MacOS size weirdness

[Bert Knabe]

There are a few things you can check to discover why your available 
space is so far off. I apologize in advance for any suggestions you feel 
are so basic I should no better than to mention.

1. Empty the trash (you might want to check it, first). If you've 
crashed while running any programs that keep large files in disk cache 
(swap in Linux terms ;) your system may have tried to salvage the file. 
Usually it puts these files in the trash, and they can be huge (I've 
seen files approaching a gig)

2. Check your virtual memory settings (and perhaps throw away your 
memory prefs).

3. Do you have a RAM disk set up?

4. Get a utility that will show invisible files and allow you to make 
them visible. See what invisible files you have and how large they are.

5. Get a copy of Disk Warrior and run it. Directory damaage can cause 
errors in how much free space your computer thinks a disk has. Ditto 
Norton or Techtool. Disk Warrior won't tell you if the disk itself has 
problems.


Hope one of these helps.

Bert Knabe

On Saturday, July 13, 2002, at 06:20  PM, <astout2@swarthmore.edu> wrote:

> First, thanks for the help with the error in my install--I'm about to go
> repartition and see if things get better.  Second, sorry for flooding 
> the list
> with so many messages (and on a Saturday, no less).
>
> This one isn't exactly about YDL, but it has to do with sizing 
> partitions:
> MacOS 9.1 is lying to me about the sizes of folders on my mac system
> partition.  I first noticed this when I was backing everything up, but 
> I didn't
> think much of it until the same thing happened, more aggregiously, on a
> brand new install of the system software.  If get info on the System
> Folder or Applications folder on my MacOS system partition (which is
> 1Gb), or tell the finder to calculate folder sizes, it tells me my 
> System
> Folder is 251 Mb and Applications 81 Mb.  Those are the only things on
> that partition, except "Documents" and "Late-breaking news", both of
> which are small.  But if I get info on the volume, it tells me 636 Mb 
> are
> used on the volume.  251 + 81 + a little bit =/= 636.  And when I try to
> download a big iso image, my FTP client tells me there's no room left on
> the partition.  "Odd", I think, and copy the two folders in question 
> to a
> different volume.  Now they're 429 Mb and 159 Mb.
> These are both HFS Standard partitions, on the same internal drive.
> What gives?  We all know OS 9.1 is inferior to linux, but I'd expect it 
> to be
> able to give me the right sizes on a brand new installation.
>
> Puzzled,
>
> Andrew "this is my last post for the day, I promise" Stout
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