90GB missing?

[alipica]

Hello! This is my first post so I apologize if I'm not posting this in the right section. I have an iMac that has 2 hard drive partitions (a 120GB for the system and a 880GB for everything else). I'm constantly running into a message of the hard drive being full for the system partition. I've gone through articles to delete files, but am only ever able to open up a gig or two of space. I've moved everything and their dog to the other partition, including applications that aren't tied to the system, downloads, documents, etc. When I reboot, I gain about 8-10GB but programs fill that up pretty fast for memory space.

Some of the articles suggested that I run OmniDiskSweeper or Disk Inventory X, so I did both and both report only about 30-32GB in use! I can't figure out what's going on here! Where are the other 90GB on the system partition? Does anyone have any ideas or can point me to a resource that will help me to figure out what is going on?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

It can be somewhat difficult to track it down, but we'll give it a try.

-Which exact model Mac?
-Which version of Mac OS X?
-Do you have a Gmail account setup in Apple Mail?
-Do you sync iPhones/iPads with this Mac on a regular basis?

Let us know and we'll go from there.

C

 

[alipica]

Hi Cory, thanks for the reply! Here's what I have:

- Model: iMac13,1 (21.5-inch, Late 2012)
- OS X: 10.10.2
- I did at one point but I deleted all my inboxes trying to save space
- I sync my iPhone to it once or twice a year

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK...thanks for the info.

-Gmail can sometimes run amuck and download all mail multiple times which can fill the HD very quickly.
-Runaway log files can also fill a HD quickly.
-iPhone/iPad backups can take GBs of space for each one. A couple of times a years isn't a problem.

-Time Machine may be doing local snapshots onto the System HD:
About Time Machine local snapshots

Check that article out and see if helps.

C

 

[alipica]

Thanks for the ideas Cory!
-I deleted all gmail mail a few months ago and shut off the inboxes.
-I checked out the logs, but they only seem to take <50MB of space.
-I also decided to check the device backups and found there's only one backup that was ~2GB
-I've never used time machine on this computer

I guess I didn't think about the OS, but it probably takes up some of the space outside of the 32GB in use by files?
Although Disk Inventory X, reports only 32GB in use, I did go to the About This Mac > Storage tab. Maybe the attached image will help in solving this? It shows 76GB in Other. Any other ideas?

Thanks again for your help so far!

 

[alipica]

I figured it out. I falsely assumed that since I was on an administrator account that it would show me files related to all users on the machine. Since the other user account on the computer hasn't been used for over a year, I never stopped to think that it would have more than maybe a few gigs on it. Boy was I wrong on both assumptions! It had a ton of media and a 20GB virtual machine on it.

I feel a bit dumb that this never occurred to me, but glad I figured it out. Thanks for your help Cory!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hey, you did al the work!

I can't believe that Disk Inventory X is still around and actually runs under Yosemite! That app was designed for Mac OS X 10.3 Panther and later, and hasn't been updated since the initial 1.0 release back in 2006.

You are correct...all disk utilities like that, including OmniDiskSweeper, WhatSize, etc. will only show the size of the current user folder, even if it is an admin account. If you run them booted from an external HD, they will show all user folder sizes if ignore ownership is checked in the Get Info for the drive they are trying to scan/inventory. It will also show all sizes if you are logged into the root user, but that is not recommended.

Any way, glad it's sorted out.

C