How can I recover MacBook Pro disk space

My MacBook Pro is over ten years old... works fine, but I can't access much of the disk space on the original hard drive. I should have 100 Gig of space but only about 5 gigs is available despite the fact that Appications show 13 Gigs used and oly 7 Gigs of folders/files are listed in the info panel. Do I need to erase everything and start over t access the remaiing 70+ gigs on the disk?

Where  did  my  Disk  Space  go?
Slimming your hard drive
OmniDiskSweeper is a free utility that checks HD space.
FreeSpace cost $1 or is a free utility that checks HD space.
SpaceControl is a free utility that checks HD space.
Rule of thumb: You should never let your hard drive get to where you have only 10-15% of space left.

Similar Messages

  • How can i clean up my disk space on my MacBook Pro

    how can i clean up my disk space on my MacBook Pro something  like a disk cleanup on a pc?

    Those things you did on your PC you need not worry about on your Mac. Most is done behind the scenes.
    Kappy's Personal Suggestions About OS X Maintenance
    For disk repairs use Disk Utility.  For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior;  DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior.  Versions 1.5.1 and later are Intel Mac compatible.
    OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.)
    If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep.  Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger.  (These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.)
    OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems. For more about malware see Macintosh Virus Guide.
    I would also recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc.
    For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack.  If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line.  Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. (There is no confirmation that this version also works with Lion or later.)
    When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
    Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
      1. Carbon Copy Cloner.
      2. Data Backup
      3. Deja Vu
      4. SuperDuper!
      5. SyncTwoFolders
      6. Synk Pro
      7. Synk Standard
      8. Tri-Backup
    Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
    Always have a current backup before performing any system updates or upgrades.
    Additional suggestions will be found in:    
          1. Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
          2. Mac OS X speed FAQ,
          3. Speeding up Macs,
          4. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance,
          5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
          6. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
          7. Maintaining OS X, 
          8. Five Mac maintenance myths,
          9. How to Speed up Macs, and
        10. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X.
    Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
    Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space.

  • How can i change macbook pro a1278 keyboard ?

    how can i change macbook pro a1278 keyboard ?

    Yes. It will be very simple.
    Power down your mac. Hold down the option key on startup.
    You will see disk utility. Go in disk utility and click the erase button for your HDD data.
    Then go into install OS X and install the operating system.
    It will be a completely fresh install ready for selling.

  • How can connect my macbook pro mid 2012 to my imac 21.5 inch mid 2010 ?? I want to use imac like a display for macbook.

    How can connect my macbook pro mid 2012 to my imac 21.5 inch mid 2010 ?? I want to use imac like a display for macbook.

    Target Display Mode: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
    with a mini display to mini display cable. Attach it to the Thunderbolt port on your MBP and to the mini display port on your iMac.
    How do I enable TDM?
    Make sure both computers are turned on and awake. 
    Connect a male-to-male Mini DisplayPort or ThunderBolt cable to each computer.
    Press Command-F2 on the keyboard of the iMac being used as a display to enable TDM.
    Note: In Keyboard System Preferences, if the checkbox is enabled for "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard functions keys," the key combination changes to Command-Fn-F2.

  • How can I disable mac pro OSX 'spaces' shortcut keys? (i.e. CTL, Right Arrow)

    How can I disable mac pro shortcut keys: CTL right arrow, CTL left arrow, CTL up arrow, CTL down arrow? Currently, they take me from one space to another. (OSX 10.6) Goal is to use these shortcuts for text editing.

    Hi, Simon.
    You can instruct iTunes and iPhoto to save their respective libraries to a different disk, e.g. your second hard drive. You can also move existing libraries for these apps to a drive other than your startup disk.
    See the links concerning moving these libraries cited in the "More ways to save space if you have a spare partition or second hard drive" section of my "Freeing Space on your Mac OS X startup disk" FAQ.
    Good luck!
    Dr. Smoke
    Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
    Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
    I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

  • How can I connect MacBook Pro OSX 10.5.2 to G3 Lombard (bronze) OSX 10.1.5?

    Can anybody please tell me in simple terms how to connect my MacBook Pro OS X 10.5.2 to my G3 Lombard (bronze keyboard) laptop OS X 10.1.5 so that I can share files. I wish to drag files from the old G3 computer's hard drive into the hard drive of the new MacBook Pro as well as search the old hard drive from the MacBook Pro. I have an ethernet crossover cable as well as regular ethernet cables. Can I connect the computers directly, or should I disconnect my Linksys router from the modem and connect the computers through the router via ethernet?
    I have tried both ways, and failed. However, I think I need clear instructions in how to share under both OS X system versions, to set a file's permissions (in both OS X versions), how to set the firewalls (I have Norton Personal Firewall in the G3 and the OS X firewall in the MacBook Pro), how to see the hard drives of the other computer, and how to set anything else properly, as well as any detail that will make this easy to do properly.
    Finally, I need to be able to return the settings of the MacBook Pro back to secure settings that will allow me to connect safely when I take it to work and connect to the ethernet network there. Thank you for your help.
    Sincerely,
    Wilson

    connect the computers through the router via ethernet
    Both these computers are capable of File Sharing using IP. Only Macs running 10.3.9 and earlier can use AppleTalk File Sharing. Rendezvous/bonjour can help you on the later 10.5 Mac, but may not be too helpful on the 10.1.5 Mac. So you may need the IP address of the 10.1.5 Mac to connect to it.
    On the Mac to share its files:
    System Preferences > Sharing > Services
    check "Personal File Sharing" AND
    System Preferences > Sharing > FireWall
    check "Personal File Sharing" to let that traffic come through.
    I expect it is similar for Norton FireWall, but Norton has such a \[well deserved] rotten reputation, and has pretty much pulled out of the Mac market, so help on this may be hard to come by.
    On the \[10.5.2] Mac that wants to mount the Shared Volumes:
    In the Finder, Go Menu, select "Connect to Server"
    Select your 10.2.5 Mac in the window that opens and click connect. If it is not seen, you can browse for it or specify its IP address.
    You get a login Window. Login using an ID \[from the 10.1.5 Mac] that has Permissions to read and write the files you want to share. The drive(s) or Folder(s) you specified will mount as network Drives on the desktop. Drag and drop files in both directions to your heart's content.
    N.B.: If you choose "Guest", you will have access to the "Shared" folder ONLY.
    You have made no changes or compromises to your 10.5.2 Mac, so no Undo is necessary to take it back to work on Monday.
    Message was edited by: Grant Bennet-Alder

  • How can I order macbook pro systems disk?

    I recently tried to make a 'clone' of my iMac with my MacBook Pro. I used 'Migration Assistant' with a firewire connection. Now my macbook doesn't want to start-up. It freezes with a blue screen.
    After a little research I have decided that it would be best if I just started new with the macbook, then try the 'cloning' again. The snag comes where to start with a new macbook, I would need to re-install the OS, but cannot as I do not have the systems disk for my macbook. I did try it with the systems disk for my iMac, but this did not work.
    I would like to order the systems disk for my MacBook as I am in France. Does naybody know if I can do this online and if so where?!?

    You need to call AppleCare.

  • MacBook Pro Disk Space Issues & Recommendations

    I am looking for recommendations on how to free up disk space.  I have a 250GB MacBook Pro-2013.  I have a 2TB Time Machine back-up hard drive.  Photos take up 50GB, videos 60GB, music 30GB.  My Time Machine backs up my computer each time it is plugged into an adapter and on my home network.  Is this too often?  Should I move all my photos and videos  of family to the cloud?  Do I need another external hard drive to store photos, videos and music on?  I have emptied trash, deleted unused apps, deleted old documents and deleted old iMessages.  Thank you for your help!

    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.

  • MacBook Pro Disk Space Question and Time Machine

    Hi all,
    I know this is probably a "noob" question, but I have been backing up my laptop (2009 Mac OS X 10.6.8) onto an external hard drive set up for Time Machine, and now my MacBook Pro only has 1.15 GB available of free space after the many years of usage and saving things onto it (such as images, movies, etc.). I had a question: Are these files backed up onto Time Machine and so can I delete them from my laptop without losing them? I am concerned about losing them and am not sure how Time Machine really works; if I delete these files from my laptop in order to free up space, then backup my computer onto Time Machine, will they be deleted from the Time Machine drive also?? I need to free up a lot of space on my laptop but also don't want to lose any pictures and videos from over the years.
    Thanks in advance.

    570ad 
    My question is, how do I effectively "copy over" files onto my new external hard drive? Is it as easy as connecting the hard drive via usb
    Easy as drag and drop, yes indeed.  Could almost do it with your eyes closed.
    Entire user account, ....no, just get all your files, you created, saved, made, work on ALL VITAL DATA you "dont dare lose" etc.  drag it over, make files in the HD showing where things are, etc.
    There are of course a 1000 ways to organize folders and data on external HD, ..pick what suits you.
    Keep it simple.

  • How can i reset macbook pro a1286

    hi i forget my password on my macbook pro how can i reset it

    jebsforu wrote:
     i get mac os x 10.6 from my friend. i trying to restore mac os but when i press c after power on its stuck on apple logo nothing happen. but dis cd working on my friend macbook when i m pressing c .
    Your friends 10.6 "gray disk" will not work on that machine.
    You need this one.
    http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A

  • How can connect my Macbook Pro to a TV Monitor ?

    How can i connect my MacBook Pro to a TV monitor other way than 15 pin cable ?

    I would check out Monoprice. I bought this cable for my late 2011 MBP - it attaches to a Thunderbolt or Mini DisplayPort and then out to HDMI. It's just a small adapter - under $7 - and worked quite well for me. You'll have to get a HDMI cable of your desired length to work with it. I also suggest using Monoprice for HDMI cables - they've excellent quality and low prices.
    Clinton

  • How can i connect macbook pro with iphone 4 via bluetooth?

    I`ve connected iphone with macbook pro few weeks ago for i-net surfing, but i had to use cable. Now i wanna try icloud, and i`ve faced that trouble. My mbp sees iphone, makes pair, but fails to connect it. If i try it with iphone, a message "mbp cant be connected, it isn`t connectible device"-something like this- appears and mbp disappears from known devices list. How can i solve that?
    MacBookPro8,3 (17")-june 2011
    Boot ROM:          MBP81.0047.B1E
    SMC:          1.70f3
    Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
    iphone 4 16 gb
    model MC603ZA
    ios 4.3.5 (8L1)
    boot rom 04.10.01

    I have somehow the same problem. I just bought the new iPhone 4S and tried to connect it to my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.6, latest version, model 2011). The Phone did not see the Mac but the Mac the Phone, so I connected the Phone via Mac.
    It worked for about 5 seconds, but then I got this error message:
    It's German and means that the network is not available.
    Of course I tried again to connect, but I now get always this error:
    It says that the device is not available...
    I deleted the iPhone from the list under Mac and tried again, but it's still the same.
    No my Questions to the community:
    Why does the iPhone not see the MacBook?
    Why does it allways disconnect?
    Is Sync not possible via Bluetooth?
    Thanks for your help!

  • How can I set macbook pro to reconnect to secure home wifi after lifting the lid (from sleep mode)

    I have owned my MacBook Pro for 1 year now and not sure for how much longer! It is my first Mac so I have been patient as most issues are 'operator eror) but since I upgraded to Mountain Lion OS X 10.8.2, every time I close the lid then reopen from sleep, the WiFi does not auto reconnect.
    I have trawled these forums for 6 month now and not found a solution. I have lost count of how many people have added to threrads saying they have the same issue bt I have not found a thread that resolves this issue for everyone. (or me)
    Can someone point me in the direction of a final tried and tested 100% fix? Surely if the issue is so bad Apple have some 'patch'? Or is it a router security issue when reconnecting?
    I would not reccommend buying Apple to anyone purely on this one issue. I would like to have my faith restored.

    JohnTh,
    Well, so far, success! I would never have got to that point on my own! I simply followed your procedure and it worked first time.
    For info, the router I am using is a Netgear DGND33000v2.
    I might go back and do it again, renaming my WiFi back to the original name (the one I used was temporary).
    I will have to go round all my other devices and re-establish the WiFi links.
    Apple TV
    DVD player
    iPad
    iPhone etc.
    As Paul4Laffs reiterates, this problem is viral on the www forums and yet, (touchwood) is simple to fix!?
    I hope I don't come back after a few days (I have read some 'fix's have worked but for limited time.)
    Maybe you have jut saved this MB from eBay!
    Once again thank-you.

  • How can i restore macbook pro to its' factory settings?

    i wanna restore my mac to its' factory settings. how can i do this??
    thanks for help

    Use its original disks to erase the drive and install a new OS.
    (60804)

  • How can i get macbook pro to recognize my samsung fascinate to transfer music?

    I want to transfer the music already on my samsung fascinate phone onto my new macbook pro using the usb mass storage device option.  when i plug the phone into the usb port the computer recognizes that its there, but i am unable to do anything with it.  shouldnt i be able to open the files on the phone and transfer them to the computer?  any help would be great so i can get my music back

    Contact Samsung's tech support and/or read its user manual. 

Maybe you are looking for

  • Bug? My events on the iPad iCal app aren't shown in the year view if they are more than two years in the future.

    My events on the iPad iCal app aren't shown in the year view if they are more than two years in the future even though I can see them on the month, week and day view. Any suggestions on how to fix it? I've tried it all. I called the apple support and

  • Please put Flash on iPhone!!!

    It's really becoming a problem. More and more sites are flash-based, and I find I cannot look up important information. Apple, work it out with Adobe! License FLASH whatever it takes. And soon.

  • How do I set the window size of a course in SumTotal (LMS)

    I recently created an AICC course using Captivate 5.5 for a client using SumTotal as their LMS. When the client loads the course, the course launchs in a window that is smaller than the course itself; the user then has to adjust the window size to vi

  • Report Selection Screen Request

    Hi All, You all know that, if you execute any report program we will see a "execute" button(F8) on toolbar. If we press that the report executes and will display output. My requirement is: I don't have to display the EXCUTE BUTTON....need to hide tha

  • Remote Role assingment Issue: Federated Portal

    Hi all, I have created a Url iview, attached it to a role (in producer). In consumer I have assigned this role to "userX". But the ivew is throwing “Access denied (Object(s): portal_content/ContentsToShare/TestRemoteRole/News)." this error. User stor