Mac Hard Drive Filling Up

Hi,
I noticed while trying to install software with BootCamp that I did not have enough space, when I had recenly taken 50 gigabytes of misc. files off of my hard drive. I went to "Get Info" on my Mac HD and noticed it filling up before my eyes. So, after using Disk Inventory X, I realized that the troublesome file was not yet large enough to see (And not filling up fast enough), so I took it to the Genius Bar. The reinstalled the software after doing a diagnosis on the disk image only to find a "Software Warning," and ended up having to give me a new Hard Drive under warranty. (I actually got a larger HD for free. Woohoo! (Different story)) Anyway, after restoring my computer with a recent BootCamp backup, the problem still persists, so it is obviouly an application or something that I had before. I am wondering if there is a way that I can see exactly what is causing this problem?
Thanks,
Jake

Hi Jake,
Likely a failing App or service...
Open Console in Applications>Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this happens.
Or...
One way to test is to Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, Test for problem in Safe Mode...
PS. Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive
Reboot, test again.
If it only does it in Regular Boot, then it could be some hardware problem like Video card, (Quartz is turned off in Safe Mode), or Airport, or some USB or Firewire device, or 3rd party add-on, Check System Preferences>Accounts (Users & Groups in later OSX versions)>Login Items window to see if it or something relevant is listed. Or an errant process eating up RAM.
Check the System Preferences>Other Row, for 3rd party Pref Panes.
Also look in these if they exist, some are invisible...
/private/var/run/StartupItems
/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/StartupItems
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons
/Library/LaunchDaemons

Similar Messages

If you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also remove it from time machine on external hard drive

if you delete a large file from the mac hard drive does it also delete it from time machine on the external hard drive ?

As the others say, no, the backup copy won't be deleted immediately, but it will eventually.
If you want to delete all backups of a selected item, such as for space or security reasons, see #12 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.

How Do You "Move" Items/Applications from the Mac Hard Drive?

Hi,
As the subject line suggests I need to "move" things from my regular Mac Hard Drive to the additional Hard Drive I installed. My normal (forgive my lack of technical talk) hard drive is almost full. I would like to move things like iTunes, iPhoto etc to my new hard drive (1TB) so that I can free up space on my current more regularly used hard drive. Is there an easy way to do this?
Ali

There's various approaches you can take. Personally I would try to leave applications and the system on the main drive and just move data files to another drive. Some applications really want to be run from the main drive and will become cranky if you put them elsewhere because things aren't where they expect them to be.
Moving files is often just a matter of dragging them to the new place. Note that if this new place is another drive the files get copied and you will have to delete the originals from the original drive once you are done copying.
Applications can have a complex structure with bits and pieces of files all over the place, some may be invisible. While these can be copied, as I said before it is often best to leave them on the main drive.
Just for your information, you posted your software question in the Apple.com > Support > Discussions > Power Mac G5 > Power Mac G5 (tower) hardware questions area. Your computer information says you are running a Mac Pro and Snow Leopard (which won't run on a G5). It doesn't really matter in this case but if you have a platform specific question in future, for fastest response you might want to make sure it gets into the correct forum.

I have an alias of one of my external hard drives in my trash. When I click on "show original" all my external H D 's and my Mac hard drive show up. How do I delete this icon from the trash without loosing all my files?

I have an alias of one of my external hard drives in my trash. When I tried to delete it, it showed that I was deleting 80,000 files and counting. I stopped the delete process and when I clicked on "show original" all my external H.D.'s and my Mac hard drive show up. How do I delete this alias from the trash without loosing all my files? When I tried to drag it back to the desk top, it just made a duplicate and remained in the trash. When I turned off the external H.D., the trash was then empty. Tried rebooting the computer and then turning the external hard drive back on and the alias shows up in the trash again. Much help appreciated.
Rich

In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)
Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.
Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.
If it does contain data...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

How can I have my contacts on the cloud and my Mac hard drive?

How can I have my contacts both on the cloud and my Mac hard drive?

go to icloud.com

I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

dj_paige wrote:
however, I do point out that obtaining an additional hard drive and not throwing anything away seems a preferable solution to me.
heidie22, dj_paige has a very good point there. I would not through away the NEF files; I would archive them to a external drive.
By the way, I am assuming that converting RAW files to DNG is a decision you have made and not an accident.

HT201250 I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?

I have two external hard drives. One is my Time Machine backup drive. The other I use for external storage of files (documents, photos, movies, etc). Can I set Time Machine to backup BOTH my Mac hard drive and my other external hard drive?

Yes you can make multiple backups on one hard drive, for example if you’ve 1TB hard drive installed in your PC and you’ve two Mac Machines with 500GB drive each then you just make two backup images with size of 500GB each.
http://www.halfspot.com/use-your-pc-hard-drive-for-time-machine-backup/

I am not much of a computer technician. I bought a time capsule thinking I could use this for an external hard drive and keep my MAC hard drive free. Was I mistaken? One I back everthing up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC?

I am not much of a computer technician. I bought a time capsule thinking I could use this for an external hard drive and keep my MAC hard drive free. Was I mistaken? Once I back everything up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC and then use my TC as my hard drive??

Once I back everything up on the TC, can I delete everything off of my MAC and then use my TC as my hard drive??
TC was designed to backup your Mac. The TC literature is pretty clear about this:
If your Mac's hard drive has a problem....it will sooner or later....you can use your backup on the TC to rebuild your Mac.
But.....if you move all of your data to the TC from your Mac....you only have one version of that data now, and it is on the TC.
Have you thought about what will happen when....not if....the TC has a problem? Since the only version of your important data was on the TC, and the TC has failed......you lose all of your data.....because you have no backup.
A much better plan would be to add a USB or FireWire hard drive and connect it directly to your Mac. Move the data on your Mac over to the hard drive.
Then, the TC will backup both your Mac and the hard drive. So, you have original data on on one drive and backups on another drive.
That would be a minimum backup plan. Most of us have more than one set of backups.

I recently added my old mac hard drive to a new macbook with an SSD as my main OSX drive. I am having trouble with permissions in viewing my old hard drive. What is the best way to get complete access to my old hd installed in my new Macbook?

I recently added my old mac hard drive to a new macbook with an SSD as my main OSX drive. I am having trouble with permissions in viewing my old hard drive, when I save a permission when I reboot the full access is changed again . What is the best way to get complete access to my old hd installed in my new Macbook?

Open the Get Info window for the old drive. Click the Lock icon on the bottom of that window and type in your password. In the permissions area click the Plus sign ( + ) and Add your Username to it and set it to Read & Write. Close that window. you should now have full access to all the files.

How to back up my mac hard drive to my external hardrive?

How to back up my mac hard drive to my external hard drive?

Backup Software Recommendations
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
SuperDuper!
Synk Pro
Tri-Backup
Others may be found at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
And, OS X includes Time Machine. See Pondini's Time Machine FAQ and Mac 101- Time Machine

Is there a way to stop iPhoto storing my photo stream photos on the mac hard drive when enabled? They have not been imported to my library. I have no photos saved on my MacBook Air yet 50gb of Hardrive space is taken up by photos.

Is there a way to stop iPhoto storing my photo stream photos on the mac hard drive when enabled? They have not been imported to my library. Is there a way to stop iPhoto storing my photo stream photos on the mac hard drive when enabled? They have not been imported to my library. I have no photos saved on my MacBook Air yet 50gb of Hardrive space is taken up by photos. When I turn off photo stream on iCloud preferences the memory is freed up. I like to be able to access my icloud photo streams on
my macbook but it has a small Hardrive and loosing that much space is annoying and it kind of voids the point of photo streams. Is there a way I can stop
this ?

Is there a way I can stop
this ?
No, Photo Stream is syncing with iCloud. The most recent 1000 photos in iCloud will be buffered on your mac, even if you do not import them to your photo library, if you enable My Photo Stream.
See this link: iCloud: Photo Stream FAQ
iCloud pushes all your photos to the My Photo Stream album on your devices and computers, and manages them efficiently, so you don’t run out of storage space.

Switched on my imac 24inch intel based and all I get on screen is a folder with question mark flashing,I had backup on external hard drive but when I try to reinstall it can not find my mac hard drive

Hi when I started my intel based imac this morning all I am getting is a folder with question mark in the middle flashing,I have external hard drive with backup,but when run disc utilities it does not show my mac hard drive.hope someone can help.(it's running mountain lion, well it was)

Try starting up your Mac while holding down the Option key. That should prompt the Startup Manager window where you can select the startup disk then click Restart.
The question mark folder indicates your Mac cannot find a system folder to boot from.
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac

Finder & Dock do not work - Mac Hard Drive does not appear on Desktop

Until yesterday, my powerbook was working properly.
This morning, I wanted to use it and I had the following problems after login.
1/ My Mac Hard drive does not appear on my dekstop
2/ My dock appears but no icon works when I click on them. So, I can't open finder. I have no response.
3/ Furthermore, my top bar (with clock, login name, Airport icon...) appears but it is frozed.
I try several solutions as :
- rebooting in safe mode,
- rebooting, with in the same time, hold different keys (option, apple, p & R)...
As of today, no solution works.
Thanks for your help.

A.CHAMP wrote:
Nota: if i used my daugther login (she is not admin), I have the same issues.
Ok, that's good enough. You may be able to repair this with the 10.5.8 Combo Update This is a fuller install, as opposed to an incremental "delta" update so it should overwrite any files that are damaged or missing. It does not matter if you have applied it before.
Remember to Verify Disk before update and repair permissions after update from /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.
EDIT:
I have around 5 Go space left on my Mac
Also, your getting very low on disk space. Try to copy some of the data off to other media. *Do it before you try applying the combo, you'll need the space.*
-mj
Message was edited by: macjack
Message was edited by: macjack

My mac hard drive crashed. Can I restore my iTunes library from my iPod to my new hard drive?

My mac hard drive crashed, and had to be replaced. Can I restore my iTunes library from my iPod to my new hard drive? About 2500 songs, some from iTunes store, most from other online sources or my own CDs.

To restore non-purchased music on the iTunes Store to iTunes from the iPod, you need a third-party application as Senuti > http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/ You can use others, but this has worked perfectly for me

How do I access my Mac hard drive from my Windows OS?

I recently bought a MacBook Pro and had it partitioned into two hard drives, 65 gig of mac and 35 gig of windows, which will mostly be for games. However, when I am running OS X, i can explore the windows hard drive, but when I run XP, I can't explore the Mac hard drive. I turned file sharing on, so I thought I should be able to. My main reason for this question is because I moved my music to the mac side, and I want windows to be able to access it so that I dont have to store it on both sides. Thanks so much!

Hi Josh!
If you're sharing from Mac to Windows then obviously your network connection is working fine. What happens when you try to share from Windows to Mac? Are you getting error messages?
I highly suggest using SharePoints to create the Windows shares on your Mac. Then on your Windows machine go to Start --> Run and enter something like "\\MacIPaddress\newshare".
Hope this helps! bill
1 GHz Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Mac Hard Drive Filling Up

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for