In Disk Utility, it says I have used 983gb on a 1TB hard drive and it also says 408GB is available. In About this Mac, it says 408GB is available but I can’t download anything as it says there is no space. I have purged the cache files. Even in Safe mode it takes forever to turn on and often won’t shut down. I’m running Ventura 13.6.1 on an iMac 2017. Should I defrag it? Please Help!!!!
iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.6
Before you do ANYTHING and I mean anything please backup the computer using Time Machine to safeguard your data. This is critical as you likely have a major issue going on. If somehow you are not using Time Machine or don't know about it, please read Back up your Mac with Time Machine.
If the report shows errors then you very likely have a HD that is damaged and cannot be repaired. Depending on the age of the computer it may or may not be a good idea to have it replaced. If the computer is prior to a 2017 iMac then it's obsolete and your best bet is to replace the computer as anything prior to 2017 is obsolete meaning parts are largely not available and it will not run current versions of Mac OS. You can use the Time Machine backup to restore your data to the new computer assuming that is what you do.
If it's a 2017 or later, please take it to your local Apple Authorized Service Provider to be diagnosed and fixed. Again, you can take the Time Machine backup to restore your data. On a 2017 and later, you may simply want to get an external SSD and use that as it will far less expensive than doing surgery.
That indicates the HD has failed. If the computer is a 2017 or later please contact AppleCare ( AppleCare Contact Info ) and ask them to get an appointment at your local Apple Authorized Service Provider to have the computer professionally diagnosed and then you can decide on your repair options. If the computer is earlier than a 2017, that indicates it is obsolete and parts are difficult to find and it will not run current versions of Mac OS.
To help confirm my hunch please download and run DriveDX on the drive and if ANY errors appear that only confirms my hunch. If there are any S.M.A.R.T. errors, yup it's gone!
Only Disk Utility will give you an accurate report of how full your disk is. When you run Disk Utility and it then gives you a report that there are still errors, you may have to rerun it multiple times in order to get an ok result. If that fails, then I would suggest reinstalling a clean operating system
Follow all of the steps at > Repair a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support
Try and run disk first aid to see if the issues persist
I did that and it came up with errors but couldn’t fix them. And I don’t understand what the errors relate to.
I did as you suggested but after finding multiple problems on the HDD, it then dismounted the drive and I can’t get it back. Any thoughts?
Thanks. I backed it up again as you suggested, luckily, as after running first aid, it dismounted the drive and I can’t get it back.
Computer full issue
