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Mac OS X forum: Why is my hard drive suddenly full?

by: pvau April 12, 2012 6:46 AM PDT

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Why is my hard drive suddenly full?

by pvau - 4/12/12 6:46 AM

Hi,

My 1 T hard drive on a 26 inch iMac running 10.7.3 has suddenly filled up. The sum of all the apps docs users etc. only comes to about 340 G.

Disc utility says the disc is OK, but about 650G is listed as 'other'.

Anyone got any idea what has caused the disk to register as full, and how to free it up again?

Thanks in advance.
Paul


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Clarification request: Did you use Boot Camp and install

by mrmacfixit Moderator - 4/12/12 3:54 PM

In Reply to: Why is my hard drive suddenly full? by pvau

windows by any chance?

P


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I have parallels

by pvau - 4/13/12 12:13 AM

In Reply to: Did you use Boot Camp and install by mrmacfixit Moderator

but I've been running that for ages with no problems.

Paul


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You can learn more

by SteveDNA - 4/20/12 6:56 PM

In Reply to: Why is my hard drive suddenly full? by pvau

You can DL a free version or paid for a program like Disk Expert which will break down your HDD into files by size. The "other" partition or file can be identified as to location on the HDD, and you can delete it if possible. Look in the App store for choices available.

Or, buy and run DiskWarrior (essential utility!!!) which will help you correct directory damage that Disk Utility can sometimes miss.

--Steve


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OS pain

by Omega_Theta - 4/21/12 12:30 AM

In Reply to: You can learn more by SteveDNA

You'll find that quite a portion of your missing 'other' is taken up with a 10.7 recovery disk. Also do you have 'Time Machine' turned on?? confused


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Empty the trash?

by onemoremile - 4/21/12 5:29 AM

In Reply to: Why is my hard drive suddenly full? by pvau

Have you ever emptied the trash? Right-cllck on the little trash bin on the dock and Open Trash to see what is in there. You can also click on Empty Trash to simply remove everything. Everything that you move to the Trash remains on your hard drive until you take the extra step of emptying the Trash.


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Virus?

by Hforman - 4/21/12 4:07 PM

In Reply to: Why is my hard drive suddenly full? by pvau

MACs are under attack the last couple of years. The NIST website's top ten vulnerabilities a few months ago were all in MAC systems.


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Vulnerabilities are not Virus's

by mrmacfixit Moderator - 4/21/12 5:19 PM

In Reply to: Virus? by Hforman

There are currently no virus's for OS X

P


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Sorry

by Hforman - 4/22/12 7:03 PM

In Reply to: Vulnerabilities are not Virus's by mrmacfixit Moderator

You are being misled. There is a current Mav virus.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/kaspersky-mac-market-share-means-more-malware/11642?tag=nl.e539
\


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Sorry, you rare being misled, that is NOT a virus

by mrmacfixit Moderator - 4/23/12 4:41 AM

In Reply to: Sorry by Hforman

it is a piece of Malware.

There is a huge difference between the two

You do know that current AV software does not find this Flashback trojan.


P


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Trojan

by Omega_Theta - 4/23/12 9:42 AM

In Reply to: Sorry, you rare being misled, that is NOT a virus by mrmacfixit Moderator

Perhaps the current crop of AV software will not find it, but the Flashback trojan is defunct now if you keep your Mac up to date.
The last Java update from Apple fixed that.


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My point was that even had you been running

by mrmacfixit Moderator - 4/23/12 3:43 PM

In Reply to: Trojan by Omega_Theta

AV software, the Flashback trojan would not have been detected.

Just like the first real virus for the Mac won't be

P


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