# What is filling up my Mac hard drive WHILE I am watching it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** computer-hardware\ **Created:** [January 12, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-filling-up-my-mac-hard-drive-while-i-am-watching-it/1026595 "2026-01-12T14:58:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 11
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-filling-up-my-mac-hard-drive-while-i-am-watching-it/1026595/11 "2026-01-12T20:15:47Z")
I am quite fond of GrandPerspective. One thing that Grand Perspective made me aware of was that Malware Bytes was methodically filling up my hard drive with tiny little files. I deleted them, gained about 325 GB, only to find that 9 months later Malware Bytes had done it again. This time I deleted Malware Bytes itself as well as its tiny little files. Recounted in more detail here: > [@My laptop mysteriously maxed itself out on memory on its own and now only shows a black screen](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-laptop-mysteriously-maxed-itself-out-on-memory-on-its-own-and-now-only-shows-a-black-screen/970964/8): > > That isn’t memory. Which is why your thread title made absolutely no sense to me. I kept trying to understand how a laptop could keep increasing the amount of RAM available to it. Also how that could be anything other than a really cool thing if it did happen. What you’re talking about is storage space, and the fact that your laptop somehow ran out of it. Interestingly, I had the exact same thing (minus the absolute hit-the-wall part) just a couple months ago on a Mac laptop. Turned out t… --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-filling-up-my-mac-hard-drive-while-i-am-watching-it/1026595)._