Deleting files doesn't free up space on external drive

Hi all,
I've actually found the answer to my initial query, I would imagine its a common issue. But I have a couple of questions.
When you delete files from an external HD the amount of space available doesn't change and according to what I have found, you need to empty your trash in order for free space to be recognised.
Basically I'd like to know...
1. Why this is the case. I like the fact that external files are added to the local trash in case you mistakenly deleted anything but considering it's been moved to another file system why would it not free up space?
2. Is there a way to delete certain files from the trash? In a case where I wanted to free up space on an external drive but didn't want to empty my trash.
Many thanks
Mikee

Expaning a bit on #1 -
Every volume (volume = a drive/disk or a partition on a partitoned drive) has its own Trash, which is actually an invisible, specialized folder.
For user interface convenience, the Trash folders for all mounted volumes are displayed as a common item, the visible Trash.
One way to see this is to place something on a removoable, writeable volume such as an external drive into the Trash. When you open the Trash you will see the item in there. Then dismount the external drive, and look in the Trash again - the item will be gone. Remount the external drive, and look in the Trash again - the item will be back.
If you have things in the Trash from different volumes, you can also do a Get Info on one from each volume; the pathname for the item (shown in the Where info line in Get Info) will reveal that the items are actually on separate volumes.

Similar Messages

Deleting files doesn't free up storage space

I'm a long-time Mac user with a 2010 MacBook Pro (320GB) now running Mavericks. About a week ago I screwed up my iTunes and tried to restore from Time Machine. But I can't because I only have 38GB free and the TM backup is about 40. So I moved big files over to my attached drive to free up space. But no matter how much I move (and it's been tens of GB) I still only have 35-38GB free (It varies across this range for no apparent reason). The storage allocated to Movies and Pictures decreases, but rather than free space increasing, the mysterious category Backups does. I now have 124GB allocated to Backups. Yes, I delete the files and empty trash after moving all these files from my system. And I restart and even wait overnight hoping that the system cleanup routines that run in the dark of night will do their magic. I have tried several times doing the TM restore of iTunes and each time I get the message that I don't have enough free space. Can anyone tell me how to break free of this. I would sure be greatful. Thanks.

Hello friends !
I just found out the way to easily fix the ' actual free space not showing ' problem in Mac OS X 10.9.2.
1. Turn off your macbook ( i used a macbook ) and remove all external storage devices ( portable hard drive, usb drive, flash drive etc )
2. Turn on your macbook and wait for ' WELCOME SCREEN SOUND ', and soon after you heard it press and hold ' SHIFT ' key on your keyboard. You must not press the key before welcome screen sound. It should be pressed just after the sound.
3. It will take you to a white color window with some progress bar at bottom. This may take few minutes.
4. Macbook will take you to the login page where you need to type your password to enter. Top right corner you will see a text ' Safe Boot Mode ' in RED. If you see so you're doing it right, if no please follow the procedure again.
5. Then computer will take you to desktop but you will notice that the computer performs very slowly. Then click and open ' TRASH BIN '. You will see all your deleted files are still in your Trash Bin. So click ' EMPTY ' button on top right corner of the window.
6. You are done ! Right click on the Hard Drive Icon on desktop and then GET INFO. You will be happy to see your empty space back.
Hope this will help you guys !
Thanks,
Dileesha Amarasena.

Removing files doesn't free the space

Dear Arch Community!
I use Arch on my quite old laptop, even though I am not enough advanced user, so please be patient and explicite.
I always try to solve problems searching forums/wiki and spending a lot of time to try to learn, but this time I didn't manage to find any similar problem posted.
Behaviour:
When I delate files/directories (both ways: putting them to trash and then emptying it or 'rm' them form command line) they do disappear from the files tree, but there is no space on the disc freed. It happens most of the time, but not always.
Also I remember that few months ago with some system update suddanly I got about 3G of home directory space back. That time I had no time to investigate.
I have no idea what part of the system may be responsible for such a strange behaviour, what tools to use to detect it.
What information should I provide you?
Thanks in advance,
Mirto

Hi All,
* ncdu ~
(nothing surprising, IMHO)
----------------/home/lena ------------
15.3GiB [##########] /Mus
7.5GiB [#### ] /fil
7.4GiB [#### ] /Pic
2.1GiB [# ] /Books
1.9GiB [# ] /Vid
500.3MiB [ ] /alc
354.7MiB [ ] /stu
328.0MiB [ ] /.scribus
304.5MiB [ ] /.config
261.9MiB [ ] /dwhelper
207.0MiB [ ] /Art
91.6MiB [ ] /A6
77.8MiB [ ] /.mozilla
69.9MiB [ ] /.thunderbird
51.0MiB [ ] /.gimp-2.6
50.8MiB [ ] /Downloads
48.3MiB [ ] /.gimp-2.8
46.8MiB [ ] /.wifi
43.4MiB [ ] /Mko
28.2MiB [ ] /Doc
26.0MiB [ ] /.thumbnails
25.2MiB [ ] /.widelands
17.5MiB [ ] /.claws-mail
14.1MiB [ ] /.cache
13.9MiB [ ] /friki
9.0MiB [ ] /.local
8.0MiB [ ] /.fra
6.4MiB [ ] /.dictionaries
5.7MiB [ ] P.mp3
5.5MiB [ ] /.adobe
5.4MiB [ ] /Ra
3.5MiB [ ] /ba
1.9MiB [ ] /.gnome2
1.2MiB [ ] /.java
1.0MiB [ ] programme-guide-2012_en.pdf
964.0KiB [ ] /.gstreamer-0.10
912.0KiB [ ] /.quodlibet
844.0KiB [ ] /.fontconfig
748.0KiB [ ] /.purple
624.0KiB [ ] /.gconf
576.0KiB [ ] /anaphraseus
H 552.0KiB [ ] Parent Bulletin November 14 2011.pdf
476.0KiB [ ] /.e16
448.0KiB [ ] /.xchat2
332.0KiB [ ] /.omegat
304.0KiB [ ] /.freeciv
H 216.0KiB [ ] .recently-used.xbel.GX7K1U
188.0KiB [ ] /.dvdcss
184.0KiB [ ] es.pdf
168.0KiB [ ] /.kde4
120.0KiB [ ] application_form.pdf
84.0KiB [ ] euaggelion
76.0KiB [ ] I move - part 1.abw
72.0KiB [ ] application_form.doc
68.0KiB [ ] /.nautilus
64.0KiB [ ] /.xine
64.0KiB [ ] /.themes
52.0KiB [ ] /.python-eggs
48.0KiB [ ] /.fluxbox
44.0KiB [ ] I move 2.abw
H 40.0KiB [ ] .recently-used
40.0KiB [ ] /.pulse
40.0KiB [ ] /.gnupg.bck
36.0KiB [ ] FR.doc
36.0KiB [ ] /.macromedia
32.0KiB [ ] ad.doc
32.0KiB [ ] /.gnupg
28.0KiB [ ] /.designer
28.0KiB [ ] /.ssh
28.0KiB [ ] /.zenmap
20.0KiB [ ] /.AbiSuite
20.0KiB [ ] /.emacs.d
20.0KiB [ ] /.mc
16.0KiB [ ] notes.odt
16.0KiB [ ] /.gegl-0.0
16.0KiB [ ] /.lftp
12.0KiB [ ] not.odt
12.0KiB [ ] belg
12.0KiB [ ] /.irssi
H 12.0KiB [ ] .xsession-errors.old
12.0KiB [ ] I move.odt
12.0KiB [ ] /.dbus
12.0KiB [ ] /.icons
12.0KiB [ ] /.wireshark
H 8.0KiB [ ] .bash_history
H 8.0KiB [ ] .freeciv-client-rc-2.2
8.0KiB [ ] /.gconfd
8.0KiB [ ] .viminfo
8.0KiB [ ] /.Esperantilo
8.0KiB [ ] /.links
H 8.0KiB [ ] .ICEauthority
8.0KiB [ ] /.vim
8.0KiB [ ] /.gphoto
8.0KiB [ ] /.mplayer
4.0KiB [ ] /.wicd
e 4.0KiB [ ] /Desktop
e 4.0KiB [ ] /.wapi
e 4.0KiB [ ] /.gnome2_private
H 4.0KiB [ ] .xsession-errors
4.0KiB [ ] ixquick.xml
H 4.0KiB [ ] .lesshst
H 4.0KiB [ ] .civserver_history
H 4.0KiB [ ] convert_wavs.sh
H 4.0KiB [ ] .pulse-cookie
H 4.0KiB [ ] .xinitrc
4.0KiB [ ] .gtk-bookmarks
H 4.0KiB [ ] .mysql_history
H 4.0KiB [ ] hostapd.sh~
H 4.0KiB [ ] hostapd.sh
H 4.0KiB [ ] .bashrc
H 4.0KiB [ ] .xsession
H 4.0KiB [ ] .dmrc
4.0KiB [ ] .Xauthority
H 4.0KiB [ ] .esd_auth
H 4.0KiB [ ] .bash_profile
0.0 B [ ] lista FR
0.0 B [ ] fb4.odt
e 0.0 B [ ] /.gvfs
H 0.0 B [ ] .gksu.lock
* lsof
[root@mirto lena]# lsof -n | grep deleted
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon file system /home/lena/.gvfs
Output information may be incomplete.
lxtermina 817 lena 14u REG 8,3 8 327 /tmp/vteINN7GW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 15u REG 8,3 0 340 /tmp/vte14A7GW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 16u REG 8,3 0 651 /tmp/vteK7A7GW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 17u REG 8,3 10803 753 /tmp/vteGSWCHW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 18u REG 8,3 1120 766 /tmp/vte62WCHW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 19u REG 8,3 1027 813 /tmp/vteZ6TYGW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 20u REG 8,3 128 842 /tmp/vteZDUYGW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 21u REG 8,3 896 1412 /tmp/vteW9UYGW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 24u REG 8,3 378 1785 /tmp/vte4UL7GW (deleted)
lxtermina 817 lena 25u REG 8,3 24 1832 /tmp/vte31L7GW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 14u REG 8,3 8 327 /tmp/vteINN7GW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 15u REG 8,3 0 340 /tmp/vte14A7GW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 16u REG 8,3 0 651 /tmp/vteK7A7GW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 17u REG 8,3 10803 753 /tmp/vteGSWCHW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 18u REG 8,3 1120 766 /tmp/vte62WCHW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 19u REG 8,3 1027 813 /tmp/vteZ6TYGW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 20u REG 8,3 128 842 /tmp/vteZDUYGW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 21u REG 8,3 896 1412 /tmp/vteW9UYGW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 24u REG 8,3 378 1785 /tmp/vte4UL7GW (deleted)
gmain 817 821 lena 25u REG 8,3 24 1832 /tmp/vte31L7GW (deleted)
midori 918 lena 19r REG 8,4 99560 24617 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home (deleted)
midori 918 lena 20r REG 8,4 32768 32869 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home-a2e41f12.log (deleted)
gdbus 918 919 lena 19r REG 8,4 99560 24617 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home (deleted)
gdbus 918 919 lena 20r REG 8,4 32768 32869 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home-a2e41f12.log (deleted)
midori 918 920 lena 19r REG 8,4 99560 24617 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home (deleted)
midori 918 920 lena 20r REG 8,4 32768 32869 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home-a2e41f12.log (deleted)
dconf 918 922 lena 19r REG 8,4 99560 24617 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home (deleted)
dconf 918 922 lena 20r REG 8,4 32768 32869 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home-a2e41f12.log (deleted)
midori 918 923 lena 19r REG 8,4 99560 24617 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home (deleted)
midori 918 923 lena 20r REG 8,4 32768 32869 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home-a2e41f12.log (deleted)
midori 918 932 lena 19r REG 8,4 99560 24617 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home (deleted)
midori 918 932 lena 20r REG 8,4 32768 32869 /home/lena/.local/share/gvfs-metadata/home-a2e41f12.log (deleted)

I delete files but my available disk space does not increase

I delete files but my available disk space does not increase. What to do?

Try reindexing the hard drive:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

Does storing files on icloud free pc space

Does storing files on icloud free pc space?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If you save music on iCloud, your iPhone will have to be connected to Internet in order to listen to the songs, so they won't be stored in your device

Query to find out the free disk space on C: drive

Hi Guys,
I am trying to create a query in Queries section under Monitoring, To find out the free disk space of C: drive.
Am using the below query, but it shows lot many fields, I need only Machine names of the collection and their
Free Disk Space on C: drive
select * from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK on SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.DeviceID = "C:" and SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.FreeSpace > 1024
Please assist

The SELECT part of the query will govern what fields you are shown, so perhaps try:
Select SMS_R_System.ResourceID, SMS_R_System.NETBIOSname, SMS_G_System_Logical_Disk.FreeSpace
from SMS_R_System
inner join SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK on SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId
where SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.DeviceID = "C:" and SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.FreeSpace > 1024
I hope that helps,
Nash
Nash Pherson, Senior Systems Consultant
Now Micro -
My Blog Posts
If you found a bug or want the product to work differently,
share your feedback.
<-- If this post was helpful, please click the up arrow or propose as answer.

Since I have the newest version of itunes, I can't back up like normally. The only way is to considilate files and then put them on an external drive which I don't have. Are there any other options? If I can't back up to a disc like I used to, can I inste

Since I have the newest version of itunes, I can't back up like normally. The only way is to considilate files and then put them on an external drive which I don't have. Are there any other options? If I can't back up to a disc like I used to, can I instead just keep everything on my ipod and then if I have to get a new computer or something just download all my songs from the ipod to my new computer's itunes? Will that work? Will I still be able to keep all my songs that way?

I'm going to assume the consolidating files does not work due to hard drive space limitations.
Since you're moving to Windows 7, have you tried using the Windows files and settings transfer utility? That will move everything for you to the same location on the new computer, it also allows some control over what actually gets moved.
Alternatively, if you know the location of all of the media, it can be manually moved by copying it from the old computer to the new computer in the same location.
Also, using the Apple article on moving the library, take a slight twist on what it says. Move the iTunes library to the external drive, update the settings in iTunes to reflect the library being on the external drive, then consolodate it.
The options are endless for moving the library... it simply takes a little effort to make it happen and possibly a twist on existing "standard" methods depending on your unique situation.

Switching iTunes (older version) from an old latptop with mechanical issues to iTunes on a new computer. The hard drive, issue free, was placed in external drive enclosure. How do I recover iTunes?

I'm trying to moves iTunes (older version) from an old latptop with mechanical issues (non working screen, keyboard, and battery) to iTunes on a new computer. The hard drive, issue free, was placed in external drive enclosure. This was a cost effective way instead of dumping lots of money in an outdated old laptop while I can invest it into a new laptop. How do I recover iTunes?
I'm switching from a 3G phone to a blank 4GS in the process. I would like to have everything that was on my 3G phone and iTunes on my new phone and computer.
Thanks

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.
Windows users see tip at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18879381

I recently purchased a new iMac with an external drive. I want to transfer my files from my old iMac to the external drive, but I'm afraid that doing that will compromise the use of the external drive on my new iMac. Comments? Help?

I recently purchased a new iMac with an 1 Terrabyte external drive. I want to transfer my files from my old iMac to the external drive, but I'm afraid that doing that will compromise the use of the external drive on my new iMac. I have not downloaded the external drive's software onto my old Mac because of this concern. May I simply "drag and drop" the contents I want transferred to the external drive, then set up my new Mac with the drive and download there? or is there a better procedure? Comments? Help?

If your intention is to copy a just documents and data (word processing files and music for example) then yes, you can use drag and drop. If you want to transfer data and applications and permissions, it would actually be easiest to connect the drive to your old computer and turn on TimeMachine. Once TM is finished, connect the drive to your new computer and restart it holding the option key to get into Recovery mode. Then you can use the restore from TM option to transfer your data and programs to the new computer.

[solved] Problem with ssd disk, deleted files don't free space?

Hello.
I bought some time ago an ssd disk on which i installed arch. After some free time I changed my laptop optical drive with standard hdd and moved /home and folder with data (mainly music collection) to standard drive. To my surprise my ssd was filled as it were before. My fstab from beginning have had TRIM option enabled:
LABEL=root / ext4 rw,noatime,discard,commit=600,barrier=0 0 1
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,size=5% 0 0
tmpfs /var/spool tmpfs defaults,size=5% 0 0
LABEL=karta /run/media/kaira/karta/ ext4 rw,noatime,barrier=0,commit=600,data=writeback 0 1
LABEL=home /home ext4 rw,noatime,barrier=0,commit=600,data=writeback 0 1
LABEL=dane /dane/ ext4 rw,noatime,barrier=0,commit=600,data=writeback 0 1
where the last three lines were added after second disk was installed.
And now the great mystery for me:
du -h / |sort -h -r|head -n 5:
3,7G /
2,7G /usr
1,6G /usr/lib
845M /usr/share
771M /var
df:
System plików rozm. użyte dost. %uż. zamont. na
/dev/sdb1 118G 27G 90G 24% /
devtmpfs 3,8G 0 3,8G 0% /dev
tmpfs 3,8G 1,4M 3,8G 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 3,8G 4,0M 3,8G 1% /run
tmpfs 3,8G 0 3,8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 3,8G 13M 3,8G 1% /tmp
tmpfs 389M 32K 389M 1% /var/log
tmpfs 389M 0 389M 0% /var/spool
/dev/sda1 50G 241M 49G 1% /home
/dev/sdc1 30G 45M 29G 1% /run/media/kaira/karta
27G was the state before most data was transfered to different hard drive.
Both commands where executed after partition with music was unmounted.
I executed also fstrim / command, but it changed nothing.
Is this behavior normal, or maybe i didn't made something important/ my disk is damaged?
I know that 24% fulfillment is trivial, but now it definitely should show 3,5%.
Last edited by kaira (2013-11-01 19:45:31)

Yes, I run this command as a root. I manage to repair this problem by mounting root partition in ubuntu live cd. I found folder which should get deleted, but it still was in filesystem. Unfortunetly I don't remeber, how i copy files. Propably i used rsync and forget to delete files. Now it's too late too check this theory, but I'm really happy with proper sizes:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb1 118G 3.6G 113G 4% /
devtmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /dev
tmpfs 3.8G 6.0M 3.8G 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 3.8G 3.9M 3.8G 1% /run
tmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs 3.8G 356K 3.8G 1% /tmp
tmpfs 389M 0 389M 0% /var/spool
tmpfs 389M 32K 389M 1% /var/log
/dev/sda2 410G 25G 381G 7% /dane
Lesson learned - never manage important system changes after getting up, without enough sleep time.
Thank you for you're help, and sorry for wasting time with my mistakes.

Deleting files does not free space

Hi!
I'm confused as to how to free more space on my MBP. It keeps saying that I only have 7 GB free space (I think there should be plenty more...) and often enough says that the start disk is full and needs more space.
I have deleted quite a few films and photos, emptied the bin and restarted the computer.. only to discover that I still only have 7GB free. What am I doing wrong?
The computer is slow, programs keep freezing, the colourfull circle appears and Safari keeps crashing. (I have no idea if these things are related though) Please could you help me? I know it is a stupid newbie question, but I would very much appreciate some help! I tried to find solutions on different forums but have not really understood the answers people with the same problem have been getting.
Please help?

Thank you shldr2thewheel and AnaMusic.
A follow-up question: I ran OmniSweeper and do not understand the answer I got.
What on earth is that?? What ever it is it takes enormous space but I dont dare to touch it as I really dont know what it is or does. Can I just delete it?
The second largest post according to the Sweeper is "Caches". Is that just deleteable? Nothing important?
Thanks a lot!

Trying to free up space on hard drive, with an external hard drive, but don't want to lose the files!

So I am really stressed out right now.
I have a macbook pro, with a 750 gb hard drive in it. My internal hard drive filled up a while back so I bought a 3TB external hard drive. I backed up my files onto my external a while ago, but I don't really remember how... There is a folder on my hard drive that is called " wd smartware.swstor" , and inside that folder is about 1.7 TB of files (when I click 'get info')... So I'm guessing that is where all my stuff is being backed up. But I also moved files from my computer onto that hard drive, like pictures and videos, that I wanted to delete off my internal... So I may have duplicates?
But my 3TB hard drive is almost full, it has 400GB free on it. And my 750gb internal hard drive on my macbook pro, has filled up again so it only has 10gb free space. So basically I have almost 3TB of files on my external hard drive, and 740gb on my internal.. This can't be right. There is no way I have this many files. I am guessing I have some of the same files on my internal that I do on my external.. Most of my files are high quality HD video files that I imported through final cut pro x....
So I bought another 3TB external hard drive that I haven't used yet. Basically, I just want to move all my files that are on my internal hard drive (roughly 750gb) onto my NEW external 3TB hard drive- and then delete the files off my internal so I have more free space. I just don't know if these files are already being backed up on my OLD external 3TB hard drive.
Can someone please help? Thank you!

craigbuckley wrote:
If I get rid of my TIme Machine, will I lose all my files from the past?
Yes it will unless you back it up first out of TM.
TimeMachine is a self rotating image of your boot drive with saved states, it manages itself based upon the available space on the drive. As new states are created, old ones are deleted along with older versions of your files.
Also if you incur a drastic large change to your boot drive, TimeMachine will DELETE older versions of your files.
TimeMachine is not a archival solution!
To rescue yourself from TimeMachine, you will first need to save the recent copy of file(s) to the new 3TB, then restore the older version of the file from TimeMachine to the boot drive and then rename it/date it and save that older copy to the new 3TB drive.
This way you have both the new copy and the old copy of the file pernamently archived on the new 3TB drive.
Once you have exhausted all of TimeMachines older files, you can free yourself from it, erase the drive.
For your needs, I suggest this.
Internal drive and bootable clone
1: Your internal 750GB boot drive contains active working files.
2: You have another external drive that's either 750GB or 1TB, you use Carbon Copy Cloner to make a bootable clone of your boot drive, update it when you know you have a stable OS X system on your boot drive and before updates or changes, this way if the update goes bad and the machine will not boot. You can connect the clone, hold the option key down and boot the comptuer from the clone. You then can get online to get help, or simply reverse clone your software problems away.
CCC has the ability like TimeMachine to save states between clones, it's on be default but you can turn this off as to maintain a pure clone, this is what I advise you do as to avoid confusion. You clone is a perfect copy since the last update of the clone, which you can setup to do nightly if you wish or every few days or every few weeks, whatever.
Your bootable clone is your lifesaver if your boot hard drive dies or refuses to boot up, you can boot from the clone in seconds and only be slightly off since the last update of the clone. TM won't run the computer like a clone will.
I highly adise keeping your clone in a very safe place, away from theft, fire, electrical, etc.
http://www.bombich.com/
External Storage Drives
3: Your first external 3TB drive (sans TimeMachine) will be your storage drive, this will contain any files that you don't wish to have on the internal drive and as a result also not on the clone.
You maintain folders that are dated, with older copies of files in those folders if you wish. This way you can control the space on the drive and not make multiple duplicates of all the large files like TM does.
For instance if you work on a 100GB project for three days, instead of having three copies taking up 300GB like what TM does, you can rather choose to have just one older copy at 100GB. You can decide you don't need a particular older version of a file and remove it, thus managing your drive space yourself.
4: Your other external 3TB is a Carbon Copy Cloner backup of the first 3TB, maintain a perfect clone of that as well and update it periodically as your needs change. Since CCC can be schedualed and works in the background, you can have it update your clones overnight or another time your not using the machine. This free's up performance as TM isn't running in the background while your trying to work.
Also with no TM local cache file, that also will free up space on the boot drive.
The general rule is you need both hardware AND software protection for your data, thus with too much data to fit on the boot drive, you need a external storage drive and then a backup of that as to maintain TWO hardware copies of your data at all times.
This method is also scaleable, if you need more room than 3TB externally, you then get another 2 3TB drives, one for the new data and one for backup.
The bootable clone of your bootdrive is kept in a very safe place, it's designed to protect your OS X investment in software etc. and espectially, to get your Mac booting in as short as a time as possible while you plan on a replacement boot hard drive/repair.
Read more about the advanced options bootable clones give here.
Most commonly used backup methods
With your large storage needs, you basically have outgrown TimeMachine by hitting the hardware limit of drives.
If there were 10-20TB drives, you likely could keep on going with TimeMachine, but you can't.
Your clearly in the more "professional" catagory with your storage management needs, not in the TM "newbie to computers" where it's managed for you.
If your finding your needs are going to exceed 6TB, you might want to consider a external hardware RAID 5 box with 5+ drives, they will self redundancy so if a drive dies you just switch it with a new one and the missing data is copied from the other drives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
http://www.macgurus.com/
Good Luck

Deleted files not relinquishing their disk space

My system has recently developed an issue that I've never encountered before, and having come to the limits of my own knowledge of OSX I am now hoping somebody on here is able to help me with the problem.
I have a CD 2.16ghz MBP running Leopard 10.5.5. Connected to the FW400 port on the Machine is a 500GB WD Mybook external drive, evenly split into 2 partitions -one of which I am using as my Time Machine backup drive, and the other partition which I've labelled Storage. The Storage partition has started to cause me some headaches. The partition is about 230 GB in size and contains a number of large DMG files (SuperDuper backups of my home directory and the like), and currently only has about 30GB of free space. When I now delete anything off this drive, instead of being moved to the trash it is instantly deleted. I have seen this behaviour once or twice in the past, but this time round I wasn't presented with the standard warning that deleting my files would be effectively instant. On top of this - and this is the real problem - the disk space used by that file is not relinquished back to the disk upon deletion. I have recently deleted about 70GB of files from the partition and whilst they have gone, I have not seen any more drive space made available to me in the Finder info bar or Get Info.
So far I've used a 3rd party util called Disk Inventory X to see how the partitions space is allocated, and I can't see anything untoward in there (such as a large hidden folder containing my trashes), I've inspected the .Trash folder on the partition and confirmed it is empty, and I've unplugged and re-mounted the drive, all to no avail. I've doulble checked I have ownership of my .Trahs files, and that all seems to be in order, and that's about the extent of my expertise - I can't think of anything else to do to get to the bottom of this issue short of backing up all the files onto another volume and re-formatting the partition. Given the amount of time this will take I really want to leave this as a last resort.
If anybody can help shed any light on this issue for me I would be incredibly grateful.
Thanks in advance

Update: I was previously unable to try "Secure Empty Trash" because Finder showed my Trash as empty. However, after deleting a file from my Home folder (so that the Trash icon now shows there's stuff there to be emptied), I have tried Secure Empty Trash again and it looks like Finder has begun the slow process of wiping about 70GB from my external partition.
While this may have solved the issue for the time being, I am concerned that this behaviour will continue, so if anybody has encountered this issue before and knows how to deal with it, I'd still very much welcome your input.

I am running out of space on my MacBook Pro. If i back up my entire hard drive. Can i then delete programs etc. to free up space and if i need them again reinstall from the backup?

My MacBook Pro is running low on hard drive space. Can i perform a backup and then delete programs, files, photo's etc. on my hard drive, And then access them through the back up at a later time?

I agree with samberl ... the problem is not the saving of your programs to reinstall, but that you have outgrown your hard disk.
Sadly, harddisks are about 160% of what they were about 3 months ago due to flooding in Thailand and labor strikes there. A bad time indeed to update harddisks.
You could make enough room by moving some data files for now to an existing external drive.
Then wait for prices to drop.
Then create a clone of your internal drive on a new (cheaper then) drive, and install a new bigger and clone back onto the new drive.
If you can wait a few months.

Deleting files does not clear disc space

Early 2011 Mac book pro running 10.9.4. Deleting iPhoto files does not create additional space. iPhoto is about 160gb, iTunes which I use for viewing slideshows remotely is about 135gb.

Thanks for the reply. Have now changed from Mavericks to Yosemite and now it appears to be working as it should. Will post again after some experimentation

Deleting files doesn't free up space on external drive

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