How do i free up space on my hard drive

What is the most efficient way to free up space on my hard drive?

The following articles have some good tips:
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk and
Freeing Up Hard Disk Space

Similar Messages

  • How do i free up space on my hard drive once im already booting in installer mode?

    I've downloaded mackericks and have rebooted my MBP but when it now tries to install there isn't enough free space. I can't reboot in ML - how do I access files on my HD so incan delete them in order to proceed with installing Mavericks?

    Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I didn't have a backup, so I'm really in trouble here.  But luckily I did have the option to boot from 10.8.3.  So I selected that and now I'm just getting the spinning wheel that usually appears from a few moments when it's starting up.  Unfortunately it's been going for over fifteen minutes now.  Might this be normal..?

  • I need to free up space on my hard drive. How do you move photo's to my external?

    I need to free up space on my hard drive in order to complete a new update.  How do I move photo's from my macbook air to my external hard drive?

    You need to backup your Iphoto library to Time Machine first (if you havent already done so)
    THEN you need to copy your Iphoto library to another HD before deleting from your Macbook ,....because 1 copy only is = NO COPY in case of HD failure!
    To move an iPhoto liobrary -
    quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto   from LarryHN
    As to your AIr and its SSD =
    You need to change the premise of your SSD use.
    see here:
    Your Solid State Drive and having enough space inside your Macbook Air & Pro
    Solid State Drive usage premise, or the “more space / upgrade SSD” question
    There have been questions posed and positions taken by many people who are trying to use their Macbook Air or Pro’s solid state drive (SSD) as a mass media storage device, for either pictures, videos, massive music collections or all three combined; but this should not be the working premise of a ‘limited’ SSD and its use.
    In which, it’s the case of those users with either 128GB, 256GB, or even 512GB of internal SSD space, that have or are running “out of space”, that questions are raised. The immediate premise of some users can sometimes be “(how to / if) upgrading my SSD” when in fact in nearly all instances another approach is the logical and sensible one that needs to be looked into and exercised.
    Any Macbook containing a SSD should be idealized as a ‘working platform’ notebook containing all your applications, documents, and weekly or bi-weekly necessary files. All collections of media files such as pictures, music, and videos, unless directly needed should be kept off the notebook and on an external hard drive or likewise. While the ‘working platform’ premise is also the case with larger internal conventional hard drives of 1TB+, its implementation isn't as critical except in terms of data protection.
    Realistically, you should at most coordinate roughly 20 to 25% of your total SSD space to all audio-video personal use media (picture / music / video collections), leaving the remaining amount on an external HD.
    Nobody should consider any notebook a data storage device at any time under any circumstance, rather a data creation, sending, and manipulation device; and in the case of a SSD, this is more important for purposes of having sufficient working space on the SSD and reducing SSD ‘bloat’ in which cases someone is wrongly attempting to use the SSD space as a large media storage nexus.
    The rare exception to the collective usage and premise of SSD use in which a much larger SSD is truly needed are for those in video and photography professions that require both the extremely fast speeds of the SSD and the onboard storage for large and or many video and photography files. However this also falls under the premise of a ‘working platform’ for such peoples rather than the intent of many who are using the SSD as passive and static data storage for media files very infrequently needed or accessed.
    All on-notebook data collections should be logically approached as to necessity, and evaluated as to whether it is active or passive data that likely doesn’t need to be on the notebook, allocations of space-percentages to as-needed work and use, apportioning space for your entertainment media, and questioning whether it should it be on the notebook for more than short-term consumption.
    Considerations should be made in the mind of any user in differentiating the necessary system data (System hub) comprising the Mac OSX, applications, necessary documents that both must and should be on your internal SSD, and that of the users personal data (Data hub) comprising created files, pictures, music, videos, PDF files, data created or being created and otherwise, that likely unless being used soon or often should be parked on an external hard drive for consumption, or temporarily loading onto the internal SSD.
    You both can and should purchase whichever SSD size you need or see fit, but even in the case of the largest of SSD, unless use-considerations are made, and SSD spaces are allocated as should be the case indicated above, one can easily and immediately run into this quandary of “needing more internal SSD space”, in which instance a different approach in usage must then be implemented.
    However it is almost always the case, that such large media files are wanted to be stored internally rather than actually needed, in which case the external HD is both prudent as well as necessary. Additionally costs per MB are infinitely less on an external HD than an internal SSD in any consideration of data expansion needs.
    A Professional Example
    In the case of a Macbook Air or Macbook Pro Retina with ‘limited’ storage on the SSD, this distinction becomes more important in that in an ever rapidly increasing file-size world, you keep vital large media files, pics, video, PDF collections, music off your SSD and archived on external storage, for sake of the necessary room for your system to have free space to operate, store future applications and general workspace. 
    You should also never be put in the position of considering “deleting things” on your Macbook SSD in order to ‘make space’. This is especially what your external HD is for.
    Professionals who create and import very large amounts of data have almost no change in the available space on their notebooks internal SSD because they are constantly archiving data to arrays of external or networked HD.
    Or in the case of the consumer this means you keep folders for large imported or created data and you ritually offload and archive this data for safekeeping, not only to safeguard the data in case your Macbook has a SSD crash, or gets stolen, but importantly in keeping the ‘breathing room’ open for your notebook to operate, expand, create files, add applications, for your APPS to create temp files, and for general operation.
    Slim USB3 1TB external hard drive
    External Hard Drives
    External hard drives are both extremely cheap and regardless of the size of your internal SSD (or even internal hard drive if the case), you need an external hard drive with your SSD equipped Macbook for several reasons:
    1. Data backup and protection.
    2. Redundancy for important data.
    3. Necessitated ideal space for large media files for collections of pictures, videos, and music etc.
    While ever changing in price, typical portable 2.5” external hard drives in USB3 run roughly $65 for 1TB or $120 for 2TB small portable USB3 hard drives. Such drives range in thickness between 5mm and 15mm, with recent improvements in storage of 500GB drives in 5mm profiles.
    There is almost no premise in which a small 12mm thick 1 Terabyte USB hard drive cannot be taken along with any Macbook as an external large storage extension inside any Macbook carry case or pouch. Typically such external HD profiles are not much bigger than a deck of cards.
    External hard drives are a foregone necessity for purchase with any Macbook for at the very least Time Machine backups, data redundancies, and ideally for large media storage.

  • How do I use time capsule as a storage device so I can free up space on my hard drive

    How do I use time capsule as a storage device so I can free up space on my hard drive?

    Click here and follow the instructions.
    (62135)

  • I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

    I use an external hard drive for my Lightroom library and I notice that all the images shown on there are DNG. On my MAC hard drive I have images shown as NEF. I desperately need to free up space on my hard drive, can I safely delete these NEFs?

    dj_paige wrote:
    however, I do point out that obtaining an additional hard drive and not throwing anything away seems a preferable solution to me.
    heidie22, dj_paige has a very good point there. I would not through away the NEF files; I would archive them to a external drive.
    By the way, I am assuming that converting RAW files to DNG is a decision you have made and not an accident.

  • I just saved my iphoto original library to my external hard drive, now how do i create new space on my hard drive and create a new iphoto library

    i just saved my iphoto original library to my external hard drive, now how do i create new space on my hard drive and create a new iphoto library

    Trash the copy of the library you just moved. Then Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
    But do you want to have two iPhoto Libraries? Why not just use the one on the External?

  • HT4914 Once I upload my music library to the Cloud can I then remove it from my computer to free up space on the hard drive?

    Once I upload my music library to the Cloud can I then remove it from my computer to free up space on the hard drive?

    iTunes Match does not allow streaming to a computer.
    If you want to utilize the media on the computer, it must physically be on the computer.
    Also, if syncing media from the computer to an iDevice, the media must be physically on the computer to sync.  Removing that media from the computer will remove it from the iDevice it is synced with.
    iTunes Match is not a backup and should not be utilized as single storage for content.

  • How do I free up space on my C drive by moving photos to a separate hard drive on the same pc?

    I need to free up space on my C Drive by moving photos to Seagate expansion (H) drive. Currently use Windows Vista and elements 11 where I have organiser containing folders and albums which I want to keep intact after the move. Photos are currently held in C:users, valued customer, pictures. I’m pretty ignorant on how to do this but have tried to read and follow the FAQs and previous advice and think I have some understanding(!) I have made a catalog back up onto a separate Seagate expansion drive (F) and although the files appear to have been renamed as ‘B0000001’ for example, I believe this is normal and I can also see a backup.tly and a catalog.buc file so I’m assuming the backup was successful. I think I need to take the following steps;
    1. drag and drop the folders containing my photos from the C drive into the (H) drive. (Does this have to be completed one folder at a time or can they all be highlighted and dragged and dropped in the same action)?
    2. As I’m not changing computer then I’m assuming I don’t need to restore the catalog?
    3. At this point I won’t have deleted anything off the C drive so how do I ensure the catalog establishes links with the photos that are now on the (H) drive if they’re still on the C drive?
    4. Once I know the photos are safely on the (H) drive and all links to the catalog have been established I’ll take a new backup of the catalog onto the separate Seagate expansion drive (F)
    5. Do I need to take a separate backup of the photos which are now on the (H) drive?
    6. I’ll then delete the photos on the C drive.
    7. In future any new photos I take and import into Element 11 organiser, I’ll save on the (H) drive.
    Have I got the steps right? Any help would be appreciated as I don’t want to lose anything.
    Thanks.

    It's much simpler:
    Dekka1 a écrit:
    I need to free up space on my C Drive by moving photos to Seagate expansion (H) drive. Currently use Windows Vista and elements 11 where I have organiser containing folders and albums which I want to keep intact after the move. Photos are currently held in C:users, valued customer, pictures. I’m pretty ignorant on how to do this but have tried to read and follow the FAQs and previous advice and think I have some understanding(!) I have made a catalog back up onto a separate Seagate expansion drive (F) and although the files appear to have been renamed as ‘B0000001’ for example, I believe this is normal and I can also see a backup.tly and a catalog.buc file so I’m assuming the backup was successful.
    Yes, the renaming is normal and the fact you can see a backup.tly file is good. However, even if you are 99% sure that the backup is ok, the only way to be 100% sure would be to restore somewhere else... (being somewhat paranoid!)
    I think I need to take the following steps;
    1. drag and drop the folders containing my photos from the C drive into the (H) drive. (Does this have to be completed one folder at a time or can they all be highlighted and dragged and dropped in the same action)?
    Dragging a master folder also drags its subfolders, no problem.
    2. As I’m not changing computer then I’m assuming I don’t need to restore the catalog?
    No, no need to do that. When you move (by drag and drop or the move menu) the organizer automatically updates the catalog.
    3. At this point I won’t have deleted anything off the C drive so how do I ensure the catalog establishes links with the photos that are now on the (H) drive if they’re still on the C drive?
    The drag and drop procedure really moves, that is to say : copies the files to the new location AND deletes the files in the old location. Note that if there is a problem in the file transfer, the original files won't be deleted. The transfer of big libraries can require several hours. That happened to me with a power outage at 95% of the process. The files already copied stayed on the new computer, the original files were not deleted and the database of the catalog rolled back to the initial situation as if I had done nothing. So dragging and dropping is safe, at least on recent PSE versions.
    4. Once I know the photos are safely on the (H) drive and all links to the catalog have been established I’ll take a new backup of the catalog onto the separate Seagate expansion drive (F)
    5. Do I need to take a separate backup of the photos which are now on the (H) drive?
    6. I’ll then delete the photos on the C drive.
    7. In future any new photos I take and import into Element 11 organiser, I’ll save on the (H) drive.
    Have I got the steps right? Any help would be appreciated as I don’t want to lose anything.
    Thanks.
    If you take a new backup, it will include all the files recorded in the catalog. If you still have pictures on your C: drive, and possibly others on other external drives, everything will be backed up. You can't specify a backup for images in a given disk, only for all images in a catalog. For instance, you can move only a part of your images on your C: drive. You can add pictures in the drive you want, C: or H:

  • How to free up space on internal hard drive

    How do I free up space on my internal hard disc?
    I have only about 40 gig of information on my macbook however it says I don't have space while I'm working on photoshop. I have deleted a lot of files on my mac that are already saved in my external hard disc but when I check my memory it says I have  only 1.3gig space available out of a 120gig memory. This data is distributed between audio, apps, movies, pictures and other. I don't understand what 'other' is and it says I have about 76gig worth of data in the other part. Please I would need help on how to delete files from this 'other'. Cheers!

    All Mac operating systems use any free space on your hard drive as virtual memory, and this virtual memory plays a part in how well your computer performs. Because of this, the more data you have on your hard drive, the less virtual memory becomes available. Therefore, in order to help increase your Mac boot time, and keep your computer running smoothly, periodically cleaning your hard drive is necessary. To clean it up you want to get rid of any old or unnecessary files. You can do this manually by removing unused applications, emptying your trash etc.,

  • HT1338 how to remove vista from my mac, now that i have installed mountain lion, as i need to free up space on y hard drive

    i have installed mountain lion, and now need to completely remove vista and parallels from my mac, to free up the space on my hard drive, boot camp wont help. and the new update of lion has totaly closed these two software programms

    All Mac operating systems use any free space on your hard drive as virtual memory, and this virtual memory plays a part in how well your computer performs. Because of this, the more data you have on your hard drive, the less virtual memory becomes available. Therefore, in order to help increase your Mac boot time, and keep your computer running smoothly, periodically cleaning your hard drive is necessary. To clean it up you want to get rid of any old or unnecessary files. You can do this manually by removing unused applications, emptying your trash etc.,

  • How do I clear up space on my hard drive

    how do I clear up space on my hard drive

    First, you need to have a back-up of your hard drive before deleting files. Use a utility such as "Disk Inventory X" to see where your largest files are located. Then, and back-up before, you can begin to delete them. There are also some other good utilities that others can recommend to get an idea of what's hogging your hard drive space... I'll let others chime in on their particular favorites.
    Good luck,
    Clinton

  • How do i find extra space on my hard drive?

    My hard drive is full.
    How do I find the largest files, so I can delete or move to external hard drive.
    Now running on 525.8 MB disc space....HELP!

    Also, See Here for Freeing up Disc Space
    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
    Cheers,  

  • I am trying to free up space on my hard drive. I am wondering what if any of the itunes files for apps or music can be deleted without affecting the use of them in the future if they are loaded on my i phone and i pad 2?

    When I search my hard drive to find space for freeing up memory I have a lot of files for Apps, and music.  I am wondering if these are pertinant and need to be kept on my hard drive, or if I can remove them in any way.
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Thanks

    I am going to revise my question to this.  If I compress my itunes folder which would save me a considerable amount of space will this make the music and apps information stored in there unsyncable? 

  • Trying to free up space on my hard drive.

    I have deleted over 100GB from my iPhoto Library, emptied iPhoto trash, secure emptied the Trash Can, and restarted the computer. Why did it only free up 1.5 GB on my disk? Everything has current updates.

    Disk space mean nothing to iPhoto. It's the number of items that matters. So, whether a library is 10 gigs or 100 gigs is unimportant. There is a difference if there are 50,000 items and 500,000 items. The current version of iPhoto is good for 1,000,000 items.
    Yes, the overhead in the Finder would be greater than 170 gigs, so I'm pretty sure that the effort to trash the data hasn't cleaned up very well.
    Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
    This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
    Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.

  • Computer states that I have 12 gigs left how do I free up space?

    computer states that I have 12 gigs left how do I free up space?

    Check Boot drive is getting filled up > https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3521

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