Hard Drive Space Issue

[PLR2011]

Hello,
I'm new here and need some help.

I have a 2010 iMac (all the latest software), and I've apparently run out of hard drive space.

I only have about 170GB worth of data on my 500GB drive. The computer says I have only 50GB left remaining (running at almost 450GB full), and I've done a reasonable search and have no idea what's taking up all this space.

Can anyone point me in the right direction of a solution?

Thank you.

Paul

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Take a look at DiskInventory X, OmniDiskSweeper, JDisk Report or GrandPerspective to see where your HDD space went to.

 

[kalsta]

Or you could just view your hard drive volume in list view, go to 'View > Show View Options' and check 'Calculate all sizes'.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Or you could just view your hard drive volume in list view, go to 'View > Show View Options' and check 'Calculate all sizes'.

That would work too, but finding big folders/files will take longer that way.
For instance, OmniDiskViewer takes a minute to find the biggest folder, doing it via Finder will take more than that.

 

[kalsta]

That would work too, but finding big folders/files will take longer that way.
For instance, OmniDiskViewer takes a minute to find the biggest folder, doing it via Finder will take more than that.

I've never used OmniDiskViewer, but yeah… the Finder takes a ship load of time to calculate folder sizes for some reason, and then you still have to manually drill down. Still, that's how I've always done it.

 

[cmassage]

Download the free App "Disk Inventory X" from: http://derlien.com

A cute little App that gives you a graphical representation of the size and location of every file on your Mac.

My bet is that some log got out of control.

 

[PLR2011]

Thanks guys. That helped!
Indeed it was a log file that went nuts. Can anyone explain why this might have happened?

Just so I know what to look out for in the future?

Thanks again!

 

[jamshedpur543]

You computer might be infected by virus many times these viruses create hidden junk copies of the files and fill up the disk space you cant delete these duplicate copies since it might be hidden.

 

[GGJstudios]

You computer might be infected by virus many times these viruses create hidden junk copies of the files and fill up the disk space you cant delete these duplicate copies since it might be hidden.

There has never been a virus in the wild that affects Mac OS X since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:

Mac Virus/Malware Info
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