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HD space filling up while not being used?

B

braeburn

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 23, 2006
70
0
Give you a brief rundown:

I normally use firefox as my browser but it started to act slow a few days ago so I decided to use safari and see how it performs, both were pretty much slow...I reset both browsers, cleared cache, emptied trash...Firefox is running as fast as it used to but safari is crawling...Decided to do a backup before I lose any data by using Time Machine and having it saved to my external drive...I also ran CCC which I hadn't in some time but thought, why not...

I checked the amount of space on the HD after all said and had 87GB of empty space on a 500GB drive...The last two days however I've received pop up message stating my Mac HD has run out of space, checked the amount of free space and it was down to 24GB...I've always kept my iMac on when I'm at work...I restarted it and came back to 87GB of space, so I'm thinking okay, it should have corrected itself...However today, got the same message and was down to 24GB again...Restarted iMac and came back to 87GB...

Not sure what is causing to use the space...Anyone have any idea or suggestion?

Thanks in advance
 
Dropbox backing up pictures from your phone automatically and then downloading them to your Mac Dropbox folder?
 
Don't have dropbox...Running OS 10.7.5

And since the first post, the free space has dropped to 54GB...
 
Last edited:
braeburn said:
Don't have dropbox...Running OS 10.7.5

And since the first post, the free space has dropped to 54GB...
Click to expand...

Do you have Time Machine turned on? That uses some space for local snapshots and can misbehave like this.

Run this command in Terminal to list all base folders and space used by each. You will asked for your password and it takes a couple minutes to run. Post the result up here so we can take a look.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /
 
as well as weasel boy's suggestion try this from a terminal at a reasonably high level directory

Code: 
find . -mtime -1

that should give you a list of the files that have changed in the last 24 hours.

I've seen it happening with processes crashing and leaving behind large log files.
 
Weaselboy said:
Do you have Time Machine turned on? That uses some space for local snapshots and can misbehave like this.

Run this command in Terminal to list all base folders and space used by each. You will asked for your password and it takes a couple minutes to run. Post the result up here so we can take a look.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /
Click to expand...

Here's the list that came up:

1 /.DocumentRevisions-V100
1 /.fseventsd
1 /.Spotlight-V100
0 /.Trashes
0 /.vol
4 /Applications
1 /bin
0 /cores
1 /dev
1 /home
4 /Library
1 /net
0 /Network
17 /private
1 /sbin
4 /System
356 /Users
1 /usr
1 /Volumes
383 /
383 total

----------
JustMartin said:
as well as weasel boy's suggestion try this from a terminal at a reasonably high level directory

Code: 
find . -mtime -1

that should give you a list of the files that have changed in the last 24 hours.

I've seen it happening with processes crashing and leaving behind large log files.
Click to expand...

JustMartin,

The list is very long to list here...
 
Are you using any programs (like PhotShop) that use 'scratch disk' space? I had the problem of this sort in Snow Leopard where the scratch disk space was not reconstituted, leaving it using the HD space after the program was closed. I Searched Apple forums, and found a Terminal command that helped.

Along with the HD filling up, I realized none of the upgrades to apps were auto-trashed. They remained in a folder of 'Previous APPS' totaling 20 GB. When I used the Terminal command, everything worked fine afterwards. I have since lost the link. But it's in the Apple forums SOMEWHERE.
 
Alimar said:
Are you using any programs (like PhotShop) that use 'scratch disk' space? I had the problem of this sort in Snow Leopard where the scratch disk space was not reconstituted, leaving it using the HD space after the program was closed. I Searched Apple forums, and found a Terminal command that helped.

Along with the HD filling up, I realized none of the upgrades to apps were auto-trashed. They remained in a folder of 'Previous APPS' totaling 20 GB. When I used the Terminal command, everything worked fine afterwards. I have since lost the link. But it's in the Apple forums SOMEWHERE.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice but I don't have Photoshop...I'm still searching for a resolution to my issue...
 
braeburn said:
Here's the list that came up:

1 /.DocumentRevisions-V100
1 /.fseventsd
1 /.Spotlight-V100
0 /.Trashes
0 /.vol
4 /Applications
1 /bin
0 /cores
1 /dev
1 /home
4 /Library
1 /net
0 /Network
17 /private
1 /sbin
4 /System
356 /Users
1 /usr
1 /Volumes
383 /
383 total
Click to expand...


It is not the Time Machine issue I suspected. Everything looks fine in the non-user folders. It does show 356GB total in the /Users folder. Does that sound about right for your personal files?

You can run this command and it will give you that same breakdown for your user folders. Or you can try an app like OmniDiskSweeper to get a graphical view of the space used.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/
 
Weaselboy said:
It is not the Time Machine issue I suspected. Everything looks fine in the non-user folders. It does show 356GB total in the /Users folder. Does that sound about right for your personal files?

You can run this command and it will give you that same breakdown for your user folders. Or you can try an app like OmniDiskSweeper to get a graphical view of the space used.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/
Click to expand...

That sounds about right for all my personal files, ie. photos, videos, music, etc...

The empty space on the HD though should be well over 100GB which isn't...

----------

Here's the breakdown for user folders which also looks correct...

1 /Users/iMac//.cache
1 /Users/iMac//.cups
1 /Users/iMac//.mono
0 /Users/iMac//.Trash
1 /Users/iMac//Applications
1 /Users/iMac//Applications (Parallels)
64 /Users/iMac//Desktop
1 /Users/iMac//Documents
5 /Users/iMac//Downloads
1 /Users/iMac//Home
3 /Users/iMac//iPhone Pics
30 /Users/iMac//Library
0 /Users/iMac//Movies
54 /Users/iMac//Music
1 /Users/iMac//NEP
186 /Users/iMac//Pictures
0 /Users/iMac//Public
13 /Users/iMac//Videos
351 /Users/iMac/
351 total
 
braeburn said:
That sounds about right for all my personal files, ie. photos, videos, music, etc...

The empty space on the HD though should be well over 100GB which isn't...
Click to expand...

The only odd thing I see there is you have 64GB of data on your Desktop? That sound right?

Where exactly are you looking to see how much space is left?
 
Weaselboy said:
The only odd thing I see there is you have 64GB of data on your Desktop? That sound right?

Where exactly are you looking to see how much space is left?
Click to expand...

Basically right click on the Mac's HD and looking at the get info pop up screen for avail space...I don't have much on my desktop other than some folders...
 
braeburn said:
Basically right click on the Mac's HD and looking at the get info pop up screen for avail space...I don't have much on my desktop other than some folders...
Click to expand...

That first Terminal run showed 383GB used, so you should have around 110GB free. What is get info showing?

So something up on the Desktop then. Try this to pin it down.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/Desktop

Also, do a command-r boot to recovery and from there use Disk Util to run a repair disk. Does that show any errors? From there what does Disk Util show for space used?
 
Weaselboy said:
That first Terminal run showed 383GB used, so you should have around 110GB free. What is get info showing?

So something up on the Desktop then. Try this to pin it down.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/Desktop

Also, do a command-r boot to recovery and from there use Disk Util to run a repair disk. Does that show any errors? From there what does Disk Util show for space used?
Click to expand...

Get info shows 412GB used with 86GB of free space...

I'll do your suggestion later this evening...Thanks and will keep you posted...
 
braeburn said:
Give you a brief rundown:

I normally use firefox as my browser but it started to act slow a few days ago so I decided to use safari and see how it performs, both were pretty much slow...I reset both browsers, cleared cache, emptied trash...Firefox is running as fast as it used to but safari is crawling...Decided to do a backup before I lose any data by using Time Machine and having it saved to my external drive...I also ran CCC which I hadn't in some time but thought, why not...

I checked the amount of space on the HD after all said and had 87GB of empty space on a 500GB drive...The last two days however I've received pop up message stating my Mac HD has run out of space, checked the amount of free space and it was down to 24GB...I've always kept my iMac on when I'm at work...I restarted it and came back to 87GB of space, so I'm thinking okay, it should have corrected itself...However today, got the same message and was down to 24GB again...Restarted iMac and came back to 87GB...

Not sure what is causing to use the space...Anyone have any idea or suggestion?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Use OmniDiskSweeper to see what's occupying your drive space.
 
yjchua95 said:
Have you delved deeper into the relevant folder and find the offending folders that can be deleted?
Click to expand...

I did and nothing that stands out of the ordinary and I compared the folders to those on my backup drive and they are the same...
 
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