Mac HD Keeps Losing Space...

[cfc247]

Hi.

I've had my Macbook for 7 months now and whilst space has gradually disappeared over time, it has got alot worse recently.

My Mac originally had 68GB of HD and in the last week it has been decreasing daily (we're talking 2GB a day, no applications, music, pictures etc.. have been downloaded in this time).

It might not seem like a huge deal but over the past month i'd say i've lost 6GB on i'm not sure what so if it continues like this, surely within months i'll be out of free space completely without using it on anything

I've restarted several times as I read HD space can return after a restart but that's not worked for me.

I've cleared all the internet files thinking they could of built up over time but all that gives me back is 0.01 GB so i'm really at a loss.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[merl1n]

Hi.

I've had my Macbook for 7 months now and whilst space has gradually disappeared over time, it has got alot worse recently.

My Mac originally had 68GB of HD and in the last week it has been decreasing daily (we're talking 2GB a day, no applications, music, pictures etc.. have been downloaded in this time).

It might not seem like a huge deal but over the past month i'd say i've lost 6GB on i'm not sure what so if it continues like this, surely within months i'll be out of free space completely without using it on anything

I've restarted several times as I read HD space can return after a restart but that's not worked for me.

I've cleared all the internet files thinking they could of built up over time but all that gives me back is 0.01 GB so i'm really at a loss.

Anyone have any ideas?

Could be your log files growing at a rapid rate. Look at Activity Monitor and see if the "syslogd" process is running and chewing up your cpu. If that is the case, you have some sort of problem going on. I would then look at Console and your system logs to see what is going on.

Or, you could be having some disk corruption to the file system and the information block has bad values. You should then boot off of your installer DVD and run Disk Utility -> repair disk.

 

[Eidorian]

How much RAM do you have? I suggest trying Disk Inventory X to figure out what you're using right now.

 

[spriter]

Some of your space should be used on the sleepimage - this is equivalent to your RAM size.

Try WhatSize to see if you can hunt down where the space is used most.

 

[cfc247]

Thanks for the replies.

My sleepimage is 1GB, which is the same as my RAM which I presume is ok?

I noticed I have 497MB in the folders around there, aswell as a similar number in something called a db folder? I'm guessing I probably need those though.

I looked at the Activity Monitor but couldn't see anywhere that "syslogd" was located, would you be able to tell me where I should be looking?

Thanks again.

 

[WildCowboy]

No files bigger than that are popping up in WhatSize or Disk Inventory X? The windowsever.log file is a common culprit when disappearing drive space is involved, and it can grow to 20+ GB.

 

[merl1n]

Thanks for the replies.

My sleepimage is 1GB, which is the same as my RAM which I presume is ok?

I noticed I have 497MB in the folders around there, aswell as a similar number in something called a db folder? I'm guessing I probably need those though.

I looked at the Activity Monitor but couldn't see anywhere that "syslogd" was located, would you be able to tell me where I should be looking?

Thanks again.

If you didn't see it near the top of the list then I wouldn't worry about it.

Some of your space should be used on the sleepimage - this is equivalent to your RAM size.

Try WhatSize to see if you can hunt down where the space is used most.

No files bigger than that are popping up in WhatSize or Disk Inventory X? The windowsever.log file is a common culprit when disappearing drive space is involved, and it can grow to 20+ GB.

I would try these suggestions.

I would also download OnyX (free maintenance utlity) and use it to clean out all of your log files and caches (system, user, fonts, etc.).