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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
storage problem
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<blockquote data-quote="Slydude" data-source="post: 1120342" data-attributes="member: 131855"><p>I'm sure someone else can give a more thorough answer but these files are mainly "swap files". Let's use Safari as an example but the same is true for other programs. When a program is opened the data that it needs to operate is loaded into any free memory (ram) that's available. As other programs are opened, and load there data into ram, there is less free space. Since the OS needs some "free" (open) memory to operate well it writes data that has not been used recently to the hard drive. The data is still available for programs to use but it is on the hard drive until requested or the program in question, in this case Safari, is shut down.</p><p></p><p>These "swap files" are invisible to the user under most circumstances. They are generally stored on the "boot" drive and can vary considerably in size. The less memory (ram) you have the more likely it is that programs will need to write "swap files" to the hard drive. Four GB f ram is probably sufficient for most tasks though.</p><p></p><p>Here's a question though. When you first boot your Mac and the Finder and Dock are the only thing opens how much free space does the Finder say that your hard drive has? If you have recently deleted 3 GB of stuff and emptied the trash the number should be somewhere near 3 GB or more unless one of the programs is not cleaning up after itself well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Slydude, post: 1120342, member: 131855"] I'm sure someone else can give a more thorough answer but these files are mainly "swap files". Let's use Safari as an example but the same is true for other programs. When a program is opened the data that it needs to operate is loaded into any free memory (ram) that's available. As other programs are opened, and load there data into ram, there is less free space. Since the OS needs some "free" (open) memory to operate well it writes data that has not been used recently to the hard drive. The data is still available for programs to use but it is on the hard drive until requested or the program in question, in this case Safari, is shut down. These "swap files" are invisible to the user under most circumstances. They are generally stored on the "boot" drive and can vary considerably in size. The less memory (ram) you have the more likely it is that programs will need to write "swap files" to the hard drive. Four GB f ram is probably sufficient for most tasks though. Here's a question though. When you first boot your Mac and the Finder and Dock are the only thing opens how much free space does the Finder say that your hard drive has? If you have recently deleted 3 GB of stuff and emptied the trash the number should be somewhere near 3 GB or more unless one of the programs is not cleaning up after itself well. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
storage problem
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