Macintosh HD question

[jif]

I got a 27inch 2.8ghz, quad core iMac, with a 1TB HDD, running 12gig of RAM

I'm not an expert with the gubbins that live inside my mac and I'm confused

when i look at my activity monitor, it tells me the space used is over 815 gig... leaving only 185 gig free (free space in disc usage)

now I'm worried what all that stuff is,

I'm the only user on the mac and when I check the the size of my user file, (using, right click - 'get info') I've only got about 340gigs of docs/pix/music

I run aperture, and I've emptied the trash bins in aperture and in the dock. (the aperture file will be in my pix and therefore part of the 340 gig.

If my stuff only takes 340 gig, why is activity monitor telling me the mac has more than double that amount of stuff

Can someone help me out and tell me why I've got hardly any space left....

thanks ever so much

 

[jif]

he's screen shots of my activity monitor and my user info to make my post clear

 

[bobtomay]

I highly recommend WhatSize for discovering where all the data is stored - it's been worth the money to me.

There are a couple of nice free ones like Disk Inventory X.

 

[jif]

thanks for the reply, i'll have a look at that

the problem is, i know whats in my user files, but not the rest of the volume, and I'd be very worried about deleting stuff that I don't understand

 

[Dysfunction]

What OS are you running?

 

[bobtomay]

You're not thinking about deleting anything until you find out where/what that other data happens to be. Right now, you just want to find the where/what.

 

[jif]

What OS are you running?

OSX lion

 

[Dysfunction]

Ok, click on the Apple, then on "About this Mac" then "more info" then on the Storage tab.


What's it say there? Specifically, in the 'Backups' section

 

[jif]

hmmm... I'm more confused now

I've downloaded whatsize and scanned my Mac HD. In volumes, it says my mac HD is 392GB, and me as the user is 364GB (a shared user is about 4GB) now that sounds about right...

why is my disc usage in activity monitor saying my mac HD is almost full ???

 

[jif]

Ok, click on the Apple, then on "About this Mac" then "more info" then on the Storage tab.


What's it say there? Specifically, in the 'Backups' section

zero back ups, but there is 602gb of 'other' ??

 

[Dysfunction]

Other is anything that ISN'T one of the other categories, so the OS, other files etc etc etc. I was curious about backups because Lion will back up locally if a time machine drive isn't attached, which is a feature you can turn off.

 

[jif]

Other is anything that ISN'T one of the other categories, so the OS, other files etc etc etc. I was curious about backups because Lion will back up locally if a time machine drive isn't attached, which is a feature you can turn off.

I've got time machine set up

 

[chas_m]

Try Grand Perspective or Disk Inventory X (both free) to see what that 604GB is. What your looking for is a LARGE block or set of blocks that aren't something obvious to you.

 

[jif]

what exactly is a volume ??

I've ran duplicates option in 'whatsize' and almost everything is duplicated, as shown on the attached screen shot

It's saying the original is in my user directory, (/users/jeff/documents..) then there seems to be a duplicate in 'volume/macintosh HD/users/jeff/documents...

please can someone explain this to me. As I'm lost now


EDIT - when i highlight any of the duplicates and 'reveal in finder' it shows a complete copy of my whole HDD including my user account, complete with coloured labels in a hidden directory called 'volume'


** chas - am i right in thinking grand perspective is similar to what size ?

 

[jif]

Try Grand Perspective or Disk Inventory X (both free) to see what that 604GB is. What your looking for is a LARGE block or set of blocks that aren't something obvious to you.

am i right in thinking grand perspective is similar to what size ?

I dont 'think' I'm looking for a large block of something, i have a feeling my whole user directory is duplicated on my HDD somewhere (perhaps in this volume??? whatever that is)

and if this is right.. I'm clearly doing some wrong ??

 

[cwa107]

am i right in thinking grand perspective is similar to what size ?

I dont 'think' I'm looking for a large block of something, i have a feeling my whole user directory is duplicated on my HDD somewhere (perhaps in this volume??? whatever that is)

and if this is right.. I'm clearly doing some wrong ??

WhatSize gives you a hierarchical view of your disk based on size, allowing you to start at the top level and then drill down to find why files make that top level folder so large.

You have to understand a bit about what you're looking at, but it's very specific and easy to understand for me.

I don't quite understand the point of tools like GrandPerspective and Disk Inventory X, which provide an abstract, graphical overview of the disk. For me, that just makes things more confusing, especially for a casual user.

At the top level (the farthest left pane), you should be seeing the folders at the root of the disk, in order of size. Start by drilling down from the biggest one and see how it's represented. Delete what isn't needed (assuming you can identify and understand what each object is - be sure to backup first!). Then move on to each subsequent folder at the top level and repeat the process.

Typically when you have that kind of disk consumption, there's some large video files (do you do a lot of editing in iMovie or Final Cut, for example?).

 

[bobtomay]

First - get out of duplicates - I cannot impress upon you enough that you shouldn't be doing anything in there until you are familiar with and know much more about OS X. WhatSize will show you "everything" - including all hidden/system files/folders on your machine. Don't' do anything in there.

All we're trying to do is find out where/what the big chunk of data is taking up the space on your drive. We're not trying to delete/move anything - not yet.

Go back and click on Browser and follow the largest folder size down to find out what's taking up the space. Ex. - on the following - it's Users - then my home folder - then my music that's taking up 121 GB of space.

I have no idea based on the pic you're showing there where you're getting any 390 GB. It is clearly indicating - 999 GB capacity - 815 used and 183 free.

 

[jif]

Firstly, thank you so much for taking the time out to help me through this. I really appreciate it, and would be lost without your help.

I've shut down the duplicates screen as your right I know very little about the inner workings of the OSX

I've added a screenshot of 'what size' in browser view. You'll see the biggest file is this mysterious 'volume'. this seems to be a duplicate of my macs drives. I notice you don't have this on your screenshot.

Do you know why it is there, as its just a duplicate of the rest of my mac

 

[bobtomay]

??? That looks strange.

What's inside the two different Users folders?

Have you got File Vault enabled or did have it enabled?

 

[jif]

vault - not to my knowledge, what is it ?