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User profile for user: ALISONR78
ALISONR78 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

a private var folder is taking up all of my startup disk space and I can't delete it.

HI,

My startup disk usage jumped to full quite unexpectedly. On running 'daisy disk' I can see that most of the space has been taken up with files marked as:


Disks and folders/macintosh hd/private/var/vm followed by a whole lot of 'swap file' extensions (34.3 GB in total)

and

folders/macintosh hd/private/var/db


What are these large files, and how do I delete them? Daisy disk says that they are required by OsX- but they weren't there before-


Alison

MacBook Air

Posted on Sep 14, 2014 6:42 PM

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User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Posted on Sep 14, 2014 6:48 PM

Shutdown the computer. Wait 30 seconds then restart. See if anything has changed. The swap files should be deleted. The main reason you may have such large swap is because you are running out of memory from trying to run to many applications concurrently.


Do not do anything with the /private/var/db file. The system needs that file.


There are many things that can take up space on a hard drive:


Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive


1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.

2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.

3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.

4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.

5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.

6. See The Storage Display.


You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.


You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.


Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

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2 replies
Question marked as Best reply
User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Sep 14, 2014 6:48 PM in response to ALISONR78

Shutdown the computer. Wait 30 seconds then restart. See if anything has changed. The swap files should be deleted. The main reason you may have such large swap is because you are running out of memory from trying to run to many applications concurrently.


Do not do anything with the /private/var/db file. The system needs that file.


There are many things that can take up space on a hard drive:


Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive


1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.

2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.

3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.

4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.

5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.

6. See The Storage Display.


You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.


You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.


Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

Reply

a private var folder is taking up all of my startup disk space and I can't delete it.

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