Subfolder jm under 1TB HD

Joined
Jun 13, 2012
Messages
531
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas... as of 23 Feb 2018
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac mid-2011, ipad.Air 2', iPhone 8+.
My mid 2011 iMac is running extremely slow on startup. Get occasional beachballs when changing to different websites also slow to get the website. An icon of my HD sits on the top right of my desktop. it now shows it is under the jm/ folder which appears under my HD. Had no subfolder before. Not sure how this jm sub folder happened Want to get rid of it. Any ideas out there?
i am also going replace my 1 TB HD with a 250 or 512 GB SSD to try and speed things up. once I find out what this /jm is.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, using only 89GB on my 1TB HD. Have 20GB of RAM.
 
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
10,703
Reaction score
1,158
Points
113
Location
Rhode Island
Your Mac's Specs
M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rdGen, iPhone 13 ProMax, Watch S7, 2018 15" MBP, AirPods Pro
Do you have a backup solution in place? It's hard to know where a folder came from, when you're not using the computer.
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,453
Reaction score
3,808
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Also, using only 89GB on my 1TB HD.
And that is the problem right there. Not enough free space. Drives should be in the >20% free for spinning hard drives, >10% for SSD. You need to clean some stuff off that drive to get back performance.

As for the stuff on the desktop, can you capture that part of the screen as a screenshot and post it here? I don't understand what you mean by the jm/ subfolder comments. Thanks
 
Joined
May 21, 2012
Messages
10,703
Reaction score
1,158
Points
113
Location
Rhode Island
Your Mac's Specs
M1 Mac Studio, 11" iPad Pro 3rdGen, iPhone 13 ProMax, Watch S7, 2018 15" MBP, AirPods Pro
And that is the problem right there. Not enough free space. Drives should be in the >20% free for spinning hard drives, >10% for SSD. You need to clean some stuff off that drive to get back performance.

As for the stuff on the desktop, can you capture that part of the screen as a screenshot and post it here? I don't understand what you mean by the jm/ subfolder comments. Thanks

That refers to the space used, not free space. Just saying.


Sent from my 12.9” iPad Pro 1stGen using Mac-Forums
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,453
Reaction score
3,808
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Ah, misread that, thanks Bob.
 

IWT


Joined
Jan 23, 2009
Messages
10,218
Reaction score
2,175
Points
113
Location
Born Scotland. Worked all over UK. Live in Wales
Your Mac's Specs
M2 Max Studio Extra, 32GB memory, 4TB, Sonoma 14.4 Apple 5K Retina Studio Monitor
Jake,

Doesn't the OP say he is only using 89GB on his 1TB Drive? Now, I took that to mean that there was a vast reserve of space. (1TB minus 89GB)

But I do see how it could be taken differently; and if your interpretation is correct (and you usually are:D), then he very definitely needs to free up some space, and how!

And yes, a screenshot of the icon and folder would help.

Ian
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,453
Reaction score
3,808
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Ian, I misread it. Now that I look at it, he said he is using only 89G of 1T, which is a BB in a shoebox. (For those that remember BB guns.)
 
OP
B
Joined
Jun 13, 2012
Messages
531
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas... as of 23 Feb 2018
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac mid-2011, ipad.Air 2', iPhone 8+.
I have a copy Cloner backup which is about a year old. Tried to attach screen shot but don't know where it went. It's just a picture of a (my) HD and written underneath is:
jm/
999.35G....61GB free

Not sure why it would say 61 GB free when I actually have over 900GB free.
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,453
Reaction score
3,808
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Hm, from that I suspect that your drive has been renamed "jm/" and that you have something consuming a ton of space on it in hidden files. Do you have Time Machine turned on and is the backup drive attached? If the answers are Yes and No, then maybe the space is taken up with snapshots. I would suggest you open Disk Utility in the Utility folder under Applications and see what it reports about your drive, both in terms of name and space available.

EDIT: and the 61GB free will be the source of the beach balling, as I posted earlier.
 
OP
B
Joined
Jun 13, 2012
Messages
531
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas... as of 23 Feb 2018
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac mid-2011, ipad.Air 2', iPhone 8+.
Anybody have any clue what 'jm' is?

I could use CCC since I keep all of my documents on a USB drive, not on my Mac. Photos and iTunes library are also on my iPad and iPhone and probably in the cloud anyway so I should not lose that either. Not sure how to erase then used CCC to load and reboot. Any body with help on that.
Last thing, should I get a new iMac with SSD (if apple offers that), or just go with a new internal SSD drive to replace my internal HD on this Mac? Opinions?
 
OP
B
Joined
Jun 13, 2012
Messages
531
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas... as of 23 Feb 2018
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac mid-2011, ipad.Air 2', iPhone 8+.
TM is not connected and has not been for some time.
When I go to Disk utility it shows the 1TB HDD as all blue, like all 1 TB is being used by /jm. When I got to the subfolder /jm it shows only a 82.42GB blue portion out of the full 1 TB. Seems /jm has replaced my HDD. How can I get rid of /jm? Can I resort to my original HDD as when I bought the computer new? NOTE: theRESTORE function and ERASE function in Disk Utility are greyed out and cannot be accessed from disk Utility.
 
OP
B
Joined
Jun 13, 2012
Messages
531
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas... as of 23 Feb 2018
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac mid-2011, ipad.Air 2', iPhone 8+.
Google indicates /jm is the country code for Jamaica! Haven't down loaded any reggae music, so must be some kind of malware. Malwarebytes doesn't show anything.
Seems I should try to restore to the original or erase and used CCC to reload my HDD
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,453
Reaction score
3,808
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Is TM turned on? If so, all your space could be in snapshots. To see if it's turned on, System Preferences>Time Machine and see if the "Back Up Automatically" is checked. Uncheck it unless you want it to make an hourly snapshot, or you can get rid of snapshots by connecting the backup drive and let it do a TM backup, which will clean up the snapshots as they are folded into the backup.

And now I'm confused. You originally said it was "jm/" and now you say it's "/jm" but those two are very different, so which is it?

Also, you said,
like all 1 TB is being used by /jm.
So is it that the space IS in a partition called /jm or are you just guessing? Again, it's critical that we understand exactly what you are seeing because we cannot see for ourselves.
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,453
Reaction score
3,808
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
Jamaica has nothing to do with it.

When was the last CCC clone made? Restoring to it will lost everything changed since then, if you decide to go drastic.

must be some kind of malware
What makes you think that? Malware is very rare, and doesn't rename boot drives willy-nilly. Not in the macOS universe, anyway.
 
OP
B
Joined
Jun 13, 2012
Messages
531
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas... as of 23 Feb 2018
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac mid-2011, ipad.Air 2', iPhone 8+.
It is /jm, my error. Let me say again, Disk Utility shows my 1 TB HDD is totally full, evidently being totally used by the subfolder /jm. The subfolder /jm shows that it has 1 TB in it and is only using 82.42GB of that 1 TB.
The reason I think it may be Malware is that this is something that happened within the last month or so. Prior to that my HDD had no /jm subfolder. I didn't make a subfolder for my HDD so what else can it be then some kind of malware? Maybe my HDD is failing, but i don't think a HDD can create a subfolder when failing. I am willing to listen to any alternative theories on why this is like it is.
My CCC was made at least a year or more ago. My photos and music can be accessed from my iPad, iPhone or iCloud so I should not lose that. All my records tax returns and other important documents i keep on a flash drive and not on my HDD. Pete

- - - Updated - - -

How can I transfer that 82.42 GB of data out of the /jm subfolder and into the my HDD and delete the /jm subfolder?
 
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
15,453
Reaction score
3,808
Points
113
Location
Winchester, VA
Your Mac's Specs
MBP 16" 2023 (M3 Pro), iPhone 15 Pro, plus ATVs, AWatch, MacMinis (multiple)
OK, Pete, I'm still confused. Before we start trying to move stuff, we need to understand exactly what is the structure of your drive and so far it's not clear, at least to me. Disk Utility doesn't show folders, just partitions so it cannot show that a subfolder named jm has 1 TB in it. How about this: Open Disk Utility and take some screenshots of what is there and get them posted here for us to see for ourselves? Shift-Cmd-5 will open the screenshot manager to allow you to take the shot. So, open DU, click on the hard drive name in the left column and take a screenshot, then click on the indented name just below that and take another. Post them both here.

Thanks.

Any kind of misadventure can cause a strange change in folder names. Have a cat? They tend to like to walk across keyboards, leaving behind chaos.
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
When in Disk Utility does /JM show up there? I am wondering if JM is some sort of partition or container file. If not what Jake said is probably your issue. You never answered Jakes question. Open System Preferences, Time machine. Is Time Machine enabled? If so then your drive is full of snapshots since the external is not hooked up.
 
OP
B
Joined
Jun 13, 2012
Messages
531
Reaction score
23
Points
18
Location
Las Vegas... as of 23 Feb 2018
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac mid-2011, ipad.Air 2', iPhone 8+.
Sent the screen shots. And yes, we do have a Ragdoll cat who has stepped on the keyboard before Just started letting her watch bird videos from u tube Now she sits in front of the blank screen and waits for me to turn the computer on.
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Screenshots not showing up.
 

dtravis7


Retired Staff
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
30,133
Reaction score
703
Points
113
Location
Modesto, Ca.
Your Mac's Specs
MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Open System Preferences, Time machine. Is Time Machine enabled?
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top