CheekyGeek:
Disk Inventory X is a great tool! I have several other tools that
attempt a similar task but this one is much more accessible and easier
to understand. Thanks for posting the link!
Dave:
The most important question, given what you found, is whether you have
FileVault turned on. I think you do. It's a question I only rarely
think to ask ... (thanks again, cheekygeek!). You can find this out
by looking at the settings ... In Mac OS X v10.5.x, the FileVault
setting is in System Prefs -> Security panel, FileVault tab. I seem to
recall that the switch to turn it on and off was elsewhere in Tiger,
so check around system preferences if you don't see it in the Security
panel. It would most likely be in the Accounts panel if it's not in
the Security panel.
If FileVault is turned on, that explains the 'sparse image files' in
the Users directory and where your disk space is going. When you are
running FileVault, all of your account's directory tree (including all
your files and folders) is encrypted into a sparse image file (a form
of virtual volume file like a disk image) which is opened and mounted
every time you login on the system. When you hard-quit the system
using the power button, FileVault cannot cleanly close that file and
ensure that it is properly safeguarded, so the next time you start up
it recreates the sparse image file, increments the number you're
seeing (davebrooks.N, where N is the copy number) and opens that. Each
one of those files takes up however much space on disk, even though
the older versions are no longer being used.
So the last time you forced power off, it recreated that sparse image
again ...
To fix this:
- Be sure you BACK UP all your account's data files to an external
drive first. Preferably to a freshly formatted, empty external drive.
- Turn FileVault off.
- Once you do that, and FileVault finishes the job of returning your
account to an unencrypted tree of folders and files, you can safely
delete all the sparse image files named "davebrooks.N".
- If you then feel you need the security of FileVault, turn it back
on. It will recreate a sparse image file but there will be only one of
them. Personally, I would only use FileVault if you had data that
needed to be secure on a laptop that you used for a lot of travel, but
others have different ideas ...
This should regain all that lost disk space for you.
Godfrey
On Nov 14, 2008, at 10:18 AM, David J Brooks wrote:
Thanks to cheekygeek for these tips.
I ran the disk repair with the install disk, and all it found was the
volume needed minor repair and it fixed it.
I also reran the disk permissions. Many needed fixing.
Still have 7.9 gig free as apposed to 18.4.
Ran disk inventory, neat layout.
Only big thing i saw was in users, sparse image files had 29 gig in
it. In the sub directories a whole bunch of files named davebrooks.1
or davebrooks.15 etc.
Not sure what this is, so its still on the computer.
Nothing even close to 11 gig shows up.
I;'m starting to panic now.:-)
Dave
On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 9:42 AM, CheekyGeek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
Dave,
My messages seem to not be getting to the pdml list, so I'm sending
this
directly to you.
What version of the Mac OS are you running? Do you happen to run
Norton
Antivirus? If so, which version? Do you have Filevault turned on?
Forcing the mac to do it's maintenance (getting rid of logs and
temp files)
may fix the problem:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2319?viewlocale=en_US
To see where big files exist-
Download this free program (it's excellent donationware):
DiskInventoryX
DiskInventoryX is a great graphical way to identify what's taking
up big
chunks of your hard drive (and where it is).
http://www.derlien.com/
It reads your drive and creates a graphical view (color-coded shapes)
A 10 GB file is gonna be VERY easy to spot. It will tell you
exactly where
that file is so you can go in and delete it. You might google the
name of
the file before deleting it, just to make sure you aren't gonna mess
anything up by deleting it.
A couple of other pages that might be useful:
http://www.macfixitforums.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/353391/1/Where_Did_My_Disk_Space_Go
(This is 2 year old info and may not ALL apply to the newest
versions of the
Mac OS.)
This one is for Tiger (but some things might still apply to Leopard)
http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html
-d
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