missing hard drive space

[an63lu5]

hi all,

i am new to mac, and i have had this problem before, i just can't figure out how to fix it again.

i have an 80gig hard drive, and it is telling me i only have 385meg left, i know that aint true. i use azerus, and i know when you start to download a torrent, it takes up the hard drive space for that whole torrent, before it is downloaded.

i ahve tried everyting to find it, i ahve deleted all my torrents, looked in any cache file i can see, looked in any temp folder etc, there is something i am missing. i have only used up about 35 to 40 gig, so where did it go

any help would be great
cheers bret

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

This might help you out in figuring where all your disc space has gone:

WhatSize

WhatSize is a simple tool that allows the user to quickly measure the size in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. You would be surprised at how many useless files might be laying around on your hard disks. The files and folders are automatically sorted by size, with the biggest sizes first.

 

[an63lu5]

hi, thanks for that, it makes things look a little easier, but i am stil only seeing 36gig worth of files, but i have an 80 gig drive. there must be something hidden somewhere, in pc's you can view hidden content, does mac have hidden content as well?

 

[Walrus666]

hi, thanks for that, it makes things look a little easier, but i am stil only seeing 36gig worth of files, but i have an 80 gig drive. there must be something hidden somewhere, in pc's you can view hidden content, does mac have hidden content as well?

Mac has hidden content as well but most of the hidden content belongs to the system and if you delete these hidden system files and folders it can cause SERIOUS DAMAGE! Here's a great app that will show you the hidden content on your Mac along with performing more maintenance tasks than you could shake a stick at and it's free!
If you decide to install this it will appear on your menu bar. To see hidden content go to it's Finder tab and then click on "Show Invisibles".
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/25902

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

hi, thanks for that, it makes things look a little easier, but i am stil only seeing 36gig worth of files, but i have an 80 gig drive. there must be something hidden somewhere, in pc's you can view hidden content, does mac have hidden content as well?

Don't forget also an63lu5, that the OS will occupy about 15 - 20 gbs of your 80 gb ... so that would drop you to about say, 60 gb free space before you add your personal files/data.

So you really need to add up the space taken by your files/data, then add the 15 - 20 gb that is the OS, then subtract that from the original 80 gb to see what free space is really left.

Do you use iPhoto or iMovie? Those apps have their own Trash and it can fill up quickly ....