Disk Full

[johnrobert]

Imac about 2012

Just updated to Sierra customer complains about Iphoto not working I tell him the update includes

Photos instead I started converting files then it said not enough space

I checked in Disk Utilities it’s a 500 GB HD with 480 GB used

I checked all his folders but did not find much managed to delete about 20 GB including

5 GB Sierra image file in Applications.

I found a torrent folder I thought that’s it but it was empty.

There is only one login I can’t find where all the data is located, is there a program that would do a scan and find it

I was thinking maybe his HD is corrupt I have to go back I can do a verify

 

[NviGate Systems]

Yeah once you verify it may see free space marked as allocated.

You can also do command I on users folder and system folder to narrow down the typical issues. There is a command to make all files visible, helps to find hidden problems.

 

[phaZed]

IIRC, iPhotos keeps everything in a SQLite database. My bet is that you will need roughly the same amount of 'free space' as you have pictures in order to complete the conversion.

 

[geranium]

Grand Perspective will give you a good idea of where all that space is being used. Maybe ipad/iphone backups?

 

[johnrobert]

Is there anything like Ccleaner for Mac
Should I do a verify in recovery mode or does it make a difference

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Is there anything like Ccleaner for Mac
Should I do a verify in recovery mode or does it make a difference

I've used CleanMyMac successfully.

 

[Markverhyden]

On the subject machine, open a Finder window. Hit Command + J (Show view options). At the bottom check off calculate all sizes then click the Use as Defaults button. That will automatically display all folder sizes within finder. Personally I think those "clean up space" utilities are all cr@p irregardless of the OS.

And are you sure they were able to update to Sierra? I'm asking because, by default, if the EU downloads the installer and runs it the file is deleted from the Application folder.

 

[LordIntruder]

"clean up space" utilities are all cr@p irregardless of the OS

double signed.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Personally I think those "clean up space" utilities are all cr@p irregardless of the OS.

Could you elaborate? I use tools such as D7 for automation, sure you could do everything manually, but it's far less efficient. I use ccleaner and occasionaly cleanmymac as stated. Sure some programs will bundle adware/crap, but you just have to be careful as with anything else. I've not had an issue before and as stated look for efficiency and automation. Have you had problems with them or just a general I don't trust them thing?

 

[MDD1963]

Imac about 2012

Just updated to Sierra customer complains about Iphoto not working I tell him the update includes

Photos instead I started converting files then it said not enough space

I checked in Disk Utilities it’s a 500 GB HD with 480 GB used

You can gain a little space back by adjusting properties of the recycle bin down to a fixed/relatively low amount, like 1-2 GB....

 

[Markverhyden]

Could you elaborate? I use tools such as D7 for automation, sure you could do everything manually, but it's far less efficient. I use ccleaner and occasionaly cleanmymac as stated. Sure some programs will bundle adware/crap, but you just have to be careful as with anything else. I've not had an issue before and as stated look for efficiency and automation. Have you had problems with them or just a general I don't trust them thing?

More of a generalism so to speak. I completely agree about the work flow, efficiency, etc. I too use D7 and a few other tools like Tweaking's AIO to speed up the process. OS X is Disk Warrior, the builtin *nix CLI tools and on occasion Onyx but I've found Onyx to not really help much. But the down fall of not learning the OS thoroughly and just jumping to tools is they do not necessarily help one learn the innards. Same applies to malware removal. In the case of OS X and other OS's I prefer to handle the drive space issues manually. A full drive is a symptom of a problem which needs to be identified and then a proper solution needs to be implemented.

A recent example. A customer with two iMacs running W7 Pro in VM's I had setup some 18 months ago. W7 only for the purpose of running a CAD type program. I had setup everything to run the data files off of the Synology box so there should be no local storage except for cache. They started getting running out of drive space errors popping up and the owner asked a "computer expert" friend of his who "does this type of work". He was not able to determine that the problem was a result of the M$ feature that stores every single update file in the winsxs folder forever, just said that the VM was messed up because it was running on OS X. LOL!!! Personally I was surprised as the winsxs was almost 45gb out of a 60gb store, not sure why. Hard to believe that 45gb of updates had been applied unless updates were duplicated. Running cleanmgr.exe fixes the problem but it's not in the GUI by default for some reason, the default disk clean up does not report this. Since W7 does not manage that automatically I tacked on another 25gb to the virtual disk to defer this for an even longer period.

You can gain a little space back by adjusting properties of the recycle bin down to a fixed/relatively low amount, like 1-2 GB....

This is OS X. *nix's do not have that feature that Windoze has. You can setup a script to run periodically to purge the Trash folder based on file age.

 

[johnrobert]

I took another look at computer and for the life of me can't find all the data
they are only using about 20 gigs if that and it reports 480 gig used out of a 500 gig HD
I ran the trial CleanMyMac 3 it found 20 gigs that it could remove but the free version only removes 500 meg
it's expensive $60 I think that is typical for Mac utilities, I now see Ccleaner is availably for Mac
I think when they updated to Sierra something went wrong and screwed up HD
I read that Sierra does major changes to HD reporting
also, it did not delete the 4.9 gig image file with suggests something went wrong
I wish I had copied it before deleting as I think I am going to have to do a reinstall of Sierra
I guess when I log in with their ID it will be in the store.

It's not only Windows that has updating problems

 

[MDD1963]

This is OS X. *nix's do not have that feature that Windoze has. .

Ooops!

 

[HCHTech]

iphone backups

+1. Just yesterday I had an out of space call where there were about a dozen I-devices' backups taking 250GB of space. "Oh, that's my daughters phone, she moved out years ago". "Nope, don't have that iPod anymore."

 

[Markverhyden]

I took another look at computer and for the life of me can't find all the data
they are only using about 20 gigs if that and it reports 480 gig used out of a 500 gig HD
I ran the trial CleanMyMac 3 it found 20 gigs that it could remove but the free version only removes 500 meg
it's expensive $60 I think that is typical for Mac utilities, I now see Ccleaner is availably for Mac
I think when they updated to Sierra something went wrong and screwed up HD
I read that Sierra does major changes to HD reporting
also, it did not delete the 4.9 gig image file with suggests something went wrong
I wish I had copied it before deleting as I think I am going to have to do a reinstall of Sierra
I guess when I log in with their ID it will be in the store.

It's not only Windows that has updating problems

I forgot to mention that with enabling calculate folder size you also need to enable showing hidden files and folders.

Open terminal and run "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES" With out the quotes. After that go to the Apple in the upper left corner, Force Quit, then select Finder and click on the Relaunch button. You will now see hidden folders and their sizes as well. But be very careful what you delete in hidden folders. Just like M$ they are hidden for a reason. And if you see a folder with a -- under the size column that means it is still calculating the size. To hide them again repeat the above but with a NO instead of a yes and remember to relaunch finder.

From my experience modern OS's and their File Systems are very reliable. There can be corruption, meaning misrepresented sizes, but I've not seen one in years. Failing HD's can also cause this issue.

Two other thoughts.

Boot into single user mode to run a file system check if you've not already done that. Reboot holding down the command + S keys. Once it's stopped you will see the steps listed in the terminal window.

Another great app to have for OS X is Disk Warrior. Does a great job of fixing file system problems.

On the Sierra image file. You should be able to download it again from the app store with the customer's credentials. Should also be able to install it via recovery mode as long as the computer is connected to the Internet.

 

[LordIntruder]

@Kraken for RickeyK

 

[Kitten Kong]

@Kraken for RickeyK

Thanks. I approved the post. As it could be beneficial to techs.

 

[Porthos]

Thanks. I approved the post. As it could be beneficial to techs.

But that link is just spammy SEO post.

 

[Kitten Kong]

But that link is just spammy SEO post.

Thanks. I didn't check the link over properly. Was a bit tied up at the time.

 

[overburnz]

omnidisk is a good tool to scan the HDD and showing the size of all folders and wich ones are taking up space