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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Losing Disc Space And I Dont Know Why

rinonvan - Jul 16, 2005 - 6:26 pm

hello
ive tried searching for similar issues, but couldnt find any answers.
so i will explain with hopes that someone could help me.
ive recently installed tiger (upgrade) and did all the software updates and i am currently running 10.4.2 on a titanium 550 (onyx) powerbook with 20 gb drive and 1 gb ram.
the problem i am experiencing is the loss of disc space.
i had 1 gig available and during the course of playing a game i was unable to save it.
i got the error stating that i do not have enough space on my startup disc to do that.
i exited the program without saving and found that my finder is reading only 55 mb left!
i am not running any other programs while this happens.
this is not the first time this has happened, i also experienced this twice while downloading torrents... and saving them to an external drive!
at first i thought i was a preference setting but the designated drive to download files is the external, so then i figured it may be reading some temporary space being used as cache or a virtual memory fault because i get error saying the disc is almost full.
(can you set the virtual memory in os x tiger?)
but everytime i have restarted my computer, the drive is fine and the space is back up to one gig like nothing happened!
this comes as a relief, but this issue also prevents me from completing certain tasks.
it seems like something is running in the background using up temp drive space, is this possible?
i have run disc utilities first aid, tech tool pro, drive 10 and disc warrior, also verified and repaired permissions with any minor problems being repaired.
i could back up everything, zero all my levels and reinstall from scratch, but we all know what a pain that is.
anyone else experience this? any suggestions?
thanks for your time.

Captain Code - Jul 16, 2005 - 6:31 pm

It's the virtual memory that takes up the space. You need to have more than 1GB of free space to use OS X because it uses a lot of virtual memory. Tiger uses even more than Panther does.

When you restart, the virtual memory gets deleted and starting up makes it start from fresh with the files(swap filess) it uses for virtual memory.

Virtual memory will not always be freed when quitting a program which is why it does not go back to 1GB unless you restart.

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Captain Code -- Tech Support Agent

rinonvan - Jul 16, 2005 - 7:48 pm

thanks for the reply.
when the problems first began i had 1,001 mb free,
so is there an exact cut off amount?
what do you recommend for free space?
i currently have about 3 gb after swapping some things around, actually 4 counting what virtual memory has taken, and just want to make sure i dont drop below the minimum.
i think i will try to keep it at a safe 10% of 2 gb.
as a side note, it dropped to 0 kb after i first wrote.
thanks again, much appreciated.

Captain Code - Jul 16, 2005 - 11:04 pm

Apple recommends you keep at least 10-15% of your hard disk free. However, I would try and keep more than that as I've seen my VM get to 7GB in Tiger.

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Captain Code -- Tech Support Agent

rinonvan - Jul 16, 2005 - 11:56 pm

each new system keeps requiring more and more and
its becoming increasingly difficult for older computers to keep up
oh well...
thanks again

rinonvan - Jul 17, 2005 - 5:52 pm

is there any way to set the virtual memory amount?
i freed up 4.2 gigs, almost 25%, and for the last day or so i have watched my disc space gradually reduce to 1.7 and growing!
i have a 20 gb drive and dont think i can free more than 5 gb, my applications are getting more and more sluggish and choppy
seems like i only get good performance from running only one program after a fresh restart
any suggestions other than start saving for a 100 gb drive?
does this have anything to do with processor speed or RAM chips?
thanks for your continued advice.

Captain Code - Jul 17, 2005 - 5:56 pm

You can max out your RAM if you have the money and that will help reduce VM usage, but you can't set any maximum size for the VM.

To try and reduce the VM usage, close all dashboard widgets that you don't really need. They use about 200-250MB of VM each. It's pretty rediculus when you think about it, but there's nothing you can do about it.

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Captain Code -- Tech Support Agent

rinonvan - Jul 18, 2005 - 12:26 am

those damn cute little widgets!
i quit all of them and got back almost all of the disc space instantly.
that dashboard is not worth running on my system...
thanks for all your advice.