Around 40GB of hard disk space missing?

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Around 40GB of hard disk space missing?

I have a 15" MBP. The capacity for Macintosh HD is roughly 248GB. I also have a 70.75GB Bootcamp partition (55.43GB used). I didn't have any space issues when I first got my mac, until about a year after. For the past few months now I've noticed my free space going down significantly.

After using "Get Info" to check how much space is being taken up by EVERYTHING in my account, I'm only using 46GB. The trash is completely empty too. However using "Get Info" on my "Macintosh HD" disk, it says I've used 85.73GB (the number in bytes also keeps changing every few seconds).

Used Disk Utility to check the Macintosh HD, did as it instructed to run Mac OSX with the installation CD and repair the disk. It only freed up about 1GB though.

Any ideas on where the space has gone and what to do to fix it? Hopefully without having to reformat everything...

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 16, 2011 12:55 PM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Oct 16, 2011 1:02 PM in response to kkontagion

Your "account" does not represent the space used for the operating system files or the Applications folder. That is correctly accounted for by using Get Info to check the hard drive which apparently says you have used about 86 GBs. To that you have about 71 GBs used for a Windows partition. That totals about 157 GBs which should leave roughly 76 GBs free on the drive. So, how much free space or available space does Get Info indicate for the hard drive?

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Answer 2

kkontagion Author

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Oct 16, 2011 1:17 PM in response to Kappy

Checked the Library, Systems, Applications, Users folders directly under Macintosh HD, they total 81.35GB. That's still about 5GB missing....

What files are safe to delete from the Library & System folders?

Also I seem to have two Library folders, one in Macintosh HD and another in my User account, both seem to be holding the same things. Is it okay to delete either of them?

Thanks for helping figure out where that much space went though! 😁

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Oct 16, 2011 1:26 PM in response to kkontagion

Well, there are a lot of invisible files that simply get missed, so that 5 GBs might actually not be "missing."

You might try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.7.2 to find what's using space on your hard drive.

The only files "safe to delete" are those you have put in your Home folder - documents, music, pictures, etc. Stay away from the two Library folders. They do not have the same things in them, and they are there purposefully as part of OS X. You can also safely delete any third-party software you have installed along with any of their support files that may be found in the /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder.

Finally, visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on how to free up space on your hard drive.

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