Hard drive full of back up files, cant move them out

i am new to mac's, i am using a macpro retina 13".
i recently put all my photos in iphoto & edited few home videos in imovie & later moved my iphoto library to an external hard drive. i checked my hard drive for space after moving the iphoto library out to the external drive but it seems to be full, i checked out the storage area in "about my mac" it shows me that the mac hard drive has back ups. i am using an external hardrive for timemachine backups.
my time machine backup was not connected to my mac when i did all the work. i later connected the hard drive & did timemachine back up but the files in the macdrive does not see to move out.
i have attached a pic of the hard drive status in about my mac.
please help me to move this large file out my mac to the external hard drive.
thank you.

You really should understand what these Time Machine Local Snapshots are and how the impact the storage:
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202301
In effect that are temporary and will be deleted as may be required for other data. You may simply ignore them since they will have no adverse affect on the MBP SSD.
Ciao.

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DiskWarrior Preview Not Reading External Hard Drive -- Can't back up files

So I recently fell upon the grey screen with the folder problem. After some research I got disk warrior and ran it on my computer (which I got in September 2006). After it was finished, DiskWarrior told me that the disk was malfunctioning and therefore could not replace the old directory with the new directory. What I take this to mean is that I need to get a new hard drive or a new computer altogether.
Per the recommendation that I back up my files, I tried inserting my USB eternal hard drive, however it is not showing up on the DiskWarrior Preview screen (the one where you would be able to transfer files). I restarted the computer and redid the whole process, and the external drive did show up on the list of disks that I had the option of repairing. I chose to rebuild my internal drive, of course, but came back to the Preview window where I could not get the external drive to appear. How do I back up my files???
I will be able to stop by an Apple store this weekend, so I'd like to know if there is anything else I could do to save my computer, more specifically how I can back up my files in the case that something terrible happens to my data.
Thanks
- Liam

Hi,
I was wondering if you ever resolved this issue as i am having exactly the same problem with my powerbook G4 17" With Leopard (i cant remember the exact version and now i have no way to check).
It recently would not boot up past the gray screen and after a while of the apple logo with the spinning bar it shut it self down again.
After going through all try to book from system disk) and getting pretty dismal results i have come to use disk warrior 4.1.
Now i managed to boot the machine from the disk and have run the rebuild option and after a couple of hours i was faced with the message that
"disk warrior has successfully rebuilt a new directory from the disk named macintosh HD" but then "THE NEW DIRECTORY CANNOT REPLACE THE ORIGINAL DIRECTORY BECAUSE OF A DISK MALFUNCTION"
This report then goes on to tell me that it is highly recommended that i back up all the data from the preview disk.
So this is where the problem lies, i can not get any external drive to in the preview window so that i can copy the information. The drives work just fine, have ample space but i just can not access them through preview window.
I did what was said above as well in restart the disk warrior process agian with the external drive already plugged in (with even an option to rebuild that) yet after rebuilding the internal harddrive again i can not see the external. The weird thing is i know that the machine recognises that it is there as i can save a pdf report to it yet when it comes to access through the preview window there is no such option.
Does anyone know what to do? Do i look for another programme or i could hook it up to another mac and perhaps it would recognise that as a disk to send to . I just need a viable option of getting my data from the internal drive to an external source so that i can re format the thing.
I can see it, i know its there yet i just cant figure out how to do it. Very frustrating.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Super slow hard drive, can't back up files

Ok this is a continuation of my previous post, but since I'm not getting any more replies and and the issue has shifted I'm creating a new post. PLEASE HELP.
My internal 500GB work hard drive (not startup HD) started acting up after I interrupted copying a file by relaunching the finder. After many tries I was able to run disk utilities from the installer CD and supposedly fixed all problems. It had several issues that were fixed. However now the drive takes about 10 minutes to mount and to copy all the files onto a new drive takes 3000 hours (I had it run all night only to be able to copy over 400MB (not GB). I desperately need this data. Running cron scripts or disc utilites (no new problems found) on the drive takes 1-2 hours each. Any other hard drive fixer softwares I should try using? Might the drive just broken?

Hi domihode;
Since you have overfilled that disk because it is always poor policy to fill a disk beyond 85% full, I would strongly recommend that once you get the free space over at least 10% that you repair the disk using Disk Utility. Filling a disk as full as you have vastly increases the chances for file corruption. If you don't repair this file corruption, it can lead to all sorts of strange problems in the future.
If Disk Utility reports there are errors but it is unable to correct them, you have two alternatives to repair the problem. One is to use DiskWarrior and the other is to reformat the disk. The choice is yours.
Allan

Hard drive full but no big files

How to find what is filling up my hard drive?

Thanks so much, found 145 gb in my recovered messages file in my email. looking at it looks like 1 email 10,000 times.
I am happy again!!!!

My mac air says hard drive full and 90% is full of 'other' which I cant work out what 'other' is as i Have transferred most to my external hard drive

My mac air says hard drive full and 90% is full of 'other' which I cant work out what 'other' is as i Have transferred most to my external hard drive.
Do you know how I can tell how large each file is taking up and what my 'other' category could be?
thanks

Initial easy steps to gain disk space:
- Delete all files in the Downloads folder.
Empty the Trash.
- Start iPhoto.
Empty its trash.
Restart.
Backup:
Run a Time Machine (or other) backup since you are about to delete and move files and you may need to recover from any inadvertent mistakes or decisions. You will need one external hard drive for your Time Machine (or other) backup and a second if you plan to offload some files. (See suggestions for where to purchase hard drives at the end of this message.)
For more about backups:
Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
Most commonly used backup methods:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031
Deleting files:
Then use the free application OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more to explore your volume in descending order by size so you can attack the problem from the top down, deleting the largest unwanted files first. Delete with caution and do not delete any system files. Remember to empty the trash after trashing the files.
Additional reference on freeing disk space:
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
Offloading files:
Consider moving some of the no-often-used large files or directories to an external disk. Use ODS again to find them. This will be at least your second hard drive. Your first one(s) is/are for your Time Machine (or other) backup(s). Do not offload files onto a Time Machine disk.
Format the second drive as Mac OS Extended (journaled). Using OWS to find large files/folders and copy them from the system drive to the external hard drive and delete them from your internal drive.
Then  > System Preferences > Time Machine > Options… > Remove the offload HD name from the exclusions list.
Now both your system disk and your external offload disk will be backed up onto your Time Machine disk.
From: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
To move your iTunes Music folder to another disk or partition:
To change the location of your iTunes Music folder, carefully follow the instructions in the AppleCare® Knowledge Base document "iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Music folder."Additional information can be found in iTunes Help.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.thexlab.com/105/ 00000849.html
Laptop users may want to consider having two iTunes libraries: a small library of current favorites on their computer, while their complete library resides on an external hard drive. Utilities like iTunes Library Manager enable you to easily have multiple iTunes libraries you can use with your account. https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7689/itunes-library-manager
To move your iPhoto Library folder to another disk or partition:
To move the iPhoto Library folder to a new location, employ the instructions in the AppleCare Knowledge Base document from http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506 corresponding to the version of iPhoto you are using. Additional information can be found in iPhoto Help.
Laptop users may want to consider having two iPhoto libraries: a small library of current, favorite photographs on their computer, while their complete library, or archives of older photos are saved on an external hard drive. Utilities such as iPhoto Buddy and iPhoto Library Manager enable you to have multiple iPhoto libraries that you can use with your account.
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12175/iphoto-buddy
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7158/iphoto-library-manager
Hardware — Bigger disk/SSD:
OWC sells 120, 240 and 480 GB SSD upgrades for MacBook Airs. A 240 GB upgrade costs $265. http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/ . If your Mac is under warranty or AppleCare replacing the SSD will void the warranty.

Since i upgraded to mavericks,my external hard drive lost half of the files ,how can i get them back?

Since i upgraded to mavericks,my external hard drive lost half of the files ,how can i get them back?

Type move itunes library into the google serach bar.
It has always been very basic to always maintain abackup copy of your computer. Do you not have a backup copy?

I replaced my hard drive and I backed up my files on an external hard drive but when I reloaded my iweb to my imac none of my files were on it so I can't make changes to my Published web site have I lost my files what can I do

I replaced my hard drive and I backed up my files on an external hard drive but when I reloaded my iweb to my imac none of my files were on it so I can't make changes to my Published web site have I lost my files what can I do

By default iWeb keeps its data in (user)/Library/Application Support/iWeb in a file named Domain. Without this file you cannot proceed (other than by recreating the site from scratch using the published version as a reference) so you need to locate it on the original disk.
To confuse matters, Apple have hidden the user’s Library folder in Lion and Mountain Lion to casual viewers, in an attempt to stop new Mac users messing their machines up. To access it, in the Finder go to the ‘Go’ menu and hold down the Option (Alt) key; the Library folder will appear as a choice.

I have some stuff i want to put on external hard drive when i drag the file or files it just puts them back

i have some stuff i want to put on external hard drive when i drag the file or files it just puts them back

Did you format the external disk on Windows? If you did this, probably the external disk is formatted in NTFS. OS X can't write on this format, so it's normal that it doesn't allow you to copy the files.
In this case, you have three possibilities:
1. Install Paragon NTFS. This program allows you to write on NTFS partitions.
2. Copy the hard drive content to your internal disk and format the external disk with Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Do it only if you are going to use the external disk only with OS X.
3. The same as the last one but formatting it with exFAT. This filesystem is compatible with Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8) and OS X (10.6.5 and newer), so you can write and read files on external disks formatted with it on Windows and OS X, but you may have problems on Linux

Restore iPhotoLibrary specifically from EXTERNAL Hard drive Time Machine back up?

My laptop Photo Library is corrupted somehow. I tried to restore from a prior in Time Machine on laptop and made the mistake of not saying to keep BOTH copies, but after trying for 3 hours of telling me it was doing it through various windows, a little one popped open saying something about permissions and it opened an old iPhotoLibrary from 2 years ago! ... I do have that one now and am copying it off my laptop as fast as I can to FLICKR
cuz APPLE has become a PHOTO sinkhole... (We are talking 20,000 pics folks with scanned in family pics from 100 yrs ago!)
I think I have a good copy on my External Hard Drive Time Machine back up from about 3 weeks ago. How do I use that to Restore from
or should I just wait for this PHOTOS thing to come out?
NEXT Question is there a convenient way to split it into MULTIPLE ones..eg KEEP old stable photos in one or more.
and use another for all the new ones not editted or sorted yet? I do see there is a new Option under iPHOTO/File menu to just switch
libraries but, of course, you cant even see that if your Library wont open!

For TM help post in the forum for your OS - and see https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/ and http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html and http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
Depends on undisclosed information
With the current OS and iPhoto you switch library using the switch library command - with any version you can switch libraries by holding the option key down while you launch iPhoto which brings up the select library window
And generally it is not a smart idea to have multiple iPhoto libraries - it generally has no advantages and makes things much more difficult and complicated and often leads to user errors that cause major problems
If you want to anyway the most convent way to split libraries is to use the paid version of iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ -
LN

Why is my hard drive full when I only have the operating system loaded and nothing else? No pics, music, nothing...It's the 60 Gig hard drive on the air built in late 2010.

Why is my hard drive full when I'm only running the operating system and nothing else is loaded? No music, pics, nothing! I understand the hard drive is small at 60 gig, but I can't believe the os would take up that much space.

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB free on the startup volume for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved. ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To really see everything, you have to run it as root. Back up all data now. Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways: ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.) ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens. ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid. After installing ODS in the Applications folder, drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. When you're done with it, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Can I use one 2tb external hard drive for time capsule and file storage?

I would like to use time capsule, but also keep the hard drive on my desktop for file storage. Can I do this?

Apple advises against doing that.
Any data stored on the disk that Time Machine is backing up to can not be backed up.
Plus the data outside of the Time Machine backup database cause problems when Time Machine starts cleaned up old backups to recover space for new backups.
For these reason it is advised that the Time Capsule disk be used for one or the other but not both.
Allan

I have a new hard drive on my imac I want to sync my ipad(which has the files I lost when my old hard drive died), which holds the files I lost when my old hard drive died. How can I sync my ipad with my new hard drive?

My hard drive on my IMac died, so I have a new hard drive. I want to sync my Ipad(which has the files I lost when my old hard drive died) back with my IMac. How can I sync my Ipad with my new IMac hard drive without erasing my legacy files on the Ipad at the same time?

Copy everything from your backup copy of your cpomputer to your new hard drive.

My hard drive crashed while backing up!

How's this for luck: I finally bought an external drive and was in the process of making a bootable backup to a Maxtor One Touch Firewire 800 drive when my G5's internal drive crashed! I was able to insert the OSX startup disc which opens the installer, and then allows me to open Disk Utility. After several seconds of gathering disk information, I finally get two hard drive icons on the left side of the window. The top one gives me generic info about the drive (74.5GB and the model number). Under that is another hard drive icon followed by "Disk1s9", and that is greyed out. (I do not see the actual name that I gave the drive.) When I select it, Disk Utility tells me that the drive is not mounted, and the 'mount' button on the toolbar becomes active.
I placed a call to Apple Care. He had me unplug and then replug the drive. After that my drive was named Disk0s9 in Disk Utility, but was still not mounted. They told me I needed to go to a repair center. The tech at the Genius Bar of a local Apple Store used one of their drives to try to run Disk Warrior on my drive. At one point I saw my name for the drive on the screen, but Disk Warrior did not seem to start when prompted, and I was told that I was in possession of a dead drive and given the business card for a data recovery service.
Of course, I would like to save the contents of my drive. I'm just wondering if there is anything that I can try before shelling out for data recovery? I'm assuming that clicking the 'mount' button in Disk Utility is not the answer or the people at Apple would have suggested it? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
Next time I'm going to back up individual files first and worry about bootable copies later.

You are going to need another SATA drive anyway at this point. And surprised you went this long probably on just one?
Install 10.4.6 on the new drive (assuming you don't want to install on the Maxtor) - later versions of Tiger have improved on Disk Utility than what 10.4.0 had. Apple sells 10.4.6 DVDs now also.
DW can take a long time. But it is possible it is salvageable. Even put SATA drive in a universal SATA/FW case and deal with it there.
DiskJockey and Data Rescue are two good options. Disk Utility can also has a Restore tab to allow copying one drive to another. A sector copy might be of use, too.
TechTool Pro (4.1.2) might even be of help (DW has not been updated and there IS a need for it, but it has been over a year they've been working on that update).
People have even put hard drives in the freezer (sealed and moisture proof) to get access to a drive.
Heat kills drives. And it could be your system and the drive got too warm.

TS1382 I have a ipod classic 160GB and it's not showing any music anymore, but there is still 7GB of memory being used, and I don't have it back up on my itunes, since I had to put a new hard drive on my computer. Any suggestion to find out whats on that

I have a ipod classic 160GB and it's not showing any music anymore, but there is still showing 7GB of memory being used, and I don't have it backed up on my itunes, since I had to put a new hard drive on my computer. Any suggestion to find out whats on that memory or to get it the music back, there is approximately over 1400 songs on it?

What is the memory being used by, is it Other? If it is, that means the iPod can no longer read the music, so it has put it all in "Other".
The usual fix for this is to allow the iPod to Sync with its iTunes Library. If that doesn't work, the next option is to Restore the iPod using the Restore command in iTunes, on the Device/Summary pane.
Unless you are very (very) lucky, I suspect that you are going to have to Restore your iPod. Restoring will remove everything form the iPod and put back onto it only what it finds in your iTunes Library, which you say is currently empty.
If you have to rebuild your Library after this issue, by adding all the music back again, this is going to be hard to hear, but for the future, you may want to consider always having a backup of your library. The easiset way to back the Library up is;
if the Library is small enough, burn it to a DVD, as digital files, not a "music CD".
If your Library is too large for a DVD, buy yourself an external hard drive and copy the Library onto the drive. Remember to update the backup every so often.

I'm trying to backup a my harddrive with disk utility but I'm getting an error Unable to create Backup.dmg" (input/output error). Is there any other way to save my data? I believe my hard drive is failing or corrupt file. I can't boot up. Grey screen

I'm trying to backup a my hard drive with disk utility but I'm getting an error Unable to create Backup.dmg" (input/output error). Is there any other way to save my data? I believe my hard drive is failing or corrupt file. I can't boot up. Grey screen and spinning wheel. I've tried everything https://discussions.apple.com/message/20580424#20580424
any help will be greatly appreciated.

Check here. Also have you done a TimeMachine back up?
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2570

Hard drive full of back up files, cant move them out

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