The size of files on my hard drive don't add up? where are my files?

when I open a finder window it shows my hard drive as containing 235 Gb used out of 320GB available but when I add up the files inside the HDD it only adds up to about half of that. Where is all my storage space gone?

I know there's some way to do that but I couldn't figure out how. That's probably exactly what my problem is! That just makes me wonder why I have so darn many hidden files? And could this be why it slowly seems to lose speed the older it gets-like myself, just dragging around a bunch of invisible baggage?

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When I power up my Mac-Pro I only get a flashing file folder with a ? inside the folder. I suspect my hard drive is maxed to capacity can anyone help me as to what I should do?

When I power up my Mac-Pro I only get a flashing file folder with a ? inside the folder. I suspect my hard drive is maxed to capacity can anyone help me as to what I should do?

Whatever the problem is you no longer have a bootable system. You need to try reinstalling OS X.
Reinstall Snow Leopard without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

I recently upgraded to Yosemite. Yesterday when I opened up the iPhoto (which I have it in my external drive due to the size of file) I get the message that it is not compatible with the new system(or something like that) and ask me to upgrade so I d

I recently upgraded to Yosemite. Yesterday when I opened up the iPhoto (which I have it in my external drive due to the size of file) I get the message that it is not compatible with the new system(or something like that) and ask me to upgrade so I did. Then another message pops ups and asked for rebuilding the Thumbnails. So I clicked rebuild. Next it asked me to do one of three things(I can't remember all of them) so I chose the last one which is to download a photo to iPhoto. Now I only have that photo I downloaded in iPhoto file but not the rest of my pictures. The iPhoto library which is stored in my EHD shows it has 349GB but it only show one thumbnail of the last picture I downloaded after the rebuild process. What can I do to recover the rest of the file?
Thanks for your help.
George Kyaw
<Email Edited by Host>

I recently upgraded to Yosemite. Yesterday when I opened up the iPhoto (which I have it in my external drive due to the size of file) I get the message that it is not compatible with the new system(or something like that) and ask me to upgrade so I did. Then another message pops ups and asked for rebuilding the Thumbnails. So I clicked rebuild. Next it asked me to do one of three things(I can't remember all of them) so I chose the last one which is to download a photo to iPhoto. Now I only have that photo I downloaded in iPhoto file but not the rest of my pictures. The iPhoto library which is stored in my EHD shows it has 349GB but it only show one thumbnail of the last picture I downloaded after the rebuild process. What can I do to recover the rest of the file?
Thanks for your help.
George Kyaw
<Email Edited by Host>

HT201250 i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. do i keep my files in the portable hard disk when I connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will era

i am using for first time the time machine and an external hard drive because I want to erase my macbook and start from zero files. Am i keeping my files in the portable hard disk when I will connect it again with the macbook or the time machine will erase all?
I would like to know if after I erase all my data, empy hard drive inside the macbook, the time machine will erase all my files that I have saved in my "WD "My passport" external hard drive

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Time Machine has to erase the external disk in order to make backups. Before setting Time Machine up, copy the files of your external disk to the hard disk of the Mac in order not to lose them, and then, set up Time Machine. The first backup will start automatically.
If you want more information about Time Machine, read the Pondini's site > http://pondini.org

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

I recently had the genius bar change my imac hard drive because it crashed. For some reason Time Machine didn't back up some of my important files. Can I get my damaged hard drive back from the genius bar to see if I can access that info?

Unfortunately, that drive is long gone, probably back to the mfr. Drives are not returned when they are exchanged. You can go by and ask them, but the chances are slim to none.

I recently moved my Aperture Library file to an external hard drive. Can I now create a vault to be saved on my Time Capsule for the Aperture library on this external hard drive?

I recently moved my Aperture Library file to an external hard drive. Can I now create a vault to be saved on my Time Capsule for the Aperture library on this external hard drive?

One thing to bear in mind, if you are using Time Machine on your Time Capsule and have it set so the TM backup includes your external drive, you will effectively be backing up your Aperture library twice on the same drive, once with Time Machine and once with the vault. This isn't a problem unless you start to run out of space.
Another thing to note, vaults on network drives used to be flaky (i.e. not really supported) and required workarounds to be able to use them. I'm not sure if this has changed, but I just managed to create a vault on my TC ok.

I have recently purchased an iMac from the Apple store. I previously had a windows computer and I transferred all my important files and music from the old computer onto an external hard drive. I've plugged the hard drive in and I can't seem to locate it!

Hi everyone,
Before I set up my new iMac, I transferred all my important files from my old windows computer (pictures, documents, iTunes etc) onto an external hard drive. I had no trouble using and locating my hard drive on my old computer, however I'm having great difficulty finding it on my iMac. The external hard drive is plugged in with all wires connected and correct. I've tried all the USB ports and I still can't locate it!
I just want to transfer everything from my hard drive to the iMac!
If anyone could help me locate and guide me through the process of using an external hard drive on an iMac, then that would be brilliant!

Try using Migration Assistant following this guide:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4413#3
There is advice in this document for using Migration Assistant from Time Machine or other hard drive.

I´ve moved the iphoto library to an external hard drive. Now I want to create space on my macbook by deleting the iphoto-files from the internal iphoto.. How do I do this?

My macbook has been telling me that it is running out of space. Therefore I moves the iphoto library to an extarnal hard drive. How do I free space on my macbook now? If I erase the files/library (I don´t now witch of them?) from the internal hard drive, will they still be there on the external one?

Moving iPhoto Library - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229. and http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506.
First, set up finder to show your external drive on the desktop. To do this, click finder in your dock, then click the word finder beside the apple. Select preferences. When the preferences window opens, select the "general" tab, and under "show these items on the desktop" ensure you check off "external disks"
Connect an external drive. You should see an icon appear on the desktop.
In order to move an iPhoto Library to this external drive, the drive must be formatted for a mac. To check the format of the drive, open up disk utility (applications / utilities). In the disk utility window, you will see the external drive on the left. Select it. Then go to the "erase" tab. This tab will show the current format of this drive. It must be "Mac OS Extended Journaled", or the iPhoto Library will not allow you to move it to that drive.
As long as it is formatted correctly, simply click finder in the dock and go into your pictures folder. Here you should see your iPhoto Library. Simply drag the Library to the external drives icon on the desktop. This will start to copy. It may take some time to copy the library to the drive.
Once the copy is finished, you can then drag the iPhoto Library in the pictures folder, to the trash.

How do I change the desktop Icon for an external hard drive? I have gone to "Get Info" and tried dragging and dropping several formats of pictures and the icon changes to the generic image of that file type.

how can I change the desktop icon for an external hard drive. Using LaCies and Dimple hard drives.

One of the things I've found with OS X (at least with Snow Leopard, which is my first excursion into OS X), is that all too often the thumbnail displayed on a file, whether a file created or one downloaded, is a false thumbnail. That is, when you do a Get Info on the file the icon in the upper left is the generic icon for that file type, rather than the thumbnail displayed in Finder. Makes it a bit difficult to copy.
Apparently Finder uses Preview in the background to generate the displayed thumbnail without actually creating one.
What I've resorted to doing, particularly with graphic images, is to process them with GraphicConverter - I have its prefs set to automatially add thumbnails and previews. With an individual file this means opening it in GC and doing a Save As. However, a much easier and faster way is when there are two or more such files; I put them in a common folder and drop the folder onto GC. GC then opens them in a catalog view, in the process adding real thumbnails and previews to each automatically. Doesn't take long to do several hundred files that way.

Move the iBooks library to external/different hard drive?

Hi! Is it possible to move the iBooks library from its default location on the boot drive (where the iBooks-application also resides) to a different hard drive?
Currently all my ebooks and PDF’s are kept in the default „Books“-folder in the home-library on the SSD-boot-drive of my Mac where the iBooks application is also kept by default (path: Users/„username“/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBo oks/Books). Space is getting narrow on my SSD-boot-drive so that I would like to free up approximately 20 GB by moving the entire iBooks library to a second internal HDD-drive of my Mac or to an external USB-drive.
I have not been able to find any instructions on the internet on how to move the iBooks library nor have I been successful in any of my experiments to move the „Books“-folder. What I have tried is the following:
1. I moved the original PDF-files away out of the „Books“-folder to a different drive and placed aliases from these files in the „Books“-folder. The result is that the iBooks-application will simply re-create a full size copy of the original PDF file in the „Books“-folder. I.e. no saving of disk space!
2. I copied the „Books“-folder from its default location in the user library on my internal SSD-boot-drive to a second internal HDD-drive, erased the „Books“-folder at the original location and instead placed a hard link at the original location. I verified that the hard link is working and pointing to the right location on the second drive. The result is that the iBooks-application will not recognize/show any of the PDF-files at the new location. Trying to re-import the missing PDF-files into iBooks results in the message „This book is already in your library. Do you want to replace it with the one you’re adding?“. By clicking on „Yes“ the same message returns infinitely often. I.e. no successes!
3. I repeated the same procedure as described above under 2. using the „iBooks“-folder which encloses the „Books“-folder (along with three other folders) with the same results as before. I.e. no successes!
(path: Users/„username“/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks)
Does anyone know how to successfully move the iBooks library to external/different hard drive?
Does anyone have links to internet discussions about this problem?
Regards BJB

I was in on the Mavericks beta, when iBooks was introduced. You can not believe me if you want but it isn't currently possible to store the iBooks library on external storage at this time. The ebooks must be on the path ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books for iBooks to function properly. Any other method you may find to accomplish what you want will be unapproved and could break at any time.
You may submit your polite feedback to Apple here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/ibooks_ios.html

Why are the JPEGS on my computer's hard drive all of a sudden now blank?

The JPEGS on my computer's hard drive are now blank (it reads 0kb, and the thumbnail is missing) and when I go to open it in Windows Photo Viewer it gives me an error saying that it doesn't exist. I noticed that this happens to almost all the photos I edited in Lightroom 5. I shot a whole season of football last year, all in JPEG format, and with my keepers I went ahead and edited them in Lightroom and now they're blank. I have never moved my photos anywhere. I shot the game last November, created the folder for that game, and that's it. I go almost a year later to print one of them out for my portfolio and the file is missing! Lightroom can show the photo but I can't make any adjustments in the development module because the file is blank on my computer. The weird part is that the thumbnail is there, the correct image number is there, and when I click to show in Explorer through Lightroom it pulls up the right JPEG, so the location is correct in Lightroom, just no thumbnail image and no full size image when I go to open it using Windows Photo Viewer. I checked other games I shot and it happened to almost every game.

If you have the photos on your camera cards, then obviously you can simply copy them to the appropriate locations.
There are Lightroom plug-ins that can retrieve the preview that Lightroom uses, but these will be smaller and lower in quality than the original. Maybe one of our plug-in experts can suggest the proper plug-in.
If the hard disk is really going bad, as I speculated, you would definitely want to get it replaced. If that is the case, you don't want to keep using it. You might want to run some disk diagnostics on it.

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

On imac 10.6.8 using current version of Aperture. How can I access the Aperture Library on my external hard drive that I use with time machine for backup? I can only access the application but not the library..

Go into Time Machine (the program not the bundle on the extrnal disk) and using Time Machine's browser go to the Folder where the library lives. You could look in the library bundle in Time Machine but that won't really tell you much,
If you want to make sure it truely has backed up your library you will need to restore it and open the restored library with Aperture.
If all this still has you confused you need to read up on Time Machine in order to get a feel for how it works, for what it is doing and for how to restore files from it.

I just bought a new Mac and I want to transfer some data (not all) from my old Mac. Basically, I want to move my itunes library, iphoto library, and a few documents. I have not even turned on my new Mac yet. Is the best way by an external hard drive?

I just bought a new Mac and I want to transfer some data (not all) from my old Mac. Basically, I want to move my itunes library, iphoto library, and a few documents. I have not even turned on my new Mac yet. Is the best way by an external hard drive?

If both have Firewire ports then you can accomplish your goal by using Target Disk Mode. If this is not possible then you can do using an external drive or if you have a local network connect both to your network and use filesharing between the two computers.
File Sharing on Macs
Mac 101- File Sharing

HT1751 if i back up my itunes library to an external hard drive and then add subsequent music and want to back that up a few days later, can i backup the only newly added music without backing up the entire library again?

hello,
if i back up my itunes library to an external hard drive and then add subsequent music and want to back up the newly added music a few days later, can i do it without backing up the entire library again? or do i need to back up the entire library each and every time i back up to the external hard drive?

Just copy Users/yourusername/Music/iTunes (containing your library-files) to your external drive as well as that (extaernal) folder that contains all your audio-tracks.

I want to use the Thunderbolt connection for an external hard drive

I want to use the Thunderbolt connection for an external hard drive - so what port would I use on the MacBook Pro 13" for the display monitor. Thank you!

This is not the forum for MacBook Pro owners.
You just need to reformat the drive in Disk Utility and erase the drive and have Mac HFS.
If you did need to use NTFS then you would not want -3G but Paragon NTFS for OS X x. 10.0
Or buy something that isn't pre-formatted to Windows NT file system.
First though make sure you have backups of your system. TimeMachine being used now?
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-TimeMachine-drive.html
http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
Maybe cleanout some files you don't need.
Install a larger notebook hard drive even.
http://www.macsales.com/firewire has a lot of choice in Mac compatible drives and enclosures so you don't need to worry about Fantom not working at some point.
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/mac_os_x_v10.6_snow_leopard

The size of files on my hard drive don't add up? where are my files?

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