Where has my HDD space gone?

[sharring]

Hi

Ive been shocked to discover i have only 79GB free on my 500GB SDD.

I used an app called Disk Inventory to find what is taking up all the space and it reports thus:-

USERS (includes all photos, docs, video etc) - 87.6GB
APPLICATIONS - 10.8GB
OTHER (includes libraries, system files etc) - around 15GB

Disk Utility reports:-

Mount Point : / Capacity : 499.42 GB
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Available : 79.08 GB
Owners Enabled : Yes
Used : 420.34 GB
Number of Folders : 130,781
Number of Files : 714,495

I believe the OS will take less than 15 GB so where has all the spare capacity gone?

Any ideas?

 

[Sirmausalot]

Do you have an ipad? It can back up data. Have you emptied the trash recently? Check your iPhoto library and I tunes library as well.

 

[nostresshere]

I think the last poster was saying, you ipad (and iphone) backups are on there someplace as well.

Others here have suggest omnidisksweeper - it helps you find those big files that you are looking for

 

[sharring]

Hi Sirmausalot

I do (and an iPhone) but use iCloud.

I've used disk doctor to do the usual.

 

[glenthompson]

If you have time machine turned on it makes local backups when not connected to the backup drive. They will be deleted if you need the space. They can be turned off. Search for threads on the issue.

 

[sharring]

I used to have time machine turned on but disabled it a while ago (it backed up to a WD NAS Drive). Is it possible that some files are left over from this and if so where are they located?

 

[simonsi]

TM deletes its local backups when you turn it off. I use Whatsize - it will soon tell you what and where the space is being used.

 

[maflynn]

Download and run OmniDiskSweeper (its free) It will provide a sorted list of your files/folders and show you where all your space is going. It includes system and hidden folders

If you use Time Machine then it uses your local storage for snapshots. To disable them issue this command in the terminal
sudo tmutil disablelocal

 

[sharring]

Thanks I'll give OmniDiskSweeper a go when I get home from work.

 

[Weaselboy]

I used to have time machine turned on but disabled it a while ago (it backed up to a WD NAS Drive). Is it possible that some files are left over from this and if so where are they located?

Yes it is possible. They are supposed to delete when you turn off TM, but don't always.

Run this command in Terminal and it will tell you if there is anything left there.

sudo du -hs /.MobileBackups

You also might try running this command that will show all base folders with space used in GB. The GUI tools mentioned don't show all files, so may not give you the whole story.

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

Also do a command-r boot to recovery and run a Disk Utility repair disk from there.

 

[sharring]

Thanks weaselboy i'll try your suggestion when i get home.

 

[sharring]

OK 250GB in backups!!!


I assume the is derived from Time Machine yes?

Obviously not deleted when Time Machine was turned off.

Does the disk utility mentioned earlier delete this?

 

[Weaselboy]

OK 250GB in backups!!!


I assume the is derived from Time Machine yes?

Obviously not deleted when Time Machine was turned off.

Does the disk utility mentioned earlier delete this?

Yep... that's from Time Machines local backups and apparently yours did not properly delete when you turned it off. No, the DU routine will not fix this.

Follow the steps in my earlier post here to get rid of them.

Are they in /.Mobilebackups or /.Mobilebackups.trash?

Are you using Crashplan by any chance? A background Crashplan app auto update caused this same issue for me and others here.

 

[sharring]

Yep... that's from Time Machines local backups and apparently yours did not properly delete when you turned it off. No, the DU routine will not fix this.

Follow the steps in my earlier post here to get rid of them.

Are they in /.Mobilebackups or /.Mobilebackups.trash?

Are you using Crashplan by any chance? A background Crashplan app auto update caused this same issue for me and others here.

Thanks

I'm not using Crashplan but I will follow the steps in earlier post when I get home.

 

[sharring]

Weaselboy with the command you mention I get the following:-

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
1 /.DocumentRevisions-V100
1 /.fseventsd
146 /.MobileBackups
0 /.PKInstallSandboxManager
1 /.Spotlight-V100
0 /.Trashes
0 /.vol
10 /Applications
1 /bin
0 /cores
1 /dev
1 /home
4 /Library
1 /net
0 /Network
5 /private
1 /sbin
6 /System
83 /Users
1 /usr
1 /Volumes
251 /
251 total


Not sure how this equates to 257GB of backups reported by system information though.

 

[maflynn]

Most of the space is being taken up by the mobile backups which is your Time Machine local snapshots.

 

[Weaselboy]

146 /.MobileBackups

This should get moved to /.Mobilebackups.trash then eventually delete itself when you turn off Time Machine. If you are sure TM is off then follow the Terminal steps in the post I linked to get rid of /.Mobilebackups by substituting that as the path in the command instead of /.Mobilebackups.trash.

Not sure how this equates to 257GB of backups reported by system information though.

This is a different problem. That graphic gets its data from the Spotlight index is corrupted the numbers will be wrong like yours. Run the command below in Terminal then wait for Spotlight to reindex and then the numbers will be correct in the storage graphic.

Again, this is a completely separate issue from the /.Mobilebackups issue.