SWF, 28, seeks short answer to simple HD problem

jenn · Feb 6, 2006

Guys-

Once again, the 40 gig (actually 37.3) HD in my 12" pb is full. Over the last couple of months, I have on three occasions been forced to dump 2+ gigs of data.

After each effort to free HD space, it took only a week or two to fill the HD again, without me significantly adding to the HD.

I have used Omnidisksweeper and Disk Inventory to confirm that all files, including hidden system files, amount to no more than 23 gigs.

I'm not only being cheated out of 14 gigs, whatever is eating the extra space is quickly gobbling up more space as soon as I free it.

Any ideas?

deus_ex_machina · Feb 6, 2006

SWM, 25, offering solution to simple HD problem:

Questions: Is the trash can emptied? Permissions repaired? Is this under Get Info that says the HD is full or when you save, it says "Hard drive full" or something to that effect? What types of files are you saving (reason being, music files can be recopied in iTunes so you have dups of everything)?

KLank · Feb 6, 2006

deus_ex_machina said:
Questions: Is the trash can emptied? Permissions repaired? Is this under Get Info that says the HD is full or when you save, it says "Hard drive full" or something to that effect? What types of files are you saving (reason being, music files can be recopied in iTunes so you have dups of everything)?

Yeah, what he said. Emptying the trash & repairing permissions should take care of the missing 14 GB.

Also, if you subscribe to a number of Podcasts (especially the video ones) they can fill up your HD quickly too.

jenn · Feb 6, 2006

Oh! You have to empty the trash to free up the space occupied by what you put in there!

Just kidding. The 'f' in SWF stands for female, not 'functionally braindead' :girl:

But seriously, I do appreciate your responses.

Unfortunately, repairing disk permissions is the first thing I tried a few months ago. I even did it again recently for no real reason.

The issue of duplicate files is indeed real, and I exploited it to free up some of that space over the last couple months. For example, all digital photos rotated upright in iPhoto are saved in their 'original,' tilted format. I recovered a gig by deleting all folders named 'originals' in /users/jenn/Pictures/iPhoto Library/(date)

But here I am.

Disk Utility tells me I'm using 35 gigs out of 37.3

I'm not, though.

Bummer.

neye:

deus_ex_machina · Feb 6, 2006

jenn said:
Oh! You have to empty the trash to free up the space occupied by what you put in there!

Just kidding. The 'f' in SWF stands for female, not 'functionally braindead' :girl:

But seriously, I do appreciate your responses.

Unfortunately, repairing disk permissions is the first thing I tried a few months ago. I even did it again recently for no real reason.

The issue of duplicate files is indeed real, and I exploited it to free up some of that space over the last couple months. For example, all digital photos rotated upright in iPhoto are saved in their 'original,' tilted format. I recovered a gig by deleting all folders named 'originals' in /users/jenn/Pictures/iPhoto Library/(date)

But here I am.

Disk Utility tells me I'm using 35 gigs out of 37.3

I'm not, though.

Bummer. neye:

I'd say the only other thing you COULD try is trashing some preferences, but I can't say at the moment which ones. In your libraries/prefs there's many .plist files you could remove, the system creating default ones when they're trashed. It's a good way to reset. Give that a try, Jane Fonda

jenn · Feb 6, 2006

the preferences folder in my Library folder is only 4.5mb. Each individual .plist file is like 4k.

Those two apps really tell me that all files amount to 24 gigs, and it makes sense. Is it possible that my HD is 'fragmented' or whatever that entails, such that I must use one of these bootable aftermarket disk utility apps?

BTW, the 'f' in 'Jane Fonda' does stand for 'functionally braindead.'

:girl:

trpnmonkey41 · Feb 6, 2006

http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/ that program will tell you where all of your storage is going

deus_ex_machina · Feb 6, 2006

jenn said:
the preferences folder in my Library folder is only 4.5mb. Each individual .plist file is like 4k.

Those two apps really tell me that all files amount to 24 gigs, and it makes sense. Is it possible that my HD is 'fragmented' or whatever that entails, such that I must use one of these bootable aftermarket disk utility apps?

I recommended trashing prefs so it'd fix a possible bug that's misreading your free space. If a preference got corrupted, trashing it to make a new one might fix the problem. Thing is I'm not sure which preference to trash at the moment - you may cruise your lib and see if a pref looks akin to your problem

- and I'm spent.

P.S. - For the record, I never liked Jane Fonda, either.

Edit: or just listen to trpnmonkey...

jenn · Feb 6, 2006

Thanks deus!

I'll try that.

I'm also gonna try Whatsize, though it looks a lot like the other two I tried.

rman · Feb 6, 2006

SWF, 28, seeks short answer to simple HD problem

If I may translate: A young lady is looking for an answer to a hard problem.

deus_ex_machina · Feb 6, 2006

rman said:
If I may translate: A young lady is looking for an answer to a hard problem.

oh, rman.

SWF, 28, seeks short answer to simple HD problem

jenn

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