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iMac not Freeing up Hard Drive Space after Deleted

E

eliteneo

macrumors member
Original poster
My iMac (10.8.2) after I delete an item from the trash, it says it's deleted, gone, but doesn't actually free up any space. Out of my 500 GB HD it says other is 335.99GB which whould be my free space... instead I have 384.5MB free space.

Ideas? Thanks!
 
Thanks!
Found the new problem, I delete the item, however It's still on my computer but won't launch/work anymore. Example 50 GB of all of Seinfeld, deleted, found with finder, still there, won't launch, and won't be deleted. Says
The alias "Seinfeld....." can't be opened because the original item can't be found.
Options are Delete Alias, Fix Alias, and Ok. All of these options have lead to deadends so far.
 
Bingo

Hi there-
I got SUPER excited when I read your last post! This is EXACTLY my question as well. Did you find an answer to this? I am a relatively new Mac Convert, learning all sorts of new and interesting things almost every day,
but this issue is confusing the [insert explicative here] out of me! I bought a 2TB EXD ("My Passport for MAc") specifically to store these files. After "trashing" and deleting trash, (using the control button to "permanently" delete,) the hard drive doesn't reflect the space that it should. 😕
CHEERS!
 
Fletchwood said:
Hi there-
I got SUPER excited when I read your last post! This is EXACTLY my question as well. Did you find an answer to this? I am a relatively new Mac Convert, learning all sorts of new and interesting things almost every day,
but this issue is confusing the [insert explicative here] out of me! I bought a 2TB EXD ("My Passport for MAc") specifically to store these files. After "trashing" and deleting trash, (using the control button to "permanently" delete,) the hard drive doesn't reflect the space that it should. 😕
CHEERS!
Click to expand...

Maybe this can help, sometimes aliases get in the way, although I may have understood your problem wrong.
 
Thank you! That certainly helped with some of the files that I am trying to delete.
As much as I like the ergonomics of Mac, I find that doing some of these functions can be tedious. One would think that there is a simpler way of deleting files.
Correct me if I am wrong, but this is my thought process--
1. Back up iPhones, download videos, movies, etc. on MBP (320G OSX 10.8.4)
2. Back up MBP on 2TB EHD.
3. Delete the now backed up .avi, mp3/4, etc.
4. Abracadabra... HD space opened for further downloads.
5. Repeat.

Am I nutz, for thinking that this is the way it's done? XD
Cheers!
-Macnoob😀
 
Fletchwood said:
Correct me if I am wrong, but this is my thought process--
1. Back up iPhones, download videos, movies, etc. on MBP (320G OSX 10.8.4)
2. Back up MBP on 2TB EHD.
3. Delete the now backed up .avi, mp3/4, etc.
4. Abracadabra... HD space opened for further downloads.
5. Repeat.
Click to expand...
That is a valid thought process, but it is not a backup.
Maybe just copy the downloaded files to the external HDD and leave the iPhone backups alone (it has to be recreated upon a new backup).

Am I nutz, for thinking that this is the way it's done? XD
Cheers!
-Macnoob😀
Click to expand...

This is certainly a way to store files, but it is not a backup. A backup is a SECOND (and even third) copy of your data, thus you have the original data on one storage device, and that original data gets COPIED to another storage device (another HDD, not the same HDD), and the original data stays where it is.

I have one 1 TB HDD for my photographs (digital and analog) libraries and editing documents, one 1 TB HDD with my personal video footage in an editing friendly format.
Both 1 TB HDDs get backed up to another set of 1 TB HDDs via CarbonCopyCloner.
And those 1 TB HDDs get backed up to another set of 1 TB HDDs via CarbonCopyCloner.
Therefore I have three copies of my important data.
 
That makes a lot of sense. I have learned a TON about Mac through this forum thanks in no small part to people like you. I will definitely take heed to your advice, especially since you just reinforced someone else's strategy.
BTW- I have since opened nearly 10G of HD space as a result of your last post! It blows me away at the amount of duplicate (sometimes triplicate) files that apps create. i.e.; language files, etc that are superfluous.
Thank you for taking the time to show a new mac user a few of the ropes, as it were... I will do my best to help others in the same manner.
CHEERS!!!
 
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