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Question

Why is my hard drive suddenly full?

Apr 11, 2012 11:46PM PDT

Hi,

My 1 T hard drive on a 26 inch iMac running 10.7.3 has suddenly filled up. The sum of all the apps docs users etc. only comes to about 340 G.

Disc utility says the disc is OK, but about 650G is listed as 'other'.

Anyone got any idea what has caused the disk to register as full, and how to free it up again?

Thanks in advance.
Paul

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Did you use Boot Camp and install
Apr 12, 2012 8:54AM PDT

windows by any chance?

P

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I have parallels
Apr 12, 2012 5:13PM PDT

but I've been running that for ages with no problems.

Paul

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Answer
You can learn more
Apr 20, 2012 11:56AM PDT

You can DL a free version or paid for a program like Disk Expert which will break down your HDD into files by size. The "other" partition or file can be identified as to location on the HDD, and you can delete it if possible. Look in the App store for choices available.

Or, buy and run DiskWarrior (essential utility!!!) which will help you correct directory damage that Disk Utility can sometimes miss.

--Steve

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OS pain
Apr 20, 2012 5:30PM PDT

You'll find that quite a portion of your missing 'other' is taken up with a 10.7 recovery disk. Also do you have 'Time Machine' turned on?? Confused

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Answer
Empty the trash?
Apr 20, 2012 10:29PM PDT

Have you ever emptied the trash? Right-cllck on the little trash bin on the dock and Open Trash to see what is in there. You can also click on Empty Trash to simply remove everything. Everything that you move to the Trash remains on your hard drive until you take the extra step of emptying the Trash.

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Answer
Virus?
Apr 21, 2012 9:07AM PDT

MACs are under attack the last couple of years. The NIST website's top ten vulnerabilities a few months ago were all in MAC systems.

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Vulnerabilities are not Virus's
Apr 21, 2012 10:19AM PDT

There are currently no virus's for OS X

P

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Sorry
Apr 22, 2012 12:03PM PDT
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Sorry, you rare being misled, that is NOT a virus
Apr 22, 2012 9:41PM PDT

it is a piece of Malware.

There is a huge difference between the two

You do know that current AV software does not find this Flashback trojan.


P

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Trojan
Apr 23, 2012 2:42AM PDT

Perhaps the current crop of AV software will not find it, but the Flashback trojan is defunct now if you keep your Mac up to date.
The last Java update from Apple fixed that.

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My point was that even had you been running
Apr 23, 2012 8:43AM PDT

AV software, the Flashback trojan would not have been detected.

Just like the first real virus for the Mac won't be

P