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One more "Where did my space go"

OK, so here is my story. I've run through several similar posts here but none seems to answer my question.


I have a MacBook Pro late 2008, Core 2 Duo, with 250GB HDD, partitioned in 2 disks, Macintosh HD with 150GB and "Jobs" with 100GB Mountain Lion.

A couple of weeks ago I've received a message saying Macintosh HD was full and the file I was trying to, could not be saved.

Did the basics, empty trash, delete or move some files around (I have 4TB in external disks) and made 33GB room at Macintosh HD.

But I still believed that something was wrong. Did some "get info" and Äbout this Mac" but there was some spacing missing.

Found some articles, like "Where did my space go?", follow the steps, log files, restart, disk utility repair, look for local snapshots, false volumes and ran OmniDisk Sweeper (Image attached). Also changed permission on Guest account and it is not using space at all.

Still have no idea where could possibly be the missing space.

Since OmniDisk Sweeper has user limitations, I activated the root user and started an assessment using linux command line to do another space check. And bellow are the results.

Bottom line, I've found almost 80GB of used space if I sum all folder results on / running du -h command (list bellow).

80GB are close to what OmniDisk Sweeper is showing for Macintosh HD but not if I look to Disk list.

On the other side, get info Mac OS is showing almost 120GB used as OmniDisk Sweeper Drive list window.

Linux also shows df -h 118GB used.


Ok, I'm lost. Someone could help? What could possibly be the reason for the difference in used space?

Is there a way to see what is using this space?

User uploaded file


sh-3.2# df -h


Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on

/dev/disk0s2 139Gi 118Gi 21Gi 85% 30908405 5444199 85% /

devfs 193Ki 193Ki 0Bi 100% 666 0 100% /dev

map -hosts 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /net

map auto_home 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /home

/dev/disk0s4 93Gi 41Gi 52Gi 44% 10705775 13748593 44% /Volumes/Jobs

/dev/disk1s2 931Gi 97Gi 834Gi 11% 25486873 218619793 10% /Volumes/Docs

/dev/disk2s2 931Gi 794Gi 137Gi 86% 208140741 35965925 85% /Volumes/Media

//admin@NAS._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Share 1.8Ti 840Gi 1.0Ti 46% 220288893 264256161 45% /Volumes/Share




-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 21508 Jun 13 13:26 .DS_Store


d--x--x--x 8 root wheel 272 Feb 9 11:37 .DocumentRevisions-V100

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root wheel 102 May 29 00:48 .MobileBackups

drwx------ 5 root wheel 170 Aug 20 2012 .Spotlight-V100

d-wx-wx-wt@ 2 root _unknown 68 Aug 19 2012 .Trashes

srwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 0 Jun 9 00:09 .dbfseventsd

---------- 1 root admin 0 Jun 20 2012 .file

drwx------ 47 root wheel 1598 Jun 13 15:13 .fseventsd

-rw-------@ 1 root wheel 196608 Jun 2 22:19 .hotfiles.btree

drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 Jun 20 2012 .vol

drwxrwxr-x+ 63 root admin 2142 Jun 10 14:16 Applications

drwxr-xr-x+ 62 root wheel 2108 Jun 13 11:28 Library

drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 Jun 20 2012 Network

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 root wheel 136 Aug 19 2012 System

drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204 Jun 13 11:28 Users

drwxrwxrwt@ 8 root admin 272 Jun 13 15:15 Volumes

drwxr-xr-x@ 39 root wheel 1326 Jun 9 00:01 bin

drwxrwxr-t@ 2 root admin 68 Jun 20 2012 cores

dr-xr-xr-x 3 root wheel 4498 Jun 9 00:07 dev

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 etc -> private/etc

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 Jun 9 00:14 home

-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 8194272 May 24 07:44 mach_kernel

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 Jun 9 00:14 net

drwxr-xr-x@ 6 root wheel 204 Aug 19 2012 private

drwxr-xr-x@ 62 root wheel 2108 Jun 9 00:01 sbin

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 tmp -> private/tmp

drwxr-xr-x@ 10 root wheel 340 Aug 19 2012 usr

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 var -> private/var



sh-3.2# du -sh var

4.0K var

sh-3.2# du -sh usr

500M usr

sh-3.2# du -sh tmp

4.0K tmp

sh-3.2# du -sh sbin

1.6M sbin

sh-3.2# du -sh private

5.9G private

sh-3.2# du -sh net

1.0K net

sh-3.2# du -sh mach_kernel

7.8M mach_kernel


sh-3.2# du -sh home


1.0K home

sh-3.2# du -sh etc

4.0K etc

sh-3.2# du -sh dev

4.5K dev


sh-3.2# du -sh cores


0B cores

sh-3.2# du -sh bin

3.1M bin


sh-3.2# du -sh users


59G users

sh-3.2# du -sh System

4.2G System

sh-3.2# du -sh Network

0B Network

sh-3.2# du -sh Library

1.9G Library


sh-3.2# du -sh Applications


2.2G Applications

sh-3.2# du -sh .vol

0B .vol

sh-3.2# du -sh .hotfiles.btree

192K .hotfiles.btree

sh-3.2# du -sh .fseventsd

1.1M .fseventsd

sh-3.2# du -sh .file

0B .file

sh-3.2# du -sh .dbfseventsd

0B .dbfseventsd

sh-3.2# du -sh .Trashes

0B .Trashes

sh-3.2# du -sh .Spotlight-V100

651M .Spotlight-V100

sh-3.2# du -sh .MobileBackups

6.4G .MobileBackups

sh-3.2# du -sh .DocumentRevisions-V100

152K .DocumentRevisions-V100


sh-3.2# du -sh .DS_Store


24K .DS_Store

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4), 13" Late 2008

Posted on Jun 17, 2013 10:59 AM

Reply
34 replies

Jun 17, 2013 1:46 PM in response to Linc Davis

OK, so here is my story.


I have a MacBook Pro late 2008, Core 2 Duo, with 250GB HDD, partitioned in 2 disks, Macintosh HD with 150GB and "Jobs" with 100GB Mountain Lion.

A couple of weeks ago I've received a message saying Macintosh HD was full and the file I was trying to, could not be saved.

Did the basics, empty trash, delete or move some files around (I have 4TB in external disks) and made 33GB room at Macintosh HD.

But I still believed that something was wrong. Did some "get info" and Äbout this Mac" but there was some spacing missing.

Found some articles, like "Where did my space go?", follow the steps, log files, restart, disk utility repair, look for local snapshots, false volumes and ran OmniDisk Sweeper (Image attached). Also changed permission on Guest account and it is not using space at all.

Still have no idea where could possibly be the missing space.

Since OmniDisk Sweeper has user limitations, I activated the root user and started an assessment using linux command line to do another space check. And bellow are the results.

Bottom line, I've found almost 80GB of used space if I sum all folder results on / running du -h command (list bellow).

80GB are close to what OmniDisk Sweeper is showing for Macintosh HD but not if I look to Disk list.

On the other side, get info Mac OS is showing almost 120GB used as OmniDisk Sweeper Drive list window.

Linux also shows df -h 118GB used.


Ok, I'm lost. Someone could help? What could possibly be the reason for the difference in used space?

Is there a way to see what is using this space?


User uploaded file


sh-3.2# df -h


Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on

/dev/disk0s2 139Gi 118Gi 21Gi 85% 30908405 5444199 85% /

devfs 193Ki 193Ki 0Bi 100% 666 0 100% /dev

map -hosts 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /net

map auto_home 0Bi 0Bi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /home

/dev/disk0s4 93Gi 41Gi 52Gi 44% 10705775 13748593 44% /Volumes/Jobs

/dev/disk1s2 931Gi 97Gi 834Gi 11% 25486873 218619793 10% /Volumes/Docs

/dev/disk2s2 931Gi 794Gi 137Gi 86% 208140741 35965925 85% /Volumes/Media

//admin@NAS._afpovertcp._tcp.local/Share 1.8Ti 840Gi 1.0Ti 46% 220288893 264256161 45% /Volumes/Share




-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 21508 Jun 13 13:26 .DS_Store


d--x--x--x 8 root wheel 272 Feb 9 11:37 .DocumentRevisions-V100

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root wheel 102 May 29 00:48 .MobileBackups

drwx------ 5 root wheel 170 Aug 20 2012 .Spotlight-V100

d-wx-wx-wt@ 2 root _unknown 68 Aug 19 2012 .Trashes

srwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 0 Jun 9 00:09 .dbfseventsd

---------- 1 root admin 0 Jun 20 2012 .file

drwx------ 47 root wheel 1598 Jun 13 15:13 .fseventsd

-rw-------@ 1 root wheel 196608 Jun 2 22:19 .hotfiles.btree

drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 Jun 20 2012 .vol

drwxrwxr-x+ 63 root admin 2142 Jun 10 14:16 Applications

drwxr-xr-x+ 62 root wheel 2108 Jun 13 11:28 Library

drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 Jun 20 2012 Network

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 root wheel 136 Aug 19 2012 System

drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204 Jun 13 11:28 Users

drwxrwxrwt@ 8 root admin 272 Jun 13 15:15 Volumes

drwxr-xr-x@ 39 root wheel 1326 Jun 9 00:01 bin

drwxrwxr-t@ 2 root admin 68 Jun 20 2012 cores

dr-xr-xr-x 3 root wheel 4498 Jun 9 00:07 dev

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 etc -> private/etc

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 Jun 9 00:14 home

-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 8194272 May 24 07:44 mach_kernel

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 Jun 9 00:14 net

drwxr-xr-x@ 6 root wheel 204 Aug 19 2012 private

drwxr-xr-x@ 62 root wheel 2108 Jun 9 00:01 sbin

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 tmp -> private/tmp

drwxr-xr-x@ 10 root wheel 340 Aug 19 2012 usr

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 var -> private/var



sh-3.2# du -sh var

4.0K var

sh-3.2# du -sh usr

500M usr

sh-3.2# du -sh tmp

4.0K tmp

sh-3.2# du -sh sbin

1.6M sbin

sh-3.2# du -sh private

5.9G private

sh-3.2# du -sh net

1.0K net

sh-3.2# du -sh mach_kernel

7.8M mach_kernel

sh-3.2# du -sh home

1.0K home

sh-3.2# du -sh etc

4.0K etc

sh-3.2# du -sh dev

4.5K dev

sh-3.2# du -sh cores

0B cores

sh-3.2# du -sh bin

3.1M bin

sh-3.2# du -sh users

59G users

sh-3.2# du -sh System

4.2G System

sh-3.2# du -sh Network

0B Network

sh-3.2# du -sh Library

1.9G Library

sh-3.2# du -sh Applications

2.2G Applications

sh-3.2# du -sh .vol

0B .vol

sh-3.2# du -sh .hotfiles.btree

192K .hotfiles.btree

sh-3.2# du -sh .fseventsd

1.1M .fseventsd

sh-3.2# du -sh .file

0B .file

sh-3.2# du -sh .dbfseventsd

0B .dbfseventsd

sh-3.2# du -sh .Trashes

0B .Trashes

sh-3.2# du -sh .Spotlight-V100

651M .Spotlight-V100

sh-3.2# du -sh .MobileBackups

6.4G .MobileBackups

sh-3.2# du -sh .DocumentRevisions-V100

152K .DocumentRevisions-V100

sh-3.2# du -sh .DS_Store

24K .DS_Store

Jun 18, 2013 6:46 AM in response to Pondini

Sorry, I'm not a Linux expert but the dot before the file/directory doesn't mean it is hidden? On the list there are several file/directories that start with dot and if so, I can realize why some would show and others no.


Anyway, I did a "ls -al" which means to list all files including hidden and the results are pretty much the same.


I've been through all the tips in "Where did my Disk Space Go". None of them seemed to answer my question.



sh-3.2# ls -al

total 16477

drwxr-xr-x@ 32 root wheel 1156 Jun 17 14:46 .

drwxr-xr-x@ 32 root wheel 1156 Jun 17 14:46 ..

-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 21508 Jun 17 15:03 .DS_Store

d--x--x--x 8 root wheel 272 Jun 17 14:45 .DocumentRevisions-V100

drwxr-xr-x+ 3 root wheel 102 May 29 00:48 .MobileBackups

drwx------ 5 root wheel 170 Aug 20 2012 .Spotlight-V100

d-wx-wx-wt@ 2 root _unknown 68 Aug 19 2012 .Trashes

srwxrwxrwx 1 root wheel 0 Jun 17 14:46 .dbfseventsd

---------- 1 root admin 0 Jun 20 2012 .file

drwx------ 137 root wheel 4658 Jun 17 16:09 .fseventsd

-rw-------@ 1 root wheel 196608 Jun 2 22:19 .hotfiles.btree

drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 Jun 20 2012 .vol

drwxrwxr-x+ 63 root admin 2142 Jun 10 14:16 Applications

drwxr-xr-x+ 62 root wheel 2108 Jun 13 11:28 Library

drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 Jun 20 2012 Network

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 root wheel 136 Aug 19 2012 System

drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204 Jun 13 11:28 Users

drwxrwxrwt@ 7 root admin 238 Jun 18 10:23 Volumes

drwxr-xr-x@ 39 root wheel 1326 Jun 9 00:01 bin

drwxrwxr-t@ 2 root admin 68 Jun 20 2012 cores

dr-xr-xr-x 3 root wheel 4409 Jun 17 14:44 dev

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 etc -> private/etc

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 Jun 17 14:45 home

-rw-r--r--@ 1 root wheel 8194272 May 24 07:44 mach_kernel

dr-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 1 Jun 17 14:45 net

drwxr-xr-x@ 6 root wheel 204 Aug 19 2012 private

drwxr-xr-x@ 62 root wheel 2108 Jun 9 00:01 sbin

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 tmp -> private/tmp

drwxr-xr-x@ 10 root wheel 340 Aug 19 2012 usr

lrwxr-xr-x@ 1 root wheel 11 Aug 19 2012 var -> private/var

Jun 18, 2013 7:34 AM in response to fditt

fditt wrote:


Sorry, I'm not a Linux expert

OSX is built on UNIX, not Linux. 😉



but the dot before the file/directory doesn't mean it is hidden?

Usually, but not exclusively. There's a "flag" that controls visibility. Some invisible item names start with a dot, others don't. At the top level, the private, home, dev, etc., folders; and the ~/Library folder on Lion and later.


But that's ot the only thing going on -- if you don't have read rights to an item, OSX won't show you the size, either.


I've been through all the tips in "Where did my Disk Space Go". None of them seemed to answer my question.

Usually one or more will.


If you still have that ~40GB discrepancy, I was about to recommend getting the paid version of WhatSize, per the green box in my articlle, but now I notice a (small) discrepancy with it, on my own Mac. I'll inquire of the authors, and post back when/if I get a clarification.


Still, it might be worth the $13 to see if it sheds any light. That's a big difference.

Jun 18, 2013 8:24 AM in response to fditt

I think what's causing the confusion is that you have about 35 GB of music files that are showing in the Storage view as "Other." That's because the Spotlight index on the startup volume is corrupt.


Rebuild the Spotlightindex. If you try to search now from the magnifying-glass icon in the top right corner of the display, a pulsing dot will appear in the icon. When the dot disappears, the indexing is complete.

Jun 18, 2013 8:36 AM in response to fditt

I just checked for an update from WhatSize, and determined that I had an old version that was measuring in decimal instead of binary (or the other way around, I always forget which).


It still shows about a 3 % discrepancy between the top line in the toolbar and the bottom; but the bottom agrees with Disk Utility.


I'll check with the maker. It may be the way they count physcial size rather than logical size.

Jun 18, 2013 8:43 AM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis wrote:


I think what's causing the confusion is that you have about 35 GB of music files that are showing in the Storage view as "Other." That's because the Spotlight index on the startup volume is corrupt.

Hi, Linc,


Yes, that would account for Music being too small and Other being too large, but shouldn't affect the total used, should it?


The total used per Get Info, plus the 2 GB of Backups (local snapshots) gets about the same 119 GB used as on the Storage display.


But the display form Omni shows 73 GB used on Macintosh HD in the toolbar.


That's the missing 40 GB that has me puzzled.

Jun 18, 2013 10:45 AM in response to Linc Davis

Yes, I get a difference on an app, as it has lots of small files.


But that 40 GBs out of 120 GBs is a huge discrepancy -- on my small system, the Finder shows 28.2 GB. Adding 1 GB for Local snapshots gets 29.2, which is what Disk Utiilty shows.


I've helped a lot of folks with "missing" space, and it almost always turned out to be either a directory problem, or something hidden in /Volumes or big log files. I've never seen an unexplained difference that big.

Why would this system be so different?

Jun 18, 2013 11:32 AM in response to Pondini

On the system I'm using now, I have a discrepancy of about 60 GB out of 860 GB. It's not necessarily proportional to the size of the volume. By default only certain system files are compressed. I have somewhat more because I compress all static files.


Nothing can hide from ODS running as root. If you really think the OP has a corrupt directory, you're of course free to suggest that he repair it. If there's any change, I'll have learned something.

Jun 18, 2013 11:39 AM in response to Linc Davis

Linc Davis wrote:


On the system I'm using now, I have a discrepancy of about 60 GB out of 860 GB. It's not necessarily proportional to the size of the volume. By default only certain system files are compressed. I have somewhat more because I compress all static files.

That's unlikely to be common, is it? Even so, yours is a much smaller percentage of the total.


If you really think the OP has a corrupt directory, you're of course free to suggest that he repair it.

That can cause large discrepancies, but he's already done it: Found some articles, like "Where did my space go?", follow the steps, log files, restart, disk utility repair, look for local snapshots, false volumes and ran OmniDisk Sweeper (Image attached).

Jun 18, 2013 1:36 PM in response to Pondini

A larger block size would make the discrepancy smaller.


Suppose a file contains 10 kiB of compressed data. That decompresses to, say, 20 kiB. The file contributes 20 kiB to used space as reported by the Info window, regardless of block size.


If the physical block size is the standard 0.5 kiB, the file completely fills 20 blocks and is reported as 10 kiB by du. The discrepancy is therefore 10 kiB.


But if the block size is 4 kiB, then the file fills two blocks and part of a third, and is thus reported as 12 kiB by du. The discrepancy is now 8 kiB.

One more "Where did my space go"

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