Sluggish, hard drive almost full...

Hello. I noticed that my computer has become a bit slugggish, so I opened disk utility and it told me that I have used 48 of my 55 gigs on my hard drive. So there are only 7 gigs available.
I assume that this is the reason why it's starting to act sluggish.........?
Now, what is confusing to me is that when I try and find all the folders (and files inside those folders) that add up to the 48 gigs that are being used, I can't do it.
Starting at the top level of my Hard Drive (by clicking on "Computer" in the GO menu), the Application folder is 13.6 gigs, the Library folder is 5.12 gigs, the System folder is 1.65 gigs, the Users folder is 18.3 gigs, and there are just a few more folders which all add up to less than 500kb. So that all adds up to about 39 gigs.
Where are the other 9 gigs?
Disk Utility says that I'm using up 48 gigs on my computer.
I have 2 users on this computer and I am the owner and administrator for both.
Regardless, all that is included in the Users folder on the top level of my Hard Drive anyway, correct?
When I "Got Info" on the Users folder, that included every folder and file in the other User, right?
So I'm just trying to account for where all this memory is being used up so that maybe I could do a little manual spring cleaning. But it's difficult when I can't account for all of it.
Can anyone help?
thanks.

Hi,
WhatSize (freeware) will show you the size of every file/folder on the drive. Run it and post the results (any surprises).
John

Similar Messages

  • Backup/Synchronization Warning Hard Drive Almost Full

    Every time I try to create an album in Photoshop Elements 10, when it goes to upload to Photoshop.com, I get a warning that my hard drive is almost full. If I repeatedly indicate I have fixed the problem, the album will eventually synchronize.  My hard drive is not even close to full; I have 1.36TB free of 1.80TB.  My Photoshop.com account is also not nearly full, I am using 2.6GB of 20.0GB available, as I purchased additional storage.
    What is causing this error and how do I fix it?
    Robert

    Hi Robert,
    Please try signing out of your Photoshop.com account from PSE and then sigining in again. Also verify that your C drive also has free space. Backup/synchronization also downloads files from your online account to the local hard disk . The default save location is the Pictures folder of the system. You may receive this message if downloading the online files fills up the loacl disk. See if its useful. Would be glad to help further. Thanks.

  • System memory vs disk usage -- why is my hard drive almost full if my system memory is half empty?

    I have a white Macbook, 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 GB of memory, Mac OS X, version 10.5.8, purchased in 2008. My Mac keeps warning me that my startup disk is almost full, and indeed Activity Monitor shows that my disk usage has minimal free space (2.31 GB). However, the System Memory tab shows that half my space is free.
    Does the discrepancy mean that there is lots of space left on my Mac? If not, how can I identify if some sort of error is filling up my memory? Right now, I have a lot of music and documents stored on my laptop, but nothing else, and I would like to be sure it's those two things that are filling up the space.
    What is the recommended method for adding more memory to my Mac, if nothing else?

    There are two different types of memory in your Mac. There is system memory, more commonly referred to as RAM, and there is disk space. RAM is where the Mac works on data. Disk space is where data is stored for long term storage.
    You are in serious danger of causing your Mac to die completely by running it with so little free space on your system drive. It is imperative that you start either deleting or move data off the disk drive. You should have 8 to 10 time as much free space at least at all times for OS X to run will.
    A tool that can  with cleaning up your disk drive is OmniDiskSweeper. It will tell you the files and fol,der that are using the most space. That will give you good candidates for deletion or movement.
    Allan

  • Hard drive almost full need help

    A few years ago I saw software which would show the contents of the hard drive in a colored graphic display. This made it easy to spot where the most likely items to delete were to free up hard drive space. I looked around but don't remember the name of the software. Can anyone point me to the right direction?

    Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
      1. See Lion's 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.

  • Start up disk and hard drive almost full i have tried clearing things but it is not working it says its full from (other)

    Hi so I keep getting pop up messages saying that my start up disk is almost full. SO I go into my Macintosh and try to erase some things however it isnt freeing any space most of the storage has been filled up by the word (other). Not movies or music but (other) not too sure what it is? please help

    “Other" includes everything that is not audio, movies, photos, apps and backups.  In other words it includes the OS, mail, documents...  See http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html and What is "Other" and What Can I Do About It? and Apple Support Communities https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142
    Also see Where did my disk space go:  http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
    For hints on how to free disk/SSD storage see
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5872318?tstart=0
    and
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5939678?tstart=60

  • Hard drive almost full, but I can't access info to delete!?

    I opened up Safari for the first time in a long time and it asked to update my keychains. I did. Then after I restarted my mac everything went back to default and I can't find anything I had saved. All music, pictures, gone!
    The strange thing is when I look at the free space available, it says I have 5.6 gigs left, which is the same amount of space I had before everything was erased! Does anybody know what's going on? How can I find everything that was lost?

    Hi inergi, Welcome to Apple Discussions.
    Did you attempt to rename your home folder? If not, WhatSizemay help you find it.
    -mj
    [email protected]

  • Hard Drive Almost Full

    I thought I couln't, but I did.  250 GB HD has 10 GB left.  Now what?  I have lots of photos in iPhoto.  I also have four accounts on this Mac.  Two of the accounts are for my daughters who have their own Macs.  Should I remove their accounts to create space?  How do I do that?  Help!!

    Yes, you are extremely low on free disk space.
    Only if their accounts are using significat amounts of disk space would it be worthwhile doing that.
    A solution would be to move your iPhoto library to an external disk.
    A tool to help you see what is using up the disk space is OmniDiskSweeper. It will show you the folders and files that are using the largest amount of disk space.
    Allan

  • Why is my recovery drive almost full and how do i clean it.

    Also why is my hard drive almost full when i have very little on the computer?

    My recovery is full too exept ive got windows 7.... I do have a lot of crap on my laptop though.....i dont know whats causing it ... im 12 so all i do is take photos and videos , play games on hp games , watch netflix and youtube , go on kids chat....Well, there was this one time where i was on the chat when my computor was hacked and i just turned it off then it was fine if it helps..... i actually have no idea....ive had my laptop for about two years now ...my laptop is hp and part of the pavilion g series.....its red ?it has intel core....i dunno if any of this helps but please help ....My parents will get really mad if i run out of memery

  • Startup Drive Almost Full!!  Help Please

    Hi everyone, I have a 1.25mhz, 1.25gig MDD (w/FW400)and today I got an alert message that said "Startup Drive almost full"....The computer has the stock 80gig harddrive, and I'm guessing that all of those RAW photos have just filled up the drive.
    I was thinking of getting a 160 or 200 gig internal harddrive, and then using the 80 gig drive specifically for music and photos. My question is how do I move all of the info from my current hard drive onto the new drive. I also have a 300 gig external firewire harddrive that I can use to help with the transfer.
    I'm pretty sure that I will be able to physically install the new drive.
    Thanks,
    Tom
    PowerMac G4   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

    Basically you need to clone your existing drive to the new drive. This is very easy to do with programs such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. I use CCC all the time and it works fine for me, but I have heard that SD makes it even easier. Once the old drive has been cloned to the new, you can select it as the startup disk and begin booting from it.
    After you are comfortable that all is well, feel free to format the 80GB disk and use it for other things.

  • 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.

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • 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?

  • 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

Maybe you are looking for

  • ID of a component

    Hi, Please help me, how can I see the client Id created by the ADF runtime in 10.1.2.3 while running the adf page, a unige id is created for each component in the page. Is there any method to get that id ? Like.... <af:column sortProperty="CustFeedba

  • Is there a way to get the new tab opened by ctrl+click to open to the right of the current tab, rather than the far right?

    I'm using Firefox 6.0.2. In previous versions there was an option to select where a new tab using ctrl+click would open. For instance, if I have 5 tabs open and am using the third tab and ctrl+click on a link, I would like that link to open in positi

  • WebAuth with Custom AUP

    Hi there, I have a custom Webauth page successfully loaded into my 2106 WLC. It is essentially the same as the original page with a few cosmetic tweaks in line with our branding and works seamlessly. What I would like to be able to do is hyperlink a

  • Slow iMovie '08 launch (iPhoto movie clip export)

    After using iMovie 6 HD intensively for a year, I'm quite impressed with the new '08, especially its skimming and selection features and the whole new approach to quicker home movie creation. Surely the new version has many bugs. The worst one which

  • Safari crash when window closed

    Like the post earlier, safari crashes when a window closed. I used to have Speed Download, however, it is no longer on my system, and when i searched for it (and permutations of it I found nothing. I tried looking in the crash log, but I dont know wh