[X4U] The case of missing hard drive space

[Randy B. Singer]

On Aug 18, 2010, at 9:49 PM, Kevin Hahn wrote:

> If I go to Macintosh HD and get info I get 97.85 GB on the HD,  
> however, if I go into the directory for Macintosh HD I can only  
> find at best about 43 GB worth of content to be taking up the hard  
> drive.
>
> I had some recovery issues but this is ridiculous, I am very  
> puzzled as to where 97.85 GB worth of Content could possibly be  
> hiding on my system.

That's just it, the extra data is probably an invisible file, such as  
a huge log file, or an out-of-control cache file or database.

Try running one or more of these three free utilities, which will help
you find out what is taking up all of your free disk space:

DiskInventory X (free)
http://www.derlien.com/
or
GrandPerspective (free)
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
or
OmniDiskSweeper (free)
http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidisksweeper/

You may find that you have one big cache file, or a huge log file, or
a large spotlight database, or a false clone, or a bad iDisk sync
file.  Let me know what you find, and I can help you fix the problem.

Try running this utility:

YASU (free, donation requested)
http://jimmitchelldesign.com/projects/yasu/
and have YASU clear all of your logs and caches, and run OS X's built-
in routine maintenance scripts.  This might free up the space that is
missing.

Unfortunately, it may only be temporary because you need to
fix the underlying problem.

___________________________________________
Randy B. Singer
Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions)

Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html
___________________________________________