Startup disk full error, but macbook is basically empty! Help

[owltrousers]

Hi, I have a late 2011 Macbook pro, running el capitan. I keep getting the startup disk almost full error popping up, except I'm stumped because this machine is basically empty. I have no files stored on it and I have no applications installed.
I tried running OmniDiskSweeper but it turns up about 15gb of stuff, nothing else. When go into 'About this mac' it says I have used 498GB with "other"

I have searched online for days to try and fix the problem. I have cleared everything unnecessary, all trash and cache files in library, everything. I have re-indexed spotlight 5 times in case its that. All I can think is that this is some kind of error.

Can anyone help?

I have attached screenshots from omnidisk sweeper and "about this mac"

 

[Amethyst1]

Can you scroll down in OmniDiskSweeper’s list to see additional files or folders that may take up a lot of space?

 

[owltrousers]

Hi! Thanks for your reply. The rest of the files shown in Omnisweeper are small files. I've shown the biggest ones it found here.

 

[m1maverick]

Possibly disk corruption. Have you attempted any form of disk repair?

 

[owltrousers]

Possibly disk corruption. Have you attempted any form of disk repair?

I have used all the tools in disc utility, the first aid etc. Is there more on this?

 

[Romain_H]

Hi. What does

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

give you?

 

[owltrousers]

Hi. What does

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

give you?

listlocalsnapshots: Unrecognized verb.
?

 

[Romain_H]

listlocalsnapshots: Unrecognized verb.
?

Not sure on El Cap

Maybe its

sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

What it does: it lists local Time Machine backups; just to make wure those aren‘t clogging your drive

 

[owltrousers]

Not sure on El Cap

Maybe its

sudo tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

What it does: it lists local Time Machine backups; just to make wure those aren‘t clogging your drive

Thanks for this. I have tried several commands but it never seems to recognise the verb after initially asking for my password. I have time machine but I never used it on this machine (it was my parents until a year ago and they barely used anything on it.) so I don't think there are even any backups on the machine.

 

[Amethyst1]

have tried several commands but it never seems to recognise the verb after initially asking for my password.

For El Capitan, the correct command is tmutil listbackups.

 

[YanniDepp]

Open the Terminal app, type df -h and press enter, and post a screenshot of the results here.

 

[m1maverick]

I have used all the tools in disc utility, the first aid etc. Is there more on this?

Open a terminal window and execute the following command:

diskutil list​

Which should give you something like the following:

Mac-Pro:~ m1maverick$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Data 2                  999.9 GB   disk0s2

Then execute the following for the disk listed and post the results.

diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk0​

For example:

Mac-Pro:~ m1maverick$ diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk0