Hard drive is full of "backups"

I just happened to check my hard drive and it is almost full of "back ups." I just bought a new MacBook Pro 15" with 500 gigs of drive space. I haven't had this thing a week and my hard drive is being taken up with "back ups." I have a time machine at home... Plus I installed parallels on my system. Other than that i don't have many pictures or songs at all. Two movies and a few documents. Nothing i have should be taking up so much space. I am not sure what all these back ups are or where they are located.

keithCuda wrote:
I will have to check that out when i get back home from work..
Also, i notice that my machine is using what seems to be a lot of ram. I just upgraded to 16gigs of ram from 8gigs and this computer seems to be using more. Even when I don't have any apps open besides safari, it is using 12gb or so... Is this normal?
Yes it is normal. The new parameter to use for RAM usage is PRESSURE.
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464
Ciao.

Similar Messages

Macbook pro redina display keeps on telling me that the hard drive is full from Videos, and yet their is no videos, what can i do?

Macbook pro redina display keeps on telling me that the hard drive is full from Videos, and yet their is no videos, what can i do?

If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP 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 see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective
Launch the built-in 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.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

MacBook hard drive is full again. Replaced original hard drive with a Samsung SSD 840 Pro Series 256GB hard drive about 18 mo. ago, but my MacBook is now already saying that my hard drive is full again. 13in. Alum. Late 2008 MacBook

My MacBook hard drive is full again. I have a 13in. Aluminum, Late 2008 MacBook, and about 18 months ago (in October 2013), I replaced the original hard drive with a Samsung SSD 840 Pro Series 256GB hard drive. However, my MacBook is now already saying that my hard drive is full again. When I check "System Information," under "Storage," it states the following: Audio 52.02 GB; Movies 33.68GB; Photos 43.13GB; Apps 14.76 GB; Backups 174.4 MB; and Other 96.39GB.
Also, at home, I have an Apple Time Capsule 4th Generation 2TB that I use as my wireless router, and I also use it for automatic backup via Time Machine. And when I first purchased Time Capsule, the first time I connected Time Capsule, Time Machine asked if I would like to use it to back up my files, and I clicked, "Use as Backup Disk." And that's really all I've ever done with Time Capsule.
In addition, I also have a LaCie Porsche Design P'9223 1TB external hard drive. I have copied my MacBook's hard drive onto my LaCie external hard drive.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Obviously the Audio, Movies, Photos, and Apps are taking up a lot of space... Any suggestions re: what I can do with Audio, Movies, Photos, and Apps? And what about the Other? Other is taking up 96.39 GB. What is Other, and what can I do about it?
And what about partitioning my hard drive... Is that something I should do? Should I partition, or configure, my MacBook's internal hard drive differently? And should I partition, or configure, my external hard drive? And if I need to partition, or configure, my MacBook's internal hard drive differently, how do I setup Time Machine to backup per any such changes? Same thing for my external hard drive?
13in. Aluminum, Late 2008 MacBook, 250 GB (with upgraded Samsung SSD 840 Pro Series 256GB hard drive)
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
OS X 10.9.5
plus
Apple Time Capsule 4th Generation 2TB
LaCie Porsche Design P'9223 1TB external hard drive
Thank you for your help.

Partitioning makes no sense. You have a drawer full of stuff. Split it into two smaller drawers and you have two smaller drawers full of stuff.
Decide what you can store on external storage - your iPhoto/Aperture/Lightroom libraries can all be stored on externals, as can your iTunes Libraries and so on. Do you need to carry 30 gigs of movies with you all the time? You can get portable drives the size of an iPhone these days.

HT201250 I want to use Time Machine to back up my pictures because my hard drive is full but I'm wondering if once I back up the pictures then delete them will time machine delete them off the back up too?

I want to use Time Machine to back up my pictures because my hard drive is full but I'm wondering if once I back up the pictures then delete them will time machine delete them off the back up too?

Evetually yes.
If your pictures have been in the same location (same folder, same subfolder, ...) for more than a week, then copies if them will remain in your TM backups until it fills up. They are then vulnerable to being deleted.
If they've been there for less than a week, TM could delete them as early as a month from now. If they've been there for only a few hours, chances are TM will delete them tomorrow.
This is why TM is not the best tool to use to archive data that you will be deleting from your main hard drive. Copy them to a dedicated external drive, or burn DVDs.

My hard drive is full, and it will not let me delete anything... :(

hello, so here is the story...
i bought my iMac about a little more than half year ago and i really like this mac. About 3 months ago, my computer started popping up me hard drive is full messages, and i did not really bother to delete any files. Because i have been using computers before this one, and i have never used up all the spaces before and the computer i have used before had even smaller hard drives. At the time i did not think it is going to effect my usage of this computer so i kept on using it. After about a month, while i was using my computer, it suddenly shut down and when i restart it my desktop is a plain blue background, with no wallpaper or any icons. Then i tried to delete some files, but when i try to do so, i can not even open up my applications or any kind of window. The only thing that i can open is safari, so right now i can only serve the internet, can not even watch any videos or movies online...
can anyone tell me how to delete files right now, because my hard drive is so limited right now, i can not even open up anything, so there is no way to delete any files

In all your use of computers, did you learn how to recover your backups and have a good backup strategy in place?
Or are you going to need help now on backups, recoverying files (already some good threads to just re-read), and rebuild your hard drive.
For starters you will need one or more external drives, and install OS X on one of them and use one or part of one for recovering files.
You should be able to free up space. Just go to your home account folder / library / caches and trash anything to do with Safari like Metadata cache folder to free up a little.
You don't need to "open" anything other than Finder. And you probably want to boot with SHIFT KEY at the least on startup - continue to hold shift key until you hit the desktop.
But you really should not or limit any use of this hard drive, and work from and boot from another hard drive for now.
Pick up some USB/FW drives:
http://www.macsales.com/firewire

What's the best option when the internal hard drive is full?

Hi all,
I am running an iMac 27" with a 2 TB hard drive, which is supported by a 5 GB external RAID for backup (Time Machine and Aperture Vault).
At the moment I have RAW masters located on the iMac in a special folder and linked into Aperture (referenced masters) and the processed JPEG or TIFF files managed within Aperture (library is on the internal drive).
Well, it finally happened and the hard drive is full, and I need to think about how to reorganize my files.
What would be your preferred scenario of organizing files, keeping in mind both speed/performance and safety/backup (i.e., the reason master files are on the iMac and not just on the RAID is because that gives me one more copy).
Ideas I have come up with:
- Get the internal drive upgraded to 3 TB
- Get an additional external hard drive for the master files
- Split the library and move the less used files/projects to an external drive, keep the others on the drive
- Try to move other stuff (e.g., music) to an external drive (not sure that would be enough)
- Keep masters only on the RAID disk
Any opinions, ideally backed up by experience, would be greatly appreciated. If you'd go for an external drive, I'd also like to hear what kind of drive you'd recommend (this iMac does not have Thunderbolt, it is from 2009).
Thanks and cheers,
Bastian

The best option for your situation in my opinion would be to put the masters on an external drive as referenced masters and get a second external to back them up. This will move the masters off your internal drive freeing up space.
USB drives will be fine for this especially for the backup drive. If you can spring for FireWire so much the better.

Before Mac OS X lion install I had over 50% free hard drive space on new MBP, but now my hard drive is full without me doing anything! How do I fix this??? Or should I just revert to Snow Leopard???

Before Mac OS X lion install I had over 50% free hard drive space on new MBP, but now my hard drive is full without me doing anything! How do I fix this??? Or should I just revert to Snow Leopard???

Sounds like the Time Machine Local Backup. Try turning Time Machine Off in System Preferences to verify.
See: OS X Lion: About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs
But, your real problem is
I forgot to mention that I tried to use Disk Utility to Verify Disk, but it cannot. I get red errors that say the MacHD is corrupt and needs to be repaired. It says that in order to do this I need to use the Disk Utility on the install disk, but Lion doesn't have one!
Boot into Lion's Recovery (Hold ⌘R on Boot), select Disk Utility and then select Macintosh HD and click [Repair Disk]
Tony

I can not get the new updates because my start disc and hard drive are full, I need 1.98 GB.

I can not get the new updates because my start disc and hard drive are full, I need 1.98 GB.

Some folks recommend OmniDiskSweaper to allow you to review your stuff to find possible candidates to throw away.
Even if you throw away some stuff and your desired "1.98GB", then what? If that's the number you need for the update, you'll just use most or all of the reclaimed space with the update and you are right back to where you started.
You don't specify what kind of machine you got but presumably it's a mac pro since you posted in the Mac Pro community. In which case just get yourself another drive or two and move stuff around to free up your boot drive.
[Perhaps you should hurry too since I expect hdd prices might be going up due to possible impending hdd shortages.]
Finally, if some of those updates are major system updates you want extra drives for backups because I always recommend you never do major updates to your system without backups to that system.

My hard drive is full and m macbookpro doesnt start.spinning wheel

Hard drive is full and my macbookpro doesn't start.Spinning wheel.
What can i try ?Any ideas?

If OS X is reporting you need to remove some items you obviously have a more severe issue.
To fix your issue is likely too complicated and lengthy to go into all of it here as it sounds like a OS X issue, it will require the services of person very familiar and experienced with Mac's to first recover your data and then restore OS X back to a functional state which may or may not require new hardware/software installed.
If your under warranty or AppleCare, take it in for service.
You can also hire the services of a local Mac computer support technician experienced in these matters.
Have them look at your Wifi, RAM amount, extra storage and computer backup proceedures in the process.
Good Luck.

Is it possible to use more than one external hard drive for Time Machine backups?

I want to use two hard drives for Time Machine backups.
Bigger one keep at home and be sure it is safe.
Second one (very small pocket size) keep with me for travels.
I want to backup to both drives to be sure I can restore everywhere and to be sure if something bad happened with my small travel disk I can restore from home backup.
Is there any problem with listed schema? Is it normal for Time Machine to handle backups for different drivers and keep everything consistent and smooth?

I really need some help! I have been using an Iomega NAS 1TB HD for the past year. And I received an error message. I believe I have ran out of memory on this drive.
Then recently in the last couple of months I got a ReadyNAS Duo 2TB with 2TB RAID. Should I switch my back ups to this one and delete the other back up file or keep the old back up image file on the Iomega?
Can I transfer the old image back up to this new ReadyNAS? How do I do this?
I appreciate any help.

Hard Drive is full. Didn't empty trash bin but can't see deleted files.

My MBP Retina is warning me that hard drive is full. I have deleted large files, but they don't appear in trash. Can't see them in folder either. But memory issue persists. Never emptied trash bin, but still can't see them.

I have the same problem. My hard drive is full and my trash appears empty. When I drag items to trash it makes the sound but the file doesn't delete and or appear in the trash can. I've tried holding down "option" to empty, going to Finder and holding "shift+command+option" but nothing happens.
Help?

Hard drive is full software cannot get updated! what should I do?

Hard drive is full software cannot get updated! what should I do?

Here are some general tips to keep your Mac's hard drive trim and slim as possible
You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.
Have you emptied your Mac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto, iPhoto has its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.
If you store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!
Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.
Again, archive to disc, flash drives, ext. hard drives or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.
Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.
To find other large files, download an app called Omni Disk Sweeper.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.
Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.
move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.
If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be archived or moved, also, to the optical discs, flash drives or external hard drive and then either archived to disc and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.
Good Luck!

I have a Mac book pro with 750 gigs of space but when I check the memory available it's telling me that I have 1.5 gigs of available space and that my scratch hard drive is full. When looking in the color code of storage it's all other consuming the space

Ok so I have a MacBook Pro that has 750 gigs of space but I keep getting an error message that my scratch hard drive us full. When I look at the storage it's saying that I have 1.5 available gigs of space and when I dig deeper it shows that it's not video, audio or document but it's other. What can it be and what can I do about it?

See here for answer about the OTHER which is taking up space:
http://pondini.org/TM/30.html
and here:
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
See Kappys excellent note on the rest of “other” files taking up your space:
What is "Other" and What Can I Do About It?

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

I am using an external drive in the exact way that you described. You just keep it plugged in to the computer when you want to access the movies and files. In order to put files on it, just go to finder open up the drive under devices and drag and drop files onto the drive. It is just like using a usb drive with a terabyte of space.

My hard drive is full. can i move my library to a stand alone hard disk? how can i do this?, my hard drive is full. can i move my library to a stand alone hard disk? how can i do this?

my hard drive is full. can i move my library to a stand alone hard disk? how can i do this? thanks.

http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

Hard drive is full of "backups"

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for