Several Funny Things

So, a few days ago I noticed my hard drive running out of space to the tune of 14 gigs being gone in the course of a morning so that I was left with 0 space. I'd had this happen before when Time Machine tried to back-up to the same hard drive it was backing up. This is despite the fact that I don't even use Time Machine.

No problem. I put it in target disk mode and using my back up computer deleted a bunch of files and rebooted. Upon reboot I searched for the offending back up of about 14 gigs but couldn't find it. I thought perhaps it might be a hidden file so I used the below script in Automator to See and Hide hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
osascript -e ‘tell application “Finder” to quit’;
osascript -e ‘tell application “Finder” to activate’;

It failed to show the hidden files, though it had worked on my back up computer. I ran it with both "TRUE" and "FALSE" to show and hide. So I tried a variation listed among the comments:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall -9 “Finder”
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder

This one ran for many, many minutes and produced no result as well so I interrupted the process. I ran the opposing script and decided to leave it at that.

Now the problems, at least the ones that have popped up so far:
1. iPhone won't finish a sync.
2. iCal - an alarm for an event keeps going off every hour or so regardless of whether I delete it or change it to no alarm.
3. Firefox - the buttons to confirm a choice in any webpage don't produce any action.
4. Photoshop CS4 won't allow me to save over any existing file. I have to rename each save.

I've repaired disk permissions, but that didn't seem to have any effect.

Any advice?

MacBook Pro 2.4 Core Duo
4 GB Ram
OS X 10.5.8

Thanks,
Chad

OK now to start,
go to System Preferences -> Time Machine,
Turn it off and Lock it if you do not use it.

Next...

Download "Disk InventoryX" and run it to see if it will show what is eating up your disk space.

Yeah, I've had Time Machine off for almost a year when I started using Carbon Copy Cloner.

I also used Disk Inventory X a few days ago to do the same thing you suggest. I have freed disk space, 26 gigs or so.

These aren't the problems. The problems that I can't figure out are posted above.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Also, I'm prompted for my system password when sending anything to the trash. The "Details" drop down shows the following:

Right: com.apple.desktopservices
Application: Finder

Thanks,
Chad

Also, Safari will not save any bookmarks from one session to the next or new auto-fill info.

Chad

Actually, it seems NO preference remains after I turn the computer off.