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aj350z

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
73
2
Hell. I have no idea where to post this question but I need help. I have a late 2012 Mac Mini with Mac OS 10.9.3. It has the standard 500 GB hard drive. As of right now it says I have 30 Gb of free space. However I can only account for 200GB of data (See pictures).

I have no idea where the missing data is. Now I did notice that ever time I tried to move things to the trash bin, a window would pop up and tell me it would have to permanently delete and I always clicked Yes. My trash bin shows empty all the time and when I right click to empty, that option is grayed out.

Any and all advice would be helpful.

Thanks,
Aj
 

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talmy

macrumors 601
Oct 26, 2009
4,725
332
Oregon
Might be disk corruption. Boot to the recovery partition where you can run Disk Utility and fix the disk. No matter what you always take a risk by running beta software.
 

aj350z

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
73
2
I just booted in recovery. I ran both repair disk permissions and also repair disk. Everything checked out. Still showing 460Gb used but I can not find the data anywhere. I am not running any beta software.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,492
6,981
I just booted in recovery. I ran both repair disk permissions and also repair disk. Everything checked out. Still showing 460Gb used but I can not find the data anywhere. I am not running any beta software.

If you select "About this Mac" from the Apple menu, then click "More info" and then click on the storage tab, do you see any space used under "Backups"?

I always found Omnigroup's OmniDiskSweeper (free) to be more useful in finding what's taking up space: http://www.omnigroup.com/more
Give this a try.
 

aj350z

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
73
2
Ok I meant to type 10.9.2....... its not like I teach math and should be able to deal with numbers.
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,425
4,392
Delaware
... I have a late 2012 Mac Mini with Mac OS 10.9.3. ...

If you are using 10.9.3 - that has not had a public release, is still in testing, and would be considered beta software.

The admin user won't see all the files that you may not have permission to see, and the Finder won't display all the space properly, at least with an admin user.
If you enable the root user, then log in to your root user, you will likely see those utilities will show the proper size for your folders, and you will see where your space is used.
 

aj350z

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
73
2
If you select "About this Mac" from the Apple menu, then click "More info" and then click on the storage tab, do you see any space used under "Backups"?

I did that and there is no data for backups. However the movies is 300+ GB. Im still lost on finding those files. My iTunes adds movies to my Drobo. I have been ripping my Blu-Rays onto the Mac hard drive and then moving the converted file to the drobo. When I delete the rip file to the trash bin, a pop up comes up asking if I want to permanently delete the files and I click yes.
 

aj350z

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
73
2
I just did a search for one of the videos I ripped and found this (attached picture). Access unknown? How can I delete what does not exist?
 

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chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,492
6,981
When I delete the rip file to the trash bin, a pop up comes up asking if I want to permanently delete the files and I click yes.

If you're deleting files from your internal disk and are prompted that they'll immediately be deleted, you have permissions issues in your home folder which may be part of the problem.
This is different than repairing permissions on the disk. For some reason, Apple does not have that function correct your home folder permissions.
Follow the steps here: http://pondini.org/OSX/Password.html and in the Reset Password window, click the "Reset" button at the bottom of the window in the section labeled "Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs."
Then quit out of that and restart your computer.

----------

I just did a search for one of the videos I ripped and found this (attached picture). Access unknown? How can I delete what does not exist?

That looks like the home folder permissions may be a problem, but you're sure you ran "Repair disk" and not "Verify disk" or just "Repair permissions" on the internal disk from Disk Utility when you were in recovery mode?
 

talmy

macrumors 601
Oct 26, 2009
4,725
332
Oregon
What is strange is that it should show you where that file is when you select it. It's still behaving like disk corruption.
 

aj350z

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
73
2
If you're deleting files from your internal disk and are prompted that they'll immediately be deleted, you have permissions issues in your home folder which may be part of the problem.
This is different than repairing permissions on the disk. For some reason, Apple does not have that function correct your home folder permissions.
Follow the steps here: http://pondini.org/OSX/Password.html and in the Reset Password window, click the "Reset" button at the bottom of the window in the section labeled "Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs."
Then quit out of that and restart your computer.

----------



That looks like the home folder permissions may be a problem, but you're sure you ran "Repair disk" and not "Verify disk" or just "Repair permissions" on the internal disk from Disk Utility when you were in recovery mode?

I tried the resetting the password and that didn't help. Yes I am sure I clicked on "Repair Disk" and "Repair Permissions". I did make an appointment with apple for tomorrow.

----------

In the Finder, select View > Show Path Bar

I have that checked. I can see that the m4v files is on the drobo, but the mkv file is blank. When I try to click and drag to trash bin, the bin changes to the eject button.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,241
12,388
Do you have Time Machine turned on?

If so, do this:
1. Turn it OFF
2. Shut down -- all the way down, power right off
3. Restart
4. Recheck free space. Any difference?
 

aj350z

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
73
2
Do you have Time Machine turned on?

If so, do this:
1. Turn it OFF
2. Shut down -- all the way down, power right off
3. Restart
4. Recheck free space. Any difference?

No I don't have time machine on.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,492
6,981
Yes I clicked on the "reset" button in the bottom right hand corner.

This is a very strange situation you have.
What I would do at this point if it were mine would be to enable root and login to the root account and see if I can find these stray files that way.
Before you login as root: note that the root account will allow you to delete any file on the disk without being prompted for a password, so be careful using it.
To login as root: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14281

Once you've logged in as root, open OmniDiskSweeper and see if it shows anything different.
Also try to find those movie files with the strange permissions and see if you can figure out where they're located.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,071
15,494
California
I just did a search for one of the videos I ripped and found this (attached picture). Access unknown? How can I delete what does not exist?

What folder is that Frozen video in?

Run this command in Terminal and post up the output so we can have a look. This will show all hidden and system files you cannot see with OmniDisk.

Code:
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

Or, if you prefer to use Omni, run the command below to launch it as root so you can see hidden and system files. You do not need to create a root account to do this.

Code:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,492
6,981
Run this command in Terminal and post up the output so we can have a look. This will show all hidden and system files you cannot see with OmniDisk....
run the command below to launch it as root so you can see hidden and system files. You do not need to create a root account to do this.

Much simpler than my suggestions.
 

aj350z

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
73
2
Just got home from the Apple store and they could do nothing. I have lost permissions for my trash folder and they were unable to restore them correctly. They reset my permissions with no results. I am backing up what data I need and will be reformatting the drive later. Thanks for your help guys.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,071
15,494
California
Just got home from the Apple store and they could do nothing. I have lost permissions for my trash folder and they were unable to restore them correctly. They reset my permissions with no results. I am backing up what data I need and will be reformatting the drive later. Thanks for your help guys.


You might want to try what I suggested before you go to all that trouble.
 
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