Why does disk utility say I have less disk space than Finder does?

Question

Why does disk utility say I have less disk space than Finder does?

I have a 300GB partition for OS X. I recently deleted about 100GB of files from it, but looking at Acitivty Monitor's Disk Usage and Disk Utility they say my available space hasn't changed, and is still 78GB.

I clicked Get Info on the disk itself in Finder and it says that I do have 178GB free space.

I launched Disk Expert to map my disk usage, and it showed the I have about 105GB under my Guest account. When I looked at the Guest account at the Finder it showed it's 3 bytes.

Any thoughts about how much disk space I actually have?

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Dec 3, 2012 8:30 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 3, 2012 10:50 PM in response to Avihu Turzion

Are you running Time Machine?

Clinton

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Answer 2

Dec 4, 2012 12:30 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Yes, but I'm backing up to an external drive. Or so Time Machine tells me.

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Answer 3

Dec 4, 2012 12:34 AM in response to Avihu Turzion

Then that 'disk space' that's being used are local snapshots used by Time Machine. Let's say you delete 100GB from your drive. TM will keep that 100GB snapshot on your drive for one week. Then it will be deleted. It should show up as a backup in the Lion or Mountain Lion storage tab, but the Finder doesn't 'see' it.

Don't worry - it will be gone in a week.

Clinton

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Answer 4

Dec 4, 2012 12:38 AM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Thanks! Now I see it.

Though I think it's still very weird it does that. Especially when it was deleted from a directory I explicitly told it not to backup.

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Answer 5

Dec 4, 2012 12:45 AM in response to Avihu Turzion

That's it - one week to the day after you deleted those files, your 'backups' will shrink back down - trust me - I deleted almost 180GB of music from my internal drive, had the same amount showing as backups and a week later, they were gone.

Clinton

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