nico_bada

Q: Hard drive full? No, it is not

Hello guys, after I tried everything to fix my problem, it's time to get help to you.

 

 

A few months ago  appeared a message telling me that the HDD was almost full so I purchased an external hdd. After transferring all the files that I did not need in the laptop, I went to check and I get this

 

hdd1.jpg

 

 

358GB Other FILE????

 

 

I used already OmniDiskSweeper but that folder "Other" does not appear, it is only the actual files that are in the MacBook.

 

Besides this problem, the MacBook is slow. Sometimes freezes for a few minutes, it will be due to this?

 

I also did the First Aid and did not appear nothing abnormal

 

 

Test First Aid

Verifying partition map for “ST9500325AS Media

Checking prerequisites

Checking the partition list

Checking for an EFI system partition

Checking the EFI system partition’s size

Checking the EFI system partition’s file system

Checking the EFI system partition’s folder content

Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces

Checking booter partitions

Checking booter partition disk0s3

Verifying file system.

Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.

Checking extents overflow file.

Checking catalog file.

Checking multi-linked files.

Checking catalog hierarchy.

Checking extended attributes file.

Checking volume bitmap.

Checking volume information.

The volume Recovery HD appears to be OK.

File system check exit code is 0.

Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions

The partition map appears to be OK

 

I hope someone can help me

 

 

Thanks




My MAC

 

OS X Yosemite 10.10.3

MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009)

Processo 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 19, 2015 3:22 AM

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Q: Hard drive full? No, it is not

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jul 19, 2015 3:57 AM in response to nico_bada
    Level 5 (7,552 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 19, 2015 3:57 AM in response to nico_bada

    Have you emptied the Trash since deleting the files you do not need?

     

    Spotlight is used to generate that data for the info panel. You can try rebuilding the Spotlight database by adding the boot disk to the privacy section of the Spotlight Preferences (in System Preferences). Accept the warning & then remove the disk from privacy to cause Spotlight to rebuild the index.

     

    When it has finished check the size again (it will take many hours to rebuild).

     

    What does Finder say for the disk space? Select the boot disk & get info on it to see what is used & free.

     

    If you only have about 50GB free, I'd suggest you make some more space. These spinning hard disks perform slower the more data you have stored on them.

    http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-WhyYouNeedMoreThanYouNeed.html

    Your 4GB of RAM is likely to be not enough if you do a lot of different tasks, when it runs out the OS has to write RAM to the disk, which may be under performing because you have too much data on it. It will all combine to give a slower Mac.

     

     

    Note: 'Other' is not one file, it simply covers all the other data like basic data, apps, caches, iOS backups… everything else basically.

  • by Mike Sombrio,

    Mike Sombrio Mike Sombrio Jul 19, 2015 4:57 AM in response to nico_bada
    Level 6 (17,233 points)
    Apple Watch
    Jul 19, 2015 4:57 AM in response to nico_bada
  • by nico_bada,

    nico_bada nico_bada Jul 19, 2015 6:02 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 19, 2015 6:02 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Drew Reece wrote:

     

    Have you emptied the Trash since deleting the files you do not need?

    Yes I did it

     

    Drew Reece wrote:

     

    Spotlight is used to generate that data for the info panel. You can try rebuilding the Spotlight database by adding the boot disk to the privacy section of the Spotlight Preferences (in System Preferences). Accept the warning & then remove the disk from privacy to cause Spotlight to rebuild the index.

     

    When it has finished check the size again (it will take many hours to rebuild).

    I don't find my boot disk, anything else? Anyway in Spotlight options all the category are not selected.

     

    Drew Reece wrote:

     

    What does Finder say for the disk space? Select the boot disk & get info on it to see what is used & free.

     

    If you only have about 50GB free, I'd suggest you make some more space. These spinning hard disks perform slower the more data you have stored on them.

    http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-WhyYouNeedMoreThanYouNeed.html

    Your 4GB of RAM is likely to be not enough if you do a lot of different tasks, when it runs out the OS has to write RAM to the disk, which may be under performing because you have too much data on it. It will all combine to give a slower Mac.

     

    hdd2.jpg

     

    I got 55GB free but how I wrote before more 300GB is full of "other" and I can't find anywhere

     

    4GB of RAM I think is the maximum that I can put in this MacBook

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Jul 19, 2015 6:05 AM in response to nico_bada
    Level 9 (50,511 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 19, 2015 6:05 AM in response to nico_bada

    nico_bada wrote:

     

    4GB of RAM I think is the maximum that I can put in this MacBook

    8GB is the maximum for your Mac, possibly even 16GB. (Your description fits a couple of models) but at least 8.

  • by nico_bada,

    nico_bada nico_bada Jul 19, 2015 6:08 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 19, 2015 6:08 AM in response to Csound1

    Thank you, I didn't know that

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jul 19, 2015 7:40 AM in response to nico_bada
    Level 5 (7,552 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 19, 2015 7:40 AM in response to nico_bada

    nico_bada wrote:

     

    Drew Reece wrote:

     

    Spotlight is used to generate that data for the info panel. You can try rebuilding the Spotlight database by adding the boot disk to the privacy section of the Spotlight Preferences (in System Preferences). Accept the warning & then remove the disk from privacy to cause Spotlight to rebuild the index.

     

    When it has finished check the size again (it will take many hours to rebuild).

    I don't find my boot disk, anything else? Anyway in Spotlight options all the category are not selected.

     

    Well if you want to rebuild the index you have to add it to the privacy list & then remove it. The disk we are talking about here is your 'boot disk' it's called Mac HDD in the first image.

    http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/17/rebuild-spotlight-index/

    Whatever options you have selected in the Spotlight categories are not relevant, they are just filters that change what is shown in search results. Spotlight will still need to gather the other data for it's overview.

     

    Your disk appears to be showing the similar free space (55.2GB in Finder vs 56.1GB in Spotlight). I would not worry about the the very minor difference (it is 900MB out of about 450GB). You should still consider that you have too much data on the disk, if you want the best performance from it. My own disks also have small discrepancies between Finder & the 'about this Mac pane' - I don't worry about them.

     

    If you still can't understand what is using the disk space you will need to use Omni Disk Sweeper or another app (WhatSize or Grand Perspective) to view where the space is used - Spotlight & this overview panel are not very helpful at all. Also bear in mind that other users are not priorly calculated in Omni Disk Sweeper unless you have full access to the system…

    http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/how_to_recover_missing_hard_drive_space/

    Do not delete anything when running the app as root - it can ruin your day!

     

    There are a few guides around that may give you some ideas for finding free space too.

    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html

    http://www.pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html

     

    Whatever you decide to do make sure your data is backed up first!. Deleting the wrong thing can leave your Mac unbootable or ruin data for apps like iPhoto or iTunes etc.

     

    For the RAM, use Mactracker.ca (or everymac.com & some manual searching) to find your exact model & read the RAM figures under the 'memory & graphics' tab. Apple often say a model supports less than it is capable of supporting because larger memory modules were released after the model shipped.

  • by nico_bada,

    nico_bada nico_bada Jul 19, 2015 2:11 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 19, 2015 2:11 PM in response to Drew Reece

    I've already used Omni Disk Sweeper but thanks to this guide that you posted maybe I solved

     

    Look what I found

     

    hdd3.jpg

     

    now can I cancel the folder "System"??? It's this folder that takes up more than 350GB

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jul 19, 2015 3:37 PM in response to nico_bada
    Level 5 (7,552 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 19, 2015 3:37 PM in response to nico_bada

    Looks similar to…

    disk space (mysteriously) disappearing

     

    It seems that thread is unresolved. I don't know what process is creating this so they will probably be recreated if you delete them (you will have to keep an eye on that location or hope someone here can explain them).

     

    A word of warning… /System belongs to Apple, deleting anything inside there is very dangerous & can make a Mac unbootable. Be sure you have a full OS backup before you begin. If that backup is bootable it makes life easier to restore if anything goes wrong.

    The /System/Library/Caches are caches used across the entire OS. If removed they could be recreated, however you will need to do so when the OS is not using these files.

     

    Only remove the files in the /System/Library/Caches/com.apple.coresymbolicationd directory would be my advice, do not do so in Omni Disk Sweeper - the OS is probably using those files.

     

    To remove the files you could use single user mode to delete that directory - do you know how that is done? It is a command line interface & typo's can break your Mac.

     

    Please do not jump into this unless you are sure you know what you are doing, ask for help here but give us an idea of what you understand. If it is too difficult you can probably get help at an Apple store, especially now you know where the large files are hiding.

     

    I suspect you need to look for log messages from 'com.apple.coresymbolicationd' to try to work out what is failing, it is not clear to me what log will contain errors, do you know how to use /Applications/Utilities/Console of find log messages?

  • by nico_bada,

    nico_bada nico_bada Jul 23, 2015 4:18 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 23, 2015 4:18 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Hello I'm here, sorry for belated reply but I was busy.

     

    I didn't remove anything yet because honestly I don't know how to do all the things that you posted me

     

    I think to go in a apple store for assistance

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jul 23, 2015 8:27 AM in response to nico_bada
    Level 5 (7,552 points)
    Notebooks
    Jul 23, 2015 8:27 AM in response to nico_bada

    nico_bada wrote:

     

    Hello I'm here, sorry for belated reply but I was busy.

     

    I didn't remove anything yet because honestly I don't know how to do all the things that you posted me

     

    I think to go in a apple store for assistance

    They should be able to help you delete them safely. Good luck with it.

  • by nico_bada,

    nico_bada nico_bada Aug 20, 2015 8:55 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 20, 2015 8:55 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Hi guys, finally I solved by myself, I deleted the cache, as you can see in the picture, manually and everything working better


    hdd3.jpg


    I used Omni Disk Sweeper and this guide

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Aug 20, 2015 9:23 AM in response to nico_bada
    Level 5 (7,552 points)
    Notebooks
    Aug 20, 2015 9:23 AM in response to nico_bada

    That is not normal. You will need to see if it grows again and then look at steps to stop it happening.