Mac Book Pro Retina - problem with HD space

[knamax]

I bought less than a month ago a Mac Book Pro retina display, 3 GHz processor and a 500Gb HD.

As my previous old Mac Book Pro had a 320 Gb HD and it was really full, I did not migrate all the data, I did I clean install and I was watching somehow carefully the storage, as I am using a fairly big amount of images (and music) and I was deciding which way I could better manage them, between my external storage and the internal storage

Now the problem is: until a week ago I had abt 200 Gb taken, 300 Gb free. Then, suddenly, checking the system info I noted I had 265 Gb used, 235 Gb free, without any apparent reason as I did not store more data. In that moment I did a trial install of Little Snitch, which I then uninstalled, but it should have nothing to do with it.

Checking for the cause of it I found out a large amount of old email were downloaded to Mail from Gmail servers, and I deleted them.

Now the situation that leaves me quite astonished is that on Finder window, in the Status Bar below, it shows 320 Gb available, while in the system info as well as in the Disk Utility it shows "Used 265 Gb" (I round up the digits) and "Available 235 Gb"... Looking in "About This Mac" --> "More Info.." --> "Storage", there is a detail of the kind of usage of the solid state memory and there is a "Backup" which is 85 Gb. If I deduct it from the used storage I have exactly the right space that I can see free in the Finder window.

I tried to look is I could locate this "Backup" and I cannot find it. If I look in the root of my HD I basically have 4 directories which are:

- Applications
- Library
- System
- Users

If I get the info abt them and I sum it up it comes exactly to the 180 Gb which are supposed to be used.

I also tried to look for ALL file putting them in order of size, and I did not fin anything abnormal nor any huge file stored. Finally I can see this Backup only in the Disk Utility, and in no other place, and I changed its size.

Can somebody explain it?

 

[justperry]

Do you have TimeMachine enabled, probably yes.

If that is the case it keeps local backups on your Mac.

You can disable it this way:

Disable Time Machine Local Backup Storage
Here’s how to turn off local backups:

Launch Terminal from /Applications/Utilities
Enter the following command:
sudo tmutil disablelocal

Enter the admin password when requested to disable local backups


However, keep in mind that if something happens to your internal HD/SSD all changes since the last backup are gone.

There is also another way, disable TM in System preferences and after a couple of minutes enable it again.
But, the space will be lost again over time, best way is to connect regularly to the TM backup HD.

 

[NanoNyrd]

Have you tried checking the disk with Disk Utility, preferably after a reboot.

 

[knamax]

Tks

Thanks for answering

Yes I do have a Time Capsule and usually it backs up every evening when I arrive home from work.

I did use the Terminal command and after it the situation was that I had 285 Gb available while just a few hours before they were 320... it really scares me to see these jumps in a matter of a very short time of quite big amount of space such as 30/35 Gb or more...

Anyway I checked again the system info and this time "Backup" was to 0 Kb while there were 160 Gb related to "Others"... which also cannot be. So I shut down and run Disk Utility and there were actually some orphaned blocks..

Now the situation is I should have 312 Gb free according to Disk Utility and Finder Status bar and 307 according to "About This Mac"

I'll keep it under control but I am using a TC since at least 4 years in a row and I never noticed with the old Macbook these kind of jumps. Still I treat my MBP almost religiously (it's my working tool) and I like to be in control.
Still, even after having maybe solved the problem cannot fully understand what could have possibly suddenly triggered the problem and how could I have for example, a difference of 35 Gb in a range of 24 hours in the indicators, I also cannot understand why different source gives different values still now.

 

[justperry]

Thanks for answering

Yes I do have a Time Capsule and usually it backs up every evening when I arrive home from work.

I did use the Terminal command and after it the situation was that I had 285 Gb available while just a few hours before they were 320... it really scares me to see these jumps in a matter of a very short time of quite big amount of space such as 30/35 Gb or more...

Anyway I checked again the system info and this time "Backup" was to 0 Kb while there were 160 Gb related to "Others"... which also cannot be. So I shut down and run Disk Utility and there were actually some orphaned blocks..

Now the situation is I should have 312 Gb free according to Disk Utility and Finder Status bar and 307 according to "About This Mac"

I'll keep it under control but I am using a TC since at least 4 years in a row and I never noticed with the old Macbook these kind of jumps. Still I treat my MBP almost religiously (it's my working tool) and I like to be in control.
Still, even after having maybe solved the problem cannot fully understand what could have possibly suddenly triggered the problem and how could I have for example, a difference of 35 Gb in a range of 24 hours in the indicators, I also cannot understand why different source gives different values still now.

Bold, this has been reported more than once, seems to me CoreStorage or similar processes are still a bit buggy.

I Don't use TimeMachine, one of the reasons is the one you're having, too many problems, buggy.
Carbon Copy Cloner is what I use, it is similar, has scheduling built in and makes bootable backups.

 

[maflynn]

Download and use OmniDiskSweeper, that will provide a sorted list of folders/files so you can what's consuming your disk space.