Long problem solvved... now 20GB of HD space gone?

Question

Ok, I haven't posted any part of my long problem yet... so I guess that I'll explain it in full.
2 weeks ago, I prensented a Powerpoint presentation onto a larger monitor. After the presentation, I decided to keep it hooked up to expand my view and get away from the 15" screen for a few days. So I kept it on the larger monitor for another 3days. I tried operating withthe display closed, but when closed the monitor's hertz is hout of range. So I have to keep my semi-closed PB open a millimeter or two to operate. I do not shut down my PB when leaving it for a period of time, I put it to sleep. I have had the AC power hooked in all 3 days. So one day, when waking, the screen on the monitor would not turn on. So i decided that I needed to go somewhere with my PB again so I unhooked it and the LCD screen of the PB would not turn on with the monitor. I tried one of the function keys to toggle screens, and nothing happened. fter a couple minutes, the sleep pulse light turned on again. I tried the external mouse, externam keyboard, trackpad, and keyboard and the PB would not wake. I left it alone for 3 hours, and came back. Nothing. (The AC was in.) called Applecare, told me to reset PMU. So I yanked out the battery and AC, and I finally rebooted. Well now the eyetem clock was set before some date in March 1992 (i forget date) and a message tells me that some .apps may not function with this date. (it was set before 1992, in the '60's.) so I clicked ASystem Prefs in the dock, and after bouncing, it stayed grey as if you are staying held down clicked on it. ( It was also stukck in mid-bouce, up in the air above the dock.) So I tried Safari. Samce result. Spinning ball for long time. HD icon did not mount on desktop, could not open finder windows, could not click Apple>Force Quit, or any other menubar items. Managed to get Spotlight open, and I got Terminal open. (Tried asking apple discussions about a command to backup home folder into connected iPod (Also did not mount) and backup command did not work). Restarted 3 times, same syptoms. Inserted OS X CD,ran short AHT. Nothing wrong. So I had to reinstall the OS. Before this problem, I had 53 Gigs left of my 100GB (93.02-04 formatted) HD. After the reinstall of Tiger, (Can't remember, before reinstalling OS if I was on 10.4.2 or .3) So now, my HD mounted on the desktop (everything is cured) says 33gigs free. 20 gigs gone. So I know that a folder in left entitled "Previous System" in the Mac HD Folder. As nothing in there was needed (i did not lose any data) I deleted the folder. (I only gained back 1GB. So now after carefully checking over almost every folder in my HD compared to everythiong I had before, there is no space-consuming files or folders. Does anyone know where 19GB could have went? Is it a cache, .temp, or anykind of temporary file from the previous system taking up space? I have reinstalled the OS once more before and I did not come accross any kind of HD eating problem like this. Can anyone help me find where 19 gigs could have went? Thanks
-David

Answer 1

Hi David,
Tuttle and others have suggested downloading whatsize to find out where the space has gone.
hth
joeuu