OSX Server 10.6.8 Startup Disk Full

[NavJitsU4]

Hello all,

I'm working on a server that had a full startup disk, I managed to clean up unnecessary files and applications and recovered a lot of space. However, the startup disk got full again.

If I "get info" on all of the folders on the startup disk, the space used only adds up to 20gb, the disk has 300gb total capacity.

I know finder doesn't show you all the hidden OS files etc -- So, I even opened up terminal, and tried du -h command but it's super cumbersome to view that; thousands of files scroll by, and I'm viewing this remotely via VNC.

Is there a better way for me to find out what's actually taking up space?

Thanks!


*********** fixed ***********
daisydiskapp helped track down the problem -- thanks to everyone for the input!
*********** fixed ***********

 

[dawks]

Daisy Disk ($10) http://www.daisydiskapp.com/

Disk Inventory X (Free) http://www.derlien.com/

 

[dave_the_nerd]

sudo rm -r /Library/Caches/*
sudo rm -r ~/Library/Caches/*
sudo periodic daily weekly monthly

Then check again.

The first two will delete caches and temp files. The last command should turn over log files.

The du -sh /foldername command will give you how much space a particular folder is taking up, so if you can track down the big folders, without bothering to see what's in them, you can see if there's a rogue log or temp file taking up space somewhere.

I'd also consider turning off Spotlight Indexing. (If it's not a workstation it doesn't really matter much, and the index files take up space. Also, the periodic indexing will hit the server I/O and CPU.)

 

[Theb]

You could do a find for all files larger than a gig, or tweak the size as needed.

sudo find / -size +1024000000c -exec du -h {} \;

A 1tb hard drive would probably be cheaper than the time you're spending cleaning up this one though.

 

[TheStu]

Any chance you have adobe products installed on there? I had a problem years ago with Photoshop IIRC, it would just all of sudden start eating all my space.