Why do About This Mac and Finder give different values of available space on my MacBook Pro?
About This Mac is reporting over 150 GB of disk space usage for backups on my MacBook Pro (2 GHz Intel Core i7, mid 2011) (About This Mac|More Info|Storage). Disk Utility shows the same usage as About This Mac.
When I check the available disk space in Finder, it reports approx 150GB more available (i.e. does not seem to see the backups).
I have never used the MacBook for backup - I back up to a Time Capsule.
I bought the MacBook second-hand - I have deleted the old users from Users & Groups. Is it possible that there is a hidden backup lurking on the disk? If so, how can I access it and delete it?
Is it possible that there is a bug in the Mountain Lion About This Mac storage reporting (but if so, why does the usage reported by Disk Utility agree with Abouth This Mac, but not with Finder?)
I really don't want to have to format my disk and restore from Time Machine. I'm not sure that the Time Machine backup does not include the 150GB of "hidden" files...
Any help would be appreciated.
Craig
It is local snapshots that Time Machine makes. Even when not connected to TM disk, TM creates local snapshots on your HD. Finder does not consider local snapshots essential and will use the space if necessary.
Similar Messages
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When I go to About This Mac and click on Storage it shows 421.93GB as Other. This only leaves 46.85GB of 499.25GB free. How do I find out what this "Other" is so I can remove the stuff I don't need?
What kind of use do you make of your MBP? A lot of photo or video? If so, you may be storing a lot of large files. Look at Finder and see what the file system looks like. Do you have large libraries of data files associated with applications?
You may want to think about an external hard drive to use for backups and data storage, you can point applications to the external drive as the default storage location.
A good source of external drives at a reasonable price is the Mac specialist, OWC, http://www.macsales.com
I bought their Mercury Elite Pro 2 TB dirve last September and set it up to use part for Time Machine backup and part for other work space. Setup with Disk utility into two partitions is very quick and easy. Just remember to format as Extended Journaled with GUID partition table. Setting the partition sizes is by using a braphical image on screen in DU so it is like falling off a log, so easy. -
when i go to about this mac and look at my storage it says that i have 33GB of music. i recently deleted 2 user accounts but can't find any of these files. Where do i go to delete these files?
What are you asking? Where music is stored or where the user accounts were stored?
Music should be in the music folder - perhaps inside of an iTunes folder.
User accounts should be on the home directory. -
When looking at my "About This Mac" it says that I have 60gb of space left on my hard drive, but when I go into finder to find all of these files there is not 300gb worth in anything I search, even searching, "All files on the Mac". Help!?
It says I have over 150 gigs of video on my hard drive. But I have gone through and deleted almost all of what shows up, still it says there is roughly the same amount on the hard drive. Where are these files? I want to delete them so I can have my hard drive clear.
Thanks for your help guys!Quote from the article.
Time Machine in OS X Lion includes a new feature called "local snapshots" that keeps copies of files you create, modify or delete on your internal disk. Local snapshots compliment regular Time Machine backups (that are stored on your external disk or Time Capsule) giving you a "safety net" for times when you might be away from your external backup disk or Time Capsule and accidentally delete a file.
So what makes a notebook any different then a desktop, other then with a desktop you might have your tm backup drive connected all the time.
The object here is to not indiscriminately delete files you need or want to keep. I personally have never deleted a file I wanted to keep.
In essence a backup is for catastrophic failure of your system. So it can be restored once that failure has been fixed. Not because you go in willy nilly and start deleting files. -
I am trying to connect to apple support and it keeps asking me to put in the SN of my MAC and when i do it says that the SN is invalid I am putting in the SN from about this mac and it is the same as the one on the bottom of the MAC any ideas ?
Did you purchase this product direct from Apple online, in an Apple Store, or through a third-party authorized reseller? Or did you buy it from an original owner whose Applecare plan was supposed to be transitioned to a new owner, by them?
Do you have an original shipping carton the unit arrived in?
If the product was a retail 'open carton' purchase and no
back-track is possible, contact the reseller.
And if the computer had seen a major service with logic
board replaced, etc, it may have other issues with serial
number vs one they may have assigned it. Usually a
new logic board may have the SN flashed or if a unit
was determined to be a reman, a new # assigned. But
that would appear in System Profiler, if officially reman.
If you registered a product anywhere with Apple, it would show on a web page along with its serial numbers, going back several years, at this page after you log in there.
https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action
A blue text with triangle See all products and services opens an Apple ID
sign-in window, then the page changes to show your items & info about them.
If you run the serial number through online Lookup, what appears?
http://www.powerbookmedic.com/identify-mac-serial.php
Not sure if this helps, 'your product' should appear - if registered.
Good luck & happy computing! -
Serial Number in About This Mac and System Profiler says "System Serial#"
I recently had my hard drive and motherboard replaced under warranty.
I wanted to check the expiration of my warranty so I could buy AppleCare before my year is up. I went first to About This Mac, and then to System Profiler - both of them say my Serial Number is "System Serial#" - any ideas on how to get my real serial number displayed?How strange! I'm not sure if this will show anything different, but you can also try to get the serial number via Terminal. Just open the Terminal application and copy in this command:
ioreg -l | grep IOPlatformSerialNumber -
I can't find the serial number for my mac after getting a new logic board on recall for my macbook pro.
You can open System Profiler and see if it contains your serial number.
Or have the computer near a previous connected Wifi or on a Ethernet cable to your router.
Reboot holding the D key down for like what would appear to be 10 minutes until Hardware Test appears on the screen.
You can run a test if you wish.
There is a pane at the top if selected will give you your new serial number.
You also can use Terminal
You can quickly retrieve any Macs serial number via the command line by using the following command string:
system_profiler |grep "r (system)"
The command results will look something like this:
$ system_profiler |grep "r (system)"
Serial Number (system): C24E1322XXXX
If that fails you can give them your MAC address which is unique to each machine and there are records at Apple with it.
Open Utilities > Terminal. Copy, paste and press enter:
For your computers Ethernet (wired) MAC address: ifconfig en0 | grep ether
For your computers Airport (wireless) MAC address: ifconfig en1 | grep ether -
I looked up serial number in About This Mac and Support site says it isn't
I can't find my Apple Care plan or read the bottom of the computer but I looked up the serial number on my iMac under About This Mac. I copied and pasted it into the box to get a call for technical support and I get a message saying it is not the right number. Now what? How can I call them to get support without the number?
A valid Apple product serial number is eleven characters long, does not contain the letters I or O—though the numerals 1 and 0 are valid characters—contains the numeral 0 though 9 in the third position and the numeric string 01 through 52 in the fourth and fifth positions.
On your model, it's found screened beneath a barcode on the underside of your foot, or can be found as you were instructed using About This Mac or using the System Profiler application. If your logic board has been replaced and is not the original unit installed at the time of manufacture, your logic board may not have the serial number embedded in firmware. In that case, it is not available to display using the About This Mac dialog or the System Profile application.
The most reliable source of such information is typically the number screened on, inscribed or affixed by label to your Apple product. -
I am running Mavericks on my macbook air. I had approx 17gb of movies which I transfered to my external drive and then deleted them. When i checked my storage space in 'about my mac' it says i have 17.5gb remainin which should read around 35gb. When i open up finder and click the 'i' tab on my hdd it says there is 35gb remaining which is as it should be. Please help, it's doing my head in. I never had any dramas running mountain lion!
If you have Time Machine turned on, the difference could be the Local Backups the system is storing temporarily until you sync to your Time Machine backup drive. Sice those files are "low priority" and will be overwritten by the user if required, the Finder does not acknowledge them as "used". However, the profiler will count them as used.
See if syncing yoru Time Machine "resets" for the one showing less space available. -
I create a document at home on my mac.
while out of town on a trip and using icloud and my macbook pro, I should be able to access this document.
If not, what good is icloud.'Documents in the Cloud' enables you to manually upload iWork '09 documents (only) to the iCloud webpage: from there is will automatically be downloaded to iOS5 devices, but you cannot re-download it to your Mac oir to another Mac until it's been edited on an iOS device, so it's not really suitable for what you want, and you cannot do it at all with other types of file.
You will need a third-party solution. SugarySync would be my recommendation - it can do what you want completely seamlessly - this page examines that and some other options:
http://rfwilmut.net/migrate3 -
I am trying to create enough space to load Yosemite.
I currently have about 5.4gb of unused space.
I have deleted about 70gb of movies (all movies from the "files") but still show some 60gb of movies under "storage" in "about this computer". I have no idea where these could be.
There is also about 150gb of "other" that cannot be all the files (I do not have that many )
Would be grateful for suggestions on how to create more space on my computerJeff Cane wrote:
I am trying to create enough space to load Yosemite.
I currently have about 5.4gb of unused space.
I have deleted about 70gb of movies (all movies from the "files") but still show some 60gb of movies under "storage" in "about this computer". I have no idea where these could be.
There is also about 150gb of "other" that cannot be all the files (I do not have that many )
Would be grateful for suggestions on how to create more space on my computer
Have you emptied the trash since deleting files?
How many files are on your computer, I would dare to guess that you, just like me, don't actually know that. The 150GB are files on your computer (regardless of whether you think they are not) the next step will be to identify them. -
II am new to Mac and was trying to transfer data from my PC to my new Macbook Pro. The connection was lost however and now my Pro is stuck on the 'Transferring you nformation' screen. How do I get out of this screen so I can attempt the connection again? Is it safe to force shut down of my Mac and will it still prompt me through all the setup process again?
Welcome to Apple Support Communities
If your Mac and PC are connected by Ethernet, unplug and plug that cable again. If not, you have to turn off the MacBook by holding the Power button.
In the next startup, try to transfer your files again. It's important not to interrupt the transfer process, because in most cases, you will stop it and you won't be able to resume it -
Why I cannot open finder, preview, about this mac bar and also double click on OSX 10.9
Hi there
I bought Mac pro OSX 10.9 yesterday. Now its trackingpad does not work does not double click.
Also I could not open finder' preview' downloads' about this mac' and so on.
The arrow shows a crounding olorful circle as said you have to wait. But nothing happens.
Really disappointed
Many thanksSorry to hear you are having so much trouble. The good news is you can return it within 14 days of purchase for any reason. Return it and have them give you another.
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Finder and About This Mac free space discrepancies
I've read that "Finder displays the available space on the disk without accounting for the local snapshots." However, the discrepancy is more than that.
You can see that "About this mac" informs me that I have 31,56 GB of free space. Add to that the backups and I'd have 37 GB free. Finder, however is informing me that I have 54,59 GB free.
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Best Regards,
Wouter
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ANY THOUGHTS?
APOLOGIES IF THIS HAS BEEN ASKED A MILLION TIMESWelcome to Apple Support Communities
Your Mac switches between graphic cards when needed, so About this Mac and third-party applications detect the graphic card that is being used at the moment, in your case, the integrated graphic card.
If you want to use your dedicated graphic card, open System Preferences > Energy Saver, and disable the option to switch graphic cards. Also, you can use gfxCardStatus > http://gfx.io
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