HArd Drive space Mysteriously disappearing!!!

[TheAlien]

Greetings all I have a lot of questions. I have an older MacBook and I am still running Tiger, the fully updated version so 10.4.11. Lately I am noticing that my HD space is mysteriously shrinking by the gigabite and I can't seem to figure out how or why? Is there a way to pull up a HD map to see how the HD is allocating resources? Failing that is there a way to find if I have accidently, ( I don't see how but hey...) downloaded something to the HD while I wasn't looking? I am the only user of the computer and I am no tech but I know that I haven't clicked the "Download" button on anything.

Also, while I'm here, is it possible that I have some kind of virus? I thought Macs didn't get them but recently I have come across articles that claim they now exist? Thoughts?

Finally, I generally just put my laptop to sleep when I am done using it but I do occasionally power it off. On the restart, between the system hardware check and the apple logo there is this icon. It resembles one of those triple function printers with the scanner/printer/copier. It has the scanner"lid" up in the open position and there is a question mark on the box. Anybody know what this is?

Thank you all for any and all suggestions to my questions in advance. I do appreciate any help you have to offer.

 

[MadMark]

I am not aware of any utility that really maps out what file type is taking up space. I have used Drive Genius and iDefrag http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php which basically put a pretty GUI on the command line utility that handles defragmenting the hard drive. Another utility that will help clean up caches is Onyx. http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11582/onyx When things like you describe happen, I will use it to clean up the caches for all users and browsers.

Have you run activity monitor to see what programs are active and possibly writing data to the HD?

What the version numbers on the applications and some are leaving Tiger out of the picture.

Good hunting!

 

[TheAlien]

THANK YOU for the suggestions! Much appreciated

 

[Kaveman]

No not a virus.

These problems are most likely Printer or Scanner drivers going out of control. I don't use onynx so I don't know if it goes down to clearing their caches.

I'd say that strange startup icon and the missing diskspace are related.

I could just be your HD dieing after all these years. BACKUP right now!!!