wondering where all your free space is?

[hefeglass]

I recently moved my entire iTunes library to an external drive...and deleted a bunch of downloaded content...expecting to free up 50g or so of space on my ssd.

so, after doing all of this...i went into system info and found that my ssd hadn't gained any free space.

For some reason I had OVER 90 GIGS of LOCAL BACKUPS...thanks osx lion, really intelligent use of my ssd space..WTF


so, i found out that all of these backups are the new Lion feature (local snapshots)...which is nice..but DOESNT FREAKING NEED OVER 90 GIGS of SPACE!!

so..i found out how to disable the local backups
go into terminal and type
sudo tmutil disablelocal

and type your password when it prompts you..


AFter doing this, I noticed that the backups didn't become free space...instaed they are now listed as "other" on the storage breakdown graph.

so, i went back into terminal and re-enabled the local snapshots

sudo tmutil enablelocal

and now I have over 150 gigs free on my ssd....THATS MORE LIKE IT!!


now, i wonder how long it will take lion to fill it back up with useless crap

 

[Jamie37211]

Had the same issue. I just turned off time machine and restarted - problem solved. All the backups disappeared and my space was freed again.

If you have Time Machine on (in Lion only, as far as I know this isn't an issue in older OS iterations) and no external TM drive attached, this local backup process will occur. If you're uncomfortable with using the terminal just do what I did.

Good topic. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

[Sheet]

now, i wonder how long it will take lion to fill it back up with useless crap

If you turn off your Time Machine there won't be any new backups of useless crap

I think this is quite a good feature, because it is possible to save backups while traveling and thus being able to restore data if the HD on the Air gets broken.

 

[coolguy1]

where to check for these backup files?

 

[deeddawg]

I think this is quite a good feature, because it is possible to save backups while traveling and thus being able to restore data if the HD on the Air gets broken.

Umm... the local TM backups are on the HD (SSD really). If it breaks before Time Machine has access to your external backup drive you're SOL.

It *is* handy if you accidentally delete a file, or accidentally corrupt a document, then you can go back to an earlier version while on the road. It won't help in the event of catastrophic failure though.

It should clear out the locally saved backups once you get back to your LAN (if using a networked TimeMachine backup with a NAS or TimeCapsule or similar) or attach your external drive you use for TimeMachine backups.

 

[Biscotti]

Umm... the local TM backups are on the HD (SSD really). If it breaks before Time Machine has access to your external backup drive you're SOL.

It *is* handy if you accidentally delete a file, or accidentally corrupt a document, then you can go back to an earlier version while on the road. It won't help in the event of catastrophic failure though.

It should clear out the locally saved backups once you get back to your LAN (if using a networked TimeMachine backup with a NAS or TimeCapsule or similar) or attach your external drive you use for TimeMachine backups.

It SHOULD but I don't believe it does.

 

[hefeglass]

^,^^ yes...this is where the problem lies..


If it would just delete all the local backups (maybe just keep the recent one) whenever I dock to my TB display (and time machine drive)..that would prevent the GIGS AND GIGS of useless data...


in fact, SINCE posting this thread, time machine has already backed up 28mb of data...and I have been attached to my external time machine backup drive the entire time..

they need to fix this..seriously

 

[deeddawg]

I wonder why you're seeing as you say "gigs and gigs" but it doesn't seem to be a frequently raised issue? I haven't noticed any significant disk usage on my Air that I can't account for.

Do you run VM's and have their images backed up by TimeMachine? That's the one taught of how you'd generate gigs and gigs of changed data in so short a time that you'd notice the space used by TimeMachine.

Note, I'm not saying its not a problem for you, I'm just wondering why I don't see the same issue nor do there seem to be a bunch of threads on the topic. What's different?

 

[DeepIn2U]

To the OP. How does your terminal change affect "AutoSave" function in OS X Lion?

 

[EthanMiller]

Point of interest, the local backup feature says that it only keeps backups until the space is needed, so it should be able to just be ignored until it becomes a problem.

I can't guarantee that that works, but I haven't had any issues with it.

 

[hefeglass]

^...yeah, i assumed that when I really needed some free space..these backups would be deleted and I would gain access to the rest of my free space, i just like knowing exactly what I have free and what I don't...


and yes...i did play with parallels for a little while,..and that would explain my 90 gigs of backups I guess..

done with that!