HT202867: OS X: What is "other" space in About This Mac?

Learn about OS X: What is "other" space in About This Mac?
Brian.holder

Q: mac external drive other

I am using an external 2TB hard drive on which I store raw as well as jpeg files directly from the camera.  I want to copy those files across to another disk (3TB) but that disk has close to 1TB of storage space marked as "Other"  How do I free up that space?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), iOS 9.3.2, IOS: 10.11.2

Posted on May 21, 2016 4:14 PM

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Q: mac external drive other

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  • by Gino_Cerullo,

    Gino_Cerullo Gino_Cerullo May 21, 2016 4:21 PM in response to Brian.holder
    Level 3 (553 points)
    Apple TV
    May 21, 2016 4:21 PM in response to Brian.holder

    Does that "Other " storage space show up as another drive in the Finder.

     

    Open Disk Utility and see if the other drive is partitioned in to two drives. If it is you can delete the second partition and re-format the drive so it is one large drive.

     

    NOTE: Deleting partitions and reformatting the drive will erase any data on that drive so if there is any data on that drive make sure to back it up first.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE May 21, 2016 4:23 PM in response to Brian.holder
    Level 9 (52,118 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 21, 2016 4:23 PM in response to Brian.holder

    Open the drive and examine the files.

     

    You might download from the Internet OmniDiskSweeper and Grand Perspective (both free) and open them. They will show all of your files and the respective sizes. This should allow you to determine what files to delete or off load to an external HDD.

     

    Do not forget to empty trash. Only then is space allocated for new data.

     

    https://www.omnigroup.com/more

     

    http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

     

    Ciao.

  • by Gino_Cerullo,

    Gino_Cerullo Gino_Cerullo May 21, 2016 4:26 PM in response to Brian.holder
    Level 3 (553 points)
    Apple TV
    May 21, 2016 4:26 PM in response to Brian.holder

    Sorry, I just re-read the title at the top of this post. Is this the other space you are referring to? See screen shot below.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-05-21 at 7.23.54 PM.png

  • by Brian.holder,

    Brian.holder Brian.holder May 21, 2016 7:13 PM in response to Gino_Cerullo
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Notebooks
    May 21, 2016 7:13 PM in response to Gino_Cerullo

    Thank you for the reply, my problem appears to be resolved.  Here's what I did..  Firstly everything on the drive was deleted, the "Other" storage grew in size.  Second, I emptied the trash.. there was no change to "Other".  Thirdly I emptied the recycle bin on iPhoto and again emptied the trash.  Again, no change to the "Other".  Fourthly. I restarted the computer and now the "Other" has gone to 0Gb.  Somewhere along the line the problem was resolved and the MacBook needed a restart.  Thanks again for the advice.