Why is my hard disk so full?

My Mac Mini has a 55 gig hard drive and it only has 200MB left! As most sites suggest, I have deleted all caches, removed unused programs, deleted old operating systems, emptied the trash, etc.
Finder is telling me that I am using 9.9 gigs but that the drive is full. Where are the other 45 gigs?
Here is what my finder is telling me about the main HDD:
There is nothing more that I can or want to delete in the "Users" section. 4 gb doesn't seem like much, anyway.
Why is my drive so full?
How can I free up space?

Hi, plenty of great help here, but
At this point I think you should get Applejack...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15667/applejack
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 6 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 6 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.
Trash old Log files.
First reboot will be slower, sometimes 2 or 3 restarts will be required for full benefit... my guess is files relying upon other files relying upon other files! :-)
Disconnect the USB cable from any Uninterruptible Power Supply so the system doesn't shut down in the middle of the process.
You might also open Console in Applications>Utilities & see if you are getting frequent errors logging continually.

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My hard disk is full and I can't get to safe mode

I turned on my iMac (20in 2008 model) and after the apple logo appears, I get a gray screen that says "process 1 exec of sbin/launched failed". I'm pretty sure it's because my hard disk is full. I tried booting up in safe mode, but my wireless keyboard battery died. I put in new batteries, but I need to get to the desktop to reconnect the keyboard. I tried using a usb wired keyboard, but it doesn't power up until I'm on the desktop screen. I don't know what else to do. I need a keyboard to boot to safe mode, but I need to be fully booted to work the keyboard. Any advice would help.

Boot the computer from your OS X installer DVD.
Booting From An OS X Installer Disc
1. Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
2. Restart the computer.
3. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
4. Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple
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5. Wait for installer to finish loading.
Clean Install of Leopard
     1. Boot the computer using the Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
         with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
         After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
         a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
     2. 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 the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
         size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
         partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
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     3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
         with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
     4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
         Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
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I was using raw & my hard disk nearly full. When I downloaded pix, I got message that said hard disk nearly full. My pix downloaded into 2 folders. When I merged them about 50 disappeared. Where can I find them? Using MacBookPro, IPhoto 9.5.1

I was using raw & my hard disk nearly full. When I downloaded pix, I got message that said hard disk nearly full. My pix downloaded into 2 folders. When I merged them about 50 disappeared. Where can I find them? Using MacBookPro, IPhoto 9.5.1

Where were you downloading the to, iPhoto, a folder on the Desktop, where? Are they still on the camera's memory card? If you deleted them from the card and haven't used the card since they can be recovered with recovery software like MediaRECOVER. You can download the demo version to verify they can be recovered before purchasing it. Other similar apps can be found at MacUpdate.com by searching for "photo recovery" or similar terms.

After a failed backup because my macbook went to sleep, my hard disk is full. What happened? Where can I find the file i need to erase?

because my macbook went to sleep, my hard disk is full. What happened? Where can I find the file i need to erase

It's hard to tell -- just going to sleep shouldn't have caused a problem. Something else may be going on.
See Where did my Disk Space go? especially the blue box.

G61-110SA Hard disk 1 full (305)

Hi My laptop (HP G61-110SA), which is now out of warranty, took a very slight knock and now it wont start up properly . It starts but just goes through to a screen with 2 options: "Launch StartupRepair (recommended)" or "Start Windows Normally" (which just goes through to a blue windows screen and doesn't progress further). If "Launch Startup Repair" is selected, it goes through a series of "HP Recovery Manager" screens but only allows me to select one option - "Open a Command Prompt" which is useless to me as I don't know what command to type! I have run the Diagnostic tests and have the following results:Hard Disk Smart - PassMemory Test - Pass Hard Disk 1 Full (305)Hard Disk 1 Quick (303) Does this mean I definitely need a new Hard Drive or is there anything else I can do? (there are no strange noises from the laptop when it is on). Any advice/info would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks

Hi Marie, I think you should be able to use either option you mention. 1. If you wish to restore the Back-up Image you have, try the following procedure. If you don't already have one, use another PC to create a Windows 7 Rescue CD. Download the relevant ISO from the links below. Windows 7 32bit Windows 7 64bit You should use an application such as ImgBurn to burn the ISO to a CD - a guide on using ImgBurn to write an ISO to a disc is Here. Once created, or if you already have this, insert the CD into the notebook and restart to boot from it. Select the Repair option. Now follow the guide on the following link starting at Method 3 to restore the Image to the new HDD. http://www.shivaranjan.com/2009/05/21/windows-7-how-to-restore-windows-7-partition-or-hard-disk-partitions-from-a-system-image/ 2. If for any reason this does not work, as long as your Mums notebook is the exact same Model and operating system as yours, her Recovery Discs should work for your notebook. Regards, DP-K

Time capsule says my hard disk is full?

When I try and revert to my timecapsule memory of yesterday - the process starts, and then a dialog box says it can't continue as my hard disk is full. How is this so if I am only reverting to my status/computer of yesterday? Please not my hard disk has over 20Gb of storage prior to this process. II aam rrunning Snow Leopard Intel IImac Help!
THANKS!

First, don't confuse "Time Capsule", an Apple Wi-Fi base station, with "Time Machine", backup software included with OS X since version 10.5.
If in the Finder you select the Mac's boot volume,then invoke the menu option File > Get Info, what values to you see for "Capacity", "Available", and "Used"? For proper operation the value of "Available" should be at least 10% of the value for "Capacity".

HT202152 I have tried updating my apps and software but it says my startup disk or hard disk is full. I deleted a lot of files and apps but they won't be erased from the trash. Please help

I have tried updating my apps and software but it says my startup disk or hard disk is full. I deleted a lot of files and apps but they won't be erased from the trash. Please help.

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the 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
In Photos:
File ▹ Show Recently Deleted ▹ Delete All
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—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. 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 a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a 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.
Install the app 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.
For ODS:
security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-
For GP:
security execute-with-privileges /A*/GrandPerspective.app/*/M*/* 2>&-
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 and start typing the name.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.
The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show 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.

My hard disk is full. how can i fee up space?

My hard disk is full. I have an external hard drive. Can I move maybe iPhoto or iTunescontect to the external hard drive?

iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

Mac Mini Not booting due to hard disk being full

Hello All,
I have a Mini and has worked well for the past 12 months, last week i upgraded to the OSX Lion which also went very smoothly. However yesterday i had a message on my screen stating the my startup disk was full and i needed to make space. finding this a little odd as I have a TB external hard drive that everything goes to.
the mini frose during the deletion process after leaving for approx an hour i attempted to reboot. from this point i have only been able to access the disk utility through the DVD that came with the mini I have done a disk check and repair, also check permission all are ok exept for only having 49mb of hd space left.
I cant access safe mode as this will not boot either (tried to load for 8 hours) re install will also not work due to the amount of hd space available
has anyone got any ideas how i can clean the hard disk without formatting as ideally i would like to know what is causing the problem.
like a not very bright thing i left the time machine turned off so this isnt an option either??

Ok, basically it would involve the following
Boot from the DVD
Launch the Terminal.app probably from a Utilities menu which also lists Disk Utility
In Terminal you would need to type cd /Users/accountname/.Trash followed by pressing the return key
Then you would type ls -l and again press return
It would then list what is in the trash for that user account. If it begins with a D it is a folder, otherwise it is likely a file. The big number before the data would give an idea of the size of the item.
When you have found the one you want to delete (remember you cannot undo this) you would type the following to delete a file rm filename and then press return again.
The do ls -l again to see if the file has gone.
If you want to delete a folder that is in the trash then the command would be rm -r foldername and then again press return. Using rm -r is a particularly dangerous command if you do it in the wrong place or the wrong way you could delete everything on the hard disk.
Normally in single user mode (which you said was not working) you have to type some other commands beforehand to allow modifying the contents of the hard disk. I have not tried this via the DVD so I do not know if the same applied. If it does it is likely to refuse to delete the file and you should come back to me and we can work out the process.

New mac mini, why so much hard disk space used

Hi All
Just bought a new Mac Mini, 1.4 with the 80gb disk,
After powering up and setting up etc, i noticed that over 10gb of the 80gb hard disk was already used out of the box!!!
How come all that disk space is used, im sure the OS doesnt need that amount of room? I have found a folder of about 1.2gb with a load of garage band samples and loops in, but where is the rest hiding???? Seems a whole waste of space to me??
Thanks
Rich
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.3) Belkin USB and Firewire Hub, Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse

You have heard correctly, most Mac software, including GarageBand, can be deleted by moving the application (or whole folder if it's in one) to the Trash & emptying the Trash. Some programs may install some support files, but usually not until they are run for the first time. Those few programs that do scatter bits around (can you say Microsoft?) should come with an uninstaller.
There are freeware/shareware programs to remove unneeded language files. DeLocalizer & Monolingual come to mind.
But, since you are setting this Mac mini up from scratch, you might want to do what I do with a new Mac. I erase & reinstall the OS & bundled software from the CD/DVDs that come with it, doing a custom install of both so that I get only what I want. For me, this was important because I don't need any additional printer drivers & I already had full versions of Office & iWork to install.
Peggy

My Hard disk is full, and I can't find what did it.

I just recently purchased a 1080p sony handycam with AVCHD formatting and made a video in iMovie. The video was 30 minutes long and the raw event footage I used to make it up almost filed my hard drive. I went from 200gb to 20gb rather quickly, so I wanted to export the movie file and delete the events as fast as possible. But I saw that the normal export only did it in 960X540. So I used the "export using quicktime" option, despite not fully understanding it. I set it to do it at 1080p resolution and I let it do it's magic overnight. When I awoke, not only was there no file, but my hard drive was full, with about 74kb free. I assume a partial file was made, but I cant find it anywhere. Does anybody know where it may have gone to, what folder it's in, or what it's named. If not, is there an easy way to look into my hard drive and see all of my files organized from biggest to smallest, or something like that that would allow me to easily pinpoint the large file and delete it? Thanks to all for you help!

Once something similar happened to me. The external drives I had set up for FCP to use for some reason were not mounted, and FCP put all its render files on the main drive and I couldn't find them anywhere.
Go to applications, and control-click (and hold down) on your FCP icon; you should get a pop up menu that says "show package contents". Select that, select the "contents" folder, then the "mac OS" folder. See if your quicktime file is in there, or if you've got render files in the "render" folder or audio render files in the "audio render" folder that don't belong there.
That's where FCP sticks stuff when your documents FCP project folders are not available or when external drives you've selected aren't available.

Why is my hard disk not detected in my macbook, but detected in others

I'm using the Macbook 13" Retina Display with OS Mavericks
about a few days ago, when i inserted my PQI H568V my mac gave statement "the disc you inserted was not readable by this computer"
then i choose the ignore button(if i'm not mistaken).
Then the next day, when i wanted to check for my files, my macbook cannot recognise the hard drive.
But when i plug it in into other mac, it can be recognised and the data is all still there.
please help me! thanks

Yes, I have done the backup.
Macbook Pro Retina 13 inch, Late 2013
OS X 10.9.5
Not only in other mac, but i've tried to mount it in other laptops, it's also being detected. However it isn't detected in my macbook only.
After I chose the ignore button, I didn't do anything, but I only shut down my mac and then unplugged the hard disk.
After a few days, i notice this from my disk utility
That's what shown on my Log at Disk Utility.
What should I do now?

Why does my hard disk keep failing?

I've had my late 2009, white Macbook running Snow Leopard since February 2010 and in the two years I've had it the 'Macintosh HD' has broken three times. One time an application told me to download Adobe shockwave which totally messed it up and it would barely stay on for five minutes and the second and third times were seemingly unprovoked. The first two times I lost all my files - I'm fifteen and I can't afford to buy expensuve backing up software to back up a laptop that I already saved for a long time to buy.
I had another problem that I think was an unrelated hardware problem, but once every hour or so, the screen would become pixelated, freeze and fade to white, only changing back if you moved it. It seemed to sort itself out but it was pretty concerning.
I had to reset it again this morning after running disk utility which told me that the hard disk could not be repaired. I figured this might be imminent so my files are all safely backed up, but I'm not particularly amused and doubt this is normal for a Mac seeing as no one would spend £800 on something that you have to reset annually. I was wondering if some way I'm using my Mac is causing it to do this. I'm careful with my space used and I rarely have under 170 GB free, so I don't think it's my files. Maybe I've just got a faulty computer? Any ideas?

I take it that you have a 250GB hard drive in it?
With that much free space, I would think that your HD should be fairly trouble free. Only thing that I can think of that would cause an issue is improperly shutting down constantly. And you should restart your computer at least once a month or so, but either of these things are likely to have caused corruption bad enough to take down the drive. I guess it is possible that your drive has some bad sectors, you might want to run a more comprehensive drive utility than Disk Utility. Disk Warrior for example.

Why isn't Hard Disk space becoming available after I delete files?

My wife filled up her MacBook's hard disk to the point where she only had 300 or so MB of storage space left. I transferred about 32GB of movies and photos onto an external disk and deleted the files off of the MacBook. Those files are no longer on the MacBook and they are on the hard disk. However, there is only about 14GB of free space on her MacBook now. What happened to the other 18GB of space that should have become free? Is there something else I need to do to free up this space? I made sure to empty the trash after moving the files into the trash.
Computer information:
OS: OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion
Processor: 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 8GB 1067MHz DDR3
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 9400M 256MB
Model: MacBook, 13-inch, Late 2009
Model Identifier: MacBook6,1
Hard Drive: Toshiba MK2555GSXF with 250.06GB Capacity

You might try OmniDiskSweeper to get a better idea about what's eating up the space. I wold also reset the pram
Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Hard Disk Suddenly Full

My hard disk has suddenly filled up leaving less than 2 gb available - it was over 20gb on Friday.
I have used checked out my HD using WhatSize and there are no giant files that I can see. It lists my HD as using about 16.8gb in total.
I have read many of the previous topics and my problem would seem to be in the VM area - the activity monitor gives this at 5.7gb
My question is how do I do something about it?
Thanks in advance.
Powerbook G4 12inch Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Powerbook G4 12inch Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Dear Thomas,
Thank you for your reply again and yes the support of a cyber friend is much appreciated.
I thought i had included the screenshot but when I now look at my last post I see the address on my computer for the screenshot but not the image itself. I have tried it with this post also but I can not seem to include a tiff file. Is there something special I need to do to send a tiff image?
I did check the hard drive with WhatSize which gave me the results already posted.
I am the only user of the computer. I have displayed hidden files but could see nothing very large to account for the missing memory.
I am a little cautious of making a backup of the hard drive on my external drive in case something hidden would be transferred to that drive. I know that is unlikely to happen but I will keep searching a while longer before before reinstalling.
I am doing another WhatSize scan to see what comes up. If I get any different results I will post again.
Best wishes and thanks for the support,
Denis
Powerbook G4 12inch Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Why is my hard disk so full?

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