Mountain Lion Mystery

[RobertVJ]

I upgraded to ML a couple of days after the release. It seemed to work fine and the only thing I noticed was that the number of files on my HD went from about 300K to about 900K. I started a plot of the file count and the HD space. After about three weeks I used a utility to remove all non English localizations which reduced the file count to about 750K and also reduced the HD space; still, nowhere near the 300K of Lion.

Then the strangeness. Over six days the file count went down to about 280K while the HD space didn't change. Then two weeks later it went back up again and then a couple of days ago it has started down again with HD space remaining essentially constant.

I have verified these numbers using Disk Utility and SuperDuper. This is a plot of the behavior

I have Googled and found nothing. I assume that since the HD space doesn't change much while the file count changes by about 500K that these are very small files. NOTE: I do not have Time Machine on.

Any thoughts?

 

[GGJstudios]

If you're wondering what "Other" category in the Lion/ML storage tab is about, this may help explain:

What is this "Other" in the storage tab? What is eating my space​

For space issues not explained by the above, there are a few things you can try, some of which may or may not apply:

• Begin by restarting your computer as a first step. This sometimes resolves issues.
  
  
• For Time Machine users on notebooks running Lion or later, space may be consumed by Time Machine local snapshots, which can be disabled.
  
  OS X: About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs​
  
  
• Check to see if some of the space is being used by your sleepimage file.
  
  
• Check the System Memory tab in Activity Monitor to check page outs and swap used. If swap used is significant, restart your computer and track that value under your normal workload. If you have significant page outs under normal use, you could benefit from more RAM.
  
  
• Search with Finder to see if the space is being consumed by a very large file or several large files. Adjust the 50GB in the illustration to whatever size you deem appropriate.
  
  
• Use OmniDiskSweeper, JDisk Report, Disk Inventory X, DaisyDisk or GrandPerspective to see how space is being used on your drive. Some of these apps may show more detail than others, so try several.
  
  
• Check your drive with Disk Utility: Using Disk Utility to verify or repair disks
  
  
• Try re-indexing your drive: Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

Here are a few resolutions found by others with the same question:

• Encrypted drive
• Time Machine backup files and needed disk repair
• App filling log file
• App or file was 89GB
• Drive needed to be re-indexed
• Time Machine backup file
• Large app cache file
• Garageband files and video podcasts
• Oversized email being duplicated
• Another email issue

Freeing up space in Mac OS X

How OS X and iOS report storage capacity

 

[RobertVJ]

@GGJstudios,

The issue is not storage since I'm only using about 30G of a 640G drive. The issue is the extreme swings in the file count (over 500K).

With regard to that information none of those things makes any difference like restarting; and, as I noted in my post Time Machine is off.

I have posted this mystery in four different forums over the last few days and no one has an answer.

 

[RobertVJ]

Solved!

 

[GGJstudios]

Solved!

It would be helpful to others who read this thread if you explain how it was solved.

 

[RobertVJ]

If your interested in the details read this thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19847048#19847048

.

 

[GGJstudios]

If your interested in the details read this thread.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19847048#19847048

.

My recommendation is to uninstall Virus Barrier. You don't need any 3rd party app to keep your Mac malware-free, as long as you practice safe computing. For details:

Mac Virus/Malware FAQ

 

[RobertVJ]

I've been using Mac's for 28 years. The only thing I'm confident in is that Mac users are the most arrogant of all PC users.

Having worked in software for 35 years I've learned the hard way that the paranoid survive and those that think their OS is bullet proof are fools. A multi-layered approach to security is the most effective with a knowledgeable and paranoid user the most important.

Cheers

 

[AlanShutko]

The question is whether AV software offers enough benefits and protects against enough threats to be worth both the monetary costs and the performance costs.

Here's an interesting take on it.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/03/antivirus/

 

[Weaselboy]

I've been using Mac's for 28 years. The only thing I'm confident in is that Mac users are the most arrogant of all PC users.

Having worked in software for 35 years I've learned the hard way that the paranoid survive and those that think their OS is bullet proof are fools. A multi-layered approach to security is the most effective with a knowledgeable and paranoid user the most important.

Cheers

Well said. While I agree running AV on a Mac is probably not "required" to the degree it is in the Windows environment, to tell an informed user such as yourself to uninstall their AV just completely baffles me.

This anti-AV business is almost like a religious belief or something.

 

[GGJstudios]

I've been using Mac's for 28 years. The only thing I'm confident in is that Mac users are the most arrogant of all PC users.

Having worked in software for 35 years I've learned the hard way that the paranoid survive and those that think their OS is bullet proof are fools. A multi-layered approach to security is the most effective with a knowledgeable and paranoid user the most important.

It's not about arrogance. It's about facts. If you want to run 3rd party AV, that's your choice. The fact is that 3rd party AV offers zero additional protection over that already provided by practicing safe computing, combined with the anti-malware protection built into Mac OS X, which already represents a multi-layered approach. There has never been any Mac OS X malware in the wild that couldn't be successfully avoided by practicing safe computing alone, as described in the link I posted. If that situation changes, we'll all hear about it.

 

[Mal]

I've been using Mac's for 28 years. The only thing I'm confident in is that Mac users are the most arrogant of all PC users.

Having worked in software for 35 years I've learned the hard way that the paranoid survive and those that think their OS is bullet proof are fools. A multi-layered approach to security is the most effective with a knowledgeable and paranoid user the most important.

Cheers

I'm all for a multi-layered approach to security, but none of the anti-virus programs in existence today would do anything against any threat released into the wild if it happened tomorrow. They don't know what to look for, and there's not a fraction of the amount of data to help with heuristic programming to aid them in that. Most of them consume resources like they're a fat guy at a buffet, and a few even introduce security flaws of their own (Sophos). Many of them also twist the facts or outright lie about what is and isn't malware that can affect the Mac (iAntiVirus and others), and the few that don't cause any problems still won't do any good. I'm very vigilant with my machine, but part of that is not installing software that's going to cause problems. That means I don't run an antivirus program on my Mac, because it would do more harm than good.

Of note, I do run antivirus in Windows in Parallels, of course, but that's only running when my virtual machine is running.

jW