Help! Can't delete video and audio files from SSD

Tried Googling the answer to no avail, so hopefully I can find some help here.

I moved my iTunes library from SSD to HDD drive on my iMac some time ago, but I appear to have been left with a ton of ghost files of all the video and audio that was once on my SSD, even though I deleted them. I can't find them when searching the disk using a disk scanner like Daisy Disk or just rooting manually through the folders. But according to About This Mac (see attachment), there's around 70 gigs of video and audio. But where!?

I eventually tracked them down using Spotlight, but only by searching specifically for video and audio files. But despite now being able to see these files, none of them can be deleted. I can't modify them, Spotlight doesn't show me the folder family they're in, nothing. Just these huge ghost files I can't do anything with sitting there eating my SSD (second attachment).

Any ideas on getting rid of these files?

G'day and welcome to the forums.

What is the operating system on? Does not appear on the screen shot of the SSD. If so simply format the SSD.

harryb2448 said:

G'day and welcome to the forums.

What is the operating system on? Does not appear on the screen shot of the SSD. If so simply format the SSD.

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Thanks!

It's OS X Mavericks - version 10.9.

I format it through disk utility, right? Can I just wholesale move everything I want saved to my HDD before formatting? Even applications?

Sorry, am fairly new to Macs after long-time PC use.

Before you do any formatting, which drive are you booting from? If you're booting from the SSD in your iMac, let us know before doing anything.

chscag said:

Before you do any formatting, which drive are you booting from? If you're booting from the SSD in your iMac, let us know before doing anything.

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Booting from SSD - that's the startup disk with all the System files on it and applications.

Formatting scares me. I just wanted to play Burial at Sea!

OK, that's what I thought. Answer one more question for us.... Were you using Time Machine to backup the SSD? And do not format your SSD.

chscag said:

OK, that's what I thought. Answer one more question for us.... Were you using Time Machine to backup the SSD? And do not format your SSD.

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Yep, using Time Machine. I heard that this could create these shadow files on my system, but shouldn't they show up when using something like Daisy Disk?

I did find a bunch of other backed up stuff, which turned out to be mobile backups from iTunes of various phones, iPads, etc, and I deleted these which freed up quite a bit of space, but it didn't account for this huge amount of video and audio stuff that's still on there.

Appreciate your time with this.

I'm beginning to think those files are shadow files created by Time Machine although the format is not what I've seen before. Do you still have your Time Machine external drive handy? If you do, try attaching the drive to your iMac once more and do a backup. Leave the drive in place and then check again to see if those ghost files still show up.

We definitely do not want to format the SSD as that could result in a loss of your data and a possible headache later trying to get everything realigned.

chscag said:

I'm beginning to think those files are shadow files created by Time Machine although the format is not what I've seen before. Do you still have your Time Machine external drive handy? If you do, try attaching the drive to your iMac once more and do a backup. Leave the drive in place and then check again to see if those ghost files still show up.

We definitely do not want to format the SSD as that could result in a loss of your data and a possible headache later trying to get everything realigned.

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Feel like the biggest idiot. I booted up my Windows partition, and only then could I see all these files in the 'Home' user on my SSD. I log in under a different user profile. They must have somehow ended up under 'Home' when I was porting all my data across from PC to this iMac. Have deleted all the phantom movie and audio files and suddenly have acres of room on my SSD.

So I guess Spotlight can see files under different user profiles but can't do anything to them until you're logged in as that specific user.

Really appreciate you listening to my problems on this one. Am still getting into Macs, so this has been quite the learning curve.

Really appreciate you listening to my problems on this one. Am still getting into Macs, so this has been quite the learning curve.

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No problem. I really didn't give different user profiles a thought, but I'm glad you discovered that by yourself. At first the learning curve can seem a bit steep, but after a while you'll really appreciate how friendly and easy your Mac has made computing for you.

Have fun and visit us often.