Hard disc shows more than 100G more than my content, why?

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Hard disc shows more than 100G more than my content, why?

My hard disc shows well over a 100 G more than my data and content should give, what is happening and how do I deal with it?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Dec 5, 2012 2:59 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 5, 2012 3:50 AM in response to derekfrompr

First, Try emptying your trash. when you move items to the trash, it doesn't actually delete them, it justs shortcuts them to the trash. It may take a while, but secure empty the trash. Next, if there are still inconsisties, check disk utility and see if there are any partitions or anything else that you or somebody else might have accidentall created.

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Answer 2

derekfrompr Author

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Dec 5, 2012 3:31 PM in response to devinawitt

Thanks ,I did all that before but without getting close. I've been using Disc Inventory X, so far I've deleted a user ID that I set up when I got the computer that has not been used but still took 68G. Now I notice that I have duplicates of Users, one Volumes/users and the other Volumes/MacHD/users this results in two Itunes media files and two iphotos data files, this is taking another 100G. Any ideas not this happened as and how to get rid of whichever is the imposter?

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Answer 3

Dec 5, 2012 4:09 PM in response to derekfrompr

let me make certain i under stand

your 500g hard drive is showing something like 640 g on the hard drive ?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3983143?start=0&tstart=0

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Answer 4

derekfrompr Author

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Dec 6, 2012 9:49 AM in response to michaelsip4

The hard drive is 500G,it was showing nearly 400G occuppied and the rest free. As I noted above, I have discovered an unused user account that I originally set up (but did not intentionally populate) was taking 68G and that I have two identical Itunes files in different locations, same thing with Iphotos. I am in the process of securely deleting the duplicates of these which shoud bring the status down to 200G occuppied and 300G free which is about what I expected. The secure trash is however taking forever as there are over many thousands of files to get rid of.

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Answer 5

Dec 6, 2012 1:54 PM in response to derekfrompr

understood,

sounds like an over the night process......what I have done in the past was conolidate (get all of my desired information in one location / there by identifying duplication or things I wanted to delete) I would then move

the duplication (less user account) to the trash and turn off the "secure delete" to speed up the process.

Once completed, I would turn the secure delete back on and delete the "unused user" account(s) and folder securely.

At a given time, each month I check my hard drive for errors and repair permissions, so whiat I would do before that is go to mac hard drive - utilities - disk utility - tab erase - erase free space

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3680

to get rid of the "duplicated information securely" forever then i would check my drives

Its a lengthy process as you describe but it takes care of the short term need and u could do it overnight

just a thought

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