"Miscellaneous Used Space"

Question

"Miscellaneous Used Space"

I've accumulated 391 GB "Miscellaneous used space" in the last 3 days.

To try to "fix", I hav repaired permissions, verified disk, started in "Safe Boot"; using Onyx, I've run the cleaning/rebuilding routines, including delete spotlight index.

"Grand Perspective" reveals Volume size: 931 GB, Size of Scanned files: 409 GB, Miscellaneous Used Space: 391 GB.

The 409 GB is consistant with the sum of the folder sizes on the drive, and with a recent "Super Duper" clone. Yet the internal drive now has only 140 GB free.

Does anyone have any insight as to1) what this is, 2) how it happened, and 3) how do I recover the space. TIA - Charlie

iMac 27", Mac OS X (10.6.2), 999 GB internal Drive

Posted on Mar 16, 2010 1:15 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 16, 2010 2:11 PM in response to CharlesLincoln

You should use WhatSize for example, well, at least some app that do not completely fail its purpose by telling you that "something" is eating space in your drive.

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Answer 2

Apr 20, 2010 4:18 PM in response to CharlesLincoln

Hello All,

I have a similar problem, though not on as large a scale. I've tried many ways to identify what the space is for. Finder showing all files, du, whatsize, and none of them have given me any good information.

Anyone have other ideas to try?

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 3

Apr 26, 2010 4:40 PM in response to CharlesLincoln

Ditto.....

My disk (1Tb) has about 150Gb of actual data on it.

Finder reporting 802 GB used. Various program, Whatsize, Grandperspective etc all reporting "650 Gb of Miscellaneous used Space. Used Cache Cleaner, no difference.

Been working on it for days, cannot find any rogue files to delete.

Apple support said "reinstall Snow Leopard" ... "make sure you have a back up"

The reason I don't have a back up is Time Machine (and another 3rd Party BU solution) wont work because it cant back up the HDD because it is too big!!

Any help would be much appreciated.

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Answer 4

CNG Tech

Level 1

50 points

Apr 26, 2010 4:59 PM in response to Stefan999Varga

I had a similar problem with losing hard drive space. I found this took care of the problem. I know it is called Tiger problems but the part about volumes/ is what worked for me. http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html

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Answer 5

CNG Tech

Level 1

50 points

Apr 26, 2010 5:01 PM in response to CNG Tech

Sorry: forgot to add it is the part about Failed Backups that worked for me.

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Answer 6

Apr 26, 2010 5:20 PM in response to Stefan999Varga

I had some success with Disk Inventory X. There were some corrupted Time Machine files hiding in the Disk root. Some other files I didnt recognize and didnt want to delete.
Once they appeared in the Disk Inv X I deleted them, then emptied the trash I have got back about 300 Gb.

Will now do a back up and then try the Reinstall Option. Cant be bothered wasting any more time on this..!

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