Where Does Yosemite Installer Hide? (aka missing disk space)

I've been using a 400GB partition on an external drive for Time Machine backups for some time and it's had plenty of room to work with. I upgraded to Yosemite recently and all was well with the Time Machine backups.
Yesterday I downloaded Yosemite again to install it on a second drive so that I would have a second bootable drive. Today I got notice that there was not enough space on my Time Machine backup drive. Suddenly the 400GB was not enough and my primary boot drive had swollen to 480GB. I don't know what it had been, but obviously there is now a lot more on it than there was.
My assumption is that I have the Yosemite Installer and/or hidden installer files that didn't get cleaned up after the second installation. I can't find anything in hidden files or folders that I recognize as such but soemthing is eating up lots of disk space that I need to free.
Where does the App Store stash downloads in case that's it?
If I hold Option on a restart, I no longer have the Installer as an optional boot disk, but I do get three "Recovery-10"... disks. Possibly those are the problem, but I can't locate them either.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

Ok, I may have found a possible solution. I found this at stack exchange. It's not the best option and it requires a simple shell command, and will not be able to be used to restore from Time Machine, but for backing up one or more directory, at least in the short term, this will work. Here it is:
There seems to be an issue with Yosemite renaming the computer local host by adding (#) after the computer name. There are other reports of this happening in a thread on MacRumors Forum and I believe a few people have blamed this as a cause of time machine backup failures. I've tried a few of the suggestions in the thread but so far none have worked. I've stopped using time machine for now and reverted to an old bash rsync script.
A really simple solution is to open the terminal and type:
rsync -avu ~/ /Volumes/backup_disk/backup_folder
replacing 'backup_disk' with the name of your external hard drive and 'backup_folder' with the name of the backup folder i.e.: 'yosemite_backup'. The three flags -avu mean: archive (a) copy the home directory recursively into sub folders, verbose (v) print to the terminal window everything you are copying (feel free to leave this out) and update (u) will only overwrite files that are newer than the archived file (useful after the initial main backup). This solution isn't as hands off as time machine but at least it's a simple way to back up vital information in Documents and Pictures/Videos.
Hope this helps!
to read the full discussion go to http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/151662/os-x-yosemite-time-machine-ident ity-of-the-backup-disk-has-changed

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My T400S has a ~160GB SSD disk - however, there seems to be ~75GB which are permanently unavailable on C: drive, and do not show up in a directory listing. This is NOT the Lenovo or Service partitions, which take up only ~8GB between them. Moreover the Drive Space manager in the latest ThinkVantage Toolbox reports that it cannot scan these files due to access restrictions. I am logged in as administrator!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

It's probably taken up by System Restore's restore points. These are found in C:\System Volume Information, and is unaccessible even to the Super-Administrator. The only way to get rid of them is using the "Create a Restore Point" page where there is an option to clear all of the restore points. However, CCleaner's System Restore tab allows you to selectively delete restore points as you desire.
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Missing disk space Problem

Hi,
I have recently purchased a T61p from lenovo equipped with a hard drive of capacity 120GB. I have never regretted buying a thinkpad since. Except for the fact that after a couple of weeks I kept losing huge amounts of disk space from my hard drive. I assumed this was due to the downloads I was doing and hence, purchased a WD 500 gig hard drive. I shifted my downloads folder including everything that I ever downloaded to it. I then found out I gained only 20-30GB which was the size of my downloads folder (I never bothered to check it earlier.). Now I was down with missing a whopping amount of 60GB. I dont know if a solution already exists for this as could not find any search results for missing disk space. (For users who are still suffering with the same issue and do not want to read all the trouble I went through, scroll down till you find a void for the solution). As always I sought the almighty google's help. There were a million pages on how vista eats up space for backup and recovery. But after about an hour of surfing over a 100 pages and trying the solutions in vain, I found out that vista takes a max of 15% of disk space. But I lost 60GB then I found out that the trouble was not with vista but with the Thinkvantage R&R utility. I then remembered a prompt form thinkvantage s/w stating that my hard drive was too low on space and that a backup was not possible that appeared not too long ago.
Solution : (Not recommended if you are prone to crashes and always seek R&R's help to regain control over your box) Delete all the backups and disable R&R. Go to Rescue and Recovery program and click the advanced menu button and select delete all backups. Then go to preferences and uncheck the scheduled backup stuff. (Thats how it worked on my T61p. Don't know if the interface is the same on others.)
I always assumed the extra 6gig that thinkpads usually have as the extra partition has all the restoration data. But I guess 6gig is too small for it and the 6gig only has data to restore the PC back to factory condition. Then I found it funny for a program to have been scheduled to make backups of sizes 30GB or perhaps the total used space for a hard drive that is of 120 gigs size. What was even more funnier was that this program was scheduled to run "daily!". I don't know if I set it to that option myself unwittingly or if it was the same by default. I wanted to post here just so others know of this well in advance before they go through all the trouble I did. Please delete this post if this was a known issue. If this has been fixed or sorted out please let me know of that too
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Try disabling RR. That might work. You might want to enable it again later.
Note from Moderator: Please update your profile with your correct country location as per the forum rules. Products, options and services vary from market to market. Knowing your location helps us help you.
Message Edited by nonny on 04-19-2008 11:44 AM

Missing disk space - 'get info' differs from 'du'

Hi there
I have three harddrives in the server - one 80 GB drive for the system (called Server HD) and two 1TB drives for the home directories and network shares.
The problem is that, according to 'get info', the 80GB drive is almost full (only 6 G left) and I don't know where all the space is used.
When I the applications 'disk inventory' or 'whatsize'(in administrator mode) or the terminal with 'sudo du -shx /Volumes/Server\ HD' they all report a disk usage of about 23GB, which is more likely as the system is just a few weeks old and the home directories are not located in this volume.
But if I use 'df' to see the free space this reports the same as 'get info' - only about 6GB left.
According to the system profiler the smart status is verified, so the disk should be ok (I think).
Unfortunately I am pretty new to Macs so I don't have the slightest idea what to do now to check and hopefully reclaim the missing disk space.
Thanks for any tips
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Look in /Volumes directory there should only be an alias or mount point for any volumes you have mounted. If a volume didn't mount properly, it is possible to find "name" and "name_1" entries, and for actual files to now reside there.
Another utility I like is from OmniGroup
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For books, Missing Manual, and O'Reilly OS X for Unix Geeks
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596520625/index.html
http://books.slashdot.org/books/08/02/27/1551206.shtml

How to reclaim the missing disk space

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You probably installed from original Windows XP disk [w/o SP2], and original XP support disks only upto 128gb. If you install SP2/3 later on, the support will be added , but the partition woun't magicaly grow by itself If you want to resize it w/o loosing data you have to use 3rd party tools like GParted Live CD [free] or Partition Magic [commercial] software... http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
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I have no idea, but on the start menu type %tmp% in the search or run box and press enter. Windows explorer will open in that folder.

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I have a 2008 MacBook Pro with a 325g hard drive. I want to change the current hard drive for a 240g SSD drive. Unfortunately, I can seem to get the drive down to 200g's. It is running 10.9.1 and all the photos from Lightroom5 and iPhoto have been removed. I have Office 2011 on the drive and that's about it. I can't figure out what is taking up all the disk space.
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6047
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
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http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13806
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677?viewlocale=en_US
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http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html

Remove programs and missing disk space

I'm just switched to Mac a few weeks ago and I got problem when I remove program in my MacBook.
Is that ok when I just sent my program to trash and that's all for removing a program? I saw that's some program such as "Adobe Reader" it has a uninstall dmg file but another do not.
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MacBook Intel C2D 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.10) 30 GB iPod Video (Black)

Dragging a file to the Trash does not delete it from the drive until you empty the Trash.
Uninstalling Software: The Basics
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For more information visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on removing software.

Missing Disk Space....How to Fix This?

Hi all,
I've got a 60gb Macbook. I'm using Whatsize to figure out what's been eating my hard disk space, but it still doesn't make sense. I'm the only user on my computer, and my home folder says I've used about 43 gigs with about 12 left. Using Whatsize, it calculates my use to be about 21 gigs, which is what I figured it to be, adding up my music, photos, docs, and apps. But on the sidebar of the Whatsize app, it says that I've used 43 gigs in my home folder. So what is eating up the extra 22-ish gigs on my hard disk that my home folder says I'm supposedly using? I was poking around Whatsize and under Macintosh HD-->Users, I found something weird. I've got 2 accounts under the same name ".USER" and "USER". The one without the period before it contains all of my files and docs and stuff (and 21 gigs, exactly what I've been using), while the other one just says "USER.sparseimage" and the sparseimage is 26 gigs! What is the sparseimage and can I delete it? If anyone can help, I'd appreciate this! Thanks!

Hi,
I had the same problem with FileVault (FV) on my MacBook when I deleted a master copy of a iphoto DVD. The cdr file (ca. 5GB) disappeared but the space was still occupied.
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LR 4 Beta Installer reports Not Enough Disk Space before prompting for installation location

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Welcome To  Discussions mfidelman!
What were you backing up, and what method were you using?
"...the disk went from 15G of 55G used to 52G used)."
Considering the small amount of free space presently available, I think it could be extremely risky, to download anything at this point.
Insufficient available space, can cause performance issues, system corruption, and possible loss of data.
Depending on Mac system usage habits, it is a general recommendation, to keep 10% to as much as 20%, of the Total capacity, available at all times.
Try the procedure below first.
INSTRUCTIONS TO RUN CRON MANUAL COMMANDS
Quit all applications/programs.
Navigate to HD > Applications > Utilities.
Double click on Terminal, to open.
At the prompt, type:
sudo periodic daily
Press Return.
Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
This will execute the daily script that is sheduled to run every night.
When completed, repeat this procedure, but change the command to:
sudo periodic weekly
This one rebuilds a database or two, and usually takes somewhat longer to complete. It is scheduled to run once a week.
Repeat again, with command:
sudo periodic monthly
Or they can all be run in one pass, which is preferable, with this command:
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
When the tasks complete, and return to the prompt, you may quit Terminal.
Restart the Mac, and run Repair Permissions.
TO REPAIR PERMISSIONS ON THE STARTUP DISK
1.Open Disk Utility, located in Applications/Utilities, and select the startup disk in the left column.
2.Click First Aid.
3.Click Verify Disk Permissions to test permissions or Repair Disk Permissions to test and repair permissions. (I never "Verify". Just run "Repair".)
Rerun RP, until the only messages reported, are listed here Spurious Permissions Errors Using: 10.3.x, authored by Michael Conniff.
When "Repair Permissions" is complete. Quit "Disk Utility".
ali b

Satelite L650/OED - Missing disk space

Hi,
I just bought a Toshiba Satelite L650/OED notebook, and in the specifications, it says the storage is 640 GB, but the only hard drive in my computer after I first initalized it is only 583GB, what is missing?
And I read the user menu, and found that there was a recovery partition which was hidden, so how can I find this partition?
It seems that the default setting for this notebook is that there is only a hard drive C, but no other dirve disk D or E. So how can I protect my files once I need to reformat the C?
Thanks

Hi TYQ,
I think the problem is that you always have less disk space as you can find on specifications on HDD. On Wikipedia there is an interesting article about Capcity measurements:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#Capacity
As you can see, everything is ok with your HDD ;)
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I can't account for 123 GB of my MBA 13's 250 GB SSD. A check of the SSD using "Get Info" shows 243GB used. The folders using space on the SSD add up to 120GB being used (as indicated by "Get Info" for each folder). When I look at the details about the SSD using "About this Mac" it states that I have two partitions on the SSD. Is it possible that I have a partition that takes up hard disk space but is not viewable in Finder? I keep running into low hard disk space warnings and can't see why when with the applications, music, pictures, movies, documents and system files on my computer only add up to 120GB. Very frustrated...looking for any help I can get. Thanks.

OK, this is helpful. From the DU info you have a 250 GB SSD that is fully partitioned and formatted as Macintosh HD. If you select the drive on the Desktop then press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window, what is reported in the upper pane for the drive's capacity, used, and available space?
Do you use Time Machine at all? If not, open TM preferences and see if TM is turned ON. TM is supposed to do snapshot backups on the startup drive when turned on but when no backup drive is connected.
As for the About This Mac display it is not very useful. Other simply refers to anything not in the other categories and may consist of data, logs ,temporary files, cache files, etc. What is relevant is only what is displayed by the Get Info report for the drive.
It would appear there is about 8.7 GBs of free space on the drive. There is also a reserved amount of space equal to the amount of RAM you have. This is used for the sleep image made when you put the computer to sleep. The Recovery HD uses about 650 MBs of space.
I would suggest you get an external drive that is at least the same size as the SSD. Clone the SSD to the external drive using Disk Utility's Restore feature:
Clone Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
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.
Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue button.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Then boot from the clone using OPTION boot. Use DU to erase the SSD then restore the clone to the SSD. After that erase the external drive. Copy all the data in your Home folder to the external drive and erase the same from the SSD. This will free up a considerable amount of space on the SSD giving you a bit more leeway. For OS X to run optimally you need to maintain a certain amount of free space - at least 12 GBs or 10% of the startup drive's capacity, whichever is greater.
Overall I would suggest an external drive of 1 TB. Partition it as follows:
500 GBs for Time Machine backup.
250 GBs for additional storage use.
250 GBs for a bootable clone of the SSD.
This will allow you to put your photos, iTunes library, and movie files onto the external drive so you can remove them from the SSD to free up the space they now take up.
The MBA is not a choice for the home desktop computer. So you need to manage the space usage on the SSD. I keep just a trimmed down installation on my laptops. They are treated as the "travel" computer so I only put on them what is minimally needed for the travel. I use a 60 GB SSD but have more than enough free space for travel needs. If I need more space then I use a 500 GB HDD that has all the space I would likely need.

Does Spotlight use a lot of disk space?

I'm new to Macs — in fact, my first one hasn't arrived yet — and I'm wondering if Spotlight will tie up a lot of disk space? I'm getting a MacBook Pro with a 100GB drive (modest by desktop standards), and I've noticed that Windows search products (e.g., Google Desktop, MSN Desktop) can create 3-5 GB of data after indexing even a modest 30GB hard drive. If Spotlight is going to "waste" gigs of space on my limited laptop drive, I might look into disabling it. Thanks.

Do not worry about it. On my book disk (100Gb with 60Gb occupied) spotlight uses the following space:
big:~ mtsouk$ ls -l /.Spotlight-V100/
total 278972
-rw------- 1 root admin 219443200 Apr 15 07:23 ContentIndex.db
-rw------- 1 root admin 238 Feb 28 18:56 _IndexPolicy.plist
-rw------- 1 root admin 304 Apr 3 23:42 _exclusions.plist
-rw------- 1 root admin 378 May 28 2005 _rules.plist
-rw------- 1 root admin 66211840 Apr 15 07:23 store.db
big:~ mtsouk$
Mihalis.
Dual G5 @ 2GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Where Does Yosemite Installer Hide? (aka missing disk space)

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