My User folder is 64 GB and growing!!

My User folder on my hard drive is 64 GB and growing. I have not added any files and when I go to my User file and open it I cannot find 64 GB of info. My hard drive is filling up and I cannot seem to do anything about it. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

~ Scott

Hi,
You can use an application like DaisyDisk (Demo) or OmniDiskSweeper (Free) to find out where your space is going.

The obvious thing you could do is get a bigger HD, now days they are dirt cheap and with all the software/data today you will run out of space sooner or later.

Also there is no need to double post.

Are you running Parallels or Fusion by chance? Some of the files needed for the virtual machines can grow quickly especially if the virtual machines are used regularly.

McYukon said:

Hi,
You can use an application like DaisyDisk (Demo) or OmniDiskSweeper (Free) to find out where your space is going.

The obvious thing you could do is get a bigger HD, now days they are dirt cheap and with all the software/data today you will run out of space sooner or later.

Also there is no need to double post.

Click to expand...

Does OmniDiskSweeper delete files that you want to remove?

Sorry for the double post, was not aware.

~ Scott

Slydude said:

Are you running Parallels or Fusion by chance? Some of the files needed for the virtual machines can grow quickly especially if the virtual machines are used regularly.

Click to expand...

No, I am not. It is almost like I am storing cache files from my browser over time as I download more and more content. The problem is that I am not able to access or control whether I want the content or not it just keeps filling my hard drive up and I continually run out of space.

~ Scott

What about movies and music? They add up very quickly! My home folder is 148GB

SHogge said:

Does OmniDiskSweeper delete files that you want to remove?
~ Scott

Click to expand...

Yes, select the item in the list and press the red delete button.

Considering that files like music and video are store in your home folder, that's not surprising.

Ok, I went in with OmniDiskSweeper and deleted the large 64GB file that was building up in my hard drive. When I restarted my computer the next time my Mac would not recognize my password (I have it set up to put a password before allowing access). I tried to reset the password but it would not allow that. I am now caught in an endless loop and fear that I will have to wipe and start over. Does anyone have any advice.

~ Scott

Scott, did you by any chance set the FireVault option to on? What was the name of the 64 gig itemwjich you deleted?

Doug

Yes, my filevault was on and everytime I would shut down it would ask about the filevault. The file I deleted was a strange file because it was not on the hard drive and I could not see it manually from drilling down in my folders. My "User" folder simply said that it had 64GB and when I would open the folder to find the culprit the only files available were my username files that were very small. The only way I saw the big file was after using OmniDiskSweeper. I could then see that an invisible username file was the file that was getting larger and larger (I have no idea why). That is the file I deleted (and now in hind sight wish I would not of) but I now cannot access my computer. Is there a way to get around the login and get the computer to start up?

~ Scott

If your entire user folder was 64GB and you deleted a file that was also 64GB, then it looks as though you deleted your user folder. Your only options at this point would be to either find a way to recover that folder or simply start fresh.

Any chance you caught the name of the file that you deleted?

vansmith said:

Any chance you caught the name of the file that you deleted?

Click to expand...

It was one of three files named after my username scotthogge.

~ Scott

Kash said:

If your entire user folder was 64GB and you deleted a file that was also 64GB, then it looks as though you deleted your user folder. Your only options at this point would be to either find a way to recover that folder or simply start fresh.

Click to expand...

I know that I did not delete my user folder because this file was inside my user folder. There were three files named after my username "scotthogge" When I would drill down in my user folder I could not see the 64 GB file. When I used OmniDiskSweeper I could see the file and was able to delete it through that program. The problem arose after deletion of that file. Is there a way to bypass the username, password at the beginning and just get the computer to start up?

~ Scott