Whats using up my MAC Hard Disk?
Discussion
Quick one for those who know?
My Hard disk on my Powerbook is showing that I have only 2GB free (80GB disk). I have checked the obvious things such as Photos and Music and these are only using 38GB between them.
I understand that I'm not ever going to see the full 80GB capacity but is there a easy way to find out what else is taking up the remaining 42GB?
I have checked the obvious such as the backup directory and that is empty, I don't have many other files i.e. documents being stored.....
Any ideas?
Cheers
My Hard disk on my Powerbook is showing that I have only 2GB free (80GB disk). I have checked the obvious things such as Photos and Music and these are only using 38GB between them.
I understand that I'm not ever going to see the full 80GB capacity but is there a easy way to find out what else is taking up the remaining 42GB?
I have checked the obvious such as the backup directory and that is empty, I don't have many other files i.e. documents being stored.....
Any ideas?
Cheers
Sounds like something has been corrupted or the VM file has taken a lot of the free space.
Download and run OnyX to delete caches and VM.
After the restart, if things aren't back to normal again, restart with your boot DVD and choose Disk Utility - run Repair Disk and that should detect and fix any irregularities.
Download and run OnyX to delete caches and VM.
After the restart, if things aren't back to normal again, restart with your boot DVD and choose Disk Utility - run Repair Disk and that should detect and fix any irregularities.
Open a Finder window, make sure it's in List view, hit Command-J and make sure 'calculate all sizes' is checked, and you should be able to work through the system and work it out quite easily. Start with a window for your whole hard drive (Mac HD by default) and work your way through till you see which folders are taking up so much space. You'll want to clear it out pretty quick though as it will cause slowdowns with that little free space left. You may have to wait every so often for it to calculate the bigger folders.
You could also try using spotlight. I'm not up on the latest syntax, but do a search in Finder for date:>1/1/2000 and then add a new search line by clicking on the plus sign, then select "Other" - Size and then say Greater Than 10Mb.
Not sure if it will throw up all files (some may be hidden) and frustratingly you don't seem to be able to add a column for file size itself in the resulting list, but if you sort by Kind, you'll get an idea of any whoppers that might exist (log files etc).
Not sure if it will throw up all files (some may be hidden) and frustratingly you don't seem to be able to add a column for file size itself in the resulting list, but if you sort by Kind, you'll get an idea of any whoppers that might exist (log files etc).
Thanks for the advice. I have gone through and had a detailed look and it seems as if the OSX Library is the next largest offender at nearly 14GB outside of the music and pictures.
So my conclusuion is after adding all this up is that there is no issues with my hard disk other than I have too much "stuff" and I need to move some pictures and music off on to my external disk.
Is is possible to upgrade the internal disk on a Powerbook G4? I see on the apple web site that they are now doign at 250GB disk for the new powerbook - is this available as an upgrade?
So my conclusuion is after adding all this up is that there is no issues with my hard disk other than I have too much "stuff" and I need to move some pictures and music off on to my external disk.
Is is possible to upgrade the internal disk on a Powerbook G4? I see on the apple web site that they are now doign at 250GB disk for the new powerbook - is this available as an upgrade?
The 250 will likely be a SATA, unless SATA hasn't trickled down to 2.5" drives yet.
Otherwise, as long as it's EIDE, and 2.5", then upgrade away, but I'd also suggest an external FW enclosure, and put the old drive in it.
Boot from it, and using one of the many cloning Utilities available, make a bootable clone.
Job done.
Otherwise, as long as it's EIDE, and 2.5", then upgrade away, but I'd also suggest an external FW enclosure, and put the old drive in it.
Boot from it, and using one of the many cloning Utilities available, make a bootable clone.
Job done.
levron73 said:
I have gone through and had a detailed look and it seems as if the OSX Library is the next largest offender at nearly 14GB outside of the music and pictures.
14GB seems like a lot. What is using all that? My System>Library folder and my top level Library folder are both less than 2GB, and my user library folder less than 3.levron73 said:
Is is possible to upgrade the internal disk on a Powerbook G4? I see on the apple web site that they are now doign at 250GB disk for the new powerbook - is this available as an upgrade?
I've been toying with doing this myself - there are a number of guides on the Internet -This one seems one of the best.PJ S said:
Sounds like something has been corrupted or the VM file has taken a lot of the free space.
Download and run OnyX to delete caches and VM.
After the restart, if things aren't back to normal again, restart with your boot DVD and choose Disk Utility - run Repair Disk and that should detect and fix any irregularities.
OnyX and things like it are big rubbish wrappers around the command line. For a small, good wrapper around the command line, use CliX, which is dramatically better than OnyX and its ilk.Download and run OnyX to delete caches and VM.
After the restart, if things aren't back to normal again, restart with your boot DVD and choose Disk Utility - run Repair Disk and that should detect and fix any irregularities.
Had a look - 'salright.
Disagree about the rubbish wrapper comment - it's CLI presented in non-geek speak GUI form. What's wrong with that? The OS is exactly the same, otherwise we'd all be DOS/'NIX command users, rather than GUI users.
Poor showing Commander, it saddens me to say.
Not everyone is 'NIX comfortable or wants to type in what type of action they're wanting - not especially when you can go straight to it with a GUI based app.
Disagree about the rubbish wrapper comment - it's CLI presented in non-geek speak GUI form. What's wrong with that? The OS is exactly the same, otherwise we'd all be DOS/'NIX command users, rather than GUI users.
Poor showing Commander, it saddens me to say.
Not everyone is 'NIX comfortable or wants to type in what type of action they're wanting - not especially when you can go straight to it with a GUI based app.
CommanderJameson said:
PJ S said:
I thought OnyX was available for Leopard, albeit in beta form?
Okay, then grab OmniDiskSweeper or Disk Inventory X to see where the space is going.
Okay, then grab OmniDiskSweeper or Disk Inventory X to see where the space is going.
PJ S said:
Had a look - 'salright.
Disagree about the rubbish wrapper comment - it's CLI presented in non-geek speak GUI form. What's wrong with that? The OS is exactly the same, otherwise we'd all be DOS/'NIX command users, rather than GUI users.
Poor showing Commander, it saddens me to say.
Not everyone is 'NIX comfortable or wants to type in what type of action they're wanting - not especially when you can go straight to it with a GUI based app.
You didn't look at CliX properly. You don't have to be UNIX comfortable and you don't have to type anything in.Disagree about the rubbish wrapper comment - it's CLI presented in non-geek speak GUI form. What's wrong with that? The OS is exactly the same, otherwise we'd all be DOS/'NIX command users, rather than GUI users.
Poor showing Commander, it saddens me to say.
Not everyone is 'NIX comfortable or wants to type in what type of action they're wanting - not especially when you can go straight to it with a GUI based app.
CliX gives you loads more than that, neatly bundled up by category, with handy-dandy descriptions. And you can modify them if you want.
Also, CliX works on 10.5, and is about one thousand times smaller (95KB versus 9MB). It doesn't need an installer (why the hell OnyX does, I dunno; all it does is type "rm this that and the other" and "defaults write this that and the other" for you).
Edited by CommanderJameson on Tuesday 11th December 06:24
PJ S said:
CommanderJameson said:
PJ S said:
I thought OnyX was available for Leopard, albeit in beta form?
Okay, then grab OmniDiskSweeper or Disk Inventory X to see where the space is going.
Okay, then grab OmniDiskSweeper or Disk Inventory X to see where the space is going.
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