scarletwoundsmile

Q: mysteriousdisk space, gibberish files?

I know this question has been asked again and again... but I've done through google/forum searching and tried it all.. but I still have 37.22GB of "other" on my hard drive. *** is this?? why? how? what? ugh!

 

6.7 GB free out of 59.81 GB

audio: 8.01 GB

movies: 410.6 MB

photos: 1.04 GB

apps: 6.43 GB

backups: 0

other: 37.22 GB !

 

os x: version 10.9.5

processor: 1.7 GHz internal core i5

memory: 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3

 

I downloaded CCleaner and it didn't help much (I already cleared out my safari and opera caches, history, etc).

I have cleared all the imessage convos, emptied all emails, cleared all my trashes.


I downloaded Disk Inventory X and found a large group of files that I don't understand. Can anyone explain?

It's there under "usr" (8,301MB)  and most of the file names are gibberish and the ones I can open are a bunch of text nonsense. other ones that can't be opened just tell me that there is no application to open them with.

 

the next step I might have to take is to reset the mac to factory settings. I don't want to do it because I'm afraid I might mess up the laptop... I already have all my important pics/music backed up on a flash drive. please help!

Screen Shot 2015-01-25 at 1.46.03 AM.png

here's an example of one of the gibberish nonsense files:

Screen Shot 2015-01-25 at 1.55.37 AM.png

MacBook Air

Posted on Jan 25, 2015 12:02 AM

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Q: mysteriousdisk space, gibberish files?

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  • by dominic23,

    dominic23 dominic23 Jan 25, 2015 1:41 AM in response to scarletwoundsmile
    Level 8 (41,671 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 25, 2015 1:41 AM in response to scarletwoundsmile

       Re-index Macintosh HD.

     

     

       Spotlight reindexing will take a while to finish.

     

       System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy

     

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

     

          About “Other”:

     

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

     

     

    Note:

      If you don’t have Macintosh HD icon on the desktop

      Finder > Preferences > General > Show these items on the desktop:

      Enable “Hard disks”.

  • by scarletwoundsmile,

    scarletwoundsmile scarletwoundsmile Jan 25, 2015 2:27 PM in response to dominic23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 2:27 PM in response to dominic23

    already read the article on the "other" files and it doesn't help me...

     

    Some me additional info: the 37.22 GB was not there when I first got the laptop.

    I will look into re-indexing.. Is that like defragmenting on windows? Does it just reorder files?

  • by dominic23,

    dominic23 dominic23 Jan 25, 2015 3:40 PM in response to scarletwoundsmile
    Level 8 (41,671 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 25, 2015 3:40 PM in response to scarletwoundsmile

    scarletwoundsmile wrote:

     

    Does it just reorder files?

     

    Yes.

    This deletes the existing index - possibly not accurate, forcing OS X to create a new  index.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jan 25, 2015 6:36 PM in response to scarletwoundsmile
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jan 25, 2015 6:36 PM in response to scarletwoundsmile

    First, get rid of "CCleaner," which is a scam. You're looking at tiny files that are part of OS X and have nothing to do with the problem.

    For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

    Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:

              iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash

    Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.

    According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.

    When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as  Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Ask for instructions in that case.

    See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

    You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.

    Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.

    Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.

    ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.

    Back up all data now.

    If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.

    Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.

    Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:

    sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper 2>&-
    sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective 2>&-

    Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

    Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.

    The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.

    I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.

    When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Jan 25, 2015 7:15 PM in response to scarletwoundsmile
    Level 5 (7,547 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 25, 2015 7:15 PM in response to scarletwoundsmile

    It hasn't been said yet, but it important: please do not delete items in /usr.

    They are not gibberish they are Unix tools, libraries & other supporting files that are required by the OS.

     

    The size of the /usr directory is also shown in MB - not enough to worry about.

     

    The other posts will help you find the data, but please be careful - making a bootable backup before you begin would be a good idea.