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Author Topic: Problem Solved: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.  (Read 6661 times)

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Offline ts

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Problem Solved: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« on: November 15, 2015, 09:04:36 AM »
Not mine, I'm not a Mac person, nor do I understand how they work. My daughter uses it. She's big on iMovie and Final Cut. I'm assuming this is what's eating her hard disk space from the little I've read in Mac forums. She has a 500 GB HD and has over 300 Gigs in the yellow "other" portion of the hard disk. How do we recover disk space? I've already transferred the contents of her download and documents folders to an external drive, but the "other" yellow part of the HD doesn't budge. Thanks!
« Last Edit: November 23, 2015, 12:35:12 PM by ts »

Offline if_then_else

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2015, 09:24:53 AM »
Not mine, I'm not a Mac person, nor do I understand how they work. My daughter uses it. She's big on iMovie and Final Cut. I'm assuming this is what's eating her hard disk space from the little I've read in Mac forums. She has a 500 GB HD and has over 300 Gigs in the yellow "other" portion of the hard disk. How do we recover disk space? I've already transferred the contents of her download and documents folders to an external drive, but the "other" yellow part of the HD doesn't budge. Thanks!

First, try to cluster / identify the relevant files with a disk usage analysis tool.
These are the Mac (OS X) equivalents to Kdirstat or Baobab (on Linux) respectively Windirstat (on Windows).

http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/
http://www.derlien.com

Offline keytohwy

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2015, 10:17:41 AM »
My guess is that the imported files are still on the hard drive.  If she is working in iMovie, check the movies folder.  Also, in FCP, those files can be placed anywhere; it is up to the user.  You can check FCP preferences to see where she has those capture and render files going.

From the Finder, you can also just look for any files over 1GB.  That's likely to point to the files causing the issue.  Finder > File menu > Find, then tweak the search parameters to suit you.

Offline gewwang

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2015, 10:30:44 AM »
Did you check the trash can size and contents? If she doesn't empty the trash regularly, that will free up lots of space.

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2015, 04:25:43 PM »
I suggest using Grand Perspective to view a map of the drive contents.
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
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Offline ts

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2015, 06:59:05 PM »
Sorry, the subject should have read, How to find and delete pesky "other" data in OS X. This portion of the drive has over 300 GB in it. Total HD space is 500.

Offline keytohwy

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2015, 09:05:58 PM »
Sorry, the subject should have read, How to find and delete pesky "other" data in OS X. This portion of the drive has over 300 GB in it. Total HD space is 500.

Using my method should work.  Just use the find feature in Finder, and look for files above a certain size, most likely media files left from capture or render.

Offline ts

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2015, 10:31:37 AM »
Sorry, the subject should have read, How to find and delete pesky "other" data in OS X. This portion of the drive has over 300 GB in it. Total HD space is 500.

Using my method should work.  Just use the find feature in Finder, and look for files above a certain size, most likely media files left from capture or render.

That's what I'm thinking. Do these two file types even need to be saved? There must be an option in FCPX to delete.

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2015, 10:39:08 AM »
The absolute most effective way is going to be to back up the entire hard drive and re-install the OS and Applications.

Otherwise one of the disk mapping apps is probably the second best option.

A quick Google search (Windirstat for Mac) turned up this:

http://www.derlien.com/

The appearance is similar to Windirstat (which I use for Windows).

Also...if I was editing video I would need AT LEAST 1 TB drive. A hard drive upgrade might not be a bad idea as well.
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Offline keytohwy

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2015, 04:32:42 PM »
Sorry, the subject should have read, How to find and delete pesky "other" data in OS X. This portion of the drive has over 300 GB in it. Total HD space is 500.

Using my method should work.  Just use the find feature in Finder, and look for files above a certain size, most likely media files left from capture or render.


That's what I'm thinking. Do these two file types even need to be saved? There must be an option in FCPX to delete.

There is no option to delete that I know of. You can always re-render, so those files are ok to delete. You'd only want to delete the others if the project is complete and you are confident that the files are no longer needed.

For each project I work on in FCP, I create a new folder and point FCP there for all files; capture, render, etc. that was everything is easy to find and delete.

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2015, 09:32:17 AM »
Sorry, the subject should have read, How to find and delete pesky "other" data in OS X. This portion of the drive has over 300 GB in it. Total HD space is 500.

Using my method should work.  Just use the find feature in Finder, and look for files above a certain size, most likely media files left from capture or render.


That's what I'm thinking. Do these two file types even need to be saved? There must be an option in FCPX to delete.

There is no option to delete that I know of. You can always re-render, so those files are ok to delete. You'd only want to delete the others if the project is complete and you are confident that the files are no longer needed.

For each project I work on in FCP, I create a new folder and point FCP there for all files; capture, render, etc. that was everything is easy to find and delete.

I think I'm going to wipe her machine out and start over clean. Re install the FCP app and direct all projects to an external drive with named folders, assuming they can be directed to an external?

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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #11 on: November 18, 2015, 01:50:43 PM »
Regarding iMovie and especially FCPX, these programs generate huge file sizes.  It is strongly recommended to use an external Thunderbolt or USB3 drive to use for HD or 4K video editing.  FW800 or USB2 external drives are not recommended for HD video editing and worthless for 4K.  The video/media content really shouldn't be located on her boot drive.  I recently picked up a speedy Thunderbolt RAID 5 array specifically for video editing with FCPX.  Blackmagic Disk Speed Test is available for free in Apple's App Store and is excellent for evaluating SSD or HDD drives for how they'll work for video editing. 

Here is a link to a set of lessons that explain FCPX media management in great detail.  Some of their lessons are available for free but paying for their full set media management lessons is a good idea if she'll be doing lots of FCPX work. http://www.rippletraining.com/products/final-cut-pro/final-cut-pro-x-media-management/

Edit to add, best to keep the OS at OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 as OS X El Cap is not recommended for FCPX quite yet.
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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #12 on: November 18, 2015, 02:08:08 PM »
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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2015, 11:17:27 AM »
Sorry, the subject should have read, How to find and delete pesky "other" data in OS X. This portion of the drive has over 300 GB in it. Total HD space is 500.

Using my method should work.  Just use the find feature in Finder, and look for files above a certain size, most likely media files left from capture or render.


That's what I'm thinking. Do these two file types even need to be saved? There must be an option in FCPX to delete.

There is no option to delete that I know of. You can always re-render, so those files are ok to delete. You'd only want to delete the others if the project is complete and you are confident that the files are no longer needed.

For each project I work on in FCP, I create a new folder and point FCP there for all files; capture, render, etc. that was everything is easy to find and delete.

I think I'm going to wipe her machine out and start over clean. Re install the FCP app and direct all projects to an external drive with named folders, assuming they can be directed to an external?

They can be directed to an external drive, yes.


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Re: Recovering hard disk space on MacBook.
« Reply #14 on: November 22, 2015, 01:22:41 PM »
The 'other' stuff can be a pretty tricky pain in the ass.  Spent a solid week, a few months ago, trying to figure out how to get rid of mine (it was like 90 gigs of a 500 gb drive) with more or less no luck. Was very frustrating

 

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