Hard drive System Data is huge

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Level 1

4 points

Hard drive System Data is huge

I have tried many things on my MacBook Air 250 GB machine to try and delete data in my System Data area of my hard drive to give me more hard drive space. Nothing that I found on the internet worked in increasing the amount of free space significantly. I bought my computer one year ago and I used Migration Assistant to move my settings and data from my iMAC to my MacBook. This turned out to be the culprit in increasing the size of my System Data file on my MacBook SSD. My free space subsequently continuously decreased in size to a dangerously low level and this was after deleting all documents and all photos on my MacBook.

Therefore, I started over in wiping my drive and reinstalling the Sequoia OS, after which my SSD showed over 200 GB free out of 250 GB. I then updated the operating system to Tahoe and my hard drive system data size and my hard drive space remained approximately the same. Yes it did take a while to reinstall the OS and my data and settings manually, but I would never again do it any other way with future computers. My MacBook Air is once again a great little machine.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 26.0

Posted on Nov 1, 2025 8:53 AM

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Answer 1

Ronasara

Level 6

15,519 points

Nov 1, 2025 10:13 AM in response to GageX2

I'm glad it works out for you. That said, keep in mind that the Mac's OS manages itself and there is little we can do to change the space used by the OS. (In fact, we shouldn't mess with it.) The Other category is a potpourri of files which include:

• System temporary files

• macOS system folders

• Archives and disk images (.zip, .iso, etc. - often found in the Downloads folder)

• Personal user data

• Files from the user’s library (Application Support, iCloud files, screensavers, etc.)

• Cache files

• Fonts, plugins, extensions

• Other files that are not recognized by a Spotlight search

• Media files that cannot be classified by Spotlight as a media file because they are located inside of a package

They can be located anywhere on your hard drive. The files that you have control over are located in the Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music and Movies folders.

As you know, if your OS becomes too full your computer will stop functioning. This may be a good time to seriously consider adding an external drive for storage. Then you can move files onto it and then delete them from your HD to clear needed space. Easy to do and problem solved.

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Answer 2

tbirdvet

Level 6

16,982 points

Nov 1, 2025 4:26 PM in response to GageX2

I and others have also found that to reduce that storage space one must start over(erase and reinstall the system and files). I have personally done this on 3 Macs with success..

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