Hard drive full warning when not even close to full !!!

I'm stumped and I need some help!!!

I received a warning that my hd is full. I right click on hd in finder and it says capacity 499.25GB, available 2.55 GB. I check each subfolder (users, library, system, apps, rescued, etc) and it only adds up to less then 200GB, which should be accurate. My trash is emptied as well.

I tried OmniDiskSweeper as well. When it starts in the drive list it says 2.3 GB free, 462.4 GB used, 465.0 GB total... when i run a sweep on the drive, it only finds just under 200 GB?

Any help is greatly appreciated...

I would guess that somehow the swap file (used for virtual memory) has ballooned out of control.

I'm not sure if Onyx will do this, but AppleJack certainly will (which is handy to have on any Mac). It's used in Single User mode and is command line only, but really isn't that difficult to use. Make sure you put it in AutoPilot mode:

If the swap file is out of control, then a reboot of your system would take care of it. it is also possible that the issue could your cache folder ( users -> XXXX -> library -> Caches ) is bloaded.

lvd76 said:

I received a warning that my hd is full. I right click on hd in finder and it says capacity 499.25GB, available 2.55 GB... when i run a sweep on the drive, it only finds just under 200 GB?

Click to expand...

It sounds as if you have a cache or a log file that is out of control.

See:
Out-Of-Control Cache or Log File.
(and ignore the fact that this is a site for Entourage users)

Tried Onyx, did not work. Tried restarting, no luck. Just tried Disk Inventory X and no luck either, although it did say the total usage of my HD was 177.4 GB and in Finder it is saying 3.5 MB free out of 500 GB.

Resolved!!!

I went to a terminal window and checked the directory sizes on the hard drive. I noticed users folder said it was 390 GB. After digging down it was a corrupt mail folder on a different user account. I removed the mail account for that user, deleted the mail folder, and re added the account. Resolved!

I'm not sure why I could not see the size of the folder in finder when I was logged in as a different user even when they were both admin accounts.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Thanks for posting that fix. I would never have thought of that.I got that wring recently for only the second time sine the release of 10.0. in my case the culprit was as simple as a couple of uncompressed video clips stored in the wrong folder.

lvd76 said:

...t was a corrupt mail folder on a different user account. ...

Click to expand...

I'm glad that you found the culprit! My next guess would have been a false backup being written to your main drive.