Ghost 80 GB?

Look in the /Users/ folder to see if the deleted account is present in a Deleted Accounts folder.

Do you have any other user accounts maybe marked as disabled?

You can download a program like OmniDiskSweeper or WhatSize at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate that may help you track down your large files/folders.

Have you repaired your hard drive? Do you use FileVault?

I have no idea. It's your hard drive.

Your drive may have a badly corrupted directory that will require something more than Disk Utility to fix - for example, Disk Warrior. Or you may have to reformat the drive.

Did you ever repartition the drive making two volumes? You can check by opening DU then look under the main drive heading in the DU sidebar. Are there two sub-headings (one of which is your startup volume?)

woodie wrote:
. . .
I added up all the components - Libraries - user folders- DT- Documents -

Those aren't all the folders on your Mac. There are several hidden folders. Usually they aren't anywhere near 80 GB, but there are some problems that can eat up a lot of space. Start with the green box in [OSX Log Files|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Logs.html].

How often do you Restart your Mac? If rarely, do so - that may clean out some temporary/work files.

I'm just wondering if I can just zero out the HD and reinstall SL fresh and then move my user folder and appl. folder from my backup HD using migration assistant?

Yes, of course you can do that but it may be simpler to just reinstall Snow Leopard rather than erase the drive SL will simply install a new system, remove the old one, and preserve all your files including your Home folder.

Now, if the problem lies with the hard drive's directory or some other drive corruption, then you do want to repartition and reformat the drive:

Drive Preparation

1. Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

Message was edited by: Kappy

woodie wrote:
I looked in the private files folder using the command /var/log in the Go command in the finder.
I found one big file in the VM folder called Sleepimage 4.36 GB.

Yes, that's the file where OSX writes the contents of your RAM when your Mac goes to sleep (and powers the RAM off) so it can read it back in upon waking up, and resume right where it was. If you delete it, it will just be re-created.

This still doesn't account for the other missing 80 GB.

My other iMac has only 55 k in that folder

No, an iMac won't; it's only used on laptops (when you sleep an iMac, the RAM isn't powered-off).

I use iPhoto as a screen saver - could this be the file?

No, it doesn't make a separate copy, but uses the actual iPhoto library.

The /var/log has 5.5GB in it.

That's too much, but clearly not the whole story. See the green box in [OSX Log Files|http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Logs.html].

What did OmniDiskSweeper or WhatSize find? Note that with OmniDiskSweeper or the default setting of WhatSize, you may not see everything, as they won't show things the logged-on user isn't authorized to see. If you're using WhatSize, click the +As User+ padlock in the toolbar and follow the prompts to view everything.

If not, and you have multiple users, log on as each of the other users to see what's in their home folders.

Another quick possibility is something in your /Volumes folder. From a Finder window menubar, select +Go > Go to Folder+ and type /Volumes in the prompt. That should show an alias for every volume (disk or partition) connected to your Mac. If anything there is not an alias, report back with the name, type, and size.

Are there any other users? Here is a great post made by jsd2 on the issue of unaccounted for disk space using OmniDisk Sweeper:

(Also be sure to use Pondini's suggestion to have a look at /Volumes)



+I would run Disk Utility's Verify Disk, and if there are no problems reported, would continue to look for hidden items that are taking up the disk space.+

+There are folders on the HD that an admin user account doesn't have permission to access, and this means that apps such as OmniDiskSweeper that you run under your user account can't access these folders either. One example is the hidden top-level .Trashes folder, which is used only when you trash items on the HD when you are booted from elsewhere, and to empty it you need to be booted from elsewhere as well. Carbon Copy Cloner does not copy this folder. There are other possible restricted folders as well. Restricted folders will be reported as size zero even if they contain large files, and this will make the summary information incorrect as well.+

+To get around this restriction, you would need to examine the HD using "root" privileges. There are a number of ways to do this, but assuming that OmniDiskSweeper is currently in your main /Applications folder, you could try the following:+

+Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities). Copy the following line and paste it directly into the Terminal window, then type Return:+

+sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper+

+Enter your admin password when prompted (it will not echo on the screen), and type Return.+

+This should open OmniDiskSweeper's "Drive List" window. Click inside it and then sweep your HD as you did before. This time OmniDiskSweeper should run with "root" privileges - see what you get this way.+