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I have a 500 GB Imac that I purchased in March of this year.

 
Mike the MacMedic's Avatar
  • Answered by:Mike the MacMedic
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Customer Question

I have a 500 GB Imac that I purchased in March of this year. I am now getting a message that my start up disk is full. Deleting files and emptying trash does no good. Before this incidence I was using only about 250 GB. The disk information now shows 0 for Audio, Photos, Movies, an Apps. "Other" is now using 499.09 GB on my disk. I have SOPHOS on my Imac. I did and update and it has been running for the past 2 or 3 hours. So far no "threats" have been detected. I am still able to run some of the apps like Iphoto but the computer is very slow. Any suggestions will be appreciated/

 

Optional Information:
Product: iMac
Software (if necessary): OS X

Already Tried:
Deleted files, emptied trash, looked for large files greater than 100 GB. Nothing out of the ordinary showed up. Currently running virus program called SOPHOS. No threats detected (been running for about 3 hours).

Submitted: 323 days and 7 hours ago.
Category: Mac
Value: $58
Status: CLOSED
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Expert:  Mike the MacMedic replied323 days and 7 hours ago.

Hello, my name is XXXXX XXXXX X look forward to assisting you today with your question and providing the best answer possible.

First I need some information and I also want you to check some things that may or may not be affecting the situation :

Please go to the Apple logo on the upper left of the screen, go to About This Mac (DO NOT Select More Info), and tell me the Version (under Mac OS X), the Processor and the Memory, it is all right there.

Click on the first icon in the Dock the "Finder", then click on Go at the top of the screen, you will see a drop down menu, go to Utilities. When that opens double click on the application called Disk Utility. When Disk Utility opens you will see your hard drive (usually Macintosh HD) on the left. Highlight your hard drive and click on Verify Disk on the far right. If that is OK in green type, then click on Repair Permissions on the left.

Note: If Verify Disk is not OK try to Repair. If Repair is successful then Repair Permissions if it is not successful let me know.

Customer replied323 days and 7 hours ago.

MAC OSX, Version 10.7.4, Processor 2.5 GHZ Intel Core i5

Memory 16GB 1333

Customer replied323 days and 7 hours ago.

MAC OSX

Version 10.7.4

Processor 2.5 GHZ Intel Core i5

Memory 16GB 1333
,MAC OSX, Version 10.7.4, Processor 2.5 GHZ Intel Core i5
Memory 16GB 1333 

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Expert:  Mike the MacMedic replied323 days and 7 hours ago.

In that case:

Restart and hold the Option key until you see your boot partitions, then choose the Recovery HD, when it boots select the Disk Utility and Continue. Then select Macintosh HD on the left and first Verify Disk if that is OK Repair Permissions. If Verify Disk is not OK try to Repair Disk.

Customer replied323 days and 7 hours ago.

Restarted holding down option key and followed the procedures outlined. Verify disk found errors so did repair. Repair said fixed problems and rebooted. Still have same problem with no space on drive. Still shows drive only 370.6 MB free out of 499.25 GB.

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Expert:  Mike the MacMedic replied323 days and 6 hours ago.

Did you repair permissions too?

Customer replied323 days and 6 hours ago.

Did not repair permissions

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Expert:  Mike the MacMedic replied323 days and 6 hours ago.

OK can you do it again please aslo Verify Disk again just to be sure.

Customer replied323 days and 6 hours ago.

Okay, repaired permissions and verfied disk okay. Now show Audio 60.71 GB, Movies 11.95 GB, Photos 19.82 GB, Apps 8.99 GB, Backups 12 MB, and Other 397.24 GB! Computer runs much faster but "Other" is still taking up the majority of my drive. When I try to run VMWare Fusion it will not run. Get the message "Failed to allocate main memory". "Other" seems to have taken over my computer.

Accepted Answer

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Expert:  Mike the MacMedic replied323 days and 6 hours ago.

This software will tell you what the "other" is:

http://www.daisydiskapp.com/

Expert TypeMac Support Specialist
Category: Mac
Pos. Feedback: 95.2 %
Accepts: 6051
Answered: 6/28/2012

Experience: Over 20 years IT experience with Apple computers in publishing, marketing and design.

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Expert:  Mike the MacMedic replied323 days and 5 hours ago.

I'm guessing some files are still taking up way more room than they should because of the disk corruption. Let me know

 
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