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Reset now full HD

T

Trowa

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
27
0
Hello Mac Rumors fourm members,

I am having a little issue with my imac that i need to get sorted out.
Last night was a bit tired and realised my imac was still on, due to tiredness and the screen brightness hurting my tired eyes, i held the power button on the back of the mac to turn it off.

Woke up this morning and booted up my mac and i got a message saying that my hard disc was full. I got this mac 3 months ago and there is no way i would have filled up 1TB in that time. I'm only using it for general use atm with a slight bit of Starcraft 2.

Anyone got any idea whats happened and how i can fix it?

Thanks

Trowa
 
I would try unplugging, waiting a bit and turning it back on. May help, may not. This is only if there is a error OS wise or HD wise and you are not at capacity.

There is another type of reset that involves holding in the power button but I can not remember how it works? Anyone?
 
You don't have anything like a torrent thats been queried to retrieve by chance do you? Just another thought
 
W1MRK said:
You don't have anything like a torrent thats been queried to retrieve by chance do you? Just another thought
Click to expand...

No i don't, i have tried removing the power cable and leaving it but when i boot up its still the same.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Just out of curiosity, have you done what post #2 recommended/asked?

Btw, bumping is not really welcome here, unless it may be a day or two.
Click to expand...

i would its saying my hard drive is full when i try and download any of those programs, and i don't know how to check the free/used capacity via Finder.

Sorry about the bump, now i know there not welcome :)
 
Trowa said:
i would its saying my hard drive is full when i try and download any of those programs, and i don't know how to check the free/used capacity via Finder.

Sorry about the bump, now i know there not welcome :)
Click to expand...

Open Finder, select Macintosh HD on the Sidebar, press Command (⌘) + I and see what it says there.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Open Finder, select Macintosh HD on the Sidebar, press Command (⌘) + I and see what it says there.
Click to expand...

Capacity: 999.86 GB
Available: 14.8 MB
Used: 999.85 GB on disk.

There is literally nothing on the computer. I have tried repairing the disc from the disc but it says its fine. Worth removing and reinstalling?
 
Trowa said:
Capacity: 999.86 GB
Available: 14.8 MB
Used: 999.85 GB on disk.

There is literally nothing on the computer. I have tried repairing the disc from the disc but it says its fine. Worth removing and reinstalling?
Click to expand...

Do you have access to another Mac with Firewire? If so you could use Target Disk Mode and run OmniDiskSweeper from that other Mac and delete whatever takes up your HDD capacity.

And if you boot from your grey Restore DVD and run Disk Utility, what does it say then about free and used HDD capacity?
 
Did you empty your trash?

And is that how you always shut down your mac? by holding the power button down? Cause thats NOT the way you do it. Thats a hard reset type of shutdown.

Why ever shut it down? Just put it to sleep, uses no power.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Do you have access to another Mac with Firewire? If so you could use Target Disk Mode and run OmniDiskSweeper from that other Mac and delete whatever takes up your HDD capacity.

And if you boot from your grey Restore DVD and run Disk Utility, what does it say then about free and used HDD capacity?
Click to expand...

No i don't recently got rid of the second mac in the household :s

I ran the grey restore disc again and it came out with this:

Capacity: 999.86 GB
Available: 322.4 MB
Used: 999.54 GB
Number of Folders: 545,996

:S

@Badger Yeah i have emptied my trash and no, i don't normally turn my mac of like that. Only if it freezes/crashes but last night i was being lazy. Thanks for the tip for putting it to sleep, i'll use that from now on :)
 
Last edited:
At this point you might as well just reinstall if all you have are the basic programs + Starcraft 2. It'll save you more diagnostic headaches, plus it'll be totally uncluttered again.

After you do the format in disk utility using the boot install disk, make sure that it says that you have the full amount of the drive (minus up to 1% used). If it still says that it's unavailable after the format, it's a hardware problem. Applecare (incl. one-year warranty) will cover that no problem.
 
I would guess that the entire drive has been "taken up" by some kind of "junk file" (or files), that were a result of the forced shutdown.

It might be a "log file" of ENORMOUS size.

Or it might be an invisible (to the Finder and you) file.

This is what something like "Grand Perspective" does -- it locates the largest files and gives you the option of deleting them (and thus, "clearing up" the consumed space).

If NOTHING else seems to be working for you, the next option might be to boot from the System DVD and erase the hard drive, and then re-install the OS. But of course you'll lose everything that's on the drive, and you'll have to go to your backup drive to reclaim those things.

Wait a minute, you say. There's no backup? If that's the case, then it might be high time for you to start learning about what a backup is and why you need it. Actually, what's going on right now shows you WHY you NEED a backup.
 
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