Resolved: Question for photographers who use Mac. (memory problem)

padocon

I have my Mac for about 3 ish years and the memory is almost full. 15gb left. It is now running slower than normal. Photoshop tools take a bit to load and the laptop is generally a little slower than normal.

So I delete 60gb of photos from it (after copying to an external Hard Drive) and another 5gb of downloads. Thats 65gb but still this only freed a few gigs.

The only conclusion I can come to is that the photos although appearing to be gone are still stored on the Hard Drive and could be retrieved using a recovery software.

What to do? How can I free up space?
Anyone been in a similar situation or know what to do?

Thanks in advance for your help.

swingking

Empty the Trash in the bottom right hand corner

smelltheglove

I'm having a similar memory problem with my windows laptop, even after emptying the trash can. I have 295gb hardrive and can only account for around 150gb but have only around 30gb free. I know there is a temp file from photoshop that we deleted that had around 6gigs, other than that cant figure it out.

padocon

I all ready did and even restarted the laptop.

padocon

smelltheglove wrote: »

I'm having a similar memory problem with my windows laptop, even after emptying the trash can. I have 295gb hardrive and can only account for around 150gb but have only around 30gb free. I know there is a temp file from photoshop that we deleted that had around 6gigs, other than that cant figure it out.

They seem to still be on the hard drive invisibly.

smelltheglove

I'd love to help you out but the brains of the computer operation here spent most of last night trying to free space and counting the gigs on the hardrive and nothing. I know this does run a lot slower when there are 25gb or less remaining, I remember reading you should alwyas leave 10% of memory to allow for running processes, i.e. if you have 10 large images open and have run actions on this photoshop needs to use memory to remember the file state before you run those actions, i.e. if you decide to undo what you have done. Without enough memory it will run very slow and even shut down unexpected.

padocon

Yes I think that is the reason mine is slow. Due to the lack of Hard drive space.

stcstc

do you have more than 1 user account on the computer?

it could be that there is stuff in the other user account that you cant see when logged in as your normal account

Ricky91t

Smelltheglove: Download this program called Tree size pro it'll show you where the large files are on your PC instead of using Windows explorer..

Padocon:It seems one of the programs you use has made a cache of the images.. Do you use lightroom?

smelltheglove

Thanks Ricky and Steve.

But oh my God, I have been working all day, I have completely around 200 pics individually, using my save as action which I set up last week to save to a specific location and then close the file for me. My action obviously did not work because I just took a break to see the file size and it was the same as when I started, i.e. none of my work from today saved, around 5 hours. I think I'll go to bed.

32finn

i think ricky may have hit the nail on the head. you should clear your memory cache to see if that does the trick!

smelltheglove

wow, 83gigs in local/appdata/ all photoshop temp files, now this is only around 20 files each file name is photoshop temp followed by 6 or 7 numbers....

padocon

stcstc wrote: »

do you have more than 1 user account on the computer?

it could be that there is stuff in the other user account that you cant see when logged in as your normal account

No. Only the one account and all the space is being used on my account. I know as my hard drive is encrypted and it comes up as the whole drive on my account

Ricky91t wrote: »

Smelltheglove: Download this program called Tree size pro it'll show you where the large files are on your PC instead of using Windows explorer..

Padocon:It seems one of the programs you use has made a cache of the images.. Do you use lightroom?

No I don't use lightroom. For a while when I started photography I used to use Iphoto. Not in the last number of years. The 60gb I deleted were not in a program just a regular folder. If I understand where you are coming from you are talking about the images being saved in another location outside of the program. It is a possibility for the times I used Iphoto but all my iphoto pictures are long deleted and did actually delete, they did only ammount to a small amount too.

The 60gb of pictures I deleted were not in a program just a regular memory card.

stunt_penguin

Look, guys, past a few GB the amount of hard disk space has zero to do with how fast a machine runs.

Once you've got a few gb free for virtual memory then you're okay.

What happens, though, is that fragmentation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system_fragmentation) occurs, and on top of that you end up with all sorts of small apps, utilities etc that load on startup and consume RAM even before you start working. Windows machines (sometimes macs, too)may have the odd virus and definitlely some spyware clogging up the works, too.

Now, the easy way to sort this problem is to back up your files, wipe the machine and start from scratch- reinstall the OS, all your apps and drop your files back on the machine.

Most geeky computer people do this every year or so; it keeps machines running in tip-top order. Simply deleting files absolutely, categorically will not make your machine run faster or free up RAM. Only properly controlling the apps and services that consume system resources on startup will get this done, and it's not an easy task. That's why it's easier to just start from scratch (having backed up).

Whenever I do this it usually takes about 2-3 hours total; a reformat of the HD takes a few minutes, then about 20-30 minutes to reinstall windows (with Win 7 , anyway) another hour sees most of my apps on there (Adobe Suite, Lightroom, 3DS Max, Office) and I fiddle aroudn and install Firefox, Chrome, Skype, VLC etc and some other odds and ends .......... the result is a machine that feels factory new.

I suggest you guys have a look at doing this if your machine 'feels clogged'- it's the quickest and fastest way to do it.

smelltheglove

stunt_penguin wrote: »

Look, guys, past a few GB the amount of hard disk space has zero to do with how fast a machine runs.

Once you've got a few gb free for virtual memory then you're okay.

What happens, though, is that fragmentation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system_fragmentation) occurs, and on top of that you end up with all sorts of small apps, utilities etc that load on startup and consume RAM even before you start working. Windows machines (sometimes macs, too)may have the odd virus and definitlely some spyware clogging up the works, too.

Now, the easy way to sort this problem is to back up your files, wipe the machine and start from scratch- reinstall the OS, all your apps and drop your files back on the machine.

Most geeky computer people do this every year or so; it keeps machines running in tip-top order. Simply deleting files absolutely, categorically will not make your machine run faster or free up RAM. Only properly controlling the apps and services that consume system resources on startup will get this done, and it's not an easy task. That's why it's easier to just start from scratch (having backed up).

Whenever I do this it usually takes about 2-3 hours before I can start working on the machine again. A reformat of the HD takes a few minutes, then about 20 minutes to reinstall windows, another hour sees most of my apps on there, then I fiddle with firefox, chrome, a few media players, some other odds and ends and the machine feels factory new.

I suggest you guys have a look at doing this if your machine 'feels clogged'.

Thanks, we do this often enough, prob have done 3 times in the less than 2 years I've had this laptop, its a high end xps m1530. Decent enough laptop and always runs superquick after this is done I just dont have the tie to do it right now and most likely wont for the next few weeks.

You are right though it does need to be done every now and then.

padocon

bedlam wrote: »

Plug the power in and then reboot

Thanks just did that and it worked! 70gb free now. Never thought to plug the power in while rebooting.

stunt_penguin wrote: »

Look, guys, past a few GB the amount of hard disk space has zero to do with how fast a machine runs.

Once you've got a few gb free for virtual memory then you're okay.

What happens, though, is that fragmentation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_system_fragmentation) occurs, and on top of that you end up with all sorts of small apps, utilities etc that load on startup and consume RAM even before you start working. Windows machines (sometimes macs, too)may have the odd virus and definitlely some spyware clogging up the works, too.

Now, the easy way to sort this problem is to back up your files, wipe the machine and start from scratch- reinstall the OS, all your apps and drop your files back on the machine.

Most geeky computer people do this every year or so; it keeps machines running in tip-top order. Simply deleting files absolutely, categorically will not make your machine run faster or free up RAM. Only properly controlling the apps and services that consume system resources on startup will get this done, and it's not an easy task. That's why it's easier to just start from scratch (having backed up).

Whenever I do this it usually takes about 2-3 hours total; a reformat of the HD takes a few minutes, then about 20-30 minutes to reinstall windows (with Win 7 , anyway) another hour sees most of my apps on there (Adobe Suite, Lightroom, 3DS Max, Office) and I fiddle aroudn and install Firefox, Chrome, Skype, VLC etc and some other odds and ends .......... the result is a machine that feels factory new.

I suggest you guys have a look at doing this if your machine 'feels clogged'- it's the quickest and fastest way to do it.

I am going to try make it faster. I'll check the background programs running ect.


Thanks for the help everyone who posted!

smelltheglove

Padacon glad yours is sorted, I have just cleared up over 80gb thanks to Rickys link. A very informative thread overall lads.

padocon

I never thought it could be so simple as powering of the Mac with the power in.
Again thanks to everyone!

pete4130

What sort of macbook is it? stick some extra RAM in there. I upgraded my 2.16GHz white macbook last year. Went from 1GB to 4GB. Apple officiall says it will only support 2GB RAM but you can stick 4GB in and it recognises/uses about 3.3GB. Only cost about €50 from Crucial Memory.

padocon

pete4130 wrote: »

What sort of macbook is it? stick some extra RAM in there. I upgraded my 2.16GHz white macbook last year. Went from 1GB to 4GB. Apple officiall says it will only support 2GB RAM but you can stick 4GB in and it recognises/uses about 3.3GB. Only cost about €50 from Crucial Memory.

Yea. I have 2gb ram. But it was not always as slow as it is now. One time it got pretty slow but the apple guys fixed it. I think I will reformat it in the coming weeks. Never realized Ram was so cheap. Thanks

AnimalRights

I upgraded my pc from 2 gig to 4 gig a few weeks ago*...and threw in windows 7.
runs like a dream.



*well Jimeatsmenu did.

smelltheglove

AnimalRights wrote: »

I upgraded my pc from 2 gig to 4 gig a few weeks ago*...and threw in windows 7.
runs like a dream.



*well Jimeatsmenu did.

What do you think of it? I have xp in work and vista on this, got a new netbook yesterday with windows 7 but cant look at the thing, its too small for me so it went to the other half. He doesnt seem to like it much, wants to put xp on it since we were given xp with it too. I need to get some new parts for this, broken hinge and dodgy keyboard so I was thinking of putting xp on it when I do the next clear up in the next few weeks.