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Why doesn't my disk space free up after moving files to an external drive?

I have a 750GB internal HD but film a lot of movies. To free up space, I have moved my iMovie clips off to a secondary hard drive, but I have not seen my free disk space free up on my Macbook pro. Why is this? I moved, not copied the files. They only show now on the external hard drive.


I am looking at the free space in Finder > Get Info.


I have easily moved a few hundred GB off to the new drive, but my internal HD still shows as over 500Gb used.


Help!

MacBook Pro

Posted on Feb 28, 2012 4:01 AM

Reply
40 replies

Feb 28, 2012 4:08 AM in response to AnaMusic

Thanks, but i've tried a lot of that. Each time I remove a file from my internal HD, the used space actually increases and shows me LESS free space. Before I started moved all my video clips offline it showed me close to 400 GB free, and now it shows only about 150GB, but I've moved most of my videos off the internal HD. it looks like the movie used some space - perhaps for some sort of working copy - but neved released it.


And yes, I restarted my computer after the move

Feb 28, 2012 4:14 AM in response to Shootist007

I verified that I moved not copied

- they do not appear on my internal HD in iMovie events in Finder

- they only appear in iMOvie when my external HD is connected

- I held command when I moved them


I emptied trash (and iPhoto trash for good measure)


Time Machine is running, but is connected to my external HD. But how would i check where time machine is pointing to and backing up?


(Did I mention I am new to Mac?)

Feb 28, 2012 4:23 AM in response to CanBritGirl

Get a real search program, EasyFind, and do a wildcard search for the extension used in those movies (*.movie file extension) and see what it turns up. You could try using Spotlight but I it doesn't accept wildcards and doesn't search everywhere on your drive, useless IMHO.



To check TM open Sys Preference then Time Machine. Not sure where or how it saves the Snapshots it takes. I have that turned off and only turn time machine on when I'm going to do a backup.

Feb 28, 2012 5:16 AM in response to CanBritGirl

When you move files from the internal hard drive to an external hard drive by dragging one or more files what you are really doing is making a copy of the files. If you REALLY want to move the files from the internal hard drive to an external one then you should hold the option key. This is really a good thing because it errs on the side of preserving data and making YOU be conscious of making a copy on an external drive, then deleting the originals.


Finally... when and if you do put files in the trash remember to empty the trash

I hope this help.

Feb 28, 2012 6:31 AM in response to CanBritGirl

I have the extract same issue. MacBook Pro with a 500gb internal drive. I have 17gb free space I spent the afternoon moving project and files to an external 1tb drive. My external show I have now used 200+gb of space and I only free up 6gb on my internal drive. Oh I am an IT tech I know the difference between move and copy.

Jul 21, 2012 9:47 PM in response to CanBritGirl

I had the same issue and deleting on my desktop and also using external HD as scratch disk for imovie and deleting never shown at all.

I ran the disk Inventory X and it shows all the files in hlink folder which is used by "Disk Drill" application... How Diskdrill app avoid emptying trash is beyond me and it also very difficult to get rid of it as well.

I will avoid disk drill as it shows under hand methods to sell its products.


First once Disk Inventory shows the files use it show in the finder and start deleting this horrible hlink folder.

Why doesn't my disk space free up after moving files to an external drive?

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