Anndee

Q: Missing Hard Drive Space

I erased a 296g file from my hard drive and only gained 110g.  What can I do to reclaim that space?  Thank you!

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Aug 13, 2013 7:28 PM

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Q: Missing Hard Drive Space

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  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Aug 13, 2013 7:33 PM in response to Anndee
    Level 10 (122,402 points)
    Apple Music
    Aug 13, 2013 7:33 PM in response to Anndee

    Try restarting your Mac......

  • by Anndee,

    Anndee Anndee Aug 13, 2013 7:38 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 7:38 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Thanks for the speedy reply.

     

    I did that first, but it didn't change my available space.

  • by Carolyn Samit,Helpful

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Aug 13, 2013 7:42 PM in response to Anndee
    Level 10 (122,402 points)
    Apple Music
    Aug 13, 2013 7:42 PM in response to Anndee

    Ok...  what size is the hard drive?

     

    Control click the MacintoshHD icon on your Desktop then click Get Info.

     

    What is the capacity?

  • by Anndee,

    Anndee Anndee Aug 13, 2013 7:59 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 7:59 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    It's a 750g hard drive

    I had about 10g free before I deleted the 296g file.  Now I have      120g free.  I should have about 300g free.

     

    I thought I'd also mention that I have reset the PRAM just in case that would help.

  • by Anndee,

    Anndee Anndee Aug 13, 2013 8:01 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 8:01 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Interesting...

    Get Info on the hard drive shows my 309g free.  I've been checking the available capacity in Disk Utility (which still says 119g free).

     

    Is it problematic that disk utility has it wrong?

  • by PlotinusVeritas,Helpful

    PlotinusVeritas PlotinusVeritas Aug 13, 2013 8:22 PM in response to Anndee
    Level 6 (14,806 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 8:22 PM in response to Anndee

    Thats extremely common for the updated available GB to post a few mins, or even 20 + mins later.

     

    Ive seen it 100 times.

     

    Especially if you deleted, say 10gigs of 1000s of files, instead of 10gigs of just a few huge files.

  • by Anndee,

    Anndee Anndee Aug 13, 2013 8:29 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 8:29 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

    It's been a couple of hours, but I'm in no hurry.  I deleted an iphoto library I had moved to an external hard drive, so I don't know if that makes much of a difference.

     

    Thanks for the quick replies!

  • by PlotinusVeritas,

    PlotinusVeritas PlotinusVeritas Aug 13, 2013 8:31 PM in response to Anndee
    Level 6 (14,806 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 8:31 PM in response to Anndee

    yes, a couple of hours is NOT normal.

     

    goto disk utility and check your HD for faults / errors

     

    verify disk   / repair disk

     

    report back

  • by nbar,

    nbar nbar Aug 13, 2013 8:36 PM in response to Anndee
    Level 5 (6,980 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 8:36 PM in response to Anndee

    Open terminal...lets get to the bottom of this:

     

    df -a

     

    Post the output.

  • by Anndee,

    Anndee Anndee Aug 13, 2013 8:58 PM in response to nbar
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 8:58 PM in response to nbar

    Should I open terminal before or after I verify the disk?  I'm in process right now.

  • by nbar,

    nbar nbar Aug 13, 2013 8:59 PM in response to Anndee
    Level 5 (6,980 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 8:59 PM in response to Anndee

    Let it run. Let in finish. Do it after

  • by Anndee,

    Anndee Anndee Aug 13, 2013 9:30 PM in response to nbar
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 9:30 PM in response to nbar

    Here's the log from verifying the disk.  So, I'm instructed to repari fom the recovery partition.  I'll report back when I'm finished.

     

     

    Checking file systemPerforming live verification.

    Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.

    Checking extents overflow file.

    Checking catalog file.

    Incorrect block count for file Thumb64Segment.data

    (It should be 67584 instead of 648001)

    Incorrect block count for file ThumbJPGSegment.data

    (It should be 36864 instead of 324001)

    Checking multi-linked files.

    Checking catalog hierarchy.

    Checking extended attributes file.

    Checking volume bitmap.

    Volume bitmap needs minor repair for orphaned blocks

    Checking volume information.

    Invalid volume free block count

    (It should be 29761969 instead of 28894415)

    The volume Anndee-Macbook was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.

    Error: This disk needs to be repaired using the Recovery HD. Restart your computer, holding down the Command key and the R key until you see the Apple logo. When the OS X Utilities window appears, choose Disk Utility.

  • by PlotinusVeritas,

    PlotinusVeritas PlotinusVeritas Aug 13, 2013 9:34 PM in response to Anndee
    Level 6 (14,806 points)
    Aug 13, 2013 9:34 PM in response to Anndee

    Yeah, not good

     

    goto disk utility....   verify disk   / repair disk

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Aug 13, 2013 10:36 PM in response to Anndee
    Level 10 (207,995 points)
    Applications
    Aug 13, 2013 10:36 PM in response to Anndee

    Those warnings are commonplace and not necessarily significant.

    If the computer is started up from the Mac OS X hard disk (or disk partition) and Disk Utility finds errors on it, there is not necessarily anything wrong. Only when started up from the CD should Disk Utility reports of errors on the Mac OS X hard disk (or disk partition) be considered accurate.

    Disk Utility incorrectly reports disk errors on startup volume

    If you're reading free space from the Storage display, then this is likely the reason for your confusion:

    You may notice a difference in available space statistics between Disk Utility, Finder, and Get Info inspectors. This is expected and can be safely ignored. The Finder displays the available space on the disk without accounting for the local snapshots, because local snapshots will surrender their disk space if needed.

    About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs

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