Why do I have no disk space?

[duranduranie]

I have an external hardrive with all my files in it, so on my main computer I should have at least 20 gigabytes but I have none, so I downloaded "Disc Inventory X" to find out what was taking up all my space and IDVD was taking up 9 gigabytes so I deleted it, so I started downloaded things again and used 5 gigabytes and suddenly everyday my space just started getting less and less. I deleted 15 gigabytes worth of songs on my itunes and I got about a gigabyte back only, then sometimes it would show up as 9 gigabytes or something, then it would go back to zero.

I currently have zero and so I opened "Disc Inventory X" again. It shows a folder saying "private" (which I never created) and says it has 17 gigabytes in it. It showed this folder last time I checked too but it only had 7 gigabytes in it then.

I have searched for this "private" folder on spotlight and found nothing. I don't know where this is on my computer, I cannot find it anywhere and am clueless as to what it contains.

Please advise, I really need to sort this out. If I explained anything unclear, let me know and I shall try to rephrase.

Thanks.

 

[Consultant]

Did you empty trash?

 

[angelwatt]

It's likely the private folder at root level, which Spotlight doesn't look at by default. Spotlight only looks at your home directory and applications folder for the most part. Not sure why so much is finding its way into the private folder though. In Finder if you do a shift+cmd+g it'll bring up a prompt for a directory to go to. As long as it is the private folder I'm thinking of enter in /private as the directory and it'll take you there. Be aware there could be multiple private folders. I have about half a dozen throughout my system. Another program to try for seeing disk space usage is Grand Perspective, which I like. You can also try repairing permissions on the drive through the Disk Utility app on your machine.

 

[jasoncook]

Check out this thread, because it sounds like the same issue:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/317698/

Hope that helps.

EDIT~ Let me know if that solves it, I'd be curious to know.

 

[duranduranie]

It's likely the private folder at root level, which Spotlight doesn't look at by default. Spotlight only looks at your home directory and applications folder for the most part. Not sure why so much is finding its way into the private folder though. In Finder if you do a shift+cmd+g it'll bring up a prompt for a directory to go to. As long as it is the private folder I'm thinking of enter in /private as the directory and it'll take you there. Be aware there could be multiple private folders. I have about half a dozen throughout my system. Another program to try for seeing disk space usage is Grand Perspective, which I like. You can also try repairing permissions on the drive through the Disk Utility app on your machine.

Thanks very much for your advice, unfortunately when I did that it just said "the folder can not be found"

 

[angelwatt]

Thanks very much for your advice, unfortunately when I did that it just said "the folder can not be found"

That's odd and suspicious. What are your Mac specs, OS version, Make, Model, etc.? Basically the stuff that shows up when you go to the Apple menu and select About this Mac.