170GB programs saved on hard drive? Without installing anything special?

Apparently I have over 170 GB of programs saved on my hard drive, but I do not use it for anything fancy or did not install anything spectacular. When checking the program size, iMovie is the biggest one with only 2,1 GB. I cannot find the reason why there should be so much on the hard drive.
I have a Macbook Pro of middle 2010, updated to Yosemite lately. Would really appreciate your help! Thanks you a lot in advance :-)

   Re-index Macintosh HD.
   Do this twice.
   Spotlight reindexing will take a while to finish.
   System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409
   You will see a new category  “Other” in the Storage Display.
      About “Other”:
   http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202867
   When Spotlight indexing is in progress, launch Spotlight and enter a search term next to
   magnifying  glass icon.
   At first a pulsating bar and then   a blue progress bar next to “Indexing” will be shown.
  Go step by step and test.
  1. Start up in Safe Mode.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11212
  2. Empty Trash.
   http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13806
3. Disk space / Time Machine ?/ Local Snapshots
     Local backups
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878
4. Delete old iOS Devices Backup.
    iTunes > Preferences > Devices
    Highlight the old Backups , press “Delete Backup” and then “OK”.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Similar Messages

  • Can I transfer a Time Machine backup to a new empty hard drive, without installing Mountain Lion again?

    Can I transfer a Time Machine backup to a new empty hard drive, without installing Mountain Lion on that new hard drive?

    Yes - I just did it the other night. Took five hours, but it finally finished and is working great.
    I sort of followed the instructions found here -->> http://pondini.org/TM/18.html.
    Also, if you want to have dual backups, see -->>
    http://pondini.org/TM/27.html.
    I say 'sort of' because I used Carbon Copy Cloner to do a block-level transfer. I just didn't want to get hung up with a Finder copy.
    Give CCC a try - you have to enable the block copy in Preferences before using this method, but I was quite happy with it. I used it to move over 1TB of TM backups from a FireWire 800 drive to a 2TB Thunderbolt drive. 5 seconds short of taking 5 hours.
    It should work well for you.
    Clinton

  • Erase hard drive without install disc

    I had to replace my MacBook Pro for a variety of reasons, one of which was that the optical drive was shot. Now I want to erase the HD. How do I do this without the install disc?

    As you are running OS X Mountain Lion, you can use OS X Recovery to erase the hard drive. Read > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
    Hold Command and R keys while your MacBook Pro is starting to start in OS X Recovery, and open Disk Utility. Then, choose Macintosh HD in the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase the drive. If you want, you can choose one of the security options if you don't want that your files could be recovered

  • Installing new hard drive without install disk

    I just recently purchased a 500gb 7200rpm 2.5" seagate momentus for my macbook and my install disk doesn't work. Is there anyway to get OS X off my old hard drive onto my new one?

    Why doesn't the install disc work?
    Most drives are pre-formatted to work with windows.
    Is your new drive formatted for Mac use? That's OSX Extended (Journaled).
    Al

  • How do i reformat a hard drive without losing anything on it?

    I just got a message that I need to back up and reformat my external hard drive. I know very little about this process and would like to know how to do so and if this is possible without losing anything on it.

    If you reformat a drive, you will lose whatever information/files are on it. So, the only way to save your info is to copy it to another drive temporarily, reformat your drive (use Disk Utility and format using Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the GUID Partition scheme under Options) and then you can copy your information back.

  • How to install a new hard drive without bootable disc/usb

    Hi- my hard drive has totally failed and although I can get into disk utility it won't let me create images and keeps coming up with input/output errors when I try.
    I don't have another mac to work from and have no discs whatsoever even for older OS versions
    I've ordered a new hard drive(a seagate 750GB 7400rpm one) but how do I get mountain lion on the new hard drive without any discs? If I just put in my new hard drive will it come up with an option? I have a mid 2009 MBP if that helps

    I have a mid 2009 MBP if that helps
    Here is how it helps:
    You need the Utilities from Recovery_HD. Your broken Mac can boot from a Thumb drive.
    Use this article to download this Utility to copy the Recovery_HD from your older, working Mac to a minimum 1GB USB thumb drive:
    OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant
    Then boot the new mac with the thumb drive by holding down Alt/Option, wait wait wait while it draws an Icon for each bootable Volume, choose the Recovery_HD, choose proceed arrow, and use Disk Utility to erase the drive and create GUID partition Map, 1 partition, Mac OS X Extended (journaled). Then install Mac OS X by download.

  • Is it possible to install both FCP7 and FCP X on your hard drive without running into problems?

    Is it possible to install both FCP7 and FCP X on your hard drive without running into problems?

    Apple recommends separate partitions: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4722

  • I erased by Hard drive without backing up. Now, when I put the install disc one inside, it says that Mac os x cannot be installed on this computer. The computer was running Mac os x 10.5.8. Any help?

    I erased by Hard drive without backing up. Now, when I put the install disc one inside, it says that Mac os x cannot be installed on this computer. The computer was running Mac os x 10.5.8. Any help?

    Boot from your DVD by switching on the Mac & inserting the disc, restart it & hold the "C" key. Once the installer window loads & you have selected your language, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu. You will then need to select your disk from the menu within Disk Utility & choose how you wish to format. It should be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    Once it has formatted, you should then be able to install the OS.
    PLEASE REMEMBER...that formatting a disk will completely erase it's content. Be sure that you don't wish to recover any of your previous content before doing any of the above.
    Ben

  • Can I load "Pages" onto new hard drive without having to pay for it again?

    I have a 5 yr old Mac that just had it's hard drive replaced.  I had paid for and loaded Pages onto the original hard drive.  Wondering if there's any way to load Pages onto my new hard drive without having to pay for the program again.  Thanks so much

    If you originally installed Pages from a CD or DVD, reinstall it from there.
    If you installed Pages from the Mac App Store, yes, from the Apple ID you purchased it with.
    If you got Pages from the iTunes App Store, the Mac version of it is a separate purchase.
    (67842)

  • I have been using an external hard drive on a PC, I have now moved over to a macbookpro, is there a way to reformat the hard drive without deleting the files currently on the hard drive?

    I have been using an external hard drive on a PC, I have now moved over to a macbookpro, is there a way to reformat the hard drive without deleting the files currently on the hard drive?

    if it's fat32 then the mac can read it without problems
    if it's ntfs then you can install programs which make it possible to write to it too otherwise it's read only

  • How do I reformat hard drive without affecting recovery partition?

    I would like to know how I can reformat my Toshiba hard drive without affecting the hidden recovery partition? I would like to get rid of the preinstalled Windows 7 OS and replace it with Windows XP, which is not as bloated. Also, does anyone know of a good 'free' disk scrubber program? I actually have the original 'disk scrubber' software, but the software disk just won't work any more. Finally, I tried to get the computer ready for the drive scrubbing, but I still can't change the disk order on my Toshiba laptop. I did get into the 'bios' screen by hitting the F8 key on startup, which did bring up the 'boot menu' screen. When I selected the cd/dvd drive and then hit the F10 key to save the change, nothing happened! I put in a data disk, but the laptop still booted into the Windows 7 OS. If I can't get the laptop to boot into the cd/dvd drive, I don't think that I can erase the hard drive and put Windows XP on since I wouldn't be able to boot up the laptop with the Windwos XP disk. Is that true? Anyway, without changing the boot order, I can't do anything. Please help! Thanks!

    If you use the recovery that is on the hidden partition (hold down the zero key while starting up computer) then your OS reinstall will not affect that hidden partition, just overwrite the c: drive. 
    L305-S5955, T9300 Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 60GB SSD, Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit

  • If I donwload e-books from various e-book retailers and want to back them up on an external hard drive without losing the format, do I need a special hard drive?

    If I download e-books from various e-book retailers and want to back them up on an external hard drive without losing the format, do I need to know anything special?

    I just looked into this as I was moving my iPad to a new computer for synching.  With no thanks to Kobo for any really useful information on their help site (this discussion was the most useful info I found), I think the following may address your issue with respect to Kobo.
    1. There is not easy or official way to back up Kobo books from your iPad.
    2. Kobo keep track of your personal library.  Go to the Kobo website (Kobo.com) and sign in to your account.  On the very top line is "My Library".  That contains (or at least Kobo says it does) everything you have ever bought from Kobo.  Kobo say that you may download any of this content to other devices you own at no charge.
    3. I synched my iPad to the new computer.  According to Apple, that will delete all my data as the apps are re-installed from the new compute.  While all my apps got moved around from the order I previously had (many thanks Apple), all my books are still there together with my bookmarks etc.  Looks like this did nothing to change any Kobo data.
    While I do not like the idea that I cannot create a backup on my main computer, it is probably safer in the long run that there is a backup at Kobo.  After all, I could lose all my equipment in a fire or something, and then personal  backups would be of little use.

  • New hard drive, clean install of Lion, but MacBook Pro is still freezing

    Hi everyone,
    Even the folks at the Apple store don't seem to know what's going on with my MacBook Pro.
    My hard drive crashed a few weeks ago. I bought a Western Digital Scorpio Blue and replaced it myself. The MacBook didn't seem to like it (lots of freezing, going really slow, etc) and so, after reading online that many MacBook Pro users did not like the WD Scoprio Blue, I returned it and bought a 320 GB Hitachi. Before replacing the WD drive with the Hitachi drive, I used SuperDuper! to make my external hard drive a clone of the WD hard drive. I replaced the WD with the Hitachi, booted from the external, and then restored all my stuff to the Hitachi. The computer still didn't work so well, so I did a zero-out erase and a clean install of Lion. I dragged my files over individually (only about 100 GB of word documents, music, and photos). For the first two days, everything worked perfectly. Then I started getting these error messages:
    Word: Word cannot save or create this file. The disk may be full or write protected. Try one of the following. *Free more memory. *Make sure that the disk you want to save the file on is not full, write-protected, or damaged.
    Chrome: Your profile could not be opened correctly. Some features may be unavailable. Please check that the profile exists and you have permission to read and write its contents.
    Dragging files to trash: The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occured (error code -50).
    Fireforx: Close Firefox. A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time.
    In addition, the computer kept freezing. I also had problems with Mail and iTunes. Disk verify, permission verify, S.M.A.R.T. utility all said that the hard drive was working fine though.
    So, I brought the computer to Apple. They did a zero-out erase, reinstalled Lion, and did what they called a "software repair". They said it should work fine. I just got home from the store, booted up the computer, and it's barely working. All sorts of error messages, safari won't work, it keeps freezing, and I was only able to open disk utility once. I verified disk, and it came up with no problems. I verified disk permissions, and when I tried to repair disk permissions, it kept saying it was "unable" to.
    I don't know what it could be. It's not the hard drive...I've run disk utility, S.M.A.R.T., and an app that checks the hardware associated with the drive. All of these programs say the hard drive is absolutely fine. I've also reset PRAM. Another thing worth noting is that I'm currently booting/working off of my external, and it works absolutely perfectly.
    Any ideas? One of my friends suggested I go back to Snow Leopard, but I don't see what difference that would make. Please help! Anything would be very much appreciated! Thanks!!

    The theory is that you have a weak bit in one of the modules, and sometimes (rarely) it flips over. The trick is to try and catch it.
    If you move the modules, the weak bit will be at a different Address in memory. Different things will be loaded into the word with the weak bit, and the symptoms may be different.
    It may not do anything at all. But it is so easy to try, it is worth a shot.
    On a multi-module memory, you need to keep your wits about you when doing this, or you put them back the way they were originally. So you should pick a direction and always move them your "regular" direction.

  • Hello, My computer crashed, I removed the hard drive and installed it into a hard drive enclosure and now I am trying to get my Thunderbird data off of it

    Hello,
    Thank you for taking a look at my problem. My Windows computer crashed so I removed the hard drive and installed it into a hard drive enclosure and connected it to my new Windows computer with a USB cord. I installed Mozilla Thunderbird on my new computer and read the different tutorials on this website for extracting data from the external hard drive and installing it on my new computer however I cannot seem to be able to find the files that I need and quite frankly I do not know how to move them once I do find them. I even tried MozBackup but it could not find the files either. I searched for profiles.ini in the hard drive and the only hit I got was a profiles.ini file that was 111 bytes in size. I assumed that this was not what I was looking for but I did save a copy on my desktop. If someone has experience with moving files from a hard drive to a new computer I would be grateful for the help.
    Thanks,
    AN

    lets get with the program. Mozbackup is useless in this situation because it looks for your profile in the location Thunderbird says it is.
    You biggest hurdle is probably setting windows to show system and hidden files. The %appdata% folders are hidden by windows.

  • Remove windows Installation from Old WD hard drive and Install Fresh Copy on the New One.

    Hi Community! I just bought a new WD Blue 1 TB hard drive, my old hard drive is WD Blue caviar 500 GB, running on Windows 7 ultimate 32 bit.
    There are two things I wish to do: 1. Firstly, if it's possible, I would like to copy some videos, images, music etc. from my OLD Drive to the new one.
    Please note that, I don't have an external disk to do it, I know that would've been less complicated, but that's not an option at this point. 2. Secondly, once that is done, if possible, I want to remove windows 7 installation from my old hard drive, re-partition it to make it just the storage drive, and finally install
    fresh copy of windows 7- 64 bit to the new Hard drive.
    Please note that, my old Hard drive is installed on windows 7- 32 bit and now I want to install a fresh copy of Windows 7-64bit instead of 32bit, because I am upgrading my
    configuration with better ones.
    I am adding 4 GB corsair vengeance ram to my 2 GB corsair ram, so that is 6 GB in total.
    I am adding 1 TB hard disk to my 500 GB Hard disk, so that is 1500 GB.
    Both my processor and mother board supports 64 bit.
    Intel® Pentium® Processor G2020 (3M Cache, 2.90 GHz) And this Mother board - "Biostar H61MGV3"I know that you could clone the partition and migrate the installation from one hard drive to another using the Acronis True Image WD Edition Software, but I don't want that.
    In simple words, say I have a dos computer, I installed my 1TB WD hard drive, installed a fresh copy of windows 7-64bit. So my computer is up and running. Now, I have another hard
    drive which I wish to use, that is 500GB WD, but it has Windows 7-32 bit installed in it.
    So what I want to do is, make this old hard drive a complete 500 gb storage device and remove the windows installation from it, without loosing music, videos, etc. and then lastly
    copying the music and other media to the new hard drive, and formatting it completely.
    I am perhaps making this very complicated, I know you would have better easier solution for this.
    I am frustrated, your help would be appreciated, thanks a lot. Sincerely, Abe

    Since you don't want to clone the drive (I agree with you), you can just swap drives and install Windows on the new drive. Windows won't complain that you are installing on a different drive because it only cares if you change more than one piece of hardware at a time. The problem will arise when you copy the files from the old drive because you cannot just connect it via SATA. That would confuse Windows, as both installations were run on that hardware. You need to mount it in an external dock via USB 2.0/3.0 which will isolate the details of the OS. After you copy all necessary files, you can use WDC Lifeguard to write zeros to the entire disk and then create a new partition. After that you can mount it via SATA because it will be a new drive. Do NOT be in a hurry to wipe the drive however, as you don't want to forget something.

Maybe you are looking for