My external USB disk showing it is full when it is not

I have a 4TB external USB HDD. It has two folders on it - one shows it contains 2TB of data, and the other says it contains just under 1 TB data. So my my reckoning I should have 1TB spare still to use.

But when I try to move more data onto the HDD it says it is full. And the info pane of the HDD says 3.9 TB is being used...

See the attached screenshot showing the info pane for each folder and for the drive. Can anyone help be find my missing 1TB?

I am running High Sierra on a iMac 27inch late 2014

Thanks

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Feb 21, 2021 9:25 AM

Top-ranking reply

jhrichmond Author

Level 1

33 points

Posted on Feb 21, 2021 11:24 AM

SOLVED:

I emptied the trash can on my iMac to permanently delete what was there, and now the external HDD is showing 3TB out of 4TB used, which is correct.

I had not realised the trash can has links to stuff I delete on external HDDs, and that the data stays on the external HDD until I empty the trash.

Now I know!

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My external USB disk showing it is full when it is not

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