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Level 1

7 points

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?

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

34 replies

fditt Author

Level 1

7 points

Jun 19, 2013 1:26 PM in response to fditt

Thanks Guys.

About Omni. I did not say that I ran Omni as root. I was logged in as admin on Mountain Lion. To avoid Omni user limitation, I went to terminal as admin, ran su - root command and did another check using df -H and du -sh commands. Unless you tell me that run terminal as admin and them su - root is different from login as root and run terminal, so this might be the problem.

Just ran Omni as root (sudo open /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app and password) and the result was the same.

If this user thing described above is not the problem, let's forget Omni for a minute.

df -H shows 124GB used

df -h shows 116Gi (which both are pretty close to what Omni shows on drive list window)

Summing all du -sh I ran on files and folders as root on parent directory /, I get almost 80GB used. (which also is pretty close to what Omni shows on its toolbar for Macintosh HD)

Any chance of Volumes folder contains 40GB? This was the only folder/directory I couldn't run du -sh probably because it has alias for Macintosh HD or it has Mobilebackups.

I would perfectly understand a difference of around 7-10% in these measures (base 2 or base 10, compression and so on), but 40GB from 150GB disk seems too much for me. Definitely I'm missing something, and I would like to know what so I can get at least part of this 40GB back to my SO disk.

@Linc

Also I reindexed spotlight and the result was that nothing changed. I realized that iTunes has 35GB but 17GB are mobile applications, 6GB podcasts. Most of my music and videos are on external drives.

Commands and screenshots bellow.

HomeServer:/ root# df -H

Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on

/dev/disk0s2 149G 124G 24G 84% 30455180 5897424 84% /

devfs 194k 194k 0B 100% 654 0 100% /dev

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

map auto_home 0B 0B 0B 100% 0 0 100% /home

/dev/disk0s4 100G 44G 56G 44% 10705793 13748575 44% /Volumes/Jobs

localhost:/-8630FbS7avKSdoxHmmsRl 149G 149G 0B 100% 0 0 100% /Volumes/MobileBackups

/dev/disk2s2 1000 853G 147G 86% 208140766 35965900 85% /Volumes/Media

/dev/disk1s2 1000 104G 895G 11% 25486892 218619774 10% /Volumes/Docs

HomeServer:/ root# df -h

Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on

/dev/disk0s2 139Gi 116Gi 22Gi 84% 30460660 5891944 84% /

devfs 189Ki 189Ki 0Bi 100% 654 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% 10705793 13748575 44% /Volumes/Jobs

localhost:/-8630FbS7avKSdoxHmmsRl 139Gi 139Gi 0Bi 100% 0 0 100% /Volumes/MobileBackups

/dev/disk2s2 931Gi 794Gi 137Gi 86% 208140766 35965900 85% /Volumes/Media

/dev/disk1s2 931Gi 97Gi 834Gi 11% 25486892 218619774 10% /Volumes/Docs

HomeServer:/ root# ls -laxo

total 16917

drwxr-xr-x@ 33 root 1190 Jun 19 14:36 .

drwxr-xr-x@ 33 root 1190 Jun 19 14:36 ..

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

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

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

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

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

srwxrwxrwx 1 root 0 Jun 19 14:36 .dbfseventsd

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

drwx------ 225 root 7650 Jun 19 14:55 .fseventsd

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

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

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

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

-rw-r--r-- 1 root 225280 Jun 18 18:37 Mobilebackups

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

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

drwxr-xr-x 6 root 204 Jun 18 15:33 Users

drwxrwxrwt@ 7 root 238 Jun 19 14:49 Volumes

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

drwxrwxr-t@ 2 root 68 Jun 20 2012 cores

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .DS_Store

24K .DS_Store

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .DocumentRevisions-V100

180K .DocumentRevisions-V100

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .Mobilebackups

13G .Mobilebackups

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .Spotlight-V100

756M .Spotlight-V100

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .Trashes

0B .Trashes

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .dbfseventsd

0B .dbfseventsd

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .file

0B .file

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .fseventsd

2.1M .fseventsd

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .hotfiles.btree

192K .hotfiles.btree

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh .vol

0B .vol

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh Applications

2.2G Applications

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh Library

1.9G Library

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh Mobilebackups

220K Mobilebackups

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh Network

0B Network

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh System

4.2G System

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh Users

49G Users

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh bin

3.1M bin

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh cores

0B cores

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh dev

4.5K dev

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh etc

4.0K etc

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh home

1.0K home

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh mach_kernel

7.8M mach_kernel

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh net

1.0K net

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh private

5.9G private

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh sbin

1.6M sbin

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh tmp

4.0K tmp

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh usr

500M usr

HomeServer:/ root# du -sh var

4.0K var

HomeServer:/ root#

Pondini

Level 8

38,863 points

Jun 19, 2013 2:05 PM in response to fditt

fditt wrote:

Thanks Guys.

About Omni. I did not say that I ran Omni as root. I was logged in as admin on Mountain Lion.

Ah, that's not enough. The Admin user still can't see and doesn't have permission to everything. Usually the other stuff isn't real large, but it can be.

Just ran Omni as root (sudo open /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app and password) and the result was the same.

Curious. I experimented with it a bit, but don't use it. And Linc said he tried that and it didn't show the correct sizes. I have no idea why.

Any chance of Volumes folder contains 40GB?

Yup. That's where we sometimes find large folders instead of aliases to drives, apparently because OSX lost track of a drive at the wrong time, created a folder, and wrote to it instead. Also if you do a TM restore wrong and tell TM to "recreate enclosing folders" when it really can't, it will put it in Volumes instead.

This was the only folder/directory I couldn't run du -sh probably because it has alias for Macintosh HD or it has Mobilebackups.

Omdi does show .MobileBackups separately, but without a size. It's the same 14 GB of Backups in the Storage display (note that the Finder sometimes shows .MobileBackups as the same size as the OSX volume!).

Those Local Snapshots are not counted as used by the Finder or Get Info, but are counted by Disk Utility.

I would perfectly understand a difference of around 7-10% in these measures (base 2 or base 10, compression and so on), but 40GB from 150GB disk seems too much for me. Definitely I'm missing something, and I would like to know what so I can get at least part of this 40GB back to my SO disk.

If you can't figure it out any other way, spring for the $13 to get WhatSize from the maker. Take a look at the sample and explanation in the green box in Where did my Disk Space go? In "As Admin" mode (really "as root") it does show the size of everything. It has a number of other features as well, that you may or may not find useful.

wiz329

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2013 11:22 AM in response to fditt

Running sudo open -a AppName.app won't give root priveleges to the application. The best way to do this is to use the application LaunchAsRoot. (https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/38617/launchasroot)

I've never used OmniDiskSweeper -- I use DiskWave, but they look pretty much the same. Opening the process with sudo here:

However, when you use LaunchAsRoot to launch Diskwave:

As you can see in Activity Monitor, root has taken control of the process, allowing it more access to measure filesize. Today the difference isn't so large, but last night, there was about 20GB in .MobileBackups that wouldn't show up before. They seem to have cleaned themselves up today.

The other thing you could do is log in as the root user (not just using sudo, but actually logging in), telling the system to show hidden files, then taking a look in finder at everything. I'm guessing that since finder would then be owned by root, it would show everything on the system.

wiz329

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2013 8:34 PM in response to wiz329

Update: You can also run the app as root from the terminal, using a slightly modified code:

In this case you would use:

sudo -b /Applications/DiskWave.app/Contents/MacOS/DiskWave

exit

You just have to navigate within the app package itself. I've just created a script, saved it, and retitled it as DiskWaveRoot.command, changed the icon, and placed it in the applications folder.

One more "Where did my space go"