G4 Powerbook Hard Drive Problem - PLEASE HELP!!

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Level 1

8 points

G4 Powerbook Hard Drive Problem - PLEASE HELP!!

I have a powerbook G4 15 inch alu. It is running OSX version 10.4.11

My system profiler tells me I have a 74.5GB hard drive with 69.34GB used, but I had wiped the HD in September 2008 and reinstalled the OS and few other programmes and files, so this shouldn't be the case at all.

I have found that my the problem is with my Users folder - within Users, my user account (the main account, I have another account setup so my mum can use her iPhone) has 67GB used. But when I go into my user account (clicking through the icons, after double-clicking the MacintoshHD desktop icon), none of the folders within my account run to anwhere near 67GB. Totalled, they come to around 10-15GB at most. There's a good 50GB or so of hard drive that just seems to be missing.

I ran Drive Genius to repair permissions and that eliminated a couple of GB of this 'missing space' but no more than that. How can I go about finding and reaccessing my lost hard drive space?

FWIW - I reinstalled the OS in September because this was my University laptop and the result of 4-5 years use had resulted in loads of unwanted files. I saved the important stuff to discs and then reinstalled because it was much easier (I thought) than trying to find and get rid of all the unwanted stuff.

Please please help. At the moment, the computer is running fine if a little sluggishly (understandable given how much of the hard drive is 'used'), but I had a nasty experience earlier this year with my G5's hard drive crapping ut and really don't want to end up in the same boat with this one. I also need that extra space back so I can use some programmes I can't install or work with as things stand.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and respond, I don't know enough about computers to have any clue as to how to proceed, so your help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Power Mac G5 (2003-2004), Mac OS X (10.4.11), Used for music recording

Posted on Dec 3, 2008 6:29 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Dec 3, 2008 6:53 AM in response to Scrybe

Hi, Scrybe. Download the free Disk Inventory X or the shareware WhatSize and use it to determine what's using so much of your disk space. Post back to let us know what you find out.

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Answer 2

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Dec 3, 2008 10:19 AM in response to Scrybe

Scrybe:

within Users, my user account (the main account, I have another account setup so my mum can use her iPhone) has 67GB used.

Please clarify this statement a bit more.
Go to the Users Folder and select the folder and Get Info (Command + i)
Double click on the Users Folder to open; how many User Accounts are there?
Click on each User's Home Folder in turn and Get Info on each.

😉 cornelius

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Answer 3

Scrybe Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 3, 2008 11:34 PM in response to cornelius

eww - will do and report back.

cornelius - apologies for the ambiguity there. Hope this clears things up a bit:

Users folder = get info says 69.34GB used

Double-click on the Users folder and I get three folders - the shared folder, my mum's account folder, and my account folder. My account is the main/master account.

The shared folder is empty. My mum's account folder has a couple GB used, mine has 66.5GB used.

I double-click on my account folder, and get icons/folders for Desktop, Library, Movies, etc (the usual stuff). When I do Get Info for each of these, the sum of GB used by them is about 10-15GB, nowhere near the 66GB supposedly used.

If it helps any, the File System is Journalled HFS+

S.M.A.R.T. status is verified, and Drive Genius, Disk Warrior, and Disk Utility aren't picking up anything bad other than the corrupted permissions I repaired prior to making this post. Repairing permissions only freed up a few GB more space, still got 50 missing GB to locate and free up. Or start saving for a replacement HD, but if this is a sign of a crash, I'd rather know now so I can plan for that.

Many thanks to both of you for responding so quickly - hopefully this problem is solvable.

It doesn't make sense, there's nothing else which could have used those 'missing' GB. And, as I only reinstalled everything in September I know there's no way the few programmes I've added and 10 or so CDs I've copied onto the G4 could account for the missing 50GB. My HD should have most of its space free - minus the space used by OSX, any OSX updates, and literally a handful of small apps and files.

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Answer 4

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Dec 4, 2008 6:49 AM in response to Scrybe

It doesn't make sense, there's nothing else which could have used those 'missing' GB.

If you have not already done so download and run WhatSize 10.3.91 or Disk Inventory and look for suspiciously large files approximately the size of the mysterious disappearing disk space. Look particularly at Console.

😉 cornelius

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Answer 5

Scrybe Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 4, 2008 10:58 AM in response to cornelius

Props to both of you - I downloaded Drive Inventory X and realised I'd made a basic error : check the trash first! Yup, that's where those missing GB were.

Weirdly, the missing GB were multiple duplicates of programmes, audio and video files I'd added to the G4 since the reinstall of the OS in September. I don't know why they appeared there. They are also located in the proper folders, so I've just emptied the trash and problem solved. I'd totally blanked on checking that first port of call because I hadn't purposefully trashed anything more than a few KB of files.

Any ideas why duplicates might have ended up there?

Drive Inventory is a great free app, so I'll keep that one in case I ever need it again - props eww. And Cornelius, thanks for pointing out the ambiguity of my OP - even seemingly simple stuff like how you describe a problem reflects on how you think about it, IMO, so I'm always happy to find out where I could be clearer.

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Answer 6

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Dec 4, 2008 11:53 AM in response to Scrybe

I'm glad you got it sorted, Scrybe. The Trash on your computer can be mighty deceptive, can't it? If your household trash can grew to be several times as large as your house, you'd notice the change. But if your Mac's trash gets to be several times as large as everything else you're storing on your hard drive, you'll never see it unless you think to look.

Now that you've dumped all the excess baggage, this would be a good time to start up from your latest OS installer CD or DVD and run Disk Utility's Repair Disk routine, just to make sure there's no lingering corruption in your hard drive's directory.

Message was edited by: eww

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Answer 7

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Dec 4, 2008 4:23 PM in response to Scrybe

Scrybe:

You are very welcome. Glad you found your missing HDD space, and that it was easy enough to reclaim.

Cheers 😉

cornelius

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Answer 8

Scrybe Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 25, 2009 9:13 AM in response to cornelius

Many thanks to everyone for their help. But I've recently been forced into Safe Boot mode when switching the G4 on, and think it may be related to this problem.

If I verify/repair permissions with Drive Genius, Disk Warrior, or similar, I can log in normally the next time I restart my computer. But subsequent restarts all result in Safe Boot mode happening automatically.

Disk Warrior has identified this problem:

File: "PrintOption.rsrc"
Detected that the resource header is damaged and cannot be repaired
Location: "MacintoshHD/Library/Printers/EPSON/C86Series.plugin/Contents/PDEs/PrintOption. plugin/Contents/Resources/French.lproj"

That seems to be the only thing reported as being wrong. I've no idea what this file specifically does or is. I do use an Epson printer (not plugged in since the Safe Boot mode issue started), in case that's relevant.

How can I best fix this? Can I trash that file? Or would it have disastrous consequences? Can I reinstall drivers (I have the original Espon disks, but didn't need to use them as the G4 recognised my printer straight away)? Should I reinstall the OS (and would this help)?

A full system reinstall would be a bit of a pain, but not too bad (as I've taken to keeping organised of late), and I'm concerned about the long term effects on the system and hardware of continual Safe Boot mode and/or having to verify permissions every time I use it (plus, that's a real pain to do every time anyway).

Again, many thanks for the useful comments provided so far. I positively welcome suggestions for dealing with this latest issue.

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Answer 9

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Jan 26, 2009 5:04 PM in response to Scrybe

Scrybe:

It would be helpful if you had info about the computer about which you are postingg in your profile. OK, so it's an Aluminum PowerBook G4 15". What year or what is the processor speed? I am thinking that if your computer has the original HDD is may be that the HDD is beginning to show signs of aging. The average life of a laptop HDD is 3 to 5 years. Yours is likely near that age. If you have Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior you can run either and let it help you sort out the directory. However, if you don't own either, you may be ahead to put that money toware buying a new HDD. In any case, make sure you have a good back that is kept up to date. You can backup and try a fresh install if neither of the other options appeal to you.

😉 cornelius

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Answer 10

Scrybe Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 20, 2009 7:11 AM in response to cornelius

Sorry, I've been away -had an allergic reaction during dental treatment which was quite nasty.

The G4 is a Powerbook 1.25Ghz 15" running OS 10.4.11

I've noticed one RAM slot has failed, so it only has 256MB RAM at present.

It Safe Boots every time you log in. I've run DiskWarrior to minimal, temporary success (it would log in normally after having done this at first, but now Safe Boots every time, even if I've repaired permissions or run tests and repairs the last time I used it - Disk Warrior says my HD appears fine). I also ran Drive Genius, and it too says my HD appears fine.

I tried resetting the PMU and this allowed me to log in normally the first time I switched on afterwards, but from then on it was back to Safe Boot mode only. I tried resetting the PMU again, and this time it didn't help.

What could be the possible causes? I'm thinking low RAM, or a faulty PMU battery, as it continues to boot in Safe Mode only even when I use a bootable external hard drive loaded with the OS 10.4 disc (no updates added). I'm thinking of buying a 1GB RAM stick to see if this helps, and ascertaining if the other RAM slot works with the recognised 256MB RAM stick (In which case I'd get a second 1GB stick for that).

Again, many thanks for your help guys!

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Answer 11

Scrybe Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 6, 2009 3:16 PM in response to Scrybe

I now have 1.25GB RAM in my laptop and still boots up in Safe Mode only. Any ideas what the cause of this might be?

Many thanks.

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Answer 12

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Mar 7, 2009 11:09 AM in response to Scrybe

Scrybe:

Try booting from the Apple Hardware Test disk and running the extended tests in a loop (hold down Ctrl + L during tests).

😉 cornelius

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Answer 13

S.U.

Level 6

9,595 points

Mar 7, 2009 3:12 PM in response to Scrybe

Not being any kind of a software expert, I'm not sure exactly what to do here, but I think it would be a good idea to do something about this problem that Disk Warrior has identified. Printer drivers can always be reinstalled, as can printers. Usually the best way is to download the latest driver from the manufacturer's web site. Sometimes you need to uninstall the old driver, and I think the web site will have instructions for doing this. I don't know if this is really a factor or not in your Safe Boot problem, but I think it would be less trouble than reinstalling the OS, which you can always opt to do later if you need to.

Good luck!

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Answer 14

cornelius

Level 6

17,826 points

Mar 8, 2009 10:13 AM in response to Scrybe

Scrybe:

While booted in Safe Mode go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items. If there are any there, take note of what they are (so you can add them later), then delete them all. Shut down and restart. See if computer will boot normally. If it does, then add log in items back one at a time, and reboot after each addition until you find the one that is causing the problem. If nothing useful turns up you'll have to look elsewhere for the source of the issue.

😉 cornelius

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