Question iMac OSX Storage - Partition Issue - Case/Non-Case Sensitive Issue

[firefarter34]

Hello there guys,

My mother has an iMac from a few years ago and it's been going fine but there's been some issues with it over the last year.

She got it from our IT guy who I'll call John. John bought the iMac originally and put windows on it. When he gave it to my mother, she wanted OSX back on it and he did. The only thing is, he put a Case Sensitive version on the computer and Adobe CS6 doesn't like Case Sensitive OSX. So what John had to do was create a Non-Case Sensitive partition or volume on her drive. Well, he started it and it was taking forever so he stopped the process in the middle and it created the "Other" storage hog seen in the screenshots below. For the last 9 months and more, John ghosted us and left my mother to dry with this issue. He's got family issues so I understand why he doesn't have time to fix this.

However, my understanding of OSX and Macs is very limited. I've done quite a bit of research over the last few months but I'm at a standstill.

Here is our dilemma. We CANNOT lose any of the data, if we do lose the data, it's years of graphics and files that cannot be replaced. My mother is a graphic designer so all of this is important. She needs to keep CS6 as well because we cannot reactive it because we don't have the code. We need to either delete the "Other" partition that is seen or restore it or something. From what I can tell and the research I have been able to do, the other partition is just empty and unallocated but I don't have to clock something I cannot undo so I will leave it to the experts.

(All Screenshots here and below:

https://imgur.com/a/xFtBp05

View: https://imgur.com/a/xFtBp05
)

Note:
I have complete access to her computer at any time, if you need screenshots of something please let me know. Thank you.



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OSX Information:

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Main Drive:

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Main Drive (Inside Partition Button)

Other Screenshots:

 

[USAFRet]

Here is our dilemma. We CANNOT lose any of the data, if we do lose the data, it's years of graphics and files that cannot be replaced. My mother is a graphic designer so all of this is important.

'cannot lose data' is always a possibility. Drives die.
Presumably you have a good backup of all this?

 

[popatim]

You need to backup this system ASAP and to two different devices.

How sure are you your precious data isn't already lost?

 

[firefarter34]

The graphic design files can be backed up, I already have them on a backup on an external hard drive and on another computer.


No data has been lost, @popatim. We have the data there and it's fine but the problem is, the new partition took up ALL of the free storage when John tried to create the new partition.

From what I can tell, there's nothing wrong with the drive itself. It's the partition I am unsure about. I'm not comfortable enough to mess around and lose the data. Just want to be clear, the computer is 100% functional, no errors or issues beyond the fact that this unknown partition sucked up all free and available storage.

 

[spinningstill]

Would do the back ups as suggested. Would even suggest Backblaze. You should be able to delete the partition if it isn't something you need. If you wanted to start fresh since your Mom is the user and the machine came from someone else, would venture to suggest doing a full erase and reinstall via internet recovery. However, that could cause issues with old licenses. I use Lr and the Adobe monthly plan.

 

[firefarter34]

What would happen if I was to delete the partition that is sucking up all of the free space. There is literally NOTHING there. In the botom Image, whats listed as "Other" is the partition and there's nothing there. We can't write to it either.