Clogged up hard drive, but where are the files?

[decay]

Disk Inventory X is PowerPC; probably won't run under Lion. (not that it matters in this particular case)

good to see Grand Perspective is Universal.

[Winston]

In Disk Inventory X, I am getting the following when I try to open the hard drive:

"The folder's content could not be loaded.

Modal session requires modal window"


Not sure what this means, but it looks like it's not working. It ran for a while, then appears to have stopped with the progress bar almost at the end. If I quit and reopen it returns to the same spot. Will leave it open for a while, but I don't hear any disk activity, which makes me think it hit a dead end.

OK, double clicked on the hard drive in the Disk Inventory X window after restarting and now it is "Loading folder contents...".


Result:

"iMac HD (32.3 GB)"

The Finder now shows 4.07 GB available. On a drive formatted as 233 GB with 32.3 GB on it. Almost 200 GB is MIA.

Any suggestions? I know, Disk Warrior. Don't have a current version of that, but I do have Drive Genius and an older version of Tech Tool. I'll start with Disk Utility as Drive Genius and Tech Tool disks are at another location at the moment.




- W

[bazookaman]

You have 8 users on a 200gb hard drive?

[JPK]

Sounds like a good time for a backup, nuke & repave.

It takes a little time, but I have found it cleanses a lot of sins and almost always resolves the problems at hand.

JPK

[Winston]

bazookaman wrote:
You have 8 users on a 200gb hard drive?

Six in the family, plus my secretary uses it occasionally, plus a guest account. Used to be the "family" computer for kids to play games, and one of my son's used it as his primary computer. My wife is the only one who uses it regularly now. One of the kids has an iTunes library on it that takes up a few GB. It's now at another house where my older son lives and my wife has her office. I want to keep the various accounts as we all are over here from time to time and still use it.

If people are just using a computer for web browsing, web mail (kids school mail mostly and me when I'm over here) and playing games 200 GB is plenty. Now if everyone were trying to keep photos and an iTunes library, we'd have a problem.


- W

[Winston]

JPK wrote:
Sounds like a good time for a backup, nuke & repave.

It takes a little time, but I have found it cleanses a lot of sins and almost always resolves the problems at hand.

JPK

Yes, I think we're headed in that direction. The drive management programs take enough time to work that it's almost better to just go ahead with a reformat. But having reinstalled the OS on two other computers in the last four months or so I dread dealing with all the updates and minor things that don't carry over. Umpteen Java updates among other things, plus I remember having to reinstall printers.

If I were here all the time it would be easier. May have to bring my PowerBook over one day and make a day of it.


- W

[decay]

try installing Applejack, then boot into single user mode, and clean all the caches for all users.

[Bill in NC]

Backup _first_

Especially with the issue you're facing.

decay wrote:
try installing Applejack, then boot into single user mode, and clean all the caches for all users.

[Winston]

Quick comparison of Disk Inventory X and Grand Perspective. Note that both programs are universal (PowerPC and Intel)

Disk Inventory X
- most Mac-like in interface feel
- shows list of both folders and files as well as graphic of space used. I found the lists easier to use for the main purpose of seeing what's taking up the most space, but the graphic works too.
- option to show free space on drive as well as files
- option for a Finder plugin that allows you to easily review a file in the program
- basic info on files
- Can drag files from Finder-like list, which makes a copy. Not sure what the value of this is. Cannot drag a file to the trash.
- Can move a file to trash by Control-clicking in Finder-like list
- cannot save a scan. Scans can take several minutes to complete, so this can be a hassle.
- graphic is slow to show name of a file when you point to it with a cursor. Have to move cursor off of graphic to refresh. Makes this feature almost unusable. (Might not be an issue with a modern Mac. This was on a 1 GHz G4 iMac.)

Grand Perspective
- interface slightly less Mac-like
- more customization available. For example, several themes for file colors in tree map
- can enable file removal, so can manage files directly from the program
- can save a scan for use later
- very fast to show file names when you cursor across the graphic
- larger tree map is easier to navigate, but you don't have lists as an alternative


Both are handy. If I had to pick one, Grand Perspective has far more features and in particular has a much faster interface for file names on the graphic and the ability to remove files directly. The failure in Disk Inventory X to be able to point to files and quickly see what they are is a critical issue.


- Winston

[Winston]

Bill in NC wrote:
Backup _first_

Especially with the issue you're facing.

[quote=decay]
try installing Applejack, then boot into single user mode, and clean all the caches for all users.

Yes. Definitely need to do a current backup before I do anything to the drive.

I'll take a look at Applejack.


- W