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Help: Continuously running out of space on iMac HD

T

tommytahoe

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 13, 2006
25
0
Hi,
for about a year now, I have been continuously losing space on my HD. I have long ago stopped downloading anything bigger than occasional jpg's or iTunes songs/podcasts, and I am constantly purging my computer of things b/c the space just keeps running out.

Frankly, my estimate is that it should be at about 20 - 30 GB. It's at 500 MB, and after leaving it on for several hours, it will often chew up the virtual memory, drop to ZERO KB, and I restart to regain the 500 MB I had. This process cannot continue.

I ran a command on Terminal (something a guy on another forum site posted), and here's the results:

313M /.Spotlight-V100
12K /.svn
0B /.Trashes
512B /.vol
14G /Applications
1.0K /automount
6.6M /bin
0B /cores
512B /dev
160K /Developer
58G /Library
512B /Network
883M /private
4.4M /sbin
1.8G /System
71G /Users
602M /usr
24K /Volumes
147G /
iMots-iMac

Of "users", it's just me, though there is a Library folder under the 'MacIntosh HD' heading, and also a Library folder under my user heading as well.

Thanks anyone! Somewhere in my Mac is stored like 30 GB+ of stuff I don't need, but I don't have the knowledge to know what I can dump and what I can't dump. I also accidentally created another account for myself by accident years ago, but never used it, and it uses up negligible space.

Thanks for any help you guys might have!
tom
 
/Library seems awfully large. Check Console to see if anything is throwing up an error? Something might be running amuck and writing logs. Also try running something like Onyx to clear logs/caches (make sure you have a backup though, Onyx has hosed me twice).
 
Thanks man.

I'm not entirely sure how to operate either Console of Onyx —scratch that, I've never used either software.
I have opened Console just now, but don't know what it does.
Oh, and i don't have my HD backed-up, so the notion of getting de-pantsed by Onyx seems awfully scary.

thanks,

tom
 
This always works great for me in basic maintenance. Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility > Select your Hard Drive > Repair Disk Permissions. Might not help too much with the space but its def something to keep doing about once a month or every 2 weeks.
 

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Thanks!
I just ran a 'repair permissions'. Here's the verdict:

Permissions repair complete
Permissions differ on ./usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi, should be -r--r--r-- , they are -r-xr-xr-x
Owner and group corrected on ./usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi
Permissions corrected on ./usr/standalone/i386/boot.efi
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume

There were repeated instances of "owner and group differ..." or "owner and group corrected..."
Also, "permissions corrected" shjowed up alot.

Any ideas?

tom
 
Thanks for the help, I used Grand Perspective.
Looks like the only BIG blocks are applications (40GB) and iTunes (30+ GB). But those have gone unchanged in size for a long time now. I couldn't see any blocks that seemed oddly big. LOTS of tiny squares added up.
Sucks not understanding this *****.
 
tommytahoe said:
Thanks man.

I'm not entirely sure how to operate either Console of Onyx —scratch that, I've never used either software.
I have opened Console just now, but don't know what it does.
Oh, and i don't have my HD backed-up, so the notion of getting de-pantsed by Onyx seems awfully scary.

thanks,

tom
Click to expand...

Not having your drive backed up is a bad idea. It is never a good idea to just go without a backup. If your drive fails or something else happens then you are going to be screwed. And your problem seems like a runaway log file and something just keeps writing logs and they are taking up a massive amount of space. My library is only 9.2GB so there must be something wrong with a log.

Download YASU. This is a simple utility for system cleaning. Only check the clear log boxes and try that. I would strongly recommend backing up before you do ANY system maintenance. It might be time to shell out for an external hd. they are very cheap now and if you only want to keep a few backups just in case then just buy one that is the size of your internal hd and no bigger. This should be pretty cheap and will cover you if you do anything to screw up your system.
 
Try pointing OmniDiskSweeper at /Library. Don't delete anything right away, just tell us what seems to be taking up space. Also, as noted above, you really should be backing up, a 250GB USB drive is <$90.
 
Im guessing you mean less than (<) 90$. I got my 1TB External at best buy for 120$ so a 250GB is much cheaper.
 
I assume that when you import music to iTunes you have iTunes copy the files and then delete the old ones, right? Just checking to make sure you don't have two copies of each mp3 lying around on your HD.

Do you download torrents? Many torrent programs create "dummy" files that are the same size as the file being downloaded. If you cancel the download sometimes the dummy file remains.
 
Thanks for all the help folks,

I used YASU, clearing all the logs. That gave me 500 MB.
I used Grand Perspective, and oddly the library amounted to only like 14 GB, whereas the number I got from the command on Terminal said 56 GB! Strangely, also, the full HD sweep I did with Omni Disksweeper, revealed that my HD only accounts for 97 GB.
I have an iMac (2006) that came with 160 GB of space.
MY obvious questions are:


(2) Where can this 60+ GB have gone? Maybe I have another account, or some area on my Mac that is operating outside of the usual confines of the HD, chewing up space somehow?

Thanks,

and I can assure you that (this problem aside) I will get an external HD soon.
 
I assume you used:

sudo du -h -d1 /

To see sizes from the root of the drive? To get further granularity, you can just add the names of the largest directories that you're looking to roll through.

sudo du -h -d1 /Library

sudo du -h -d1 /User

And further on down the line,

sudo du -h -d1 /Library/Application\ Support/

etc..
 
To the guy who suggested the "granulated" terminal command, thanks!

45 GB under Library/google !!

I have google remember my searches for when I go back to a new search... it stores previous websites I went to, so next time I make a similar search, it remembers where I went.

Now, only question is: how do i get rid of it?

And, yes, I delete original iTunes music after importing. I DL torrenhts occasionally, but not a lot recently... occasional music or TV show...
 
I don't have a Google folder in my root Library, so I'm not sure what the deal is there. What is in that folder?
 
It's funny: 45 GB for Google Desktop, the app I was referring to above.

Only thing is: I can't seem to find this file ANYWHERE in my Finder. Searched thoroughly. Is it possible someone got inside my Mac and is manipulating all kinds of GB with malware/adware or some such deviant action? Somewhere in a hidden part of my computer that terminal can find but the Finder cannot?

Thanks for walking me through this, guys...
 
Password:
Code: 
264K    /Library/Google/Frameworks
 45G    /Library/Google/Google Desktop
1.0M    /Library/Google/GoogleML
1.1M    /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate
384K    /Library/Google/Uninstallers
 45G    /Library/Google
[Process completed]

I dunno...

Maybe I should just get in the library and dump all my google desktop plists, be done with that software...
 
Well it seems like from that, google desktop is the problem. It definitely shouldn't be taking 45GB of space
 
Just solve the problem with the following code: (backup first :rolleyes:)
rmdir /Library/Google/Google Desktop
This should just delete the directory, but it may cause problems.
 
geoffreak said:
Just solve the problem with the following code: (backup first :rolleyes:)
rmdir /Library/Google/Google Desktop
This should just delete the directory, but it may cause problems.
Click to expand...

That won't work because there's data in the directory. rmdir only works for empty directories. Just nuking the folder is a bit extreme at this point, the OP might actually use (and loose) features of Google Whatever.
 
Thanks.

3.1M /Library/Google/Google Desktop//GoogleDesktopAgent.app
4.6M /Library/Google/Google Desktop//GoogleDesktopDaemon.bundle
45G /Library/Google/Google Desktop//Index
1.0M /Library/Google/Google Desktop//Stats
4.0K /Library/Google/Google Desktop//StatsQ
45G /Library/Google/Google Desktop/

I see the corresponding files in the Finder, but in the Finder the "Index" file listed above takes up negligible space.
Should I dump the whole thing anyway?
I really don't think 45 GB is a fair price to pay to have the benefits of google desktop. I know my way around a search engine without the extra help...
 
The only thing i can see going wrong is google desktop not working properly after you delete that index folder. If you have a backup definitely do that first but I don't see any way that it could really mess up your system just by deleting the folder. I would say just do it. If it messes up google desktop and you need that app just reinstall
 
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