Losing harddrive space

Question

I'm reposting in the form of a question in order to try to get any suggestions, since haven't had many responses when posting to existing forums. Maybe there is no answer and I'm just hosed.
"I’m inexplicably running out of hard drive space. I have researched the internet and tried all suggestions and still find myself short several Gb of available space. To summarize:
Whatsize indicates 45G of actual “stuff” on the hardrive (which is the same thing I added up), but 63G of HD used and only 12G available on a 75G HD. I’m short almost 18G! Whatsize, OmniDiskSweeper, and Disk Inventory X apps all show about the same sizes and do not show any files that look abnormally large.
I have tried the suggestions on:
http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Board=Forum38&Number=770243
and find nothing abnormally large in
/private/var/vm
/private/var/log
/Volumes or
/Users/user-name/.Trash (in any user)
Have been unable to find /.Trashes (have also tried /.Trash and /.Trashe, too) in the “Go to...” portion of finder. It always says “file not found.” Whatsize, Disk Inventory X, and OmniDiskSweeper do not show any abnormally large .Trash files, or any other suspicious files for that matter.
I booted off the Tiger install DVD and repaired a “minor” problem in the HFS directory before doing anything else.
I have run daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance with MacJanitor, cleaned out caches, except System cache (only 39Mb) and Crash cache (as per Onyx default) with Onyx as well as force emptied the trash in all users accounts. I have looked for large files both with Finder and with Pathfinder without any luck (including invisible files). I have reviewed and deleted Console logs.
I do not have iShock or Norton software. I deleted language files with Monolingual to get 1.6Gb of space back. I do not have any previous system folders and have already deleted OS 9.
I’m beginning to think I have a hard drive problem that disk utility cannot detect and cannot fix. Does anyone have any suggestions about what’s next??? Would one of the commercial harddrive repair utilities possibly be of any help? I’m really outta bullets now."
Would appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!

Answer 1

Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics): 10.2GB Hard Drive Issue
Western Digital Corporation announced that they are implementing a limited recall of certain Caviar hard drives to address possible long-term reliability issues. This article explains the issue, how to determine if your Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics) is affected, and what steps to take if it is.
Western Digital Corporation is implementing a limited recall of certain capacities of their Caviar hard drives. Only a small number of the Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics) built with the Western Digital 10.2 GB hard drive are affected. By looking at the serial number of the computer, you can determine if your system may be affected.
Here are the steps to follow to identify whether your Power Macintosh G4 (PCI Graphics) has an affected Western Digital hard drive:
Step One
Verify the computer serial number is xx938xxxxxx or xx939xxxxxx, where the x can be any letter or number. The serial number is located on the rear of the Power Macintosh G4, just below the AC receptacle.
If the serial number matches the above format, then go on to step two. If the serial number does not match, then your hard drive is not affected by this issue.
Step Two
Use Apple System Profiler to verify the model number and serial number of the Western Digital drive installed.
1. Open Apple System Profiler.
2. Select the Devices and Volumes tab.
3. In the Devices and Volumes window, click on the Hard Drive triangle that is to the right of the Internal ATA 1 line.
A small box will open containing the information regarding the installed hard drive. The information will look similar to this:
Hard drive
Driver version: 3.2.2f1
Mac OS partitions: 1
Removable media: No
Vendor: WDC
Revision number: 83.10A83
Product ID: WD102AA
Serial number: WD-WM6570248884
Unformatted size: 9.55 GB
The relevant information is the Product ID and Serial Number.
Product ID
If the Product ID is WD102AA, then look at the Serial Number. Otherwise, the drive is not affected by this issue and does not fit the recall parameters set forth by Western Digital.
Serial Number
If the Serial Number is in the range WD-WM6570248884 to WD-WM6570432919, inclusive, the drive is affected by the issue and should be replaced. Please contact your local Apple Authorized Service Provider to have the drive replaced.
If the Serial Number is not in the above range, the drive is not affected by this issue and does not fit the recall parameters set forth by Western Digital.
Note: Apple strongly recommends that you back up your hard drive before having your computer serviced. Apple is unable to retrieve data left on the hard drive once it has been replaced.