Problems with external HD and SD cards

[mattymaky]

Hi,
Wondering whether someone can point out what's going on.
I have 2 external HD (1TB each) which I use to back up my iMac weekly.
One HD is partitioned into 2 parts. Time machine backs up to one partition and the I physically copy my pictures and personal documents into the other partition.
The second HD is used by Carbon Copy Clone to clone my iMac.
Guess you can sense that I am paranoid about losing my pictures and documents. They are not connected continuously to the the iMac. Just every Sunday I connect each one and let it do it's job.
What's been happening with both HD is that it keeps telling me I don't have enough space. Even after deleting everything on the disc, it always tells me that >50% of the disc is used. Tried repair on disc utility but no use. Therefore for past few weeks, I have had to erase everything from the HD and start back up from the beginning. Very time consuming. When I erase and format the HD, I chose Mac OS extended (journaled). Then it may be okay for a week or two then boom the disc is said to be full again and I start from beginning again.
I don't understand when I look into the hard drives there is nothing there but it tells me that 400 or whatever GB is used?????
I have gotten so worried that I went out and bought another HD to back up all my pictures, movies and documents. Now I have 3 possible back up source. But that's not the solution obviously.
Thanks

 

[spinnerlys]

Where do the SD cards come into play?

Take a look at DiskInventory X, OmniDiskSweeper or GrandPerspective to see where your HDD space went to.

Btw, what Mac OS X version do you use? And how are the HDDs connected to your iMac (which model)?

And does the "filling up/running out of storage capacity" happen to both HDDs? As the one you use with CC only makes incremental backups, it should not contain that much more data than your iMac, unless you create and erase GBs of files on a daily basis and back them up too to the CCC HDD.

 

[mattymaky]

Well picked up.
Sorry I left the SD card bit out because not sure if related and would get too get confusing. I noticed it happening to my SD card for my camera as well. I would take a few pictures and then it would say memory is full but it's a 8GB card!. I only joined the Apple/Mac world 6 mths ago. Now I transfer the photos from camera to mac by directly inserting SD card to Mac. I've had the camera a few years and it's only been acting up for past few months. Oh and it's a new card.

Back to the 2 HD - they are LaCie Quadra hard disc and connected via firewire and only once a week. It's happened to both HD. I know the CCC HD surprised as I always chose the option where it will only copy latest update and delete old ones.

My iMac is running OS 10.6. it's only 6months old. It's the 27" 2.8gHz Intel core i5 1TB model.