Shrinking Hard Drive with OSX.2.8

[Gary S]

Maybe someone can explain this.

I have OSX.2.8 on a 60GB Hard Drive. When I get info on the Hard Drive it tells me:

Capacity=57.26 GB
Available=37.07 GB
Used      =20.19

Next I open the Hard Drive window and get info for the different folders contained within:

Applications=1.57 GB
Library       =2.8 GB
Users         =6.1 GB
Sam's Games=2.67 GB
Applications OS9=236 MB
OS9 System folder=249.6 MB
Documents =50 MB
System       =775 MB
Web Graphics Programs=210.3 MB

Total= 14.68 used

20.19 GB
14.68 GB
————
5.51 GB

There is a VM file that I don't know the size of but where's the other 5.51 GB?

[Xairbusdriver]

Don't remember for sure about X.2.8 (been so long since I used it - maybe 36 hours, now! ), but I think I noticed some where there that the values were given in both the standard amounts (hexadecima) and the new amounts (decimal?). In other words they were given both as "1024=megabyte" and "1000=megabytye". So, first, be sure you're looking at the same standard. Second, have you actually emptied the trash lately? Have to confess that I failed to do that while transferring files/apps/etc. and then dumping stuff and was amazed at how the available space didn't ever seem to recover! I think not having the Trash Can/bin visible (I keep the Dock hidden) kept me from remembering the obvious! Thirdly, do you have a huge amount of small files? That can eat up a lot of disk sectors and cuase the 'available' space to look much smaller than it really may be.

[Gary S]

I don't keep anything in the trash so...

Not a lot of small files.

[kelly]

Could be in Invisible Folders.

[Gary S]

QUOTE

Could be in Invisible Folders.

Kelly,
Wouldn't they show up as space taken up though when I "get info" on all the folders?

I mean they're invisible but they still take up space....right?

[kelly]

How do you do a Get Info on Invisisble Folders?

But still. As I think about it, 5 Gigs is a lot.

That's way more than a full Jaguar Install.  

Are you sure it's not the old?

Macintosh Hard Disk: Is It Missing Space

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=30065

[Gary S]

QUOTE

How do you do a Get Info on Invisisble Folders?

Kelly,
That's a good question!
I suppose there are invisible folders and files outside of my regular folders that are visible.

If I open up my window: Finder-Go->Computer-Macintosh Hard Drive and "get info" it tells me 57.26-37.07 available.
But, when I add up all the Folders in that Computer window, I fall 5.5 GB short.

That to me doesn't make sense. I don't think it's the old 1000 vs.1024 stuff because that wouldn't add up either.

I wonder how I could find out how much disk space my VM is taking up?

[Paddy]

Gary, there are a number of ways to have a peek at your invisible files. TinkerTool will allow you to see them, and if I remember rightly, many of them are visible from OS 9 too.

Have you restarted recently? It's possible that you've got swap files that have gobbled up a lot of space, particularly if you don't have a lot of RAM. How much RAM do you have?

Although I've not heard of it causing problems in OS X, Photoshop scratch disks sometimes didn't empty properly under OS 9.0.

[Gary S]

Hi Paddy,

I restart every morning.

This G4 has 1.25 GB of Ram.

I have Tinkertool but I've never used it, any suggestions on what I may be looking for as far as invisible files i may be able to delete?
 

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

...Photoshop scratch disks...

Yeah! That's it! You need to get some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper and get rid of those scratches!

On the other hand, don't be confused (as I am) with the various definitions and rounding 'errors.' For instance, a Get Info on one of my relatively pure volumes (only had Panther installed a few days) shows:

CODE

Capacity: 50.92 GB
Available: 49.99 GB
    Used: 958.5 MB on disk (1,005,088,768 bytes)

That doesn't quite add up on my mental calculator! Seems there should be a .93 GB number somewhere, maybe showing up as 930 MB. But it is mainly, IMHO, due to the fact that the GB figures aren't directly convertable into MB numbers, much less bytes (regardless of wether they are using 1,000 or 1,024 as a kilobyte).

But I will defer to just about anyone as being more knowledgeable about this whole thing. And when you say you 'don't keep anything in the trash' I assume you mean that you are constantly or periodically using the Empty Trash command. And what do you mean 'not a lot of small files.' Seems to my small brain that X is very generously supplied with a lot of small files, right out of the box, even the visible ones!

[kps]

Fire up the 'ol Terminal and type df -k this is what you'll get, a complete run down of your disk usage. Then fire up the 'ol calculator and add it all up. Remember that with df 1k=1024.

CODE

Filesystem              1K-blocks     Used    Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s9             26212328 24019524  1936804    93%    /
devfs                         101      101        0   100%    /dev
fdesc                           1        1        0   100%    /dev
<volfs>                       512      512        0   100%    /.vol
/dev/disk0s9             10484848  4016608  6468240    38%    /Volumes/Darcy
/dev/disk0s10            28593400  6679664 21913736    23%    /Volumes/Trish
/dev/disk1s10             3145428   306812  2838616    10%    /Volumes/OS9
/dev/disk1s11             1048440    16436  1032004     2%    /Volumes/swap
/dev/disk1s12            29639544 25178264  4461280    85%    /Volumes/masterX
automount -nsl [292]            0        0        0   100%    /Network
automount -fstab [315]          0        0        0   100%    /automount/Servers
automount -static [315]         0        0        0   100%    /automount/static

[Gary S]

Thanks KPS,

I was waiting for you.

I found out where sone of it is and that's in my son's Shared Folder. He's got 3.7 GB of
music in there and there's only 1.7 GB in his Music Folder. Seems he's been using Limewire.

I wonder if I can delete all that music in his Shared folder without screwing up his iTunes lists.

I'm not that familiar on how that stuff works.

I have music in my Music folder that i use in iTunes but nothing in my Shared folder.

[Paddy]

Um...I think I'd be having a bit of a talk with Sam, real soon about copyright...before the next wave of lawsuits against music file-sharers! Although most of these cases have been settled out of court, the average settlement has been $3,000.

[Mayo]

QUOTE

the average settlement has been $3,000.

And since the law allows for a penalty of up to $150,000 per infringement (translation: that's $150k per downloaded tune...!) those folks got off with a slap on the wrist.

It makes Apple's 99 cents per song fee seem like a real bargain...

[Gary S]

Thanks Paddy and Mayo.

I'm already working on the situation!