Hard drive completely full with "Other"

[knwood]

Yesterday my 2009 Macbook Pro started behaving erratically - I stopped being able to save anything, I had to force quit programs to get them to shut down, and other apps didn't want to open at all.

After turning off the computer, I couldn't get it to boot again. In recovery mode, my HD is now completely full with "Other" - it was maybe half full previously with my normal files. It's a new SSD, only a few months old so I don't think it's the drive itself (I hope).

Has anyone seen this before? Is any of my data still recoverable?

 

[maflynn]

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.

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

Another option is to use this terminal command
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

I prefer to redirect it to a text file (this puts it in your Documents folder
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g / > ~/Documents/du.txt

Like the sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper command, it will scan all directories, but produce a text file as opposed to showing the results in a window

 

[knwood]

Thanks for replying maflynn.

If I can't boot my computer, how do I download OmniDiskSweeper?

 

[maflynn]

Do'h,

I missed that.

I believe your only option is to try to boot it from an external drive

 

[keysofanxiety]

Thanks for replying maflynn.

If I can't boot my computer, how do I download OmniDiskSweeper?

It does sound unusual. Does the First Aid option in DU identify any issues?

I would recommend getting a USB stick and then installing macOS directly to that. You can do that through the recovery partition. Then boot into that USB stick and you should be able to see what's taking up the space.

Once you've booted into the USB, you can run some diagnostics within that: such as use OmniDiskSweeper, check SSD SMART health, see what data is recoverable, run volume repairs through DiskWarrior, etc. But with regards to your original problem, it's not something I've encountered, so we'll need to start with installing macOS to USB and muddle through from there.

 

[maflynn]

Also the internet recovery may work (booting up, hold the cmd, option and R keys)

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Thanks for replying maflynn.

If I can't boot my computer, how do I download OmniDiskSweeper?

Have you tried to auto reinstall OS X?? This should keep your data and may fix everything, it may well not of course and a dead SSD is usually a complete data loss to be honest.

Also the internet recovery may work (booting up, hold the cmd, option and R keys)

Yeah that was what I was inelegantly trying to get across.

 

[Chicane-UK]

In recovery mode, can you actually browse / see the contents of the drive or does it not mount?

 

[knwood]

Do'h,

I missed that.

I believe your only option is to try to boot it from an external drive

No worries

I have a USB with my OSX on it. But I am unsure how to boot from it and see my current HD contents.

In recovery mode, can you actually browse / see the contents of the drive or does it not mount?

The drive will not mount.
[doublepost=1489492852][/doublepost]

Also the internet recovery may work (booting up, hold the cmd, option and R keys)

As far as I know, my Macbook is too old and doesn't support Internet recovery.
[doublepost=1489492925][/doublepost]

It does sound unusual. Does the First Aid option in DU identify any issues?

I would recommend getting a USB stick and then installing macOS directly to that. You can do that through the recovery partition. Then boot into that USB stick and you should be able to see what's taking up the space.

Once you've booted into the USB, you can run some diagnostics within that: such as use OmniDiskSweeper, check SSD SMART health, see what data is recoverable, run volume repairs through DiskWarrior, etc. But with regards to your original problem, it's not something I've encountered, so we'll need to start with installing macOS to USB and muddle through from there.

I've run First Aid on the HD and it comes back as fine and no problems.

 

[keysofanxiety]

No worries

I have a USB with my OSX on it. But I am unsure how to boot from it and see my current HD contents..

Hold Alt on startup and it should be visible there.

Once you're booted into that, we should hopefully be able to access the internal drive through Finder and see what's what!

 

[knwood]

Hold Alt on startup and it should be visible there.

Once you're booted into that, we should hopefully be able to access the internal drive through Finder and see what's what!

I've attached screensshots of what I've done. I assume you choose the start up disk? Nothing is available to select.
[doublepost=1489493745][/doublepost]BTW thanks hugely everyone for your help.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I've attached screensshots of what I've done. I assume you choose the start up disk? Nothing is available to select.
[doublepost=1489493745][/doublepost]BTW thanks hugely everyone for your help.

oohhhhh I see, that's an installer rather than the actual OS.

Basically if you hold CMD+R on startup, or CMD+ALT+R for Internet Recovery, this will boot into macOS Utilities. Then select Disk Utility and wipe your USB drive. Close Disk Utility and select Reinstall macOS. Point it to the USB drive.

This will then install an OS directly to your USB, which you can run from that. This should enable us to then boot into an OS and run some additional diagnostics to see what we can do with that internal drive.

 

[maflynn]

I assume you choose the start up disk? Nothing is available to select.

You may need to reformat and reinstall OS X on your internal drive at this point

 

[knwood]

oohhhhh I see, that's an installer rather than the actual OS.

Basically if you hold CMD+R on startup, or CMD+ALT+R for Internet Recovery, this will boot into macOS Utilities. Then select Disk Utility and wipe your USB drive. Close Disk Utility and select Reinstall macOS. Point it to the USB drive.

This will then install an OS directly to your USB, which you can run from that. This should enable us to then boot into an OS and run some additional diagnostics to see what we can do with that internal drive.

Ah! Okay, i'll give that a go. I have to go out for a bit, so i'll attempt this later today - will reply with how I get on.

Super duper thanks for the help.

 

[ZapNZs]

I'm guessing you have already tried the PRAM/SMC reset and safe boot, so...

Do you have any files on the SSD that are not backed up?


Do you have access to another Mac?

If yes,
Have you tried removing the SSD, putting it in a USB enclosure, and then plugging it into the other Mac to see if it mounts?

If no,
Have you tried removing the SSD, putting it in a USB enclosure, and then trying to boot from the enclosure?

(this will help rule out the possibility that there is a problem with the cable)

 

[knwood]

oohhhhh I see, that's an installer rather than the actual OS.

Basically if you hold CMD+R on startup, or CMD+ALT+R for Internet Recovery, this will boot into macOS Utilities. Then select Disk Utility and wipe your USB drive. Close Disk Utility and select Reinstall macOS. Point it to the USB drive.

This will then install an OS directly to your USB, which you can run from that. This should enable us to then boot into an OS and run some additional diagnostics to see what we can do with that internal drive.

I've erased the USB, but can't partition it (tab is greyed out), which is what the OS installer needs me to do (screenshot attached).

 

[keysofanxiety]

I've erased the USB, but can't partition it (tab is greyed out), which is what the OS installer needs me to do (screenshot attached).

Try the erase option instead

and ensure it looks like this, with GUID partition and macOS Extended Journaled:

then you should be able to install macOS to the drive.

 

[knwood]

Try the erase option instead
View attachment 692228
and ensure it looks like this, with GUID partition and macOS Extended Journaled:

View attachment 692229
then you should be able to install macOS to the drive.

Turns out my USB isn't big enough (needed about 8GB more).

I have a Time Machine backup from December so decided to just restore from that.

However, when I go to erase my HD I get an error. So It might be the SSD after all?

I'm not sure what else to do

 

[keysofanxiety]

Turns out my USB isn't big enough (needed about 8GB more).

I have a Time Machine backup from December so decided to just restore from that.

However, when I go to erase my HD I get an error. So It might be the SSD after all?

I'm not sure what else to do

I/O issue and you recently replaced the HDD with an SSD, so more likely the SATA cable than the drive. Hopefully.

13" or 15" 2009 MBP? Also are you in the US or elsewhere? I'm sure we'll find you a link for a new cable. Should be a simple repair.

You can 100% verify if it's the HDD cable by taking out the SSD and plugging it in via USB SATA. If it works/boots through that, it's gotta be the SATA cable.

Of course, the problem with the drive showing as being completely full as 'other' is a mystery to me... but with fingers and toes crossed, it's just a case of the cable giving a false reading or something. But not to worry, we've still got a few options available to diagnose where the problem lies.

 

[knwood]

I/O issue and you recently replaced the HDD with an SSD, so more likely the SATA cable than the drive. Hopefully.

13" or 15" 2009 MBP? Also are you in the US or elsewhere? I'm sure we'll find you a link.

Yes, new SSD (since Dec). 13" 2009 MBP.

I'm in Spain for the year. Maybe iFixit EU?

I have previously replaced the hard drive cable (maybe a little over a year ago). Is that the same as a SATA?
[doublepost=1489512098][/doublepost]So it's not the cable. I put my drive into another MBP and the same problem is happening :/

 

[keysofanxiety]

Yes, new SSD (since Dec). 13" 2009 MBP.

I'm in Spain for the year. Maybe iFixit EU?

I have previously replaced the hard drive cable (maybe a little over a year ago). Is that the same as a SATA?
[doublepost=1489512098][/doublepost]So it's not the cable. I put my drive into another MBP and the same problem is happening :/

Yeah the HDD cable is the SATA cable. Oh dear, it must be the SSD if the issue occurs in another machine

Very unusual for them to fail so soon. What brand was it please? It should still have warranty so at least you can get it sorted for free.

Hopefully your time machine backup is quite recent, so you can restore directly to your new SSD

 

[knwood]

Yeah the HDD cable is the SATA cable. Oh dear, it must be the SSD if the issue occurs in another machine

Very unusual for them to fail so soon. What brand was it please? It should still have warranty so at least you can get it sorted for free.

Hopefully your time machine backup is quite recent, so you can restore directly to your new SSD

Samsung 850 EVO

Should still be under warranty, so i'll investigate.

Thanks again for all the help. Really appreciated.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Samsung 850 EVO

Should still be under warranty, so i'll investigate.

Thanks again for all the help. Really appreciated.

Oh boy, must have been a lemon. Very unusual for them to die. Doubtful that TRIM would have contributed to the issue, but if you didn't have it enabled before, you can do so by typing sudo trimforce enable in Terminal after installing the OS on your new SSD.

You can try to erase the SSD on your other Mac to 100% check it's the drive. On a very, very rare day, a faulty cable could cause unfixable volume corruptions. But we're just crossing fingers and toes at this point.

Hope the replacement drive and subsequent OS restore goes smoothly. Best wishes!

 

[rova]

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.

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

Another option is to use this terminal command
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

I prefer to redirect it to a text file (this puts it in your Documents folder
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g / > ~/Documents/du.txt

Like the sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper command, it will scan all directories, but produce a text file as opposed to showing the results in a window

I have a MBP mid 2014, system is 120gb and when I use the:

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

I only see "107 total" so over a 130 gb missing.

When i try to use the:

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

I get this in terminal:

OCCCrashCatcher: Not enabling crash catching since we're connected to a tty (and thus presumably in lldb)

2019-02-14 01:08:49.301 OmniDiskSweeper[8192:83818] Failed to connect (destroyMenuItem) outlet from (ODSController) to (NSMenuItem): missing setter or instance variable

2019-02-14 01:08:49.517 OmniDiskSweeper[8192:83818] Automatic software update check failed due to XPC service failure: {

    code = 2;

    domain = "com.omnigroup.framework.OmniSoftwareUpdate.ErrorDomain";

    userInfo =     {

        NSLocalizedDescription = "Unable to fetch software update information.";

        NSLocalizedFailureReason = "Check operation failed.";

        NSUnderlyingError =         {

            code = 12;

            domain = "com.omnigroup.framework.OmniSoftwareUpdate.ErrorDomain";

            userInfo =             {

                NSLocalizedDescription = "Error fetching software update information.";

                NSLocalizedFailureReason = "The background software update service failed.";

                NSLocalizedRecoverySuggestion = "Please try again later or contact us to let us know this is broken.";

            };

        };

    };

}

When I run ods, it shows me 150gb, what can i try next?