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This update, upon booting, has caused my disk space to fill up and my system freezes up. The same happens to my coworker's computer. We both watch the remaining disk space decrease and the "spinning rainbow appears" and we must restart. What do we do?

Software Update: Java for OS X 2013-002 1.0


This update, upon booting, has caused my disk space to fill up and my system freezes up. The same happens to my coworker's computer. We both watch the remaining disk space decrease and the "spinning rainbow appears" and we must restart. What do we do?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), Software Update: Java for OS X 2013

Posted on Mar 6, 2013 11:13 AM

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1 reply

Mar 6, 2013 4:15 PM in response to burtworthy

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so.

Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.


Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.


ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.


Back up all data now.


Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.


Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:


☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)


☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.


☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.


Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.


I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means.


When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

This update, upon booting, has caused my disk space to fill up and my system freezes up. The same happens to my coworker's computer. We both watch the remaining disk space decrease and the "spinning rainbow appears" and we must restart. What do we do?

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