Finder doesn't show newly created files anymore unless restarted

Question

The title says it (I mean, when a new file is created in an other application). This started happening today, and I think this may be related to an error message which I got the first time in yesterday evening:

This is the link from screenshot: https://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=1387401 — just in case you want to check it out. And, of course, I did a reboot after that message.

The issue is not reproduced in 100% of the trials, but it's there…
I checked the disk with Disk Utility and it says it's OK.
What could it be?

Analysis

The output of df -ki:

Filesystem    1024-blocks      Used Available Capacity   iused    ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1      487385240 443717640  43411600    92% 110993408 10852900   91%   /
devfs                 202       202         0   100%       703        0  100%   /dev
map -hosts              0         0         0   100%         0        0  100%   /net
map auto_home           0         0         0   100%         0        0  100%   /home

After deleting some trash:

Filesystem    1024-blocks      Used Available Capacity  iused    ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1      487385240 391070420  96058820    81% 97831603 24014705   80%   /
devfs                 201       201         0   100%      698        0  100%   /dev
map -hosts              0         0         0   100%        0        0  100%   /net
map auto_home           0         0         0   100%        0        0  100%   /home

Answer 1

From the output of your df -ki command, two numbers are telling you are beyond the red frontier of safe disk use.

Look at the line terminating with / which is your main visible and used disk partition. When the columns Capacity and %iused display numbers above 90%, then any search for a new free space or free inode is a real nightmare. To tell you the truth the internal algorithm used by the MacOS X file system switched mode and is already in fight for breath.

• When these two numbers are below 50% you are in the green area, nothing to schedule, just work.

• When they are between 50% and 90% you are in the red one, you should schedule your next disk or computer buy.

• Between 90% and 100% you are in the black area. You are fighting against a system in survival mode. Your risk of crash is pretty high. You can't anymore trust the journaling function.

• At 100% you are not anywhere.

What to do

Estimate correctly your disk need for the next three years and buy a new disk. Once installed a new disk should let you with at least these two numbers below 50%.

Or, if this is feasable, change your disk space use to suit reality:

• identify and clean garbage,
• make external archives.