Phantom files on my hard drive?

B

BHowell

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I'm running OS 10.4.7 on a 400 MHz G4, and I seem to have some phantom items on my hard drive. "Calculate folder sizes" in the View:Show View Options tells me that (after I do the math) I have 4GB in use. But "Get Info" on that volume shows 6.7GB in use. I need those GBs. How can I free up that space?

Note: I used to have Virtual PC on this volume (back when I was running OS 10.4.3), and that only after I botched 2 or 3 Virtual PC installs. I used the install CD to uninstall, but could there be virtual PCs sitting on my hard drive somewhere, taking up space? Just a thought.

Thanks,
Rich
 
You may be 'looking' for files which are by default invisible. A free download from http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/download.html will allow you to turn 'invisables' on or off.
Alternatively, since I use PathFinder ( http://www.cocoatech.com/ ), it does a recursive list from the point you click on. Cocoatech have demo which may allow this function - but frankly the whole program is well worth the money (IMHO).
Otherwise, you need to find a recursive Terminal command that will list everything for you.
HTH
 
Thanks a lot, Clive and Bob. I'll give these ideas a shot. Then, when I see some humungous invisible files lurking on my drive, I hope I'll know from their names whether it's okay to delete them! You might hear from me again.

Thanks again,
Rich
 
I have a similar problem, but its 30gb that I cant find.... 'get info' and 'what size' sais I have 73.4 GB on my HD, used 63.4, available 10.9 , but if I add up the size off all the files/folders it only comes to 32.53GB.
So what is using the other 30GB?
How do I find out and get rid of it so I can speed everything up again (I'm getting low disk space messages in photoshop - although I was down to 1gb at one point I've tidied up all I easily can, but just cant find this mystery invisible 30gb...
HELP

cheers
Andrew :)
 
The extra 30 GB of files may be various cache files. I suggest downloading and installing the free OnyX maintenance utility. You can get it where ever you find MacOS X shareware. Run the available tasks, including cache cleaning.
 
Then you, too, should use tools like OmniDiskSweeper. For sizing files, you can use the free demo version. (The paid version also allows you to easily delete stuff, but you can find the things in Finder or Terminal in order to remove them.)
 
Thanks to all of you who have offered suggestions. I've tried OnyX, WhatSize, and OmniDiskSweeper -- all to no avail. They all work well enough, as far as I can tell (and I used OnyX to clean up caches, etc.), but they still give me the same info as the Finder does when I check Calculate All Sizes under View: Show View Options (more or less: the invisibles are petty cash): That is, I have a 10GB hard drive with 4.2GB worth of files (according to all of the above), and yet Get Info tells me I'm using 6.6GB!

Am I not using one or more of these programs correctly? They sure seem straightforward.

Thanks for your help,
Rich
 
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