My computer is saying start up disk full, erase some files.

Hello I'm looking for help to fix my disk full problems. I want to use an external hd. but not in the time machine way, which as i understand erases older things. I want what I put on there to stay there.
Can anyone tell me how to check where the disk use is heavies so i can erase that part. Any help with managing disk space would be much appreciated.

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

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HT4847 On startup my macbookair says start up disk full/delete some files. When I look at storage disk utility I see 51GB of a possible 60GB is used with Other. What is Other? and how can I view and delete some of these files?

On startup my macbookair says start up disk full/delete some files. When I look at storage disk utility I see 51GB of a possible 60GB is used with Other. What is Other? and how can I view and delete some of these files?

A MacBook will use Time Machine to make local backups so that when connected to an external drive it will backup a lot faster.
to disable this, you must use a command under terminal.
to locate terminal, do a search for it under spotlight (the magnifying glass on the top right corner), should be the first hit.
once under terminal, type the following text exactly:
sudo tmutil disablelocal
hit enter.
you will be asked to input your password, if you do not have a password, you will have to create one before performing this command. after entering your password, hit enter again and close terminal.
in a few minutes the space taken up by time machine should be cleared.

Mini says start up disk full

I have had my mini for about a year now. I do like it but here recently it has been causing issues. I installed the leopard operating system when it came out. I do like it but i really dont need it. I cant download bigger files anymore. On startup and opening different apps it reads " start-up disk is almost full". What do i need to do in order to resolve this? Here are the specs of my mini
Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MM11.0055.B08
SMC Version: 1.3f4
Thanks for any help!

Hi blueballin-
Greetings and welcome to the Apple boards
Your Mac is telling you why you are having problems.
Have you emptied the trash? Have you emptied the trash in individual programs like iMovie and iPhoto (they have their own trash cans)?
If you have emptied trashes and still have the problem I would suggest that you get an external hard drive and move some of your files to it.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

Upon start up I get a start up disk full message and to delete files, now I only get a a blue screen on start up. How to I get past the blue screen and how do I delete files?

Upon start up I get a "start up disk full message, delete files". Now on startup I only get a blue screen. How do I get past the blue screen and how do I delete files.

That;s really not enough free space... you can use a tools such as OmniDiskSweeper to find out where your large files reside and begin pruning (or copying to an external if they're files that you want to keep).
One thing is certain - if you're going to continue your current usage you're certainly going to need to install a larger boot drive.
Clinton

For a while now my computer has been saying " Start up disk is nearly full", however I don't have a lot of stuff saved on the computer I moved a lot to a flash drive, and all the other stuff are songs and recently saved essays for school. Help.

For a while now my computer has been saying " Start up disk is nearly full", however I don't have a lot of stuff saved on the computer I moved a lot to a flash drive, and all the other stuff are songs and recently saved essays for school. I have and frequently empty my trash can. I have researched this before and i see a lot of things that say get a external hard drive, but before I go and purchase one I want to make sure there is no other, simpler way, to solve this problem. Help Please.

You need an external drive so you can free up disk space. Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon. Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure you have a minimum of 15% free disk space.
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk

Start up disk full--computer will not boot.

Our Mac gives a "start up disk full" error message and freezes on the blue screen after the password login. Resetting did no good, and entering safe mode only allows it go one step further but without any icons. Unfortunately, we are traveling overseas and do not have a boot disk to use. Is there a way to boot the computer, with a full start up disk, in order to resolve the issue without using a separate boot disk?

If you have files on the drive you can delete then you can try this:
Boot into single-user mode by holding down the COMMAND and S keys until the computer starts up to a black screen with white type. Once it stops scrolling you should see a prompt with the cursor. Enter the following:
/sbin/fsck -fy
Press RETURN. If you receive a message that says "***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****" then re-run the command until you receive a message that says "** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK." If you re-run the command more than seven times and do not get the OK message, then the drive cannot be repaired this way. If you were successful then enter:
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /Users/username
Replace "username" with your admin account's username or shortname. Press RETURN after each command line.
You may navigate into any one of your folders located in the Home folder which include:
Desktop
Documents
Downloads
Movies
Music
Pictures
by using the 'cd' command. For example, to move into your Documents folder:
cd Documents
ls -al
This moves you into the Documents folder then lists the contents of the folder. Press RETURN after each command line.
To return to your Home folder enter:
cd ..
which moves you up one level in the hierarchy. To delete a file enter:
rm -rf "filename"
where "filename" is the name of the file you want to delete. For a whole folder it's the same command only use the folder's name instead of the file's name. The quotes are use for names that have spaces in them.
If you are able to delete some large files this will free up space on your hard drive.
To restart the computer normally enter:
reboot
Be careful to enter commands correctly because in single-user mode you can permanently screw things up if you aren't careful what commands you enter. I suggest you print this out so you will have everything at your fingertips for verification.
Alternatively, find an Apple retailer and see if they will fix things for you, perhaps install a larger hard drive.

What does hd macintosh full mean please help I am also getting an error message saying start up disk is full i need to free up some space how do i do this please?

what does hd macintosh full mean please help I am also getting an error message saying start up disk is full i need to free up some space how do i do this please?

Also, you may find this link of intereset and value...
http://macmost.com/what-to-do-when-your-hard-drive-is-full.html

IMac says start up disk is full. now what?

iMac says start up disk is full. now what?

Here are two links that may help.
Where did my Disk Space go?
http://macmost.com/what-to-do-when-your-hard-drive-is-full.html

Mac Air says start up disk is full

MMac air says start up disk is full & now won't turn on. What can I do?

Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.

Imac frozen at blue screen after i went into disk utilities and cleaned my free space. I tried holding down T key as it reboots and i get a message. Start up disk full empty it how can one emptie it if you cant get past the blue screen

Imac frozen at blue screen after i went into disk utilities and cleaned free space.
I tried holding down T key as it reboots
and i get a message. Start up disk full empty it how can one emptie it if you cant get past the blue screen?
to make matters worse we bought the IMAC of amazon uk on the 4/07/011 so what can we do?
please remember how frustrating it is when asking for help when the helper telling you to type something on the screen when its frozen
Tell us when you can type some instuctions to the software how do you get to the doss prompt so to speak to do this
Thanks

i tried all this thanks
i can not get past blue screen and message Your disk is full it needs to be emptied Please not I cant proceed past this message.
no matter what you tell me
Am i right ok in thinking that
when i went into disk utilities and chose to clean my free space i left it over one hour to do its stuff
i came back and there was no progress bar just the box so i quit the program and when i opened mac mail the system just froze i forced quit mail rebooted and blue screen death
Now when free space is being cleaned is it the same as windows dose the utility write lots of 0 on the hard drive then rebbot its self to free the space
basicly is my hard drive full of 00000 is this why im getting this message because the process was interupted
I need to know if i need outside help i bought the computer on line on amazon uk what dose one do next

Capacity available but still getting start up disk full message

Hi
I got the start up disk full message a few days ago. I did command i and ran Omnisweeper and deleted all the large files. I now have over 50% available capacity but my Mac is still running on slow and I still get the start up disk full message....and request to force quit.
Any thoughts on what I can do. Run idefrag?
Many thanks
Claire

We never asked for the serial number. I've asked it be removed. It is a link to your personal information which others can use to search about you.
Remove McAfee. It is only necessary if you run Windows.
Early 2008 models were not Intel CoreDuos. They might a have been Core2Duo, but not CoreDuo.
Your model if the serial number is correct, which I verified with:
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
is indeed a Core2Duo Early 2008 model by serial number.
Go to Apple menu -> About This Mac to verify you have a Core2Duo and not a CoreDuo, otherwise you are getting your serial number and processor information from two sources that got wrongly combined.
An Early 2008 model can upgrade to Mavericks and Mountain Lion. It can also install any version of Snow Leopard that is retail, and not system specific with a Mac model name on it. So your issue with file space is likely due to something else you installed. Not a virus per say, but probably something that eats up a lot of temporary space. I would run the machine overnight in screen saver, not energy saver model to ensure the logfiles get properly cleaned up. I'd temporarily turn off any backup software. And the next time you shut down, make sure not to leave any applications open, by checking command-tab that the Finder is the only open application before shutting down or restarting.

Start up Disk full and MacBook Pro won't reboot. Only white screen but can sleep, restart, shut down.

Start up Disk full and MacBook Pro won't reboot. Only white screen but can sleep, restart, shut down.

Reboot into Safe Mode (hold the shift key down at the sound of the chime, release when the progress bar appears) Safe Mode will take longer to boot than normal.

Start Up Disk Full Error

I continue to get a "Start up disk full" message when I try to use iPhoto or iMovie. It then tells me to delete items, but it does not tell me how to do this.
Can some one walk me through it?
Thanks

Mark,
Evidently, you have filled your hard drive completely. You must get rid of some files. Make some determination as to what you can safely delete, then begin placing files in your trash, and emptying it.
You mention iMovie. DV footage, imported into iMovie, requires about 20 GBs of disk space per hour of footage. This could be the biggest consumer of your disk space. Placing an iMovie project file in the trash, then emptying it, might go a long way toward freeing up some space for you.
If you can't find anything that can be safely deleted, you're going to have to purchase an external hard drive, copy some file to it, then delete them from your internal hard drive. In fact, I recommend you purchase an external drive regardless. You can use it to make backups of your important data, as well as using it to free up disk space.
Scott

In cleaning up files based on a start up disk full message, i placed my music in a place where I tunes can't find it to play. any suggestion?

In cleaning up files based on a start up disk full message, i placed my music in a place where I tunes can't find it to play. any suggestion?

Provided that you moved the ENTIRE itunes folder...
Quit iTunes from under the iTunes menu (by the apple), or hold CMD and press Q. Then, hold Option on your keyboard and click the itunes icon on your dock. Continue to hold Option and you'll see a popup where you can select "Choose Library". Navigate to, and select, the itunes folder at its new location.
If you didn't move the entire itunes library folder, you'll have to be specific about what you did.

Start up disk full message/incomplete image

I just upgraded to iDVD 6 and am trying to burn a DVD. First time it rendered/encoded/burned all night and then some. I got a messsage that start up disk was full and to delete files. It resulted with an incomplete DVD (Moives were on, slide shows not). I freed disk space - Project info shows 2.8 of 4.2GB for project and 35.78GB available. I even used an older theme, thinking that might help. It churned for 12 hours+, and I got the same result (start up disk full/incomplete DVD). I have to deliver 20 copies of this by Friday. HELP!

don't know if this will help you at all but it helped me.. Using WhatSize - 10.3.9 at versiontracker allowed me to see where all my memory was going when I got that same disk full message. I have a new iMac and I didn't hink it was possible to be full up yet but a few of my undeleted iDVD slideshows were taking up gobs of memory... Make sure you empty the trash too... Once I made even more memory available I was able to burn again...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21149
iMac Intel Mac OS X (10.4.6)

My computer is saying start up disk full, erase some files.

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