phantom "backups" files taking up 162gb of storage space

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phantom "backups" files taking up 162gb of storage space

Hi all,

So, recently I decided to put my whole music collection (a little less than 300gb) on my XHD (external hard drive) to save some storage space on my macbook pro. That was all fine and ok. However, since transferring the files over, a whopping 162gb of storage space is being taken up by mysterious "backups" files (see "macintosh HD" in the window on the left hand side in the screenshot below). Stranger is the fact that these files don't show up in OmniDiskSweeper. Or, rather, they do and then they don't (see "macintosh HD" in top right and bottom right windows).

I'm not sure if this ties in with the "Time Machine" app somehow? Because... in order to make enough space on the XHD for my music collection, I switched off time machine, removed my XHD from its list, and deleted all the time machine related files from my XHD (incidentally they were also labelled "backups" and were 500gb in size, the exact storage capacity of my macbook - I'm guessing that's just how time machine does its thang). As such I currently don't have any drives backing up my computer.

Anyway... I'm not really sure what's going on here, any help would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks,

Michael.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Jan 27, 2015 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

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Kappy

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Jan 27, 2015 2:03 PM in response to m.mcnab

About Time Machine local snapshots

They only occupy space until such time as the drive has no more space for storage, then it deletes the snapshots necessary to provide more space on the drive. So these snapshots have only a temporary life - as long as they are not needed for storage space.

Time Machine Snapshots

Open the Terminal in the Utilities folder and enter or paste the appropriate command line. Press RETURN and enter your admin password when prompted. It will not be echoed. Press RETURN again.

To turn them ON: sudo tmutil enablelocal

To turn them OFF: sudo tmutil disablelocal

Note that turning them OFF will also delete all existing snapshots.

For more about snapshots see: OS X Mountain Lion- About local snapshots.

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Answer 2

m.mcnab Author

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Jan 27, 2015 8:29 PM in response to Kappy

Ahh OK! Thankyou Kappy for the quick + clear response, that really helps and makes sense! I've decided not to delete the local snapshots if the computer needs them to back up, but cheers anyway for that info 🙂

Just to make sure - I've now started again with time machine and backed up everything onto my XHD. I've also re-indexed both drives (startup and XHD) in the spotlight preferences "privacy" tab. This is what it looks like now:

Is this normal?

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Answer 3

Kappy

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Jan 27, 2015 8:33 PM in response to m.mcnab

Don't know about the hard drive, but then you said you removed everything but the backups, so if that be the case, then they are both "normal."

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Answer 4

m.mcnab Author

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Jan 27, 2015 8:42 PM in response to m.mcnab

Also, while I've got you, there are some locked files called "boot.efi" that appear in my trash, but only when my XHD is plugged in. They're buried in a bunch of folders. The trash can't be emptied, i.e. they can't be deleted, until I eject the XHD - at that point I can empty the trash, but they still reappear when I plug my XHD back in. What's that all about?

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Answer 5

m.mcnab Author

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Jan 27, 2015 8:44 PM in response to m.mcnab

Oh sorry, I didn't see your last response.... I didn't delete anything else actually, that's just what showed up after I re-indexed them... a whole lot of purple and yellow :/

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Answer 6

Kappy

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361,741 points

Jan 27, 2015 8:49 PM in response to m.mcnab

That file should be invisible and part of the invisible components of OS X. Why it's on your XHD I don't know. You may be able to delete it by first shutting down the computer, then restarting it. Leave it in the Trash as you do this. After rebooting you should be able to delete it.

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