Hard drive space dropping from 30.5 GB to 26.85 GB

[quagmire]

Ever since I downloaded 10.3.4 update the HD space was dropping. Before I downloaded it free space was at 30.5 GB. After the download it went to 29.85 GB. The next day it went to 28.85 GB. Now it is at 26.85 GB. I didn't download anything else. The trash is empty. Will the Hardware test pick anything up? Please help. Thanks in advance.

 

[janey]

could you open Terminal.app and type in "df -h" and post the stuff that you get?
I'm assuming you're looking at Finder's estimated available disk space, and I don't quite trust Finder when it comes to that.

 

[neoelectronaut]

Now HERE'S a question for you. My eMac is supposed to have a 160GB HD in it. Why does it say it's only 149GB?

 

[JFreak]

Ever since I downloaded 10.3.4 update the HD space was dropping. Before I downloaded it free space was at 30.5 GB. After the download it went to 29.85 GB. The next day it went to 28.85 GB. Now it is at 26.85 GB. I didn't download anything else. The trash is empty. Will the Hardware test pick anything up? Please help. Thanks in advance.

does the "eaten" hard disk space come back after a reboot? the os could have written swap files for some reason and they are removed during a boot.

 

[dejitaru]

I have the same problem. Three gigs missing. It would be nice if it were fixed.

Now HERE'S a question for you. My eMac is supposed to have a 160GB HD in it. Why does it say it's only 149GB?

Drive manufacturers log one GB as 10^9 bytes, while any OS or digital computer sees it as 2^30.

(160*10^9)/1024/1024/1024 ~= 149

 

[neoelectronaut]

...then that's really false advertising on Apple's part.

 

[dejitaru]

...then that's really false advertising on Apple's part.

Is it? No, it's the case with any hard drive and is considered common knowledge.
And I'm certain it's listed on the package somewhere.

 

[johnnyjibbs]

"1GB=1 000 000 000 bytes. Actual formatted capacity less."

This appears at the footnotes of every Apple hardware page. Dell does it too. Everyone does it. My 80GB drive is actually 74.5.

 

[JFreak]

apple could market a "149GB" or a "74GB" hard drive, but as the hard drive manufacturers tell other computer manufacturers that their product is a "160GB" or a "80GB" drive, the other companies will market accordingly - and it would be apple who would take a hit for calculating correctly.

operating system does just fine by stating that 1 KB = 2^10 B. there's nothing wrong about that. but the HD manufacturer who states 1 KB = 1000 B is just wrong. a thousand bytes is a thousand bytes, not a kilobyte.

it is the hard drive manufacturers who should tweak their hard drive sizes and their marketing. it is not any harder to create a "150GB" drive than a "149GB" one. or "75GB instead of a "74GB" one. or even a true 160GB / 80GB drive, measured in true gigabytes. why won't they?

oh well... it's the smallest of all problems in the field

 

[Golem]

I know of two ways I have found to permanently eat disk that nothing short of a reformat will fix but neither seem to apply in your case.

Deleting stuff under Target disk mode will do it, Wee 10G free on a 80Gb disk with only a standard OS X install.

The other way I have done it is using the Delete user command under accounts. User went but the space didnt come back.

In the last 12 months I have used 5 different computers for my personal one so i am allways copying from machine to machine.

 

[JFreak]

The other way I have done it is using the Delete user command under accounts. User went but the space didnt come back.

you did delete the backup package that the system created? i assume you knew that it does it and have deleted it already. but if you did and the space is still missing, then...

only logical reason for this is that for some reason the system didn't delete the deleted user's home directory. so activate the root user and open terminal app, and execute the following:

sudo rm -Rf /Users/the_deleted_user

naturally replacing that "the_deleted_user" with the short user name of the user you deleted. if you cannot remember the short user name anymore, the following command will show you all there is in the /Users directory:

ls -al /Users

there should be one directory for each active user in the system, plus the "shared" directory. everything else can be deleted.

any luck?

 

[janey]

Is it? No, it's the case with any hard drive and is considered common knowledge.
And I'm certain it's listed on the package somewhere.

EVERYONE does it, Apple isnt the only one.
Yeah, its technically incorrect to do what they do, but nobody wants to change...
its one of those inconsistencies you have to live with.
iirc, all hard drives vary by tiny amounts, thats why its almost impossible to make two exactly identical 160gb hard drives. I mean they could be like 160gb, but they might lack a byte or so. *shrug*
Really, anyone nowadays who thinks that they're getting the entire amount that it says on the package, then complains or even calls the manufacturer to complain, should read the fine print and have some common sense.

 

[blue&whiteman]

Now HERE'S a question for you. My eMac is supposed to have a 160GB HD in it. Why does it say it's only 149GB?

my 120 GB drive gets me 111.8. bytes vs. MB