Jerry Dammers
Level 1 (31 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Finder miscalculating size of hard drive on MacBook Pro

I should have approx 45 GB left on my MacBook Pro but, on two occasions, it's suddenly reduced to virtually nil.

 

First time I was doing some work in iMovie and second time I was restoring my iPad. However there was nothing in each case that would suggest they are linked.

 

Any ideas what might be happening?

 

I'm now getting messages saying my hard drive is full,, but it clearly isn't if I add up iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto etc.

 

Thank you

Posted on Dec 30, 2014 6:30 AM

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Jerry Dammers

Q: Finder miscalculating size of hard drive on MacBook Pro

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  • Helpful answers

  • by dominic23,

    dominic23 dominic23 Dec 30, 2014 10:47 AM in response to Jerry Dammers
    Level 8 (42,122 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 30, 2014 10:47 AM in response to Jerry Dammers

    Discrepancy in calculating space between Finder and Disk Utility

     

    “Finder does not take into account the  Backups/ local snapshots,

    but disk utility includes them.”

     

    http://pondini.org/TM/30.html

     

     

    Disk space / Time Machine ?/ Local Snapshots

    Local backups

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878



       Re-index Macintosh HD.

       Spotlight reindexing will take a while to finish.

       System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy

       http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

  • by Jerry Dammers,

    Jerry Dammers Jerry Dammers Jan 3, 2015 12:10 AM in response to dominic23
    Level 1 (31 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 3, 2015 12:10 AM in response to dominic23

    Unfortunately I've still not resolved this issue.

     

    What is the relevance of the local snapshots? The links suggest that they are not active when space is low on the MacBook Pro.

     

    Also what is the relevance of re-indexing Spotlight - does this recalculate the space? I've also followed the instructions but nothing has happened.

     

    Looking at "Storage" within "About This Mac", Music, Movies, Photos etc look right but there is 160GB in "Other" - what is likely to be in "Other"?

     

    Many thanks.

  • by Jerry Dammers,

    Jerry Dammers Jerry Dammers Jan 6, 2015 2:18 AM in response to Jerry Dammers
    Level 1 (31 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2015 2:18 AM in response to Jerry Dammers

    I'm still struggling with the above

     

    I had about 45GB left on my MacBook Pro but it suddenly disappeared.

     

    It happened about six weeks ago and just corrected itself after a couple of days but this time it hasn't.

     

    I've followed the instructions for a Spotlight reindex but it doesn't work.

     

    I now can't do any work as my hard drive is full - but it shouldn't be.

     

    Any help greatly appreciated.

     

    Thank you

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jan 6, 2015 4:01 AM in response to Jerry Dammers
    Level 9 (52,812 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2015 4:01 AM in response to Jerry Dammers

    First read these two article so that you understand what OTHER is and what those BACKUPS represent:

     

    http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202301

     

    http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202867

     

    When you reindex Spotlight, it should correct any errors in where files may be incorrectly categorized.

     

    What you might do is download from the Internet OmniDiskSweeper and Grand Perspective (both free) and open them.  They will show all of your files and the respective sizes.  This should allow you to determine exactly what you have on your storage drive.

     

    Again, the Time Machine snapshots may simply be ignored because they will always be deleted if room is needed for other data.

     

    Ciao.

  • by Jerry Dammers,

    Jerry Dammers Jerry Dammers Jan 6, 2015 4:44 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (31 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2015 4:44 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    Thanks for your response.

     

    I managed to get through to Apple support and they've advised me to do a full erase and reinstall as they think it's a bad OS install (there are some other relatively minor issues).

     

    It's curious though that I can't reindex Spotlight, as I wanted to try that before a reinstall.  I'm able to add the drive to the Spotlight list within System Preferences) and then delete it, but nothing happens. If I drag the drive across it just disappears (as if it's going to Trash). The drive I add is either my home drive (my name) or Macintosh HD. - is that right?

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jan 6, 2015 4:49 AM in response to Jerry Dammers
    Level 9 (52,812 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2015 4:49 AM in response to Jerry Dammers

    The drive I add is either my home drive (my name) or Macintosh HD. - is that right?

    Do you have two drives installed in your MBP?  Usually the HDD labeled Macintosh HD is the one you want re-indexed.

     

    What do you mean by your 'home drive', the one with your name.?  Is this a separate HDD?

     

    Ciao.

  • by Jerry Dammers,

    Jerry Dammers Jerry Dammers Jan 6, 2015 5:04 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (31 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2015 5:04 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    I have just the drive on the Mac - no additional drives.

     

    In Finder I can see one called MacIntosh HD under Devices and one with my name and a Home icon in Favourites (which is a sub folder of MacIntosh HD).

     

    The Home icon is 460Gb which is what i think my hard drive should be - i.e. 40GB spare.

     

    The MacIntosh drive is 499GB - i.e. the full capacity of the drive.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jan 6, 2015 5:19 AM in response to Jerry Dammers
    Level 9 (52,812 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2015 5:19 AM in response to Jerry Dammers

    You want to drag the 'Macintosh HD' into Spotlight.  Review the instructions to see if you are doing it correctly.

     

    Ciao.

  • by Jerry Dammers,

    Jerry Dammers Jerry Dammers Jan 6, 2015 5:21 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (31 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2015 5:21 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    When I drag it I get the the symbol/noise like Trash.

     

    If I go via "Choose" (i.e. via the Add button), I can see it, then delete it as per the instructions, but nothing then happens.

     

    Any ideas?

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jan 6, 2015 11:04 AM in response to Jerry Dammers
    Level 9 (52,812 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 6, 2015 11:04 AM in response to Jerry Dammers

    What OSX are you using?  I will try this on my test MBP.

     

    In the mean time, Look at OmniDiskSweeper and Grand Perspective.  They actually should be more informative than a Spotlight re-index.

     

    Ciao.

  • by Jerry Dammers,

    Jerry Dammers Jerry Dammers Jan 7, 2015 2:16 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (31 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 7, 2015 2:16 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    OS X Yosemite 10.10.1.

     

    I have now down an erase and reinstall and managed to - seemingly - get everything back how it was with the exception of iDVD which has disappeared (how do I get that back?).

     

    Curiously I now have more hard drive space than I originally thought. There was approx. 50GB that I thought was used by various applications and data other than music, photos and documents but seemingly not. If that's correct - and it isn't just another issue with the indexing - then my problem has been solved.

     

    However I will also take a look at OmniDiskSweeper.