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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Hard Drive capacity not correct?

Hard Drive capacity not correct?
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LadyBlue
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Jan 8, 2005, 03:06 AM
 
Ok so I'm sitting here looking at how I want to back up my files and looking through all of them, something doesn't seem right. It seems as if my hard drive is missing 8 gigs of space.

I could just be mistaken cause I don't fully know the workings of a mac yet.

I looked at all my user files, which contains documents, movies, music and pictures. This altogether equals 16.12 gb.
The application folder is 4.87 gb. the system folder is 1.36 gb. and 8.02gb free

I thought that this is what mostly took up space on a computer. Or is there something else that I am not aware of. Now I know you don't get full capacity, cause my HD is 40gb, but only gives me 37.25.

But all of the above still doesn't equal 37.25. I'm being jipped somewhere (at least I think).

Any help will be appreciated.

edit: the library folder equals 3.51 gb which total only gives me 33.88gb (counting in free space)
( Last edited by LadyBlue; Jan 8, 2005 at 03:21 AM. )
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f1000
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Jan 8, 2005, 12:18 PM
 
Do you have multiple user accounts on your PowerBook?
     
LadyBlue  (op)
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Jan 8, 2005, 03:21 PM
 
Originally posted by f1000:
Do you have multiple user accounts on your PowerBook?
nopers
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f1000
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Jan 8, 2005, 03:39 PM
 
Did you include the System folder?
     
LadyBlue  (op)
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Jan 8, 2005, 03:53 PM
 
Originally posted by f1000:
Did you include the System folder?
yes
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tooki
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Jan 8, 2005, 03:56 PM
 
The joys of hidden files...

There are a couple of hidden system directories that the Finder will not display, because it doesn't want you monkeying with them.

Doing "ls -l /" in the Terminal will list all the contents of the drive (not subfolders).

tooki
     
paully dub
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Jan 8, 2005, 03:57 PM
 
With my hd i have 4 directories: applications, library, system and users. cmd + i them all, add up their totals and subtract it from the capacity and there'll be a difference of a couple gb.

So hidden files? Disk Utility is telling me I have 30.2 gb used when I can find only 28.45 through the finder. But the finder doesn't display everything...

edit: tooki beat me to it. And besides I was wary of telling someone to use the terminal app if I'm not 100% sure.

Tooki is a veritable font of wisdom, though.

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LadyBlue  (op)
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Jan 8, 2005, 04:01 PM
 
Originally posted by tooki:
The joys of hidden files...

There are a couple of hidden system directories that the Finder will not display, because it doesn't want you monkeying with them.

Doing "ls -l /" in the Terminal will list all the contents of the drive (not subfolders).

tooki
ahhhh ok. thanks again
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jon l. dawson
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Jan 9, 2005, 01:20 AM
 
I suppose also there is a swap file somewhere, which could take up a considerable amount of space.
     
smitty825
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Jan 9, 2005, 02:07 AM
 
This is a problem that occurs on all computers... You are seeing less than 40GB for two reasons:

1. When the drive is formatted, the formatting uses some of the space.

2. Your Hard Drive is 40GB. However, it is likely your disk drive is calculated as 1,000MB = 1GB. MacOS X (and every other OS that I've ever used) calculates 1024MB = 1GB. 40 * 24 is almost equal to 1GB right there.

(This gets confusing, because 1GB of RAM is always 1024MB, and even hard drive manufactures consider 1024Bytes = 1Kb when counting the size of their drives)

There is an article on Slashdot talking about creating new units of measure to clear this up...
     
Dr.Michael
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Jan 9, 2005, 07:10 AM
 
If I understand the problem correctly there are still 4 GB missing. The formated capacity of a 40 GB disk should be something around 37 GB - the swapfile (= amount of your RAM).
The missing 4 GB is too much for the hidden files. Looking through my hidden files I find less than 1.5 GB.

The first action I would recommend is to clear all caches (onyx does this for you, or mac janitor).

If you can still not find all of your files its the best to make invisible files visible. Onyx or Tinker Tool have options for this.

Then you can activate "calculate all sizes" in the view options of the macintosh hd folder. Now you see all your file and folder sizes.

Then its your turn to find the clutter manually. I once found a hidden trash folder with 8GB of data in it. Don't know how this could happen. So its best to look for folders called Trash, trash, .Trash or .trash. Its normally safe to delete their contents (NOT the folders ).
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jan 9, 2005, 08:04 AM
 
Originally posted by smitty825:
There is an article on Slashdot talking about creating new units of measure to clear this up...
There was also this little note in the original post:

Now I know you don't get full capacity, cause my HD is 40gb, but only gives me 37.25.

But all of the above still doesn't equal 37.25. I'm being jipped somewhere (at least I think).
     
   
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