Disk Space as shown by Disk Utility doesn't add up

Somebody please explain the following to me and tell me what can be done.
My Mac's shooting up warnings, telling me to free up space. Please help me. I have tried to repair the disk; but it is in proper order according to DU.

Did you try to repair the disk when in Recovery mode, or when the disk was mounted?
If you're running Lion (10.7.5, as your profile shows) boot into your Recovery partition by holding down the command and R keys whilst booting. Use Disk Utility from Recovery to verify and, if needed, repair the disk (if you haven't done so already).
Obviously there's something wrong with the directory information.
Clinton

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Disk Utility shows incorrect free disk space after erasing hard disk

Hello.
A few days ago, I tried to re-install my Mac OS and both Snow Leopard and Lion got the same problem. Before the re-installation, I erased the hard disk of my MacBook (late 2009) and the SSD of my MacBook Air (late 2010) - but after erasing the disks, the disk utility continued to show more or less 5 GB of used disk capacity, although the disks should have been cleared entirely I think.
After installing Snow Leopard or Lion, Finder showed as much free space as I usually expected it would, but Disk Utility still stated 5-10 GB less. For example:
MacBook: Finder shows 17 GB free, Disk Utility 6 GB free
MacBook Air: Finder shows 26 GB free, Disk Utility 19 GB free
There are 2 problems:
1) I need the original disk capacity. Think everybody agrees with that wish.
2) More important: The MacBook should still get a Bootcamp partition (unfortunately, that's necessary for my university's software.. :s): With 17 GB free space, it would work - but 6 GB doesn't.
I would be very pleased if somebody could help me. I searched the web many times so far but didn't find any real solution.

The available disk space reported in finder is totally wrong.
Even if it accounts for the local snapshots. In my macbook air it shows 120 Available in finder which is just 1GB less than my SSD capacity.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4467217

My C drive is 19.5 GB. xp sp3 took 5.05 GB.Firefox also installed here . There's no room for new downloaded files.So I changed the save to option in another drive. Still when downloading large files 'low disk space' message shown.

suppose I want to download a 4 or 5 GB file,in C:/ there is usually 2 or 3 GB left.So I changed the directory of saved files to E:/.Still low space problem occurs and the newly downloaded file is not saved.A low disk space message is shown.Why is this showing?How to resolve this?

in options under the "general" tab change the download folder,if that does not help change the option to "ask every time".I recommended to use DAP to download your files its great and accelerates your speed quite a lot.
link: www.speedbit.com

Pavilion a1430n keeps freezing and is almost out of hard disk spAce n a 18gb disk running IATA

I have a up pavilion a1430n desktop running vista that I installed and the system always freezes and I am almost out of disk space on a 18 gb hd but only 512ram please help

Hi,
Based on its specs, it has 250GB HDD, now you only have 18GB free that means around 7% free. To keep your machine in good shape (no freezing) you need around 15% or more free space and no fragmented.
My suggestion: move data/files elsewhere and/or delete them specially all temp files then run Defrag utility from Vista. Please read and use the following article to clean the HDD:
http://pccaresupport.com/services/hard-drive-optimization/
Regards.
BH
**Click the KUDOS thumb up on the left to say 'Thanks'**
Make it easier for other people to find solutions by marking a Reply 'Accept as Solution' if it solves your problem.

Insufficient disk space / Error writing to Disk: when using photo library manager

First I couldn't open my iphoto library (again!) so I am rebuilding my library (again- 4th time). NOW I'm told I donot have sufficient disk space to import photos.
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And just as I'm writing this I get Error Writing to disk memo
iPhoto cannot import your photos because there was a problem writing to the volume containing your iPhoto library.

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.
If you select the disk icon for your hard drive on the Desktop, then Press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. In the upper panel it will show your drive's space statistics - Capacity, Used, and Available. It is the latter you are interested in to see how much space is left on the drive. If you have less than 1 GB or so, then you must stop trying to write to the drive or you may corrupt it completely.

HT4878 Can the available space statistic in Finder be corrected to reflect the "true" available space, as shown in Disk Utility?

Would appreciate a solution, as this discrepancy is uncomfortable ans doesn't sound like something terryibly difficult to solve.

Since the Local Snapshots are "expendable" -- they'll be deleted automatically if your disk gets over 80% full -- the difference really isn't a problem (once you know what it is!).
Thus, for most purposes, the "true" available space on Finder is actually more acccurate than Disk Utility.
To see what's really going on, use the "Storage" display, as it breaks the Local Snapshots out separately (but labels them "Backups").

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Hi,
I have a Minimac 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with OS X 10.8.4.
Using an Apple Time Capsule for backup.
In disc time capsule stored other files I mada a bit of time I can not find them, what can I do?

No files appear but disk space is used. Disk repair?

Hey all, I've seen one or two people with similar problems but couldn't find a resolution. The iPod seems to be nearly full but the songs I placed on it appear not to be there. New songs that I transfer show up all right though.
Can you run disk repair programs on iPods? I tried to run Disk utility but I got some error message about the drive not unmounting. I just want to know if there is some mechanical problem that I should get repaired or if I restore the iPod will the problem go away permanently? Thanks.

That happened once when I had a nano that I was updating to 1.2 firmware. My computer stopped working halfway through, so there was an nano with music on it that wasn't visible. I got rid of it by switching the nano to disk mode,and wiping it clean before running the cd that came with the nano. But a restore works better.

My Macbook Pro keeps on saying that my disk space is full (startup Disk space) how or what do I need to do to resolve this as it is preventing me downloading all software updates?

Can someone help?

it actually says this "You need 5.34 GB of available space to download and install the updates. To increase available space, remove files from your startup disk, and then try again."
Don't even know how to do what it is asking me to do, can I get some direction?

Lost disk space after each reinstall.

I've had to reinstall leopard on my macbook three times in the last week for different reasons. After each reinstall(erase and install) it appeared that I lost a little more GB to the HDD. I have a 250GB HDD, and I know it actualls reads as 232.87, but without uploading any media and only using the reinstall disks that came with the box, I have only 218 or so GB. Is this normal? I can't find the numbers anywhere; they just don't add up.

Anthony Turtzo wrote:
I can't find the numbers anywhere; they just don't add up.
My guess is that you have added up the sizes of the folders visible in Finder at the root level of the drive (Applications, Library, System, & Users) & compared that total to the total space used on the drive. The two numbers will not match because there are also hidden files & folders at the root level of the drive that Finder does not normally show. The hidden items are necessary for the proper operation of the Mac & in normal use are managed by the system. Since users should not tamper with them directly without good reason & it requires expert knowledge to do so without breaking anything, they have been made invisible in the Finder view.
It is normal for the drive space used by these items to fluctuate, & for the total to grow somewhat after first installing the OS. Some of the items contain temporary files that are created & destroyed as needed. Some contain usage, crash, & other informational logs that are managed by routines that the system automatically runs periodically to keep their total from becoming too large. Others contain initialization data gathered over time that the system uses to start up or to run processes efficiently.
Thus, there is no fixed correct number for their total size since that depends on the history & current state of the machine. On my iMac G5, one large hidden folder ("var") currently uses about 1.05 GB of drive space, but consider that only a ballpark number since it may be considerably different on different Macs at different times.
If you are still concerned about the health of the drive, especially that something is eating up disk space unnecessarily, then run Disk Utility to check it. In the "First Aid" tab select your drive & click the "Verify Disk" button. If this reports no problems then you can be pretty sure there is nothing to worry about.

Why Oracle Linux 5 cannot recover disk space after delete files ?

Folks,
Hello. When I create a Virtual Machine for Oracle Linux 5 to install EBS R12, I allocate 300GB to the VM. I download EBS R12 Source Files (45.7GB) and unzip the files (46GB). Total size of stage area directory(EBS_R12) is 91.7GB.
Because some files are corrupted and cannot install, I move the folder EBS_R12 into trash but cannot empty trash. I move EBS_R12 from trash back to the directory. Then at root user, use command "rm -rf " to delete EBS_R12 completely.
I shut down Oracle Linux 5 and restart it, 91.7GB disk space cannot recover.
I download some other files into Oracle Linux files and then delete those files, but disk space cannot be recovered either.
It seems that OEL5 virtual disk only can expand but cannot be reduced. The VM disk space is less than 200GB now and not enough to install EBS R12.
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Folks,
Hello. Thanks a lot for replying.
Host OS is Windows 7, Guest OS is Oracle Linux 5 on the top of VMPlayer 3. The VM of Oracle Linux 5 is created on the external USB drive and not on the local hard disk.
There is a directory /tmp/VMwareDnd/376c7cae/EBS_R12 in Oracle Linux 5 file system. I copy/Paste the folder of EBS_R12 from Windows 7 into Oracle Linux 5. All of zip files and unzipped files are placed in the folder of EBS_R12.
After EBS_R12 is deleted, the external USB drive(F:) doesn't come up 91.7GB disk space.
My question is:
Where to run "boot>linux rescue" command ?
Does this command work correctly in the external USB drive ?

Disk Space "leaking" in Java Application Using java.io.RandomAccessFile

I have noted this behaviour in both java version 1.2.1 and 1.3.1 on Solaris 5.8.
I have a java application that is essentially "tailing" a very large log file.
The program opens a RandomAccessFile in read-only mode and calls readLine on the file as long as the file is getting written to.
If the file stops getting updated the program assumes the logfile has been moved/rotated/wrapped (by an external process) and the program the calls close and then reopens the file to allow the program to start reading from the new file and to allow the O/S to free up the system resources.
It appears that the program is not actually closing the filehandle or releasing the disk space and eventually the disk fills up.
When this happens the program is stopped and restarted and the disk space is freed up.
We have run the pfiles command against the running process and have confirmed that the old filehandles are still open.
I have attached what I think to be the relevant code lines below:
RandomAccessFile filehandle = null;
boolean reopen = true;
boolean connected = true;
while(connected)
if (reopen)
while(! new File(filename).exists())
doSleep (filewaittime);
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while (file_being_updated)
// read from the file etc.
filehandle.close();
filehandle = null;
reopen = true;
The reopen flag is set to false in code not shown here.
I have verified that the block of code that calls close() on the filehandle and sets it to null is being executed when the logfile is moved externally.

Hmmmm. Sounds like a hint to me :)
I am still experimenting but I will certainly try moving to the latest JDK and report a bug if I don't figure this out on my own.
Thanks.

Deleted iTunes items do not appear in Trash and disk space is still in use

I upgraded to Lion from Snow Leopard last week and have just hit a rather annoying problem.
I have my iTunes library on an external USB drive, which is running low on disk space, so I thought I'd delete some o the shows that I've already watched on iTunes. So, I opened iTunes, slected each file in turn, hit the delete key and then the Move to Trash option.
The files disappeared from iTunes, but my Trash was still showing as empty and the disk space on the external drive was unchanged. I deleted a file on my local disk in Finder and that immediately appeared in my Trash. However, emptying the Trash did not then free up any disk space on the external drive.
In Terminal, if I run df -h it shows 931GB in use and 103MB remaining, but du -sh * shows only 923GB in use for the same disk.
Any thoughts on why this is happening and how to find then delete that 8GB discrepancy?

I am actually having the same problem as sheepworrier. I deleted 15 gb of itunes files and it didnt even appear in the trash. THe hard disk space did not increase accoording to disl utility and iStat pro, however, finder reflects this change in free hard drive space. Any other files I delete, and empty from the trash do not free up hard disk space as measured by disk utility and iStat pro. Does it have to do with the fact that I recently updgraded my hard drive? I'm running a clone made by Carbon Copy Cloner.

Missing disk space after crash

In the middle of burning a backup to DVD, my machine crashed (old emac, OX X 10.3.x). Afterwards, it seems like about 30gig of disk space has disappeared (the disk went from 15G of 55G used to 52G used). Disk utility found nothing wrong, Norton Utilities found and fixed "major problems" and still there's all this space missing.
I expect that there's a huge temporary file hidden somewhere, but still that seems a lot of space.
Any thoughts, suggestions?
Thanks much.

Welcome To  Discussions mfidelman!
What were you backing up, and what method were you using?
"...the disk went from 15G of 55G used to 52G used)."
Considering the small amount of free space presently available, I think it could be extremely risky, to download anything at this point.
Insufficient available space, can cause performance issues, system corruption, and possible loss of data.
Depending on Mac system usage habits, it is a general recommendation, to keep 10% to as much as 20%, of the Total capacity, available at all times.
Try the procedure below first.
INSTRUCTIONS TO RUN CRON MANUAL COMMANDS
Quit all applications/programs.
Navigate to HD > Applications > Utilities.
Double click on Terminal, to open.
At the prompt, type:
sudo periodic daily
Press Return.
Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
This will execute the daily script that is sheduled to run every night.
When completed, repeat this procedure, but change the command to:
sudo periodic weekly
This one rebuilds a database or two, and usually takes somewhat longer to complete. It is scheduled to run once a week.
Repeat again, with command:
sudo periodic monthly
Or they can all be run in one pass, which is preferable, with this command:
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
When the tasks complete, and return to the prompt, you may quit Terminal.
Restart the Mac, and run Repair Permissions.
TO REPAIR PERMISSIONS ON THE STARTUP DISK
1.Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities, and select the startup disk in the left column.
2.Click First Aid.
3.Click Verify Disk Permissions to test permissions or Repair Disk Permissions to test and repair permissions. (I never "Verify". Just run "Repair".)
Rerun RP, until the only messages reported, are listed here Spurious Permissions Errors Using: 10.3.x, authored by Michael Conniff.
When "Repair Permissions" is complete. Quit "Disk Utility".
ali b

How do i recover disk space after deleting windows partition?

I have a macbook pro running on maverick. I removed the windows partition using bootcamp assistant, but I did not gain the disk space back. The disk space is 500gb but it's still showing 250gb?

Yes, that matters. So your partition map looks something like this:
You see one single space surrounded in blue with the disk name in the center, sort of like the above. But, you say that this space is only 250 GBs of your 500 GB drive. In other words the space in the Size field reads 250 GBs, mol? Am I correct in my understanding?
I suggest you might give this a try: repair the hard drive using Disk Utility. Then restart the computer. See if that recovers the space. It would also help if you could send me a screen image like mine but of your Disk Utility display on the same settings.

Disk Space as shown by Disk Utility doesn't add up

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