Hard Disk nearly full?????

See Where did my Disk Space go?

Same problem since upgrading to iCloud. MacKeeper says my Disk Usage is 264.3GB. But Get Info on Macintosh HD Volume says 905GB is in use with only 93.67GB Available. Trash is empty. I have searched for invisible files. The unknown usage is showing up in the "Other" category when doing a graphic display of the hard drive. Even removed Norton and unwanted applications. Nothing reveals, or eliminates the unknown disk usage.

Photo3Dguy wrote:

Same problem since upgrading to iCloud. MacKeeper says my Disk Usage is 264.3GB.

I don't use that, so don't know where the data comes from.

But Get Info on Macintosh HD Volume says 905GB is in use with only 93.67GB Available.

That's almost certainly correct. See what Disk Utility shows.

The unknown usage is showing up in the "Other" category when doing a graphic display of the hard drive.

With what? The Storage display from the Apple Icon? "Other" there includes all sorts of stuff; you can't break it down from that display. The categories there include things in system folders and user folders. It's nearly meaningless.

Have you tried all the things in the Where did my Disk Space go? link? The things in the colored boxes are the most common, and at the bottom are some utilities to show what's what.

Did things in Where did my Disk Space go. (except acquiring new software). I am wondering if after upgrading to Lion the old operating system is hiding in the background. Something is certainly making lots of space unusable and is concealing its identity. iCloud being part of iTunes probably is not the problem. I do sync iPhone with iTunes, but data in iPhone is no where near enough to clog up the hard drive, and besides those files are visible anyway. (Yes, used storage display from Apple icon......just as additional visual aid).

Photo3Dguy wrote:

Did things in Where did my Disk Space go. (except acquiring new software).

The software listed is all free, except the $12.99 WhatSize. If you have multiple user accounts, you can't see everything at once with the others; you have to figure out what to add & subtract to get to the total used.

I am wondering if after upgrading to Lion the old operating system is hiding in the background.

Assuming you did a normal install of Lion, no. And the OS is under 20 GB anyway.

Something is certainly making lots of space unusable and is concealing its identity.

One long-shot is a directory problem on your internal HD. Verify it, per #6 in Using Disk Utility.

How much free space did you have before upgrading to iCloud?

Looks like you're going to have to use the Finder, or get one of the free utilities, or spend the $13.

Thanks. Yes, I did Disk Utilities. Verify was OK. Permissions had minimal issues and I fixed them.

Don't know how much disk space I had before iCloud.....just don't keep an eye on it normally.

I do use TimeShare. Maybe a problem there?

Guess I will have to get some other software to really dig down deep and find out what is going on......

or take it to the Doctor (Apple).

Cheers.

Guess I will have to get some other software to really dig down deep and find out what is going on......

OmniDiskSweeper

Photo3Dguy wrote:

Thanks. Yes, I did Disk Utilities. Verify was OK. Permissions had minimal issues and I fixed them.

Permissions aren't involved here. You need Verify Disk, not Repair Disk Permissions.

Don't know how much disk space I had before iCloud.....just don't keep an eye on it normally.

Then why do you think there's a problem? If it's just the difference between what MacKeeper shows vs. Get Info, believe Get Info.

I do use TimeShare. Maybe a problem there?

I have no idea what that is.

Tired. I meant Time Machine. Not Time Share. Before I deleted a bunch of stuff, there was less than 2GB on the drive, and a simple import of photos would not work due to insufficient disk space, and I got the dreaded message that there was insufficient room for Start Up. With only 93GB free that is not quite 10% of disk space available. On a 1TB drive, where MacKeeper shows I am only using 264GB, and considering that I was getting system messages that I was low on hard drive space, it does lead me to believe that there are invisible hidden files (or some other system malady) that is causing a real problem, not just a perceptual problem.

I'm going to add another wrinkle here:

I wouldn't trust MacKeeper with anything and would not let that anywhere near any of my machines. I'd uninstall that asap and I'd follow the other suggestions.

Easy enough to do, it was free, how good can free be. But the problem existed before MacKeeper. I have found some other postings on the internet of people having a similar problem, some with laptops, most with OS verions prior to Lion. In that I do not install gobs of software or do lots of downloads, and was running anti-virus software, it is a mystery. Now that I uninstalled Norton I need to acquire another anti virus software. So, back at square one for this evening. Will take up the battle tomorrow. I know that somewhere out there in computerland there will be someone who has experienced the problem and solution. Just takes time to network, and then share.

Now that I uninstalled Norton I need to acquire another anti virus software.

What makes you think you need to have AV software? Are you running Windows?

If you feel that you must install some, try ClamXAV - it is free. FWIW, I've never had any installed. I don't download anything I don't know what it is and I don't go to questionable websites. I've encountered a trojan trying to redirect me to a Russian malware site and dealt with it without any exyta software (I didn't install it!),

Note:

About this Mac>More Info>Storage shows a bar chart of all disk usage.

Finder>Get Info shows the user disk usage only

Disk Utility and Activity Monitor show the total usage including Snapshots

Snapshots on laptops, use the Hard Disk as a cache, and are thinned automatically if the user needs the space. These can be turned off in Time Machine preferences.

Mail attachments, get copied for faster access. There is a Terminal command to clear these.

find -d ~/Library/Mail/ -type d -name Attachments -print -exec rm -rf {} \;

Adobe AIR creates thousands of small files and has been identified as a cause of high disk usage.

Some apps such as iMovie and AutoCad may also accumulate project files.

By the way, MacKeeper only provide the uninstaller if you have the paid for version, ie. it is "ransom ware". AppCleaner is said to work.

Photo3Dguy wrote:

On a 1TB drive, where MacKeeper shows I am only using 264GB, and considering that I was getting system messages that I was low on hard drive space, it does lead me to believe that there are invisible hidden files (or some other system malady) that is causing a real problem, not just a perceptual problem.

People who have uninstalled MacKeeper have reported recovering 100's of MB of disk space. I suspect that most of what was recovered are part of the trashed files recovery feature. Other utilities that have that keep a hidden directory where they put a copy of everything that was trashed so that it can immediately recover anything you later change your mind about. Perhaps you can turn that feature off and recover the space, which is what I do with TechTool Pro.