help !!! only 5.56GB free out of 499.25GB on an IMac that was bought two months ago

Question

help !!! only 5.56GB free out of 499.25GB on an IMac that was bought two months ago

i just bought an imac in April. I have the software 10.7.4 its a 21 imac , mid 2011. I keep getting a message saying the start up disk is full. I always had a pc so i am a newbie at a mac. I thought it would be the same as my iphone. I dont understan why my other memory is so high at 485.57GB. Please does anyone know what "other" consist of. I have an external harddrive i use but but i used it with my PC and it has all my daughters pictures from when she was a baby till age 7 so i dont want to rewrite that. Ifthat comes up as a solution. Im just making sure i give a good detail so if theres anyone who can help, i would appreciate it.

iMac (21.5-inch Mid 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on May 30, 2012 9:19 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

May 30, 2012 9:32 PM in response to andreafromdowney

Hello Andrea,

First do this...

Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages, could be runaway logs.

Secondly, In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)

Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.

Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.

If it does contain data...

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

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Answer 2

May 30, 2012 10:20 PM in response to BDAqua

thanks for the response BDAqua!!

I did the first thing and it shows 4000 logs.. is that normal? If i read them will it say what is taking up the space?

when i do the steps for the volume it shows the hard drive , a sd card , and the mac

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

May 31, 2012 12:55 PM in response to andreafromdowney

In Console, are any messages streaming by?

Get Find Any File...

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/

Search for Name contains .log (dot log)

Hold Option key down when clicking on Find to Find All.

Sort on Size, how big are they?

I have 2,035, but that includes duplicates.

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Answer 4

May 31, 2012 6:59 PM in response to andreafromdowney

425.3 mb now only left and " other " has taken over ! Everything else shows zero now! How is it getting worst I been at work all day? Should I take it to the apple store ?

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

May 31, 2012 7:09 PM in response to andreafromdowney

I'm pretty sure it's runaway logs, delete some quick.

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Answer 6

May 31, 2012 7:54 PM in response to andreafromdowney

When I do this in MenuBar>Go>Go to Folder, type in in /var and select log and do a getinfo it's shows only only 61.6mb that's not a lot right? That's where the logs are correct?

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