What's taking up so much space on my hard drive?

[sazzlebazzle]

Hi. I'm new to macs (and to this forum!) and am hoping someone can lend me a hand...

I just bought a g4 powerbook about 6 months ago. I've been using it for school and have downloaded some music (about 5 gigs), but not much else. Now, though, I get a pop up message saying that my hard drive is full. After looking--it is! I've used 74 gigs. But I have no idea how. Is there a way to easily see what is taking up so much memory? Has anyone experienced anything like this before?

 

[2nyRiggz]

go through your apps and see which one has the most weight to them. did u download alot of apps? what size is your drive?


Bless

 

[~Shard~]

For starters, use your Finder and do a search. Specifically, go "File" and then "Find" and you'll see a screen which lets you search your entire HDD and specify certain filters. In your case, you would probably want to set up a filter similar to the one I've included in the example below, i.e. search for all files greater than 1 GB.

Find all the huge files, then go from there! If you need additional help, just ask.

 

[sazzlebazzle]

re: what's taking up so much space....

Thanks so much for the help.

My hard drive's 80G. And I haven't really downloaded many applications.

I used 'finder' to search for big files, but it's only turning up one larger than 100 megs (Entourage has a file called 'database' that's about 200 megs, but I'm wary of deleting it).

Any other ideas?

 

[ChrisFromCanada]

I use whatsize and it really helps to find large files and delete them just don't delete anything in your system folder and ask here before deleting anything from your library folder.

 

[javabear90]

sometimes, if you download stuff to another hard-drive or volume, and that volume is disconnected, then that program will create a virtual volume of that. To my knowledge, finder cannot see these.
If you go into terminal, type cd /Volumes then type ls you should only see the drives you are supposed to see (Main hdd, cd rom, etc...) if you see any other drives, make SURE they are not ones you want (you can check by typing cd "insert drivename here without quotes" and viewing the contents).... double check... again, and again.. then type rm -r drivename That should work. Be VERY careful with the rm -r command. It will wipe a folder and its contents without any warning.

 

[~Shard~]

Thanks so much for the help.

My hard drive's 80G. And I haven't really downloaded many applications.

I used 'finder' to search for big files, but it's only turning up one larger than 100 megs (Entourage has a file called 'database' that's about 200 megs, but I'm wary of deleting it).

Any other ideas?

Were you searching your entire HDD, and not just a portion of it? Just want to make sure. Otherwise, I don't know what would cause you to have 70+ GB's worth of sub 1 GB files... perhaps try refining your search and seeing what comes up...

As for the help, no worries, that's what we're here for.

 

[sazzlebazzle]

Perfect!

Oh, great. I got it. Thanks so much, that program was perfect.

 

[~Shard~]

Oh, great. I got it. Thanks so much, that program was perfect.

I wasn't aware of that program myself - thanks as well ChrisFromCanada.