SOLVED Disk cleanup

[bladerunner714]

After a few years of daily use, I’ve developed an interest in finding a tool for disk cleanup. While I’m not in imminent danger of running out of space, I am concerned to see my storage usage creeping up day by day. I need help identifying and deleting unnecessary files but, since my system serves as an essential archive for everything from tax returns to wedding pictures, I need to be cautious about what might be deleted.

I found a post by Cory Cooper from about four years ago that stated in part, “The three apps that I use and recommend are DiskWarrior, Drive Genius, and Techtool Pro. Cocktail and OnyX are good utilities as well.”

Would those still be your recommendations today and, if so, is there one that might be sufficient for my needs?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello again.

Yes, those are still the recommended applications for disk maintenance. However, they aren't designed to identify and delete unneeded files to save disk space. They are specific utilities used for specific troubleshooting/issue reolution.

As always, it is critically important to have some form of backup routine, using either Time Machine and/or Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! on an external drive.

Disk cleanup can be a bit tricky, as you don't want to delete any important files that could cause the system to become unstable. Even the utilities like OmniDiskSweeper, WhatSize, and Grand Perspective, that list all files and the space that they take up can be dangerous if used improperly.

You can use  > About This Mac > Storage > Manage... to identify things, as it does make recommendations.

But, it may be best to ask here before taking any actions. The best places to delete files to recover disk space are in the folders of your Home folder - Desktop/Documents/Downloads/Movies/Music/Pictures. But, make sure you have a backup before deleting things, and use the applications to delete things from iTunes/Photos/etc., instead of simply performing a Finder search and deleting them that way.

-Which version of OS X/macOS are you running?
-What size is you drive and how much free space do you have now?

C

 

[bladerunner714]

Hi Cory

Thanks for your help. To your questions, I'm running a very recent upgrade to High Sierra 10.13.6 on my Mac mini (late 2014). TurboTax insisted I upgrade from Sierra so I could do my 2019 income tax. I'll probably move on to Mojave sometime soon. My system residence is an original equipment 1 TB internal SSD with 452 GB available.

I have a regular backup routine that includes automatic hourly Time Machine backups to an online 4 TB HDD, automatic daily Carbon Copy Cloner backups to an online 2 TB HDD just before the system shuts down every night and ad hoc daily Carbon Copy Cloner backups first thing every morning after startup and housekeeping to a rotation of four offline 1 TB SSDs, one of which is always off site in my bank safe deposit box.

I became concerned about disk cleanup because I noticed that the stats from my morning Carbon Copy Cloner backups often indicate that my storage usage has increased by a few GBs from one day to the next when I haven't created any new documents. It appears that something is consuming storage and I'd like to find out what, where and why and delete it if it's not needed. I have a nagging fear that some hungry storage monster hiding in my system will eventually devour my currently ample free space of 452 GB by nibbling away a GB or two at a time.

Interestingly, it looks like my free space increased about 20 GB with the upgrade to High Sierra.

Any thoughts?

 

[Cory Cooper]

No problem.

You currently have about half the SSD left, so you should be in good shape for quite a while. It's GREAT that you have a working, multiple backup plan. Too many people ignore such an important part of technology ownership.

The increase that CCC is reporting could simply be things like browsing history, changes made by Time Machine, Gmail local storage if you have a Gmail account setup, log file changes, etc. Also, it may have something to do with your CCC settings, such as SafetyNet. If it continues to climb month-to-month, then we can take a deeper look.

C

 

[bladerunner714]

Hi again Cory and thanks again

No, I'm not worried for now, just concerned by what I noticed. I don't use Gmail and I always turn off SafetyNet in Carbon Copy Cloner jobs. I'd be surprised if browsing history was at fault since I'm not a fanatical web surfer but I've been surprised before. In any event, I've started saving the notifications from my daily Carbon Copy Cloner backups so I can track the changes over time if they continue. For now, color me solved.

RW

 

[Cory Cooper]

Sounds good.

Let us know if you have additional questions about this issue.

Be well,

C