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80ghz and Macintosh hard drives

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Hi, you guys! :)

I have been, or so I thought, making sure that I have cleared out my Mac of any unnecessary clutter. I have a 80gig hard drive. Since I am using Final Cut, I have been going to the FCP document file and clearing out the capture scratch file.

I have a bypass card that allows me to save all my work onto my external hard drive, as suggestioned by our own knightly, thank you very much.

However...
when I look at my finder, it says that I only have 17gig left available. Nothing on my desktop is that big, only one file that is 6gig. Everything else is kilobites or megabites and not that many of them.

Since all my FCP stuff is on my external, and even now I don't have the external hooked up to my Mac, what could be cluttering up more than 50% of my hard drive and how do I clear it out? Can I clear it out? The only program I have on it is FCP, I wouldn't think that it would take up that much room. I would like to install After Effects on it because I really need to teach myself how to use it.

Maybe I am forgetting something. So, how do I empty out some space? I thought I was clearing it out, obviously I was not.....:rolleyes:

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To investigate disk usage, open the root folder of the volume in question (double-click the volume on your desktop), and select detail view. Then, from the "View" menu at the top, select "View Options", or use Apple-J to get the options dialog. Down towards the bottom there should be a check box for "calculate all sizes". Turn that on and patiently wait for the sizes of each folder to appear in the detail listing. You can then drill down into the folders that seem inordinately large and continue until you find out where your disk space is being used. It also helps to sort the detail view by file/folder size. Just click on "Size" in the bar at the top of the finder window.

Chances are, you've got something cached somewhere. Since you don't want to go around deleting system or application files, you might want to start the process in your home folder. If that doesn't do it, there are lots of files that can be removed from your OS X installation (like video tutorials) to recover some space.
 
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I am trying that now....and waiting. I'll let you know what happens....

...er, I am online in other browsers, its that going to effect how long it takes for the files to show up?

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Okay,

If I am looking at things right, and it is entirely possible that I am not :D I have about 8 files that are less than 2 gb, with the exception of 2 which are less than 3. I have alot of of other files, but I am not really seeing where anything is stashed. When I click on size, the order changes, but that is all I am getting....

how come I can't be a computer nerd? :grumpy:

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You probably need to start looking at the root of the volume's file system. The reason you need to check "calculate all file sizes" is so you can see the amount of space consumed by each folder. My Applications folder, for example, takes 4.84GB and my Library folder consumes over 10GB. The Library/Audio folder is 4GB (audio loops and samples). Final Cut Suite is huge. I did not install all of it. If you have only Final Cut Pro, your root Library folder should be smaller than mine.

Like I said before, you can't do much to trim down the system, without risking some damage, although you can remove a few spacious items. It's safer to work in your home folder to find the big consumers you may not need anymore. My home folder is 30GB and I try to keep it cleaned up!

Sorry I can't be of more help. If you're feeling adventurous, you could open terminal and type "du -h -d 3 ~/ > ~/Desktop/usage.txt", and then send "usage.txt", which will magically appear on your desktop to someone who can interpret it for you!
 
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oakstreet,

This is what I am looking at:

I am trying to figure out what I should be looking at. Maybe I am looking at the right thing and don't know it.

When I open the finder, on the left hand side, I am clicking on 'documents' because that is where my FCP files are. I did Apple-J and changed over to calculate all sizes. I am assuming that my 'documents' is the root that you refer to.

I see four 'lists': Name, Date Modified, Size, Kind

In the Size row, it tells me all the sizes of the files in my documents. This is as far as I got...
Yes it did tell me how large the files were, but this doesn't add up to 60-70gb.

When I Apple-I for information, my documents file is 12gb.

I am in no way brave enough to mess with the codes of my computer. The last thing I need is for my computer not to work at all.

Thanks for your help, however....

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Assuming you don't leave your computer on all the time, it's possible your log files and such have gotten to be quite huge. Have you tried running something like MacJanitor?


Otherwise... Do you use FileVault per chance? If so, it might be a sparseimage file that's grown extremely massive in size. Resizing them is apparently possible, though not "simple" in the strictest sense. Though with a bit of reading and some command-line love, it's managable..

Here's the wiki on sparseimage files: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_disk_image
 
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Will Vincent said:
Assuming you don't leave your computer on all the time, it's possible your log files and such have gotten to be quite huge. Have you tried running something like MacJanitor?

Otherwise it might be a sparseimage file that's grown extremely massive in size. Resizing them is apparently possible, though not "simple" in the strictest sense.
Click to expand...

Not normally, but lately I have been leaving it on...well, letting it sleep, but not shut down.

Is MacJanitor yet something else I have to buy??? Damn these computers, I am not made of money! :grumpy:

Where should I look for my log files?

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Since I am really wary of just downloading anything into my computer, are there any drawbacks to putting this into my computer? I am running Mac OS X. Does it have the tendency to do any thing to the programs I have on my computer already? Do I have to change anything so that it will work with FCP?

Right now, my computer will run. I don't want to do anything that will change that fact....

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First of all: I love Wikipedia.

I read the page on sparseimage or whatever it is called. Okay, I think I get it.

And MacJanitor is a system that keeps the files from getting to big.

Will, you like this MacJanitor? No adverse effects?

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I don't have a mac. But I read about it elsewhere. Basically all it is is a front end that allows you to run some scheduled jobs that are supposed to run automatically anyway -- but when you don't leave the computer ON (and awake) 24/7 they end up not being run... this gives you the option to run them periodically on your own.

So, no there can be no adverse side effects.
 
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I use Mac Janitor all the time, it's a great app... basically, if you're using your mac for video editing all the things Mac OS does for self maintenance get knocked out of whack.

So, all the things they tell you, like your mac will take care of it's own maintenance and it'll never need a defrag... well for us they don't apply.

Mac Janitor and idefrag are all part of regular computer care, if you're using your machine for video editing.

Another way of finding bulky files in OS X is by elimination of the usual suspects.

To do this, open up a finder window... in the left hand column you'll see a list that normally reads "Applications," "Documents," "Movies," "Music," and "Pictures."

If you click on one of these, say for instance "Applications" and then click Apple "I" the information box with spring up and will automatically calculate the total size of the objects in the folder.

If you do this for each of those elements, chances are the problem with become obvious.

So, if your "Music" file is say "30 Gbs" you'll suddenly remember that you've downloaded a million songs into iTunes and forgotten they actually take up space.

Usually when my HD space is running low, it's because I've a couple of QT files sitting in the "Movie" section that I completely forgot about!
 
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Your documents folder is not the root folder. You may well have a ton of cached garbage in your Library folder. However, if you have 12GB in your documents folder, it's not s huge leap to think your 80GB disk may be nearly 50% full.

You can get to the root of your home folder simply by clicking on the icon a couple steps above Documents that has a little house icon (home) and your log-in name.

To get to the root of the system, you double-click the boot volume in the upper right corner of your desktop, or find it on the left side of an open finder window. At the root, you should see folders like "Library", "Applications", "System", and "Users". Looking at the sizes of those folders will give you a general idea of the distribution of your files. "Users" represents your user folder, and any other user folders that might exist on your machine. "Applications" represents all installed applications, and "Library" is where your templates, audio samples, plug-ins, etc. are stored.

You need to look at the root of the boot volume to get some idea where you should be looking for lost space. If "Users" is taking 30GB, then you need to delve into your home folder. If "Applications", or "Library", or "System" are really huge (greater than 10GB), then there is probably something superfluous hiding in one of those.
Here is what I'm looking at in my boot volume:
rootfs.png
 
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Okay, here's what we've got:

Users file: 34.23gb

Library files: 5.03gb

Applications: 4.45gb

render files: 5.4gb

home: 33.87gb ...thats the little house thingy with my name :)

desktop: 20gb

documents: 13.34gb

system: 1.63gb

render: 5.4gb

FCP book files: 3.96gb

...I'm still looking around. My capture scratch, audio render, are both under 1gb apiece....

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