Discrepancies in disk usage on external ssd formatted as exFAT
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I have an external volume (an SSD by Sandisk connected via a usb-c cable) rated at 1TB. Finder (macOS 14.5) says the disk is full (when I try to add a file it errors with: **No space left on device (28)**
however when I look at the sizes of the directories on the external volume, of which there are two, one is called Movies and the other TV, the sizes do not add up at ALL:
adding these two folder sizes adds up to a little over 700GB and nowhere near the 1000GB used as claimed by "Get Info" in Finder on the volume.
Now I realize there could be hidden directories that are trouble so I looked at those using Cmd+Shift+. as you can see in the following screenshot:
The only directory (of those hidden) that has more than 10MB is .Spotlight-V100 as can be seen here:
Maybe the size on disk here is actually much larger than reported?
To get to the bottom of things I also approached it from a different angle and ran the du and ncdu utilities in the terminal, the output of which is again attached here:
These outputs lead me to believe the sizes of Movies and TV can be more or less trusted, however for .Spotlight-V100 and .Trashes unfortunately there seems to be no or wrong info for a permission issue.
I am out of my knowledge here - maybe this is an exFAT specific problem? Should I try delete the Spotlight directory as a first step?
Any help much appreciated! :) Also if anybody needs any more data, just comment. One last image of the info output from disk utility:
however when I look at the sizes of the directories on the external volume, of which there are two, one is called Movies and the other TV, the sizes do not add up at ALL:
adding these two folder sizes adds up to a little over 700GB and nowhere near the 1000GB used as claimed by "Get Info" in Finder on the volume.
Now I realize there could be hidden directories that are trouble so I looked at those using Cmd+Shift+. as you can see in the following screenshot:
The only directory (of those hidden) that has more than 10MB is .Spotlight-V100 as can be seen here:
Maybe the size on disk here is actually much larger than reported?
To get to the bottom of things I also approached it from a different angle and ran the du and ncdu utilities in the terminal, the output of which is again attached here:
These outputs lead me to believe the sizes of Movies and TV can be more or less trusted, however for .Spotlight-V100 and .Trashes unfortunately there seems to be no or wrong info for a permission issue.
I am out of my knowledge here - maybe this is an exFAT specific problem? Should I try delete the Spotlight directory as a first step?
Any help much appreciated! :) Also if anybody needs any more data, just comment. One last image of the info output from disk utility:
Asked by whiterock
(71 rep)
Apr 18, 2025, 12:30 PM
Last activity: May 22, 2025, 02:08 PM
Last activity: May 22, 2025, 02:08 PM