Mildmannered Industries
Q: In the Volume pane, Baseline reports that I have used 85.71GB, but in the directory pane, Baseline only reports 76.66GB. What is taking up the extra space?
A: The sizes reported in the directory pane for each file is the sum of logical file sizes of the data and resource fork for the file.
The sizes reported for each directory are the sum of the sizes for all files and folders contained within the directory.
The capacity/used/available figures in the Volumes pane are physical sizes.
If you have a file containing five bytes, its logical size is five bytes. However its physical size will be considerably larger. On my machine, the smallest block size is 4K, so the five bytes file actually uses 4 Kilobytes on disk (its physical size).
This accounts for part of the difference.
Additionally, Baseline does not count the size of the directories themselves. A "directory" is really just a file that lists the files and subdirectories for the directory. These files take up space. The more items in the directory, the bigger the directory file.
Because directory sizes, in themselves, are not very informative, Baseline leaves them out.
Finally, Baseline can only scan directories to which you have read access. When run as a normal or administrative user, Baseline will not be able to scan other users files. See the question "How can I scan all the files on my disk?" for more information.
Q: How can I scan all of the files and folders on my hard disk?
A: When you are logged in as a normal user, or a user with administrative privileges, Baseline will only be able to scan the files and folders to which you have read access. This excludes certain directories. For example:
- Other users' home directories.
- The
/.SpotLight-V100directory, which stores SpotLight index information. - The
/.fseventsddirectory (on Leopard), which stores information about file system events.
To scan these directories as well, your must enable the root user, and log in as that user.
To enable the root user, on Tiger, open the NetInfo Manager (which you can find in the Utilities folder), and in the Security menu, choose"Enable Root User", and then enter a password for the root user as instructed.
On Leopard, open the Directory Utility (again, in the Utilities folder). Click the lock, and authenticate to make changes. Then from the Edit menu, choose choose "Enable Root User", and then enter a password for the root user as instructed.
Now the the root user is enabled, Log out of your current session, or switch to the Login Window via the Fast User Switching menu, if you have this enabled (the Fast User Switching menu appears on the right hand side of the menu bar, listing users by name, short name, or icon, and can be enabled from the Login Options in the Accounts System Preference pane).
In the Login Window, choose the "Other..." option, and login as root, using the password you set when enabling the root user.
Now open Baseline, and scan your disk.
Note that as the root user, you will be able to delete or remove any file, and very easily render your system unusable. Please exercise extreme caution when deleting, compressing, or archiving files or folders from the root user account.
You may want to disable the root user once you have finished using Baseline for extra security (again using NetInfo Manager on Tiger, or Directory Utility on Leopard).
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