Unzipped File Gone, But Still Taking Up Tons of Space

[shortstack51]

I unzipped a large file (the .zip was 3 gb, unzipped it was over 8 gb), and the unzipped file just...doesn't exist, but is still taking up the same amount of space on my computer, even though I can't see it. Of course I know that they usually unzip to the same folder, but it's not there. I checked my home folder, it's not there. I searched for a file name that's the same one as the .zip file, and all that comes up is the .zip file. I need to wake up in 5 hours for work and I need this file for work, and I'm getting desperate.

I have a 2010 Macbook Pro 13" running 10.9.5

Edit: Also, I have show hidden files checked, so if it was hidden, I'd be able to see it.

 

[ocabj]

zip -sf <zipfile> to list the archive file names and path names. I'm betting the files extracted to some relative path and you're not looking in there, and the extracted files have different file names than your archive name.

 

[Weaselboy]

Do you happen to have Time Machine turned on? If you do, when you delete files and empty the trash, they don't really get deleted, but rather get moved to a hidden /.MobileBackups folder.

You can read a little about it here.

If you just turn Time Machine off then back on it will erase this hidden space.