HT206996: Free up storage space on your Mac

Learn about Free up storage space on your Mac
Xyenz Fyxion

Q: How do I find (and clear) the missing space (25 GB) that is on my (main) Hard Drive?

Hi, all. I hope that you are well. First, I would like to thank you for reading and sharing any information that you have.

 

I don't know why I am missing space on my boot disk. I have read a lot of the posts (questions and answers) found in this forum. I have freed up about 35 GB by doing so, already. I have used OmniDiskSweeper, and it says I should have more space than Finder is showing me. I have turned Time Machine off and back on, again. I have re-indexed Spotlight.

 

I didn't retrieve any space until I used Onyx, and this rid me of plenty of old (cached) files. Now, since I am no longer left with 6 GB on my Mac SSD, I am not sweating. But, I cannot seem to find the rest of the missing space for the life of me. I'd like to be able to leave some more files on this drive (rather than using as many aliases as I have been). If you can help me, please do. Take a look at the image to see what OmniDiskSweeper and Finder tell me.

 

Screen Shot 2016-09-24 at 9.50.55 PM.png

 

The only reason I can think of could be installing KODI and then trying to minimize the buffer issue. I configured it by following instructions found online to stream the data, rather than use a buffer cache. So, whatever I watched would be stored on a hard drive. I deleted the app within the same day. But, I don't recall anything else in the past few weeks that would make my iMac act differently. That's all I know, so far.


Thanks!

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Sep 24, 2016 7:50 PM

Close

Q: How do I find (and clear) the missing space (25 GB) that is on my (main) Hard Drive?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Sep 25, 2016 12:30 AM in response to Xyenz Fyxion
    Level 10 (123,860 points)
    Sep 25, 2016 12:30 AM in response to Xyenz Fyxion

    Hi, am I missing something? Macintosh HD seem to agree perfectly with Finder & Omni!???

  • by Xyenz Fyxion,

    Xyenz Fyxion Xyenz Fyxion Sep 25, 2016 9:02 AM in response to BDAqua
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 25, 2016 9:02 AM in response to BDAqua

    Hi, and thanks for responding.

     

    Maybe I wasn't clear enough by leaving out the sizes I saw. My Finder/Get Info window and OmniDiskSweeper drive list in the image shows 209.4 GB used. But, upon further inspection - sweeping the drive - we see in the middle image that only 183.8 GB are used (or accounted for). It's mysterious, since this space seemingly disappeared overnight. I literally saw that I had more space one day, then I was left with about 45 GB less the next day. It went from about 50 GB free to 5 GB. After changing things around and deleting a bunch of files, I have 40 GB available in Finder (well, I did yesterday). But, there is still 36 GB unaccounted for.

     

    Today: Screen Shot 2016-09-25 at 12.01.10 PM.png