I'm in trouble

My Macbook Pro isn't very old, (early July). The past few weeks, it's been quite slow, and recently it's been worse than ever.

Today I tried to add 4 GB of files to my 500 GB hard drive (which should have been easy, I should be well under the limit), but 3/4 of the way through it said the startup disk is full. I went and checked my disk utility and it showed me that my hard drive was filled with 499.12 GB of OTHER.




I think I'm ****ed, so I'm taking the bare minimum, and as soon as I get it on my external hard drive, I'm wiping the slate clean.

Am I overreacting? If so, what could it be? (I am an audio professional and often my programs take a lot of memory, but this is extreme). If not, past wiping my hard drive, what can I do to ensure I have ridded myself of the any issue or further issues?

tl;dr
I think I have a virus, so I'm wiping my hard drive. Is that enough???

Well, I'd first run Disk Utility and Verify the drive and Permissions, then try a reboot. Don't move anything yet, just see if DU can fix it.

Is there anything in the Trash? If so...empty the trash.

- Nick

Its interesting that its reporting Zero KB for everything except Other. I'd expect it to report you have Apps and other things installed..

Do what the other have suggested and see if that resolves it for you..

Once you have more space, you can install Disk Inventory X and see where all your files are and how much space they are taking..

Raz0rEdge said:

Its interesting that its reporting Zero KB for everything except Other. I'd expect it to report you have Apps and other things installed..

Click to expand...

It was my initial thought that a process keep creating content but you point to something intriguing - why is the entire disk reported as "other"?

Try Disk Inventory X and DaisyDisk. They both do the same thing but I'm interested to know if they report back the same thing.

It's more like the system report has lost track of what's there. I get the "All is Other" from iTunes when I first connect my iPhone. Then it clears and shows what's there. Could be the same thing here...it's still trying to categorize the drive.

I think I have a virus, so I'm wiping my hard drive. Is that enough???

Click to expand...

Nope, nope, there are NO viruses for Macs, so you definitely don't have one. Wiping the drive is like using a cannon to kill a fly. WAY overkill.

MacInWin said:

Wiping the drive is like using a cannon to kill a fly.

Click to expand...

That could be a lot of fun though...

HI UhohGuys

You mention you are an audio professional. Does this mean you are recording music and/or mixing music and if so what program are you using. Just how much audio work are you doing on your mac?

The reason I am asking is most of these types of programs create temp files and cache files that can get huge. Could this be happening?

I once emptied all the built up cache files and temps from my computer and gained 750GB.

Lisa

Or maybe even Time Machine running amok and doing its backup to the boot drive if the normal backup drive hasn't been connected for a while.

I've seen TM do that several times that left virtually no space left on the boot drive.

It is under warranty. Take it back.