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Missing HD space, where did it go?

crazycat

crazycat

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 5, 2005
1,319
0
I am using about 45GB worth of space on my laptop yet i see that i am taking twice that on my HD. I used Whatsize and Disk Inventory X but could not find where the extra space is.

Here is a screen shot and if anyone knows what to do or how i can fix this it would be of great help, i might end up and do a clean install which i dont really see the need to.





Thanks.
 
A restart will probably solve the problem. Did this just suddenly pop up? Or did you have some "big" files lately that might take up a similar amount of space.

Whenever I use up alot of my remaining space on my macbook with iMovie HD this happens and it takes a coupel trashes and a restart for the space to reappear. :)
 
1. Try a restart.

2. If that doesn't fix it make sure you do not have filevault turned on, it takes up the same size as your home folder if I remember correctly. (still does not account for everything but oh well)
 
BigPrince said:
Restarting!!! No thats the windows way!!! :(
Click to expand...
Restarting helps solve problems much more often with Windows, but there are occasionally cases where it helps a Mac too. Other than making you interrupt your work in progress (and resetting your "uptime" if you care about that), there's little harm in trying it.
 
Doctor Q said:
Restarting helps solve problems much more often with Windows, but there are occasionally cases where it helps a Mac too. Other than making you interrupt your work in progress (and resetting your "uptime" if you care about that), there's little harm in trying it.
Click to expand...

I know, it was more of a joke. My co-workers make fun of me when I do it.
 
Mernak said:
1. Try a restart.

2. If that doesn't fix it make sure you do not have filevault turned on, it takes up the same size as your home folder if I remember correctly. (still does not account for everything but oh well)
Click to expand...

I tryed a restart, and it did not work. I never turn firefualt on so there is not need to switch it off but i made sure it was off anyway.

I am sure there is a full copy of my HD somewere but i can see it anywere.
 
Alright i found it, after countless of attempts trying to find where did the missing space went i found it. I found the a folder with the same size as i was using, the starnge thing is that its a hidden file and i can see it. When i right click on the file which is called "Volumes" it opens my main Hard disk which can be seen in the desktop.

The file "Volumes" is there but i cant see it, i can see the subfolders which i took a screenshot of.



Now if i delete the "LaCie Disk" i will get my missing space back but i would like to know how did it get there in the first place. I did use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a backup of my mac but i dont see how it made a copy of the HD on my HD. Is it safe for me to delete it? and how can i not get the same problem again.

Thanks.
 
I had the same problem a while ago, it seems to happen when i reallocate where to download large files using bittorent clients, or it could be that the hard drives power off improperly, not really sure why it was happening, thoguh.

Anyway, i found a utility called Omni Disk Sweeper to be very helpful in finding where the majority of the space is being used on my internal drive. The demo version allows you to see this, but for 12.00 you can delete as well, which I found helpful.
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/

I also got some good advice here:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-64672.html

I would think if other drives are showing up as taking up space on the internal HD, and, as in my case, the drives are actually dismounted and off, it's fine to delete the ones that show up on the HD as I did.

good luck!
 
crazycat said:
Now if i delete the "LaCie Disk" i will get my missing space back but i would like to know how did it get there in the first place. I did use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a backup of my mac but i dont see how it made a copy of the HD on my HD. Is it safe for me to delete it? and how can i not get the same problem again.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that you're using Azureus to download to your external drive. If so, an explanation of the problem (and solution) can be found here.
 
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