Why does my Mac say my hard drive is full, but that's not true?

Why does my Mac say my hard drive is full, but there should be plenty of space on it?

You need to get a program like OmniDiskSweeper, it will check your drive and see what is taking up the space. From there you can decide what to do.

Similar Messages

My MacBook says my hard drive is full - but it isn't!

My MacBook keeps saying I have no disk space left yet when I add up the space I've used, it comes to less than 50GB of my 180GB drive. How can this be? Where are these mysterious files supposedly taking up all this space and how do I get rid of them?
Please help!!!
Thanks in advance =)

Hi and welcome to Discussions,
use something like Disk Inventory X http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14393/disk-inventory-x to determine what's eating up your harddisk space.
A simple 'add up' might be leaving out a lot of files (especially system files and the like).
Regards
Stefan

Why does my Mac say that I must deauthorise one of my other 5 computers so that I can authorise mine? I don't have any other computers.

Why does my Mac say that I must deauthorise one of my other 5 computers so that I can authorise mine? I don't have any other computers.

architecture12 wrote:
I have 25 gb of music. 20 gb of movies. 5 gb of pictures. 10 gb of apps. 102 gb of "back up. and 85 gb of "other. which leaves less than 70 gb open on my harddrive.. Why? What is that almost 200 gb of memory? How Do i pinpoint it? I use time machine and an external harddrive to back up my files so what is that? any answers or ideas?
Do not worry about the backups. They will be deleted automatically after a week, or if your HD gets too full. See #30 in Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions.
The "other" stuff is just that -- all sorts of things that don't fall into the few categories listed. The operating system, system work files, plus lots of your stuff like documents, mail, etc. See Lion's Storage Display

I reinstalled osx 10.8.2 from recovery disk, now verify disk says my hard drive is there but wont boot into it regardless which partition i select to boot into , everytime it boots me into the recovery, i need help!

Mb pro running like garbage with 10.8.2 tried a reinstall of osx from recovery utility now the utility says my hard drive is ok but wont boot into it keeps booting me back into recovery tried restart option to select disk tried using the select startup disk from recovery, gives a message asking if i really want to boot to it and in that message is the only rime it shows a question mark on the drive dont know what to do cant find similar issue

Your rushing and not making much sense.
Your machine was running like garbage, so you tried to reinstall 10.8---did you do this or not?
Disk Utility says your drive is ok, that's good.
But when you boot it keeps booting Recovery HD, so perhaps the firmware has made a mistake, it can forget.
You held the option key down to boot into Startup Manager, why didn't you select OS X for the boot volume?
When you get into OS X you change the Startup Disk in System Preferences, that should take care of the Flashing Question mark issue.
attemtping to ireinstall osx from recovery partition bar is full on install screen, but im now at -6hours remaining
So now your reinstalling OS X like you set out to do before, it does take some time as it has to download from Apple's servers.
If your Internet connection is slow and/or Wifi is slow then it will take awhile.
So you should have the Flashing Question Mark and Reinstall Only OS X covered.
You should be able to boot the machine, but your performance issues may be something else and still remain.
Why is my computer slow?
Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/?p er_page=50

Why does my Mac air have a DVD player app but no where to put a DVD?

why does my mac air have a DVD player app but no where to put a DVD?

Because you can purchase an external optical drive like the Apple USB SuperDrive.
Apple USB SuperDrive - Apple Store (U.S.)

HT201303 Why does is keep saying my security code is incorrect when it is not?

Why does is keep saying my security code is incorrect when it is not?

iTunes Store Support
http://www.apple.com/emea/support/itunes/contact.html

Time machine says my drive is full, but it's not

time machine says my drive is full, but it's not. it is a 298 gig external drive with 51 gigs available. my internal drive on my lap top (the one I am backing up) is a 148 gigs with 44 gigs available. the backup folder on the external drive is
152 gigs.
how can i fix time machine so it can figure out that the external drive isn't full?

Lisa W wrote:
Thank you both for your replies. Something is seriously wrong with a backup program that needs that much extra space! So much for incremental back ups.
It doesn't, necessarily. We still have no information on what's going on with your situation.
It's a back up for a laptop and I would like to connect it to the backup hard drive once a week or so, but from what I read time machine only works one way... for a computer to have it active all the time.
No. It works BEST that way, but isn't required.
That just won't work for me for many reasons. Most importantly, time machine slows up my computer and I have to leave it off to run my applications.
Then something else is wrong. Again, without any details, we can't help you determine what.
There is no setting to have it turn on in the middle of the night or once per week.
Not in TM itself. But there is a free 3rd-party app that will do this, Time Machine Editor: http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/
It would sure be nice if I could back up when I want. Seems like time machine is just one of those ideas that apple didn't think all the way through.
You can. And TM works just fine for most people. There is something unusual in your setup, or the way you're doing things, that's causing your difficulties.
Let's be clear: if you'd like some help with this, please answer my previous questions and download and post the messages from the wIdget.

HT201250 I want to use Time Machine to back up my pictures because my hard drive is full but I'm wondering if once I back up the pictures then delete them will time machine delete them off the back up too?

I want to use Time Machine to back up my pictures because my hard drive is full but I'm wondering if once I back up the pictures then delete them will time machine delete them off the back up too?

Evetually yes.
If your pictures have been in the same location (same folder, same subfolder, ...) for more than a week, then copies if them will remain in your TM backups until it fills up. They are then vulnerable to being deleted.
If they've been there for less than a week, TM could delete them as early as a month from now. If they've been there for only a few hours, chances are TM will delete them tomorrow.
This is why TM is not the best tool to use to archive data that you will be deleting from your main hard drive. Copy them to a dedicated external drive, or burn DVDs.

Infected with malware. Says my hard drive is full, wont let me delete applications or allow clamx av to finish running.

Pretty much what the title says. I'm pretty sure I got it from some Japanese blog that gizmodo linked to. I can't delete files, can't download files because apparently my hard drive is full (even though i really have 77gb free) and clamx av is shut down before it is able to finish running. I don't really know what to do or if I even have malware. I never downloaded and installed an application like you have to do to activate the mac security malware. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

So when do you get the "your HD is full" message?

My hard drive is full, and it will not let me delete anything... :(

hello, so here is the story...
i bought my iMac about a little more than half year ago and i really like this mac. About 3 months ago, my computer started popping up me hard drive is full messages, and i did not really bother to delete any files. Because i have been using computers before this one, and i have never used up all the spaces before and the computer i have used before had even smaller hard drives. At the time i did not think it is going to effect my usage of this computer so i kept on using it. After about a month, while i was using my computer, it suddenly shut down and when i restart it my desktop is a plain blue background, with no wallpaper or any icons. Then i tried to delete some files, but when i try to do so, i can not even open up my applications or any kind of window. The only thing that i can open is safari, so right now i can only serve the internet, can not even watch any videos or movies online...
can anyone tell me how to delete files right now, because my hard drive is so limited right now, i can not even open up anything, so there is no way to delete any files

In all your use of computers, did you learn how to recover your backups and have a good backup strategy in place?
Or are you going to need help now on backups, recoverying files (already some good threads to just re-read), and rebuild your hard drive.
For starters you will need one or more external drives, and install OS X on one of them and use one or part of one for recovering files.
You should be able to free up space. Just go to your home account folder / library / caches and trash anything to do with Safari like Metadata cache folder to free up a little.
You don't need to "open" anything other than Finder. And you probably want to boot with SHIFT KEY at the least on startup - continue to hold shift key until you hit the desktop.
But you really should not or limit any use of this hard drive, and work from and boot from another hard drive for now.
Pick up some USB/FW drives:
http://www.macsales.com/firewire

Can anyone help with clearing space on my Mac Mini, it says the hard drive is full and runs slowly.

Please help, we got the Mac Mini from a family member so it may have his stuff on it but no longer required, we have only put a smal amount of data on it so don't believe we have over filled it. I backed up to a hard drive all photos etc as I thought it may be them filling it, now I cannot even scan a document to it. Is there any way to Defrag it as you can normally do to a windows system as well as either declutter it or restore the whole thing.
Best Regards
Smithy

The first thing to do with a second-hand computer is to erase the internal drive and install a clean copy of OS X. You — not the previous owner — must do that. How you do it depends on the model, and on whether you already own another Mac. If you're not sure of the model, enter the serial number on this page. Then find the model on this page to see what OS version was originally installed.
1. You don't own another Mac.
If the machine shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, you need a boxed and shrink-wrapped retail Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) installation disc from the Apple Store or a reputable reseller — not from eBay or anything of the kind. If the machine has less than 1 GB of memory, you'll need to add more in order to install 10.6. Preferably, install as much memory as it can take, according to the technical specifications.
If the machine shipped with OS X 10.6, you need the installation media that came with it: gray installation discs, or a USB flash drive for some MacBook Air models. For early MBA models, you may need a USB optical drive or Remote Disc. You should have received the media from the previous owner, but if you didn't, order replacements from Apple. A retail disc, or the gray discs from another model, will not work.
To boot from an optical disc or a flash drive, insert it, then reboot and hold down the C key at the startup chime. Release the key when you see the gray Apple logo on the screen.
If the machine shipped with OS X 10.7 or later, you don't need media. It should boot into Internet Recovery mode when you hold down the key combination option-command-R at the startup chime. Release the keys when you see a spinning globe.
2. You do own another Mac.
If you already own another Mac that was upgraded in the App Store to the version of OS X that you want to install, and if the new Mac is compatible with it, then you can install it. Use Recovery Disk Assistant to create a bootable USB device and boot the new Mac from it by holding down the C key at the startup chime. Alternatively, if you have a Time Machine backup of OS X 10.7.3 or later on an external hard drive (not a Time Capsule or other network device), you can boot from that by holding down the option key and selecting it from the row of icons that appears. Note that if your other Mac was never upgraded in the App Store, you can't use this method.
Once booted in Recovery, launch Disk Utility and select the icon of the internal drive — not any of the volume icons nested beneath it. In the Partition tab, select the default options: a GUID partition table with one data volume in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. This operation will permanently remove all existing data on the drive.
After partitioning, quit Disk Utility and run the OS X Installer. You will need the Apple ID and password that you used to upgrade. When the installation is done, the system will automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant, which will prompt you to transfer the data from another Mac, its backups, or from a Windows computer. If you have any data to transfer, this is usually the best time to do it.
Then run Software Update and install all available system updates from Apple. To upgrade to a major version of OS X newer than 10.6, get it from the Mac App Store. Note that you can't keep an upgraded version that was installed by the previous owner. He or she can't legally transfer it to you, and without the Apple ID you won't be able to update it in Software Update or reinstall, if that becomes necessary. The same goes for any App Store products that the previous owner installed — you have to repurchase them.
If the previous owner "accepted" the bundled iLife applications (iPhoto, iMovie, and Garage Band) in the App Store so that he or she could update them, then they're linked to that Apple ID and you won't be able to download them without buying them. Reportedly, Mac App Store Customer Service has sometimes issued redemption codes for these apps to second owners who asked.
If the previous owner didn't deauthorize the computer in the iTunes Store under his Apple ID, you wont be able to authorize it immediately under your ID. In that case, you'll either have to wait up to 90 days or contact iTunes Support.

Why does Finder show my external hard drive as a broken alias?

When I click on my external hard drive I get the message "The alias “External HD” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found" with the option to fix or delete the alias. It does not let me choose the drive to fix the alias or delete if I select an option.
Both Disk Utility and Disk Warrior show no problems with the disk, but I can't access the contents.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

I had a problem with my La Cie 1TB drive, connected to my Airport Extreme. Sometimes I could view the root level (first level of folders), but clicking to the second level, all folders seemed to be empty. It was indeed the alias bit that was the culprit.
Instead of always go into Path Finder or Terminal to flip the alias bit, I made an AppleScript, compiled it into app, and put that in my Login Items (System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items). Now every time I reboot or log in again, the disk is mounted in the correct way, without alias bit.
For those who want to use it, here is the script.
tell application "Finder"
activate
if (exists disk "NETBU") then
eject "NETBU"
end if
set volumemounted to false
try
mount volume ("afp://youraccount:[email protected]/NETBU")
on error
display dialog "Error mounting NETBU." & return & return buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
set volumemounted to true
if volumemounted = "true" then
do shell script "sudo /usr/bin/SetFile -a a /Volumes/NETBU"
end if
end tell
Note : Replace "NETBU" by the name of your disk; replace youraccount:password by your account name and your password; replace 192.168.1.2 by the IP address of your Airport. If your disk is connected in another way, you need to change the mount statement accordingly.
Good luck !

Hard Drive nearly full, but can't see why.

Hi there,
I've got a 2009 iMac (4Gb RAM, 500Gb HDD) running 10.8.5. I got a Finder warning about the Hard drive space this morning saying I only had 400Mb left. Which is very strange, because most working files are kept on my machine, but copied back to a file server, and trashed from my mac.
After some trashing of bits and bobs, I managed to get to about 60Gb free (so at least the mac could function properly whilst i was doing some investigative work.
I did a "get info" on each of the folders in my user account (including the hidden 'Library' folder). Counted up to about 85Gb. I then did the same for the system folder - Apps, System, and Library - which came to 34Gb. That's a total of 119Gb (which is about what I would have guessed).
So there's about 320Gb of hard drive space that's being eaten up, but I can't see where. I have been doing some heavy work in iBooks Author, so I opened up the iBA files and deleted the previous versions. Won back a bit of space, but not a dent really. I think the local snapshot versions are actually pretty small.
Thinking that it had to be an issue with some bloated hidden file, I used Terminal to show hidden files, and tried to use the 'Find' facility to search for files over 1Gb; there were a few, but none hidden, and none i didn't already know about.
I don have TIme Machine, but that's set up for an external HDD, so that's not the issue.
Any ideas what I can try next?

Hi Eric – Thanks for the reply. Forgot to mention that I checked out the storage in 'About this mac'. Here's the shot.
As you can see, backups are pretty much at zero, so assuming that the 'backups' section comprises previous 'versions' of files, (local snapshots), then theoretically these are ruled out too.
I've downloaded OmniDiskSweeper (thanks for the link), and ran it, which is where things get really wonky. I left it for ages. I presume it had finished scanning, as it gives no progression bar or 'finished' dialogue box. Check out the screenshot.
Check out OmniDiskSweeper's data. The 'User' folder is the largest (unsurprisingly) at 75Gb, but that is only what I thought it would be. Check out the total amount scanned (at the top of the window). 102Gb. 102. Yet, there's there 'Get info' box on the left, saying I've got 418 Gb used on the hard drive.
The system thinks that there's more data on the HDD than OmniDiskSweeper. I'm suspecting that there's a corruption somewhere. I tried a 'light' clean of my system cache (using MountainLionCacheCleaner), and did a safe boot to clear some caches, but no result.
Next, I'm going to create a new User to see if the issue is within the User account or system-specific. Then I'm going to start up CarbonCopyCloner to see what that reports. Back in touch soon.

ITunes cannot backup because it says hard drive is full but I have 292gb available

I (my girlfriend) have a MacBook 1,1 from 2006, an iPhone 4s, an iPad Retina and just bought an iPhone 5s.
I'm trying to backup the phones and ipad to MacBook but iTunes is saying that the MacBook doesn't have enough room.
I've checked and I do have enough room 292gb - this is what I would expect because the original hard drive burnt out and so I had to buy a new one (the Macbook has hardly anything on it).
I'm not sure if it's related but i'm also trying to backup this MacBook to an external hard drive (Seagate) and Time Machine doesn't list the external drive, or any other drive at all.
Thanks in advance.
Ryan

@Ronald,
I'm glad to know that you can get by on only 120 GB . However, that's not my experience on Windows. Admittedly, Mac and Mavericks in particular seem to manage memory a lot better than Win. But I've been using PS since ver 4 and it's always been a huge memory drain.
In CS6, I'm finding my scratch disk often exceeds 100 GB. I have dedicated almost 300 GB to mine and it's still not enough for everything I do. But I know how to manage my resources so I can get by on what I have until new computers arrive.
Nancy O.

Hard drive is full, but I don't know why

I can't seem to find out where all the space in my hard drive is taken. Itunes, idvd, etc don't show huge files. The window in finder does not show the size of each file either. How can I find out where it all is?

Use a program such as WhatSize or Disk Inventory X to determine where the space is being used.
(37953)

Why does my Mac say my hard drive is full, but that's not true?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for