Space used/space left?

Joined
Apr 3, 2009
Messages
259
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Utah
Your Mac's Specs
Imac 27"12.2.1 Monterey.1phone 13, iwatch,ipad air
Where on my Mac do I find how much space I have left.
Son thinking of buying used one and I want to know how much room is still on hard drive.:Confused:
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
306
Reaction score
20
Points
18
Location
Manhattan, New York
Your Mac's Specs
2008 8-core mac pro. 4GB RAM 1.5TB storage. Dual LCDs (one IPS monitor for the colour).
Two ways I know of:
Go to your finder and click on your drive. "Command + i" and you'll get the info on it and it will tell you.

You can also check your Activity Monitor and it'll give you a graphical layout.
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
Or just open any Finder window and look at the bottom of the window.
 
OP
royalpei
Joined
Apr 3, 2009
Messages
259
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Utah
Your Mac's Specs
Imac 27"12.2.1 Monterey.1phone 13, iwatch,ipad air
Thank You, Both.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Or just open any Finder window and look at the bottom of the window.
can someone give an accurate answer, please?

Yes, all the above is true but it's like "how do you make a potato salad?" Answer: "You need potatoes".

Come on, we are not kids here.

According to my Mac I have G79 used up. However, counting all visible stuff on the Mac I come up with a max. of G45 used. So where are the rest G34 hidden?

/* mind you that is not told anywhere, until someone lays the cards down here! */
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
2,116
Reaction score
123
Points
63
Location
Rocky Mountain High, Colorado
Your Mac's Specs
1.8 GHz i7 MBA 11" OSX 10.8.2
There are a lot of hidden files within your system - and there are ways to get to them and look at them too - but if you are looking to free up memory - you do not want to mess with the hidden files willy/nilly.

There are things like cache files and the unix underbelly that are hidden from the user. You can see such things using the terminal.
Code:
cmd-space
terminal #note if you aren't careful terminal can really mess up your system
cd /
ls -la
du -sh . #This command will take a long time

If you are looking to clean up some stuff try Onyx - it will clean up cache files
Titanium Software

If you are looking to remove software - that doesn't come with an unistaller consider appcleaner
AppCleaner
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
can someone give an accurate answer, please?

Yes, all the above is true but it's like "how do you make a potato salad?" Answer: "You need potatoes".

Come on, we are not kids here.
How is my response not accurate? It tells you exactly what you want. The question was asking how to find free space and at the bottom of a Finder window, it tells you how much free space you have. To use your potato salad analogy, I would have had to have responded "Look at your computer". My suggestion was accurate and concise, not uninformative.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
There are a lot of hidden files within ... - you do not want to mess with the hidden files willy/nilly.
Thank you Ivan, your reply is very much appreciated, indeed! I will look into the Onyx software too.

Just curious, I backed up a lot of files on the Mac, transferred from a previous PC, cleaned it out and deleted a lot of them. Is Mac storing the;
1- "deleted" Trash files
2- "deleted: email (with attachments)
still on the cmd and not counted in the normal folders?

Otherwise I'd have no clue how the additional G34 are made up and where they are coming from. Will Onyx get rid of them?

Thank you very much
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
2,116
Reaction score
123
Points
63
Location
Rocky Mountain High, Colorado
Your Mac's Specs
1.8 GHz i7 MBA 11" OSX 10.8.2
Generally - when you delete something in Mac - it moves the file to trash. If you say empty trash - then the file is finally gone - so if you did that then no, that extra 34G is not coming from the trash.

I don't know what Mail program you are using, nor how you store your files. Again - most mail programs have a holding tank called deleted items - but once you say empty those are gone.

Also if you are looking for where your space went try disk inventory x
Disk Inventory X
Very easy to find big files - but again - you have to know what you are doing before wiping anything.
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
vansmith

How is my response not accurate?.
No offense, please, vansmith.
It's my mistake and I rephrase it again here. "It's incomplete" (not sure whether there is a huge difference, though).

Fact is and if you read my post here, http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-desktops/206344-mac-disc-space-deteriorating.html (and I even said in my original reply to your answer "While the above is true" ...! You just didn't cite it in quoting me) it only gives you very vague and "NOT" accurate indication of the available free space.

Just look closer to my post ... I am looking for G34 of files somewhere on the Mac and I don;t even know yet how they are made up!

So while it is true what you said, it is not enough! It would give you an incomplete number, hence making your answer "inaccurate"! But as I said, let's not take it out on the 100% linguistic usage of the two words. I paint a simple picture.

Take it like this. You'd like to know how much your wife spent on her holiday. She'd say "look at all the receipts and count them up" (That would be truly a way for you to find out) But then if you'd look at the bank account, there is a big lump sum missing! WHere is that money? :D

So, your wife was wrong? No, heck not at all. But there is something missing! ... Inaccurate / incomplete /... let's find more adjectives and what does that do? nothing. Telling the whole story, but, would do all!
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
How is my response not accurate?.

vansmith

I believe this forum doesn't allow for attachments to be added, other wise I'd show the bottom of my finder ... it says "921.55 GB available".

If that would be true it'd mean I used 79.45 GB, Correct? (including the Mac OS X) I doubt, however that the Mac uses 34 GB for that because if I add up all folders, etc. my used up space should be no more that 45GB ... so - what happened to the rest 34GB and what/where are they? :Confused:
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Ivan

I don't know what Mail program you are using
Thanks again, Ivan.
I use only Apple' own "Mail"! (although I am unsatisfied with its general performance and instability. Outlook did a better job, still!) I looked into Library > Mail - but this folder is only a mere 700 MB in total and if I go deeper to Library > Mail > Mailboxes > Deleted Messages.mbox it's not even worth to mention. Does Mail store any previously deleted mail/attachments somewhere else?

But I will give that Disk Inventory X a go. I'd really like to know where my 34 GB are gone to (my Mac is only 5 months old!)

Have a great day, Ivan
 

vansmith

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
19,924
Reaction score
559
Points
113
Location
Queensland
Your Mac's Specs
Mini (2014, 2018, 2020), MBA (2020), iPad Pro (2018), iPhone 13 Pro Max, Watch (S6)
Not necessarily. If you're not using Snow Leopard, your hard drive is measured using base-2 notation which may account for what you're seeing. Are you using Leopard or any version of OS X before Snow Leopard? If so, hopefully this will help clarify the discrepancy. Better yet, what does Disk Utility report your hard drive size to be (this may help)?
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
vansmith

Not necessarily. If you're not using Snow Leopard, your hard drive ...
Thank you vansmith

I have an iMac Snow Leopard 10.6.2, 5 months young with 1TB disc space. The disc utility tells me exact 79 GB used, BUT - and here is my big query to Apple ... add up all folders sizes on the Mac I come to a mere 45 GB ?

I have no clue what's going on. Ivan, however, mentioned a nifty tool the "Disk Inventory X". This should throw some light on the shadow and I hope to discover where the extra 34 GB are hiding and what they are!

Thanks to both of you for your digging and support!
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Disk Inventory X

OK - I tried it and although it started a bit funny (it told me the disc size would only be 931 GB with 69 GB used, giving me a remaining "free" space on the disc of 862 GB) Hmm, wondering, again. Mac' disc utility tells me a 1000GB (1TB) of total disc space)

Anyway, it sure threw some light on the issue since it nicely listed all the folders, totaling a 68.8 GB used space. (close to what Mac' own disc utility says but it does provide me the answer.

I can only suggest to everyone reading this post - try IVAN' suggested tool - Disc Inventory X it surely does give you some nice insight of your Mac and how the used up space is made up, giving you an almost complete picture of the available space!

Again, thanks to both of you for your professional approach in assisting to clear this issue!
 
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Free disk space

I must be a pain in many' neck, but I do have a certain hunger to understand Apple!

With all the communication in this post, I just read a "Help" Article within Apples disc utility and it said something that opened my eyes and ears larger than ever.
When you delete files by emptying the Trash, Mac OS X deletes the information used to access the files but doesn’t actually delete the files. Although the disk space used by deleted files is marked as free space, deleted files remain intact until new data is written over them. As a result, deleted files can be recovered.

May this possibly cause some extra disc space use-up?

I have started another post regarding the recovery of those files on http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/ap...r-files-after-emptying-trash.html#post1073327
 
Joined
Feb 26, 2010
Messages
2,116
Reaction score
123
Points
63
Location
Rocky Mountain High, Colorado
Your Mac's Specs
1.8 GHz i7 MBA 11" OSX 10.8.2
Although the disk space used by deleted files is marked as free space

There are options to secure delete trash - so you can't recover the files. Again the key is - to the OS - the space is marked as free so no - nothing you use should show that space as used. You'd need to use disk recovery tools or specialty hardware tools to recover the data - and even then nothing is guaranteed to fully recover files.
 
C

chas_m

Guest
You've never actually answered the question of whether you are actually emptying the trash or not. Are you?

When you ran Disk Inventory X, did you spot any large blocks of disc space being used that you couldn't identify? What directories did they represent?
 

bobtomay

,
Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 22, 2006
Messages
26,561
Reaction score
677
Points
113
Location
Texas, where else?
Your Mac's Specs
15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
I must be a pain in many' neck, but I do have a certain hunger to understand Apple!

With all the communication in this post, I just read a "Help" Article within Apples disc utility and it said something that opened my eyes and ears larger than ever.
When you delete files by emptying the Trash, Mac OS X deletes the information used to access the files but doesn’t actually delete the files. Although the disk space used by deleted files is marked as free space, deleted files remain intact until new data is written over them. As a result, deleted files can be recovered.

That is no different than any other operating system that you have used does it.

May this possibly cause some extra disc space use-up?

No

And the difference between the reported amount of space on the drive is the way it is being reported. DiskInventoryX is reporting drive space in Base 2 (where it takes 1,024 MB = 1 GB) as every operating system has done on every other computer you've ever owned.

Snow Leopard has become the first OS to use Base 10 (where it takes 1,000 MB = 1 GB) to report drive space.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top