Free Disk Space vs Mac Memory Usage

Hi,
I'm wondering if you might be able to help me - I'm so confused with this issue.
I have a MacBook 2008 with an upgraded 320GB HDD, with currently 203GB free disk space.
My back up disk is 120GB - perfect for a time machine back up of 117 GB of data. However, the TM says theres not enough memory because the full size of the back is 150GB? How can this be?
For some reason, the free disk space figure is different to the memory usage figures in About My Mac?
Can anyone explain to me why this is?
My other half uses this computer and has only pictures and files on it, no music or movies? So how can she have utilised 117GB of data? This was previously a shared Mac, but I've deleted my user acc since upgrading and wanted to make this Mac entirely hers.
Any help regarding this will be truly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Tarmak

CarbonCopyClone. It is "donateware" ... pay if you want to. Others use SuperDuper! (both a free and a paid version). I prefer CCC, but do not let that stop you from paying for SuperDuper if others convince you as both are very competent.
It makes a bootable copy of your system partition, and used repeatedly will make "incremental" backups that take far less time than the original backup. I have a TimeMachine backup (I consider it "secondary") and a CCC backup whic I consider "primary" and will eventually save me when my system partition gets cranky and refuses to boot -- use the option key at startup to choose the external disk to boot from.
When you boot from the external drive, which will have CCC running in it, you can then "clone back" to the new internal drive.

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Reporting of free disk space improper for my Mac SSD

Frequently I find that the reported free disk space shown on the desktop for my Mac SSD is wrong since I upgraded to 10.10.3
This is just a reporting issue since the disk utilities I have checked show the correct amount of free space.
To fix it I go to preferences and open Time Machine and turn it off, and then back on.....this has corrected the issue.
Just reporting this in case others are having the same issue.

OK, So I dl'd that and ran it and it only showed an additional swap file directory called "Private" that had about 3 gigs, still about 27 gig's missing.....
In this program the bottom bar shows 74.2 capacity, 61.5 used, 12.6 available
Big directories (anything over 1gig)
13.7 users
10.7 Lib
5.28 Apps
2.53 System
2.93 Private
About 35 gigs
then a bunch under 1 gig that total less than 1 gig,
so say around 25.5 unaccounted for ?????????????
nice program but still wondering where my hard drive space has gone.....
Warren

SMB errors copying from Windows Mac serv - "Not Enough Free Disk Space"

Mac OS X 10.5.5 server with 4TB usable internal space (RAID5 volume) shared out via SMB so that windows workstations (XP Pro SP3) on local subnet can mount them.
when copying files from internal drives on workstations to SMB share on the Mac fileserver, I get no problems. When copying files from external (USB 2.0) drives from workstation to server, i get constant errors of:
"Cannot copy x: There is not enough free disk space. Delete one or more files to free disk space, and then try again."
I've tried all different combinations of SMB settings with permissions and opt locks etc, but so far found nothing that works.
Anyone run into this and resolved it?

UPdate Update... after turning logging to high, i've found the following error in my SMB logs upon copying one of the seemingly random files (I can now make the error happen by copying the same file that caused the error)
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/dosmode.c:unix_mode(90)
unix_mode(.) inheriting from .
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/dosmode.c:unix_mode(99)
unix_mode(.) inherit mode 40755
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/open.c:open_directory(2105)
open_directory: unable to create .. Error was NTSTATUS_OBJECT_NAMECOLLISION
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/dosmode.c:unix_mode(90)
unix_mode(test123.jpg) inheriting from .
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/dosmode.c:unix_mode(99)
unix_mode(test123.jpg) inherit mode 40755
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/open.c:open_file(391)
z2e opened file test123.jpg read=No write=Yes (numopen=2)
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/dosmode.c:unix_mode(90)
unix_mode(test123.jpg:Q30lsldxJoudresxAaaqpcawXc:$DATA) inheriting from .
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/dosmode.c:unix_mode(99)
unix_mode(test123.jpg:Q30lsldxJoudresxAaaqpcawXc:$DATA) inherit mode 40755
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/open.c:open_file(391)
z2e opened file test123.jpg:Q30lsldxJoudresxAaaqpcawXc:$DATA read=No write=Yes (numopen=3)
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/close.c:closenormalfile(399)
z2e closed file test123.jpg:Q30lsldxJoudresxAaaqpcawXc:$DATA (numopen=2) NTSTATUSOK
[2008/10/30 18:33:59, 2, pid=4571] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187.8/samba/source/smbd/close.c:closenormalfile(399)
z2e closed file test123.jpg (numopen=1) NTSTATUSOK

Please for referral information, how can I get more disk space, or actually information and guidelines that can have enough free disk space. How, I have to delete documents or downloading to another drive.

Please for referral information, how can I get more disk space, or actually information and guidelines that can have enough free disk space. How, I have to delete documents or downloading to another drive. (The problem is that Safari could not download the file "iTunesSetup.exe" because there is not enough free disk space.Try deleting documents or downloading to another drive) ... Perhaps this is the main problem why can not open iTunes and inscription is: the folder "iTunes" can not be found or created, and is required. The default location for this folder is inside the "Music" folder. - And after options ok, appears option: Choose iTunes Library with inscription iTunes needs a library to continue. You may choose an existing iTunes library or create a new one - but still following options Choose Library and the following options can not open iTunes ... Please for instructions on how to eliminate the problem or eror ...
Mac is running OS X v10.6.8, Safari should be 5.1.10. Or Mac OS X / Version 10.6.8 / Build 10K549 / Serial Number W8****ATM / Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 or More Info:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2,4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1,07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP71.0039.B0B
SMC Version (system): 1.62f7
Serial Number (system): W80394HFATM
Hardware UUID: 94647506-C5D0-5D73-BC7F-FC680D238F43
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled
<Personsl Information Edited by Host>

buy an external HD 1TB for $60
NO notebook is a mass storage device, so dont try to turn it into one, it doesnt work that way.
Unless youre using it every couple weeks, its static data and should be on an external HD
In the case of a Macbook Air or Macbook Pro Retina with ‘limited’ storage on the SSD, this distinction becomes more important in that in an ever rapidly increasing file-size world, you keep vital large media files, pics, video, PDF collections, music off your SSD and archived on external storage, for sake of the necessary room for your system to have free space to operate, store future applications and general workspace. You should never be put in the position of considering “deleting things” on your macbook SSD in order to ‘make space’.
Professionals who create and import very large amounts of data have almost no change in the available space on their computers internal HD because they are constantly archiving data to arrays of external or networked HD.
Or in the case of the consumer this means you keep folders for large imported or created data and you ritually offload and archive this data for safekeeping, not only to safeguard the data in case your macbook has a HD crash, or gets stolen, but importantly in keeping the ‘breathing room’ open for your computer to operate, expand, create files, add applications, for your APPS to create temp files, and for general operation.

Difference between Ipad free disk space shown in iTunes and Computer folder?

Hello! The paranoid chick is back with another question, lol!
I sync'd my Ipad 2 (iOS6) today. When I attach my Ipad to my PC laptop, I get that popup folder window that shows my Ipad as a removable drive - so I can copy over my photos to my laptop as a backup. Today that little folder that shows my Ipad as a removable folder said I have 15.5G free on my 32G Ipad, but when I look at the Memory Bar (or Summary Bar) at the bottom of iTunes, it says I have 15.33G free. It's only about a 200M difference, but I'm curious as to why there is a difference. Only in the last 6 months have I noticed a difference in the "Free Disk Space" amount under Windows and the "Available Space" in iTunes.
*chanting "I will not dwell on it, I will not dwell on it" over and over*
Thanks for reading!

Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon. Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure you have a minimum of 15% free disk space.
Freeing Up Hard Disk Space - Mac Guides
The reason I don't feel the need to keep my iTunes backuped up on two computers is because I would like for my MacBook to run faster
A "backup" refers to backing up your iTunes media to an external drive or burn to CD's or DVD's, not your MacBook's drive. First rule of thumb in computing, "Backup" ... very important to do so in case the your Mac's drive fails and needs replacing.
How to back up your media in iTunes
You can also backup your iPhoto library > iPhoto 9.0 Help (iPhoto '11): Back up your iPhoto library

Mysterious lack of free disk space

Recently im having a problem with my free disk space disappearing in osx.
running a du command shows a 90GB file usage in my /Library directory, but i cant seem to find or access it anywhere
i enabled hidden files
also ran
sudo tmutil disablelocal
my free space disappears. nothing shows up in finder or other file manager programs.
server:Library peffy03$ sudo du -h -d1
Password:
2.6G          ./Application Support
361M          ./Audio
34M          ./Automator
12M          ./Caches
0B          ./ColorPickers
100K          ./ColorSync
0B          ./Components
0B          ./Compositions
0B          ./Contextual Menu Items
1.1M          ./CoreMediaIO
99M          ./Desktop Pictures
415M          ./Dictionaries
0B          ./DirectoryServices
30M          ./Documentation
0B          ./Extensions
0B          ./Filesystems
1007M          ./Fonts
3.7M          ./Fonts Disabled
65M          ./Frameworks
0B          ./Graphics
18M          ./Image Capture
0B          ./Input Methods
254M          ./Internet Plug-Ins
28K          ./iTunes
0B          ./Java
0B          ./Keyboard Layouts
164K          ./Keychains
20K          ./LaunchAgents
28K          ./LaunchDaemons
188M          ./Logs
5.2M          ./Messages
56K          ./Modem Scripts
0B          ./OpenDirectory
8.0K          ./PDF Services
564K          ./Perl
17M          ./PreferencePanes
384K          ./Preferences
647M          ./Printers
176K          ./PrivilegedHelperTools
0B          ./Python
18M          ./QuickLook
5.2M          ./QuickTime
84K          ./Receipts
0B          ./Ruby
0B          ./Sandbox
140M          ./Screen Savers
0B          ./ScriptingAdditions
1.1M          ./Scripts
4.0K          ./Security
84G          ./Server
0B          ./Speech
0B          ./Spelling
4.1M          ./Spotlight
0B          ./StartupItems
0B          ./SystemProfiler
76K          ./Updates
21M          ./User Pictures
0B          ./Video
4.3M          ./WebServer
45M          ./Widgets
90G          .

30 seconds later
97228896          .
91052984          ./Server
57021568          ./Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services
38736148          ./Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services/Backup
33686588          ./Server/ProfileManager
33686580          ./Server/ProfileManager/Data
29436852          ./Server/ProfileManager/Data/backup
18285404          ./Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services/Data
18235408          ./Server/PostgreSQL For Server Services/Data/pg_xlog
4249724          ./Server/ProfileManager/Data/PostgreSQL
4210716          ./Server/ProfileManager/Data/PostgreSQL/pg_xlog
2696628          ./Application Support
1441632          ./Application Support/GarageBand
1031416          ./Fonts
662968          ./Printers

Safari could not download the file -there is not enough free disk space

I've tried downloading Windows Media Viewer, StuffIt Expander, and Adobe Reader however when I do I receive an error message as follows (example is for the StuffIt Expander -similar message for the other programs): Safari could not download the file "nstuffitexp12.01.dmg" because there is not enough free disk space.
There is PLENTY of free disk space on my hard drive. The hard drive has 20 GB of Used space and 129 GB of Available space.
A few simple fixes I've tried, that did not help: I cleared my Cache, I emptied my Trash, I restarted the computer. (sorry, I'm a Mac novice -not sure what else to try)
What's wrong? How do I download these files??
I would like to open Window Media Viewer files (.wmv) and Adobe Reader files (.pdf) so I need these programs on my computer.
So as a secondary question, is there a program for Macs better suited to open and view .wmv and .pdf files?
Please help with my download / free disk space problem, this is driving me crazy (for hours now). Thank you in advance for your assistance!!

Mac OS X can open pdf files fine without Adobe's bloatware, they open by default in TextEdit - the whole of OS X's display system is actually based around pdf technology so it's easy for the system to integrate pdf tools. There are alternative tools available on MacUpdate but for reading TextEdit is fine.
wmv files should be opened with the Flip4Mac Quicktime plugin, Microsoft no longer support their own player on Mac and even supply the F4M plugin from their own download pages.
For Stuffit files (which are thankfully much rarer these days) I'd use The Unarchiver instead of Allume's fat cat.
To fix the other problem you could try changing your download location in Safari preferences, General - it may be that the location you are downloading to has the problem. You can pick anywhere you like just to test it out.

Finder not taking into account local backups when reporting free disk space

Time Machine in Lion (10.7.2) stores local backups of files on your laptop's hard drive when it is not connected to an external Time Machine backup drive. See this article for more information.
If you click on the Apple in the top-left corner of your screen and choose About This Mac > More Info > Storage, you will see exactly how much space your local "Backups" are taking (along with other useful info about how your hard drive space is being used).
Interestingly, the amount of free HD space listed there differes from the amount of free space Finder says is available (when you choose View > Show Status Bar to display it). The amount that it differs is exactly the same as the amount of the local "Backups." So, it appears that Finder is not taking those local Backus into account when it displays free disk space.
So, Finder is telling me I have almost 100 gigs MORE free space than I actually have. I would prefer Finder to show me how much space I have AFTER the local Backups are taken into account.

The article that you linked to gives the rationale for this:
Note: You may notice a difference in available space statistics between Disk Utility, Finder, and Get Info inspectors. This is expected and can be safely ignored. The Finder displays the available space on the disk without accounting for the local snapshots, because local snapshots will surrender their disk space if needed.

Why do I have so little free disk space and am running slowly?

My iMac is running very slowly, and I was advised to examine the activity monitor to troubleshoot. I am not technically savvy, but I can see that I have very little free disk space, and that Safari seems to be taking up a lot of memory. I'm not a haevy user, so I'm unclear what the problem is. Could someone explain in simple terms what's wrong and how I can fix it? Thanks

Jerry Kaiser wrote:
My problem seems to be greatest when I have both Safari and Firefox running.
There is a known memory issue with Firefox on OS X (Chrome has it too) first be sure your updated and check your plug-in compatability (both should be done auto-magically when restarting FF)
https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/
Next time when you have a slowdown occuring, simply close all the open Firefox windows and that should clear the issue up.
What occurs is when one browses for sometime opening tabs, it asks OS X for more memory and then has trouble using what's been freed up by closed tabs. The issue has been occuring less often as updates have been rolling out.
If one has one more more other large programs open this also contributes to the issue.

Not enough free disk space to export photos

Apple Mavericks OSX 10.9.4, processor 3.06 GHz, memory 4gb 1067 MHz
iphoto 8.1.2 (424)
I am having trouble exporting a sizable photo album slideshow from iPhoto to a flash drive.
I have spent countless hours captioning some 3000 family photos into about 20 albums. The number of photos in albums ranges from 20 to 295.
I've been successful in exporting each album slideshow to a 16gb flash drive except for the two largest ones, with 232 (351mb) and 295 photos (555mb). For these two, I get a very quick error message "not enough free disk space. Free up space on the disk and try again." There is plenty of space on my 16gb flash drive, and my desktop has more than 440gb free space out of 495 total.
I've tried updating iPhoto to v. 9.1 without success. Is this an iPhoto issue? I'd rather not switch to iLife and have to pay for it.
I am very average at systems stuff, so please make your suggestions in language I can understand! Any ideas are welcome and appreciated!

How did you arrive at the numbers you got for available space? Some things are not counted in the amount of space depending on what you did (like local Time Machine snapshots, etc) and some things are. I use the "df -kt" (shows everything in KBytes - use "-mt" if you prefer to see the numbers in Mbytes or "-gt" to see in GBytes) command in a Terminal window to list the total size, amount used, amount free for all mounted volumes.
Do you have "Read&Write" permissions on the disk you're trying to save to? Perhaps there are some "hidden" folders taking up a lot of space?

Why doesn't my free disk space increase when I delete files on Mountain Lion?

I just upgraded my Macbook Air to Mountain Lion. Now whenever I delete files my free disk space doesn't increase. I show only 500Mb free space now (out of 120Gb), even though I just deleted 50Gb of files. I tried to reinstall Mountain Lion, but it said I don't have enough space. I have a very simple setup, with no external apps except for Office 2011. I am NOT using Time Machine (I have it set to "off"), or any other backup programs, so I don't think this is the problem.
Also, I noticed that whenever I move a file to the trash, I am asked for my password, which is extremely annoying.
I am living in France, far from the nearest Apple store. Can anyone help? Thanks.

slsperry wrote:
p.s. does anyone know how to get Finder to stop asking for my password every time I move a file to the trash? this did not happen with Snow Leopard, and is really tiresome. thanks
I think you should try repairing permissions on your Home folder...
http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/15/repair-user-permissions-in-mac-os-x-lion/
Startup holding command-r keys.
You will boot into the Repair Utilities screen. On top, in the Menu Bar click the Utilities item then select Terminal.
In the Terminal window, type resetpassword and hit Return.
The Password reset utility launches, but you’re not going to reset the password. Instead, click on the icon for your Mac’s hard drive at the top. From the drop-down below it, select the user account where you are having issues.
At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled ‘Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs’. Click the Reset button there.
The reset process takes a couple of minutes. When it’s done, quit the programs you’ve opened and restart your Mac. Notice that ‘Spotlight’ starts re-indexing immediately.

Variable free disk space

Suddenly, the amount of free disk space is jumping between 26 gB and 0 gB. This happens periodically, with almost no programs running. I am getting the error message "Your hard disk is almost full" when this happens. iDisk sync is off. I tried repairing permission and DiskWarrior. I have had no problems since installing Mac OS 10.5..
Everything has been fine until today. I installed Airport Utility 5.3.1 update ?yesterday, but that is not likely the issue. Running Activity Monitor did not give me the answer.

Firstly, I confirm that in LV 8.6, we don't have this problem.
Secondly, let me explain what defragment is doing. For example, if you write data to a file for multiple times, you'll probably get TDMS file with multiple segments and headers, so that the .tdms_index file will quite large. What defragment does is to re-organize your data in the tdms file and you'll get only one segment/header and a tiny .tdms_index file.
So, after you writing the file and you can make up a VI, read the channels in the file and write the data into a new TDMS file, only one time's writing will not result in multiple segments, so the new written tdms file is well organized. If you can't write all channels altogether once to a TDMS file, you can write one channel by one channel, if there are not too many channels. Does this make sense?
I recommend you to do so if you want to write a 2.0 TDMS file and benefit from TDMS high speed streaming in LabVIEW 2009 and it's a workaround not to use defragment but also get a "defragemented" file. I'm afraid the fix would not go with 2009 SP1.

Zero KB of 3 TB available (time capsule message) though airport utility says 2.4T free disk space. any idea?

I do have a 3TB Airport Time Capsule and there is free disk space if I do check on the Airport Utility but also if I add up the disk usage. However, TimeCapsule does not backup anymore. Message I get is "Zero KB of 3 TB available". I did already delete the backup on the Time Capsule and did restart the backup. No success. Any idea?

You need to compact the sparsebundle.. you might have deleted material but if it is inside a sparsebundle no space is retrieved.
See the article by Pondini about deleting files.
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html
The pink box on issues with the sparsebundle.

Turning on FileVault requires an additional 4092.0 GB of free disk space to

I get this Message when turning on file vault:
Turning on FileVault requires an additional 4092.0 GB of free disk space to create an encrypted copy of the home folder. Try emptying the Trash or deleting files you don't need.
This surprising as the Disk is 60GB or which only 40GB is used. What is causing file vault to think that it needs all this space?

File-Vault works by creating an Encrypted Disk Image that is the same exact size as your Home Folder. Once created, all your files are moved into this encrypted disc image and then deleted from their original locations.
So, to answer your question, File-Vault has to have enough free space to create a disk image that is just as big as your home folder is before it can do anything else.
The amount of free space needed for File-Vault to do its thang is exactly the same size as your home folder. To get this size, Highlight your home folder and press Apple-i. This Get Info windows will Calculate the size.
Good Luck,
Steve the Mac Guy

Unable to free disk space on macbook pro.

I have this weird problem. I have deleted some big files (In GB) to free up HD space, but my Mac HD free disk space stays the same, it is not increasing as it should. I had like 3.7 GB free space. I deleted 4GB files and it still shows 3.7GB free space. I deleted everything from 'Trash' and even tried restarting the computer. What seems to be the problem?

Here is some info on that (I've never had that problem myself, so I'm not sure what to suggest):
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1121144
Not sure if this would still apply:
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/sparsebundledefined.html
http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html
It seems to have something to do with a backup and/or FileVault. Also, do you have any third party apps for backing up, cleaning your Mac, AV protection or anything like that installed?

Free Disk Space vs Mac Memory Usage

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