How to recover the free disk space of deleted files?

Question

How to recover the free disk space of deleted files?

Dear Support Community,

I have a big problem with my MBP 2015. I deleted a lot of files, emptied the trash etc. but still do not have the freed up space available. Somewhere it gets lost. I would guess that it is a core storage problem, but I don't know enough about OS X to be sure.

What I have:

I use BootCamp and have a Windows partition. I did have FileVault switched on. The Macintosh partition is around 900 GB in size.

When I select all folders on Macintosh HD and get info, it says that these folders and files add up to 486 GB -> around 400 GB should be free, which sounds about right.

Finder says that 156 GB are free. Disk utility says that 127 GB are free.

What I tried:

I did use disk utility to repair the volume and repair the permissions.

I disabled FileVault and did this again.

I even used Onyx and CleanMyMac 2.

So I am missing around 400 GB of disk space and do not know how to get it back.

Kind regards,

Markus

Below a screenshot showing Finder get info dialogue with all folders in Macintosh HD selected and disk utility in the background. In German, sorry for that 🙂

Posted on Jul 2, 2015 2:13 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 2, 2015 9:29 PM in response to derzornigemarkus

I could use DaisyDisk to "show" me the files (290 GB), but still cannot access them or delete them for good.

It says something like the files are not accessible for this user, even though I did this as admin and repaired the permissions many times.

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Answer 2

Rysz

Level 8

44,421 points

Jul 2, 2015 10:17 PM in response to derzornigemarkus

DO you have Time Machine enabled? If Yes, then the discrepancy is that Time Machine creates "snapshot" backups on your local drive, when you're not connected to your Time Machine backup dative. This space is shown in Finder as used, but as free elsewhere, because it will be freed up if you need it for storage of other files.

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Answer 3

Jul 2, 2015 10:55 PM in response to Rysz

Hi Rysz, thank you for your reply. I did disable and enable Time Machine to delete these files. Should have stated that right in the question, sorry. Backups on the local drive right now are less than 300 MB 😟

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Answer 4

Jul 2, 2015 11:42 PM in response to derzornigemarkus

Maybe it is somehow connected to the "Apple Music kills your iTunes library" debacle (see this discussion), as the deleted files are all iTunes folder files within my user? Maybe the files have been touched by Apple's DRM?

This might explain why I cannot see or manipulate them, but DaisyDisk shows them as "not accessible by the current user".

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