 

[acearchie]

just tried it and got this:

Ones-laptop:~ archiecampbell$ ls -al
total 88
drwxr-xr-x 26 archieca archieca 884 Feb 25 13:52 .
drwxrwxr-t 6 root admin 204 Nov 11 19:03 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 archieca archieca 3 Jan 2 16:40 .CFUserTextEncoding
-rw-r--r-- 1 archieca archieca 15364 Feb 25 13:52 .DS_Store
drwx------ 18 archieca archieca 612 Feb 25 15:29 .Trash
-rw-r--r-- 1 archieca archieca 77 Nov 10 2003 ._cENT111trex
-rw------- 1 archieca archieca 1950 Jan 28 19:38 .bash_history
drwxr-xr-x 4 archieca archieca 136 Aug 31 15:48 .drms
drwxr-xr-x 17 archieca archieca 578 Feb 22 19:52 .dvdcss
drwxr-xr-x 3 archieca archieca 102 Sep 7 09:23 .emacs.d
drwxr-xr-x 6 archieca archieca 204 Nov 26 16:32 .file_store_32
drwx------ 8 archieca archieca 272 May 6 2006 .gl-117
-rw-r--r-- 1 archieca archieca 31 Jan 27 15:35 .lpoptions
-rw------- 1 archieca archieca 1024 Mar 18 2006 .rnd
-rw-r--r-- 1 archieca archieca 78 Oct 27 2005 .run
drwxr-xr-x 8 archieca archieca 272 Oct 7 19:32 .wapi
drwxr-xr-x 3 archieca archieca 102 Jan 7 13:48 Applications
drwx------ 23 archieca archieca 782 Feb 25 16:49 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 8 archieca archieca 272 Feb 25 13:44 Documents
-rw-r--r-- 1 archieca archieca 0 Mar 29 2006 Icon?
drwx------ 57 archieca archieca 1938 Feb 3 18:37 Library
drwx------ 7 archieca archieca 238 Feb 25 13:52 Movies
drwx------ 7 archieca archieca 238 Nov 23 12:57 Music
drwx------ 10 archieca archieca 340 Mar 27 2006 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 6 archieca archieca 204 Jan 7 16:48 Public
drwxr-xr-x 8 archieca archieca 272 Apr 2 2006 Sites
Ones-laptop:~ archiecampbell$

What do I do with it?

EDIT: easier to read

 

[mac-convert]

Use the command ls -laR to see everything. This Recurses through all the directories/folders. You may need to redirect the output to a file to examine everything, in which case use:

ls -laR > files.txt

Then use textedit or something to look at the file and see what you have there.

 

[acearchie]

Use the command ls -laR to see everything. This Recurses through all the directories/folders. You may need to redirect the output to a file to examine everything, in which case use:

ls -laR > files.txt

Then use textedit or something to look at the file and see what you have there.

I simplified your method downloaded a trial of Macpilot and clicked show hidden files! It was couple of random movies that were just a blank screen! but thanks for the help!