Hard Drive Filling Up On It's Own, Even After I Delete Files
Okay so I have a macbook pro version 10.6.8. and I don't really know much about computers, so if you can help me and take it slow that would be greatly appreciated! I don't know anything about logs, but by reading some of the other questions, it seems like there might be a problem with those? My computer was running fine until the other day I deleted about 2,000 images (I'm a photographer) off of my computer and on to an external hard drive . When I deleted them, my storage suddenly went from about 186 GB to 15 GB and ever since I have been getting a message saying that my start up disk is full or almost full. I deleted about 6 GB of songs from my itunes this morning (and emptied the trash can) and it said I had about 8 GB free and then an hour later I was back to about 300 MB. I don't want to keep deleting things if it is just going to keep filling back up but I'm not really sure what to do. The computer as a whole has also been running really slow but I just assumed that was because I had so much stored on the drive? Please help!Thanks in advance!
UPDATE: I went through finder trying to find any big files and one of my email accounts was taking up 231 GB of recovered mail. I deleted all of them and so far so good, but how do I stop this from happening again? It seems to be saving the exact same email once about every five minutes and it had been for months.
Try using GrandPerspective to see what's taking up all the space.
Also, make sure everything you don't need is turned off under Sharing; it's possible that you left file sharing on without a password and someone is taking advantage of that.
If you have a MobileMe account, do you have iDisk Syncing turned on? Or something similar if you have Dropbox or another similar service?
Similar Messages
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it shows in the disk utilities but does not allow me to find a problem or fix the problem? Please help. also my external hard drive is a seagate free agent go, 500GB. it is visible on my tv but has no files in it… i'm scared i've lost everything?
Honestly i cannot remember sorry, i got it like 5 maybe 6 yrs ago and just started downloading things to it as the memory on the computer started filling up and when i wanted to see photos/videos on my TV.
My wife did tell me after i had written this post that she did try and record TV to it as it was plugged in. I think by doing so somehow has deleted everything. It reads on my TV yet has no files in it but won't show up on my computer. hope this helps.
Starting to think it is going to cost more to retrieve files on it than it will be to buy a newer and larger one. -
Hard drive filled up after I did back up using Superduper
I bought a new Macbook Air. I was going to back up my old Macbook Air data onto an external drive before I set up the new Macbook Air. Also my old Macbook Air (1.86 GHz, 120GB HDD) had a broken hinge and I was going to take it to the Apple A/S center to have the hinge repaired. So I wanted to back up my data just in case.
I have backed up the data from the old Macbook Air using the same external drive twice before using Superduper and it seemed to go fine both occasions. I have OS 10.6.0 on the old Macbook Air.
I am typing this on the new Macbook Air by the way (2.16GHz, 256 GB, 4GB memory).
I use the unregistered version of the Superduper that requires you to erase and then do a full backup.
I plugged in the external drive using a powered USB hub. (On previous occasions I have used a USB cord that plugs into two computers, as one computer doesn't provide enough power; this time I forgot to set up the second computer and just plugged it into the hub. The blue light came up on the external drive when I plugged it in.)
It came up with "Untitled", an orange icon, on the Superduper window. It asked me whether I want to copy Macintosh HD to "Untitled". I pressed "OK".
It started copying.
Then I was doing something nearby the computer and accidentally tugged on the lid of the Macbook Air. The hinge is broken and as soon as I touched the Macbook Air lid, the lid laid flat on the table, with the laptop completely open. It does that occasionally because the hinge is broken and the slightest pressure on the lid means it will spring right open (180 degrees).
I checked the Superduper window and it seemed to be copying OK. The number of files copied was going up and up.
However I got a message that said that I hadn't ejected the disk properly and that could damage the disk.
I assumed that meant the external drive "Untitled". I thought I should end the copying and start again.
So I quit Superduper. Something strange happened after that. I can't remember what it was exactly. I think it didn't want to quit. I had to use Force Quit.
I then unplugged and plugged the external drive back into the hub. I opened Superduper. This time it had "Untitled 2".
I thought that was strange, and I restarted the computer hoping to see "Untitled" in the Superduper after restarting the computer and opening Superduper again.
However, I got "Untitled 2" again even though the icon of the external hard drive was labeled "Untitled" on my Desktop.
(I think this is where I went wrong.)
I pressed copy again. About halfway through it suddenly stopped and said that the copying had failed.
I unplugged the external hard drive and plugged it in again, and restarted the computer. I opened Superduper again and this time I could not get it to copy. The copy part was grayed out.
I opened Disk Utility and checked the "Untitled" disk. It said it was fine. Verify was OK.
But when I checked the Macintosh HD I got all these error messages and the volume was full. 105GB was used up and 0 GB was available.
Very strange as I had about 20GB available before I tried to do the backup. (I checked the disk capacity of the HD before I did the backup.) I knew for sure that my hard drive was not full before I did the backup.
I tried to repair it but it didn't work. It told me to restart using the operating disk and use First Aid.
I put in the Snow Leopard operating disk in the Superdrive and restarted the computer holding down "C".
The operating disk came up, I chose English and chose Disk Utility. I tried repair. It gave messages that the Library Core had been changed. It said the disk was repaired and OK now. However, the volume was still 105 GB with about 12MB available (before I did the Disk Utility using the OS disc, I deleted a few music files.)
I just restarted the computer after having removed the Superdrive from the computer and it took like twenty minutes to restart. It has restarted though finally (while I am typing this).
I don't know what to do. I don't know what I did to corrupt the disk. I do not want to make things worse. So far the Desktop looks unchanged.
I can't do anything because it seems the computer's hard drive is full eg. browse the internet properly – it keeps coming up with error messages about Preferences being changed.
I think the disk got full because I inadvertently was backing up onto the computer's hard drive (the 'Untitled 2' was probably somewhere on the hard drive of the computer, and not the external hard drive.
I am worried that I have wrecked the back up drive and I have ruined the MBA's hard drive.
What should I do?
Should I just delete some files including program files and free up some space at least 2 GB? I can delete heavy duty program files like Adobe Creative Suite from Applications. (I have the disks so I can always reinstall them again.) What about deleting MS Office? (I have the disk for that.) Will doing that affect the Photoshop files and the Word files I already have?
What do you recommend I delete so that I can free up lots of space?
And how do I find what is filling up my laptop and why there is almost zero GB left on my hard drive. If I did do a backup onto the hard drive where do I find this and how can I delete it?
I was planning to do the backup and on the new MBA do a migration of everything on the backup using the Superdrive – a clone. I have done this before (when I bought the old MBA) and it worked (I did clean install a few times when I mucked up the hard drive in the past and restored the clone that was on the backup external drive onto the computer).
How can I tell if the external drive that I tried backing up onto is OK?
I thought I would check here before I did anything in case I made things worse.
I am going to use the latest operating system on the new Macbook Air. I have read here that 10.6.0 is risky – all your data can suddenly be erased.
I will also update the old Macbook Air to 10.6.4 once I have got things fixed on it.
Thanks for any advice.There may be one or more large folders in your /Volumes folder that shouldn't be there and are using up your disk space.
/Volumes is an 'invisible" folder at the root level of your internal drive which is supposed to contain only the "mount points" for your attached disk volumes, but sometimes an actual folder can mistakenly get created there, often as a result of a failed copy operation such as you experienced with SuperDuper. Such a "ghost" folder will have a name similar to a real external drive, and can contain data that was meant for the real external drive but never got there. When the real external volume then re-mounts, it can no longer use its own name for the mount point in /Volumes because that name is already "taken", and so an extra number gets appended to the mount point. This may have happened twice in your situation, since the actual drive is now mounting as "Untitled 2".
/Volumes is a hidden folder, but it's easy to peek into it. First you should *eject and then physically disconnect all external drives*. Then:
Finder>Go menu> Go to Folder
enter /Volumes and click Go
You should see an alias to the startup volume. Don't touch this, or any other aliases. Do you also see a large folder named "Untitled, and perhaps another folder named "Untitled 1," which are not aliases? If so, delete them, and restart. -
Hard drive filling up, can I use external hard drive for my library?
Hello all!
My hard drive on my Sony laptop only has 30G harddrive, and as I am downloading my Cd collection and buy it tunes videos etc., into my ipod, my computer is slowing down and overloading because of all the other programs I have in there. So far my solution is to delete the videos I have purchased and watched (Series "24") so as not to demand too much of my resourses. I just purchased a seperate 80G hard drive in order to place my photos and other space consuming files there, and wonder how and if I can MOVE my library from my itunes software and place it also onto this small seperate hard drive, so that I can get a few more years out of this laptop? So far I haven't seen if that's possible, just that it can be copied. I want to be able to sync regularly and I don't know if can without re-loading all the data back into the library in my itunes software ON the computer.
Solutions, anyone?
HELP!
Thanks, Flutist ReneeIf you are using iTunes 7, this method is a little more up to date: How to move your iTunes library to an external drive
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I currently run Mac Pro with three hard drives. Can I dual boot or even triple boot with Snow Leopard on one drive and Mountain Lion or Lion on others?
I need to keep Snow Leopard so that I can run some old softward.If you are careful you can put at least two on one drive, having Recovery from Lion and Mountain Lion on their own drives though.
CCC can clone Lion Recovery - great for moving or backup. -
How do I find out what program / file is using 100 GB of space on my Hard drive? Once I find the problem how do I delete the specific files to increase GB of space?
Use OmniDiskSweeper
Once you find file, it can be deleted from within OmniDiskSweeper
Allan -
Question
How do I find my tab history? I had hard drive issues and when I launched my browser after getting it back their was no "restore session" option. I know a tab history is kept, just don't remember where or how to exercise it. ThanksFirefox 4 saves the previous session automatically, so there is no longer need for the dialog asking if you want to save the current session.<br />
Use "File > Exit" or "Firefox > Exit" if you want to restore multiple windows.<br />
You can use "Firefox > History > Restore Previous Session" to get the previous session at any time.<br />
There is also a "Restore Previous Session" button on the default <b>about:home</b> Home page.
Another possibility is to use:
* [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Menu_differences Firefox (Tools) > Options] > General > Startup: "When Firefox Starts": "Show my windows and tabs from last time" -
i have a seagate 1tb hard drive and a 16gb memory stick, how do i transfer avi files from one to another as the click drag and drop wont work, please help?
Greetings,
What happens when you drag it?
Make sure the drive you are moving the files to has enough available space to receive the file:
Click on the movie file and go to File > Get Info and note the "size"
Check the drive to which you are moving the file to make sure it has enough available space: https://idisk.me.com/madisonfile-Public/web/finder-drive-available-space-and-for mat.html
Also note the format of the drive you are copying too. If it is not Mac OS Extended or FAT (not recommended unless you are taking it to a windows computer) then that may be the issue.
Hope that helps. -
After trying to change permissions on my computer so others on my network can grab files, my external Hard Drive has a lock on it and I can't access files. I've tried repairing permissions, logging in under another Administrator account, using Terminal to fix the problem, downloaded BatChmod but nothing works… Any other suggestions? I have an Imac running OS10.6.8.
There is suddenly a lock icon on my external backup drive!
Custom Permissions -
I'm getting this problem when trying to update my iphone 3gs it says that the iphone software could not be contacted and I went on youtube got some advise to go into my hard drive to fix the error I have nothing in my host file please help me if you can this is all new to me.
Read this: iOS 4: Updating your device to iOS 5 or later
... oh I think it is a 3gs or a 3
This makes a difference. What does it say in Settings > General > About? -
I backed up my I-tunes library (by dragging my "music" folder to my new external hard drive. Now 6,000 songs won't play stating, "original file cannot be found." What can I do to get these songs back???!!!
Try putting the files back where they were before you moved them, then follow the steps in this Apple document -> iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
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My macbook pro hard drive went bad and i bought a new one and installed it. Now i have the old corrupted hard drive in my hand and i am looking to recover my files from it, any suggestions please? too bad i never backed them up.
After you have installed the OSX on the new HDD in your MBP, install the old HDD in an enclosure and connect it to your MBP via USB. Then try to drag and drop your data to the new HDD.
If this proves unsuccessful, you may look for data recovery software on the Internet. There will be free trails to see if it will work or not. If the trial suggests that it will work, then you will have to purchase the software.
The last resort is a professional data recovery service that will offer NO guarantees and charge a lot of money.
As you now can appreciate, backups eliminate such predicaments.
Ciao. -
How can I install ntfs on an external hard drive so that my Samsung Smart TV can see my media files? Or is there a better option?
OS X cannot natively write to a drive formatted as NTFS, nor can it format a drive as NTFS. There are third-party NTFS drivers available on the market.
Just out of curiosity: Even with NTFS, how is your TV going to access the external hard drive? Does the TV have a USB port? -
My external hard drive works on PC but won't even show up on my mac?
My external hard drive works on pc but won't even show up on my mac? What can I do?
If it is in the wrong format it must probably still show up though, if your mac does detect it, go to disk utilities> choose the device from the left hand side > go to the "erase" tab and change format to "Mac OS extended (Journaled) then hit "erase".
IMPRTANT! : this will erase ALL of the files on your external hard drive
If this dosent work, make sure your external hard drive's USB port is compatibe with both USB 2.0 and 3.0 and also make sure your mac USB socket isnt damaged either.
Hope this helped -
When I set up my Macs, there were 2 sign-up names - 1 I created and the other was "Ghost". The Apple store says that takes up 50% of my hard drive. Can I kill "Ghost"? Do I just delete it?
Thanks for your help!Hello Blisshous,
It sounds like you have a user account named Ghost, that you want to delete all content from and remove from the computer. This article will help you do that named:
OS X Lion: Delete a user account
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3867
Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, and then click Users & Groups or click Parental Controls.
Click the lock icon to unlock it, and then type an administrator name and password.
Select the user account you want to delete, and then click Delete below the account list.
Do one of the following:
Select “Save the home folder in a disk image” to save the folder as a disk image in /Users/Deleted Users/.
Select “Don’t change the home folder” to leave the home folder in /Users/.
Select “Delete the home folder” to remove it from the computer. If you want to prevent programs that read raw data from retrieving any files, select “Erase home folder securely.”
Click OK.
Keep in mind, if you remove the user and delete the data, without Time Machine you will not be able to restore any data from it in the future.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling
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