system is using close to 500GB of hard drive space in Ventura

To add to leroydouglas' observations:

The Other category is a potpourri of files which can include:

• System temporary files

• macOS system folders

• Archives and disk images (.zip, .iso, etc. - often found in the Downloads folder)

• Personal user data

• Files from the user’s library (Application Support, iCloud files, screensavers, etc.)

• Cache files: browser, Mail

• Mail messages & attachments

• Fonts, plugins, extensions

• Safari reading list

• iTunes backups

• Crud resulting from jailbreaking your iDevice

• Game data

• Saved data files

• Call history

• Notes

• Media

• Voice memos

• Other files that are not recognized by a Spotlight search

• Media files that cannot be classified by Spotlight as a media file because they are located inside of a package

• Files created and modified by other user accounts on your Mac.

They can be located anywhere on your hard drive.

The files that you have control over are located in the Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Movies folders.  You can use this free app, GrandPerspective, to find the largest files on your drive so you can determine if they can be deleted or moved to an external HD for storage.

Note: you can empty the Downloads folder after the apps and/or updates that were downloaded have been installed or applied.  Some users have found a couple of Gigabytes of files in their Downloads folder which are no longer needed. 

PedroMata wrote:

I have MacBook Pro running macOS Ventura 13.3 and the system is taking over almost 500GB of hard drive space, all of a sudden I only have 2GB free in a 1TB drive, other files and apps are a bit less than 500 GB. the recommended options to increase available space are cosmetic, and I don't see how to release space from the System Data part. Screenshot attached

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/37d25466-85c0-4b13-be1c-1d3ade37bb39

...

What Apple use to label as "Other" is now labeled "System Data"...

if in doubt about your storage you can see itemized list from your home folder from the Terminal.app copy & paste:

sudo ** -h -d 1 ~/

alternatively for a GUI to get a good look at itemized file size and location, try something like:

OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more

ref: How to free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

Free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support