Big iNode file in lost+found

I recently went through a difficult install of Lion (Fried my RAM). I basically wiped my Hard Drive, installed clean from a thumb drive, created a new user profile, then used migration assistant to move my time machiene files and old user profile over. The only thing that went wrong with this was that my old migrated profile would crash upon start-up, but this went away once I let the system index with my new profile.

Cleaning up after this mess, I saw a lost+found folder was created, and an iNode was in there (iNode290815 to be precise). Read what this meant online, and ran disk repair. It seemed to fix whatever problems may have been left over from the install, but the iNode file is still there, and it's 3.6 gigs large. Since Disk Repair checked out, and everything has been running well, is this file ok to delete? I'd like the space back, if possible, or at least move it so its out of sight.

Thanks

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 8, 2011 6:29 PM

32 replies

redpola

Level 1

29 points

Dec 2, 2014 4:21 AM in response to ReverendFitty

I found this thread after discovering 5GB of file in /lost+found/

lost+found is simply a place that the filesystem checking utility dumps data it finds "unusually", just in case that data can be recovered. Practically, it happens when machines crash or are powered off unexpectedly.

If you run "file /lost+found/iNode*" you may find it is an xar archive, which can be inspected using "xar -t -f <filename>" and on my system this was rather obviously the Mac OS X installer.

The file contains data which were orphaned on your filesystem. It most likely happened during a delete as the system crashed or powered off. It's very unlikely you will need or miss those data.

Delete the file. If it appears again when you next boot, boot to the installer and repair the disk.

StephenM

Level 2

149 points

Nov 4, 2015 9:05 AM in response to ReverendFitty

I found this on the

lost + found folder

. it is the most complete reference I have found. It talks about the enclosed inode file, how it likely got there, how to check it and gives some indications on whether can be safely deleted or not.

Mar 4, 2016 4:07 PM in response to ReverendFitty

I also did

cd /lost+found

xar -f iNode17698873 -t

and found that the contents of the archive was

Distribution

InstallMacOSX.pkg

InstallMacOSX.pkg/Bom

InstallMacOSX.pkg/Payload

InstallMacOSX.pkg/Scripts

InstallMacOSX.pkg/PackageInfo

InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg

Resources

Resources/ar.lproj

Resources/ar.lproj/Localizable.strings

..... more resoures/.... stuff

So I did

sudo mv iNode17698873 ~/Desktop/.

And restarted my computer.

My computer works fine and I saved ~4 GB. So then I safely deleted iNode17698873 and restarted just fine

Looter

Level 1

72 points

Aug 28, 2016 8:54 AM in response to ReverendFitty

For anyone else coming across these...

I just found 2 iNode files hogging up 10GB of my 256GB.

It is almost certainly an older OS X install file. That can almost certainly be deleted.

Found this very helpful article.

http://blog.fosketts.net/2015/07/24/check-your-macs-drive-and-reclaim-5-gb-of-wa sted-space/

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

Feb 25, 2012 8:57 PM in response to jaruzek

Once it is in Lost + Found, then it's not a low-level folder anymore.

Put it in the trash but don't flush.

Then, restart and see how your Mac behaves. After you're sure things are OK, then delete it.

gooober

Level 1

47 points

Aug 21, 2011 11:02 AM in response to macjack

Great advice! Thank you. I will never do that again! :|

Regards,

Mark

Jan 31, 2012 11:51 AM in response to macjack

I have a 3.74gb iNode file in lost+found as well. 'file' in terminal tells me it's an xar archive, same as gooober's. But I wonder: could this file be related to Lion's Recovery Mode?

macjack

Level 10

111,242 points

Jan 31, 2012 4:32 PM in response to Pascal Balthrop

xar files are Excel auto-recover.

jaruzek

Level 1

9 points

Feb 26, 2012 10:30 AM in response to macjack

Did just that, everything is okay. Thanks.

hadzee

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2012 5:41 AM in response to gtpinc

Ditto..except moved the installer to my backup drive and then trashed the iNode file...rebooted..works without a problem

smiff

Level 1

45 points

Oct 2, 2012 8:11 AM in response to macjack

xar files CAN be Excel aut-recover files. Certainly not in my case though as I don't have Excel, but I do have a 4.35Gb iNode file in my lost+found.

hadzee

Level 1

0 points

Oct 2, 2012 10:13 AM in response to smiff

its most likely OSX installer..run it and confirm that it is. Afterwards its upto you if you want to keep it or delete it. Later works just fine and frees up a chunk of space.

Dec 4, 2012 9:22 PM in response to smiff

A 4.35GB iNode file is most likely the Mountain Lion installer. Mine is. I'm going to go ahead and trash it.

cello_

Level 1

8 points

Mar 23, 2013 2:27 PM in response to smiff

Well smiff, couldn't the x in xar refer to the x in OSX? I am quite sure an OS run by an Apple device would NOT use a MS-Office file type for documentation. Sounds odd...

MarjB

Level 1

4 points

Dec 13, 2014 11:32 AM in response to ReverendFitty

I just updated daughter's macbook pro. using the daisy disk....I found 3 of these inodes lost+found that equals to 14.8 GB. that's alot of space.

in simple man terms what do I do? thanks

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Big iNode file in lost+found