What is this other taking so much space on the hd ?

ellenmac · Aug 28, 2013

I have noticed how much space i have left on my hard drive, there is a section called other taking an awful lot of space. On my 4 month old macbook pro it is all ready 26 gb and on my iMac it is over 75 GB . How can this be reduced? On my Retina display macbook i only have 128 G available and lost all ready 26G besides what is on it, so now there is only 77 G empty. Can anybody explain this to me please?

harryb2448 · Aug 28, 2013

Have a read through this link on 'other'. A 128GB SSD may simply be not large enough if you are into iTunes and Apps etc. Running Mountain Lion disk usage is 41GB with formatting and I am not into photos, iTunes etc.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3199598?start=0&tstart=0

bobtomay · Aug 28, 2013

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/switcher-hangout/291480-hard-drive-storage-other-10-7-10-8-a.html

ellenmac · Aug 28, 2013

harryb2448 said:
Have a read through this link on 'other'. A 128GB SSD may simply be not large enough if you are into iTunes and Apps etc. Running Mountain Lion disk usage is 41GB with formatting and I am not into photos, iTunes etc.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3199598?start=0&tstart=0

Thank you for your reply. I only use ITunes for some music, and have only two apps on the laptop. I mainly bought this laptop for travelling so I can put my photos on to have a look. I then delete them when I get home. i also use it to watch missed TV shows.

ellenmac · Aug 28, 2013

bobtomay said:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/switcher-hangout/291480-hard-drive-storage-other-10-7-10-8-a.html

Thank you, I had a look. Still dont how can i reduce the other storage usage.

bobtomay · Aug 28, 2013

imho...

Quit using that ridiculous thing that Apple decided to use to show how the space is being used on your Mac.
There is only one single thing that graphic is good for - looking at how much free space you have left on the drive.
If you can use it for that alone, then ok.
If not, just forget that graph even exists and forget that you ever saw such a thing as "other".
As far as I can tell, it serves absolutely no other purpose than to cause folks to ask the same question you're asking.

Use Activity Monitor to view how much free space you have on the drive.
And get one of the apps recommended in that link so you can see specifically what is using the space on your drive.

Oh, and don't go deleting anything that you are not absolutely sure what it is.

ellenmac · Aug 29, 2013

bobtomay said:
imho...

Quit using that ridiculous thing that Apple decided to use to show how the space is being used on your Mac.
There is only one single thing that graphic is good for - looking at how much free space you have left on the drive.
If you can use it for that alone, then ok.
If not, just forget that graph even exists and forget that you ever saw such a thing as "other".
As far as I can tell, it serves absolutely no other purpose than to cause folks to ask the same question you're asking.

Use Activity Monitor to view how much free space you have on the drive.
And get one of the apps recommended in that link so you can see specifically what is using the space on your drive.

Oh, and don't go deleting anything that you are not absolutely sure what it is.

I used the Activity Monitor as you said. It showed the same free space as the other way. Still need to find out what is taking the space away though. Thank you for your advice.