I clicked on my HD and I have 124.5 Used and 61.51 Free, which adds up to 186.01. I then clicked on Macintosh HD and selected all the files and hit "Get Info." It all adds up to 117.5 GB. I'm missing about 7 GB and I don't know where it is. Are there some hidden files or something?
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Missing Used Space?
- Thread starter Gattz
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I'm near-certain that doing a "get info" on a folder will not include any files you don't have permission to read.
70GB (I assume "7GB" was a typo based on the two numbers you listed) is too big to be a normal system file, though, so that leaves either some leftover hidden cache file, a runaway log, or something owned by another user. The former case is probably bad, the latter is normal.
Are there other users with separate accounts on the machine? If so, do any of them have a lot of data?
If the answer is no, try restarting first, just to make sure it's not something leftover that's going to get deleted upon reboot.
70GB (I assume "7GB" was a typo based on the two numbers you listed) is too big to be a normal system file, though, so that leaves either some leftover hidden cache file, a runaway log, or something owned by another user. The former case is probably bad, the latter is normal.
Are there other users with separate accounts on the machine? If so, do any of them have a lot of data?
If the answer is no, try restarting first, just to make sure it's not something leftover that's going to get deleted upon reboot.
No, the numbers I posted are correct; I have 124.5 currently being used and after using Get Info on the files on my HD, it came up to 117.5 GB instead of the full 124.5. It's not in the trash, so I don't see any where else it can be.
I also don't share my notebook with anyone else. I'll try restarting though.
I also don't share my notebook with anyone else. I'll try restarting though.
Ok, I mis-read the numbers in your post. I now get it. My answer stands, though; "Get Info" doesn't include files you don't have permission to read in the count. 7GB is small enough (relatively) that it could just be system files; sounds a little big, but not ridiculous.
And in answer to the second question, sparsebundle disk images are (basically) disk images that can expand the actual size on disk as needed, when you add things to them. Spotlight uses them for network backups, for example.
The issue described is when you remove files from a Sparsebundle but it doesn't get any smaller on disk. I admittedly don't have much experience with this, but I believe that this space would be visible with a "Get Info", it just shouldn't be being used.
As for identifying the source of your "missing" space, there are programs that will visualize it for you, though I can't name any off the top of my head--a VersionTracker search might help, or maybe someone will recommend one. With 7GB, though, it's probably nothing out of the ordinary, though there's some chance it's a "stuck" cache file or somesuch.
And in answer to the second question, sparsebundle disk images are (basically) disk images that can expand the actual size on disk as needed, when you add things to them. Spotlight uses them for network backups, for example.
The issue described is when you remove files from a Sparsebundle but it doesn't get any smaller on disk. I admittedly don't have much experience with this, but I believe that this space would be visible with a "Get Info", it just shouldn't be being used.
As for identifying the source of your "missing" space, there are programs that will visualize it for you, though I can't name any off the top of my head--a VersionTracker search might help, or maybe someone will recommend one. With 7GB, though, it's probably nothing out of the ordinary, though there's some chance it's a "stuck" cache file or somesuch.
OmniDiskSweeper
or
sudo du -h -d 1 /
I'm sure you will find that this is not a big deal. If you put your Mac to sleep, then you will have a sleep image equal to the size of the RAM in your Mac. There are many directories that are not visible to the Finder which are used by darwin and aqua to do their jobs. This probably makes up for the rest of the "missing" space.
or
sudo du -h -d 1 /
I'm sure you will find that this is not a big deal. If you put your Mac to sleep, then you will have a sleep image equal to the size of the RAM in your Mac. There are many directories that are not visible to the Finder which are used by darwin and aqua to do their jobs. This probably makes up for the rest of the "missing" space.