Incorrect available capacity displayed in OS X 10.8.2

Question

Incorrect available capacity displayed in OS X 10.8.2

Over the past two weeks, I have noticed the "Available Space" on my hard drive keeps growing, even though I add more files. I have attached two screen shots to show what is happening. I have the 512GB solid state drive on a Retina 15" with the 2.6GHz and 16GB RAM. The formatted capacity is 499.42GB.

The first screen shot shows the HD finder. The left info screen that says "Jeffrey Info" is from the highlighted folder in the finder. The right info screen is of the Macintosh HD and was opened by right clicking the HD on the desktop screen. As you can see at the bottom of the finder box, it also says the my available capacity is 498.03GB, even though you can clearly see that the "Jeffrey" folder is 61.55 GB (plus everything else on the computer). It says I've only used 1.38GB on disk. Considering I have Microsoft Office for Mac Business as well as the full Office Enterprise Edition on Windows 8, Adobe programs, SAP, and other stuff for my work, I've obviously used more than 1.38GB.

The second screen shot is from system information. It clearly shows only 290.58GB available, which sounds correct based on what I know to be on the HD.

The only thing I have changed in the last month is the use of Time Machine. I got this computer in late November and received an Apple Time Capsule 2TB for Christmas. I started using it within a few days of Christmas. I first noticed the incorrect capacities approximately 2 weeks ago, and it has been progressively getting worse.

This is not my first Apple computer. I have been using them since the Powerbook G4 days on OS X 10.2. I am also running Parallels on here with Windows 8 Pro. That has been installed and operating since November, so I don't believe it is related to this issue. I suspect this might have something to do with Time Machine since it seems to have started around that time.

Is it normal for Time Machine to constantly backup 30-40GB/day, even though less than 500MB changed during the course of 24 hours?

Does anyone know why this is happening and how to fix it?

Thank you in advance for any information!

Sincerely,

Jeff

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, 512MB SSD

Posted on Jan 24, 2013 1:15 AM

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Answer 1

sdpitbull

Level 3

965 points

Jan 24, 2013 8:27 PM in response to jeffroalpha700

Yes, Time Machine will write local snapshots to the disk and that sounds like about the correct size. The snapshots are written in case you are not connected to an external disk to back up. They should be erased automatically as the space is needed by other applications.

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Answer 2

Jan 24, 2013 9:40 PM in response to jeffroalpha700

Thanks for the confirmation of the offline usage. If that is the case, my available space should decrease not increase in the finder.

Anyone else experienced this? Is the incorrect available space being displayed in the finder a bug from Time Machine, or is this a 10.8.2 issue? Is there a fix for this? These screen shots were taken when Time Machine was NOT doing an hourly snapshot or backup.

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Answer 3

Jan 24, 2013 9:42 PM in response to jeffroalpha700

It just looks as though the Finder is (obviously) not reporting the space used and the space available correctly. If you go to "About This Mac" under the Apple menu and click on More Info... and then the Storage Tab, what does it show? Please post a screenshot.

Clinton

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Answer 4

Jan 24, 2013 10:01 PM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

That is what the 2nd screenshot is. It seems to be accurate. I knew I was probably just under 300GB. It's the finder display that is all wacky. Right now it is useless because it isn't even close.

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Answer 5

Jan 24, 2013 10:09 PM in response to jeffroalpha700

No, not the System Information... Hardware>Storage, the Storage tab in About This Mac... More Info>Storage tab:

Just want to be sure that it shows the same as System Information...

Clinton

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Answer 6

Jan 24, 2013 10:31 PM in response to clintonfrombirmingham

Got it! It seems to be using a ton of space for backups, but if you add up all of the other categories, it comes to a total of exactly 66 GB. This means the finder (if it is maybe excluding the backup screen shots) should display 433.42 GB. The fourth screen shot is of the finder right now. It is displaying 463.52 GB!

Is there anyway to get rid of all of the backups on the local drive? As you can see in screen shots 2 & 3, it just finished another backup to Time Capsule. I don't understand why it is also saving all of this on the internal as well. It has used even more space (now down to just 287.82 GB free) since my original post only 22 hours ago. I'm guessing they must be from when I am at work and not connected to the Time Capsule, but when the backups are taking about 3.5 times the amount of space of everything else on here, good grief! Thanks Clinton for all of the help!

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Answer 7

steve626

Level 6

10,073 points

Jan 24, 2013 11:05 PM in response to jeffroalpha700

jeffroalpha700 wrote:

I am also running Parallels on here with Windows 8 Pro. That has been installed and operating since November, so I don't believe it is related to this issue. I suspect this might have something to do with Time Machine since it seems to have started around that time.

Is it normal for Time Machine to constantly backup 30-40GB/day, even though less than 500MB changed during the course of 24 hours?

Jeff

When you boot into Windows on Parallels, the entire Parallels database file changes, so when Time Machine looks to see what has changed and needs to be backed up, it will back up the entire Parallels representation of your Windows machine, which can be easily 30-40 GB. So that entire Parallels virtual machine gets backed up each day (or hour) if you are using Windows via Parallels.

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Answer 8

Jan 24, 2013 11:07 PM in response to jeffroalpha700

See the Great Pondoni's article on local snapshots (which show up as "Backups" on the Storage Tab) - http://pondini.org/TM/30.html.

You've likely deleted some files from your internal drive - those deleted files are kept as 'local snapshots' for exactly one week - they just disappear after 7 days. Don't worry about those backups - you can disable them through Terminal but it's not wise to do so. Just check back in a week and you'll notice that the 'backups' in the Storage tab have decreased.

I'd poke around Pondoni's site - some truly great info there!

Clinton

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