where is my hard drive space going?

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bartend7
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where is my hard drive space going?

Post by bartend7 » Wed Jan 09, 2013 6:58 pm

Hi,

I use my computer pretty much just for ableton live. I save all my ableton projects to one folder and eventually move that folder to a portable harddrive to retreive my space. However it seems i'm losing space somewhere else. I was wondering if when I save a project (I always save everthing at the end /never get rid of files) if stuff is gettng saved somewhere else? Is there somepart of ableton's library i need to clean out? or Is it just that I havent cleared all my downloads. ( i dont think this would be a lot of space).

Please help if you can, my computer is getting slower and smaller.

thanks

8O
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by 8O » Wed Jan 09, 2013 7:21 pm

Mac or PC?

If the former, there's some nice visualisation utilities to get a better overview of your HD e.g. http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ - have found a lot of space taken up by raw wav recordings that I no longer needed...
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agent314
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by agent314 » Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:11 pm

PCs have a similar HD visualization tool in WinDirStat

bartend7
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by bartend7 » Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:22 pm

sorry for not mentioning

I'm running a 2009 macbook aluminum. I have been using "Disk Inventory X' to check, but I was really just curious if live stored unneccessary information somewhere. I'm actually thinking of dumping session drums, as i never use them and they take up some serious space.

fishmonkey
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by fishmonkey » Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:44 am

which version of Mac OS are you running? and do you use Time Machine?

moonpie
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by moonpie » Thu Jan 10, 2013 1:12 am

If its any use to anybody - Google Chrome uses massive amounts of space over time. I was just dealing with it today on my xp, but its the same on macbook. Chrome stores all previous versions of its program (since it only does silent auto-updates) within its program folder (look it up for pc, on mac - click show package contents in Applications, and youll find the old programs. Just select all the folders apart from the new ones and delete.)

Can take up 1gbs-2gbs of space in my experience.

Prob not the issue youre experiencing - but why chrome behaves like this is bizarre.

fishmonkey
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by fishmonkey » Thu Jan 10, 2013 1:18 am

Chrome doesn't do that on my Mac...

bartend7
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by bartend7 » Thu Jan 10, 2013 4:51 am

no i dont use time machine. or google chrome. I did move about 13 gigs of downloads that had piled up. as well as a bunch of stuff i kept putting in "documents." I was really kind of curious about live. Every time you quit Live asks you to delete or leave files in place. I always leave in place. I was wondering if those piled up somewhere.

Sage
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by Sage » Thu Jan 10, 2013 7:57 am

bartend7 wrote:no i dont use time machine. or google chrome. I did move about 13 gigs of downloads that had piled up. as well as a bunch of stuff i kept putting in "documents." I was really kind of curious about live. Every time you quit Live asks you to delete or leave files in place. I always leave in place. I was wondering if those piled up somewhere.
Yeah, go to file manager in Live and use that to identify unused audio files so you can delete them. :)

Donnie
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by Donnie » Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:02 pm

Ableton cache data can add up over time, depending on your settings and types of audio files being loaded.

moonpie
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by moonpie » Thu Jan 10, 2013 12:48 pm

fishmonkey wrote:Chrome doesn't do that on my Mac...
Well, try

Applications/ right click Chrome - show package contents/contents/versions

Right now, Ive 5 versions, totalling 151.4MB each. So, over time, if yo dont clear them out, they really do build up.

bartend7
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by bartend7 » Thu Jan 10, 2013 5:45 pm

what about older versions of live. I got. 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 etc.......... everytime there is an update i get one. are these necessary or no?

8O
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by 8O » Thu Jan 10, 2013 6:30 pm

bartend7 wrote:what about older versions of live. I got. 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 etc.......... everytime there is an update i get one. are these necessary or no?
Once you're happy with the stability of the latest one delete the old one.
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Piplodocus
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by Piplodocus » Fri Jan 11, 2013 1:50 am

If its a win PC get treesize free, or a mac get space gremlin from the App Store. Those will show you exactly where your space has gone. Must have apps for PC/mac respectively when you need to free up some bed space.
Live relevant things: Suite 12, MacBook M1 Max, RME UFX II (kext drivers), Push 1

bicarbone
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Re: where is my hard drive space going?

Post by bicarbone » Fri Jan 11, 2013 10:56 am

this little shareware might be helpful http://whatsizemac.com/
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