Hard Drive Space Mysteriously Filling Up MacBook OX 10.5

by armwood Aug 14, 2009 11:51AM PDT

One day I had 8gb free the next day it was full and I did not add any files. I deleted some movies and I had space again then the same thing happened. I have a 120GB hard drive and I should have some space. My user profile only shows that I am using 41 gigs.

Discussion is locked

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Hard drive space filling up...

by GFW Aug 14, 2009 12:23PM PDT

I have had this happen too, two or three times....
A couple of possibilities. When using MS Word there is a periodic autosave, which continues as long as the program is running. If you are working with a large document you can get endless copies cached.

I also was using a program for converting video files - it is possible there was some big time caching going on there.

If you go to the system folder and view by list mode, then turn on the calculation of all file sizes, you will be able to see any really large caches. Be careful what you throw away, but clean out cache files, then reboot and see if your HD space is back.

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OmniDiskSweeper, Cache Out X

by bodybyjeep Aug 14, 2009 12:52PM PDT

Both Programs OmniDiskSweeper, Cache Out X, and Onyx may help to clean out the hard drive spaces you have lost.

OmniDiskSweeper checks each folder/file on your harddrive and gives you the amount of space it takes up.

Cache Out X removes cache files from the system and browser. After clearing the cache files, your system may slow down just the first time you boot up.

Both programs are in the CNET download.com
OmniDiskSweeper - http://download.cnet.com/OmniDiskSweeper/3000-18512_4-6226.html?tag=mncol
Cache Out X - http://download.cnet.com/Cache-Out-X/3000-2094_4-37505.html?tag=mncol

I hope these two programs will help for your mysterious problem

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Could be a few things,

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Aug 14, 2009 11:58PM PDT

but Spotlight has been known to do this on occassion.

To check, go to System Preferences, Spotlight.
Under Privacy, add your internal HD to the list of drives that Spotlight does not index.
Leave it there for a couple of minutes and then delete it from that list.

Spotlight with then create a brand new index, which will take while.
Check available space after that

P

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Hard drive space filling up...

by armwood Aug 15, 2009 7:03PM PDT

I have tried all of the suggestions to no avail. I have found that there are 47gb in the private folder. I do no know what this is.

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hard drive space

by canadianlumberjack Sep 12, 2011 8:10PM PDT

I have the same problem. My free space switches from 30g to 0 few times in a day. I used Onyx. I tried to put off airport, it seem to have a lilnk. 10.5 seem to me more instable than 10.4.

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Mac Hard Drive Space Mysteriously Filling Up Mac Book Pro 1T

by healthygreensafe Jun 23, 2014 4:16AM PDT

I am having the same problem: my 1 Tb hard drive is filling up to capacity daily even if I do nothing.
asically it is turning my Mac into a doorstopper and shutting down my business. Please help!

Mac Book Pro 15"
Mac OS 10.8.6
Build 12E55

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.7 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBP91.00D3.B08
SMC Version (system): 2.1f173
Serial Number (system): **********************
Hardware UUID: F994D04C-2003-5AA5-9798-EB6F367FB9AF
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

HELP!
Linda form PA

Note: This post was edited by a forum moderator to edit out serial number to prevent abuse/fraud on 06/23/2014 at 12:45 PM PT

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This thread is more than 1773 days old.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jun 23, 2014 5:24AM PDT

So the ideas here may be dated. But let's say your HDD fills up. Now tell the forum (hopefully in a new post) what you do to get back to work.

Also, tell if you can what work is. Video editing is well known to fill drive space and along the work flow or process it's far from automatic when it comes to cleanup.
Bob

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Maybe this will help?

by Vrijbuiter--2008 Oct 25, 2014 8:53AM PDT

By accident I saw this tread and may be I can be of help. A few years ago I have had capacity problems with my MacBook Pro (mid 2009). With Disk Utility I have nearly no free space but using cmd-i on my Mac icon it says that free space was about 100 GB. I did not understand what could be the cause, but using 'Erase Free Space' in Disk Utility give me again the same free space as in cmd-i (it takes hours to erase).
After nearly half a year I find out the cause. On my Mac Time Machine was always activated. Putting it in 'off' after a back up was the solution. After that free space is always equal with Disk Utility and cmd-i. No free space problems anymore.

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Not sure I would agree with you,

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Oct 26, 2014 12:07AM PDT

I know of nobody who turns off Time Machine after it backs up.
When do you turn it back on again?
Time Machine is a set and forget system that does not need any babysitting

That said, if what you are doing works for you, that's good.

P

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Back Up disk

by Vrijbuiter--2008 Oct 26, 2014 1:18AM PDT

I have an external disk (1,5 TB) I use for my back up by Time Machine. When the program 'Time Machine' is on on my MacBook Pro it uses all the time space of my disk. Warnings like 'not enough space on your disk' show with Disk Utility that there was indeed a few GB's left. Information through cmd-i shows there must be still a lot of space on my internal MacBook Pro disk. Putting my Time Machine into 'off' solved my problem.

Hard Drive Space Mysteriously Filling Up MacBook OX 10.5

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