Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

Another possible fix for missing disk space System
My tiBook hard drive was showing a suspiciously low free space. Sure enough, when I went checking, I found about 5 GB of space unaccounted for. Needless to say, this was highly annoying.

After running fsck with no change, a *nix geek friend of mine suggested I take a look at hidden files. I did so. No luck. Then I had the thought to check for hidden folders. Going through them, I noticed I had two entries in the .Trashes folder off the root drive, one for user 501, and the other for user 502.

Since my machine only had one account, and that is by default user 501, I got suspicious and took a look in 502. It was full of data. It had a complete applications folder in it, multiple copies of my current user account, etc. I had to use sudo to get into the directory to see the contents and delete them. Once I did so, my free space went from 1.5 gigs to 8 gigs.

I have no idea how that stuff showed up in there, but maybe this will help someone else who might have lost disk space they can't find.
    •    
  • Currently 2.67 / 5
  You rated: 4 / 5 (3 votes cast)
 
[12,406 views]  

Another possible fix for missing disk space | 3 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'Another possible fix for missing disk space' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Another possible fix for missing disk space
Authored by: Wayne_S on Feb 05, '04 03:20:26PM
I would be concerned about the existence of a .Trashes file for a user you did not create. My first instinct is to try to eliminate the Worst Case Scenario - someone rooted your machine and created an invisible user for their own devious purposes.

The creation of "secret" accounts is described in this hint. If I was you, I would back everything up, wipe the drive, reinstall the OS, install the latest security updates, and then restore your user data and applications. Depending on what you use your machine for, it could give you a lot of peace of mind. I know I am not comfortable thinking someone else has access to (or control over) my machine.

A little paranoia can be a Good Thing (tm).

---
Every rule has an exception. Especially this one.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Another possible fix for missing disk space
Authored by: talesh on Feb 05, '04 05:10:16PM

Usually files are put in /.Trashes when you do stuff like use your machine in firewire mode. I had this problem already but I didn't bother to look to see who owned the files. I already recognized the files as those that were "deleted" when my iBook was being used in firewire mode connected to a G4.

---
-t



[ Reply to This | # ]
Do any utilities notify of this?
Authored by: spaceport on Aug 13, '04 04:03:49PM

I have encountered this a number of times at work, and would love a utility that could show who (at least by uid) is using how much space in their trash, and on what drive. Sometimes our external drives get so bogged down by old user trashes that there is only about 20% of the drive actually available.

If you know of anything like this, or feel like making one, I'd really like to know!



[ Reply to This | # ]