SSD Boot drive dwindling ! (5,1 2010 MP)

[steveOooo]

I have my Mac Boot working with a SSD and internal spinning Disc as the Boot/ homedirectory combined.

recently i've had 'your start up disc is almost full' message - ive lost approx 10GB over the past couple days and it seems to stay on 3GB - I've searched on the finder under 'size' and 'date created' but just cant see any large files.

How can I find out whats going on? Maybe some sort of cache going off?

 

[teleromeo]

You can use an application like Whatsize to inspect your drive for large files. It will find hidden files and large system files used for virtual memory and sleepimage.
Also if you use an SSD be sure trim is enabled. You can see this in the system profile if you choose About this mac in the apple menu.

 

[Weaselboy]

I have my Mac Boot working with a SSD and internal spinning Disc as the Boot/ homedirectory combined.

recently i've had 'your start up disc is almost full' message - ive lost approx 10GB over the past couple days and it seems to stay on 3GB - I've searched on the finder under 'size' and 'date created' but just cant see any large files.

How can I find out whats going on? Maybe some sort of cache going off?

First do a command-r boot to recovery and from there start Disk Utility and do a repair disk. Sometimes disk corruption can cause this.

If that does not fix it, enter the command below in Terminal and it will give you list of all your folders and a number next to it showing how many GB of space is used in each folder. Post the output of that command here so we can take a look at it.

The command will prompt you for your password and it takes a minute or two to complete.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

 

[VirtualRain]

Maybe it's me but your post is not all that clear. I gather that the problem is your SSD is full and you're surprised... you don't think it should be? What brand and capacity is your SSD? How old is it? What's on there (OS, Apps, Media, Scratch Files, Downloads)? Have you emptied your trash? What role does your HD play? If you "Get Info" on the drive, what is it telling you about how much is used?

 

[steveOooo]

its sorted now (i think!) think it was a certain blue frog that had set the download folder to my ssd boot after i updated it, without me knowing or asking first! - despite changing it it still was taking disc space up, so deleted the blue frog and evreything is back to normal...

Oh thats good? Well no, couple days after doing this, two external WD drives have failed - one i already have a back up no biggy, the other has some stuff on their id like to keep....

Harddrives - more temperamental and highly strung then women