My start up disk is full and I need to move my files to an external hard drive, how do i do so?

My start up disk is full and i need to move my files to an external hard drive, how do i do so?

Ensure that the external is correctly formatted
Drag and dropped the files
Test to be sure that the moved files work
Once the moved files work delete the originals
Allan

Similar Messages

Bought a MBA and am trying to keep iTunes files on an external hard drive. Having problems.

Hi, I bought a MBA 13" and want to keep my iTunes files on an external hard drive to save space.However, I keep running into problems. I can't get the iTunes Media folder to stay on the folder in my external hard drive. Whenever I unplug it, regardless if iTunes is open or not, it changes back to the media file on the MBA. I tried renaming the media folder and deleting it, but the computer just makes another if I do that and then ends up deleting my whole library, forcing me to load it all back from my hard drive. Can anyone help me out on this? Thanks.

In iTunes 11 uncheck the preferences setting in in the iTunes Preferences panel "Advanced > Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library"

I accidentally deleted my media files from iTunes and Trash when I was trying to move the files to an external hard drive. Is there a way to restore the media files from a Time Machine backup or from iTunes Match? What are the steps to do this?

I accidentally deleted my media files from iTunes and Trash when I was trying to move the files to an external hard drive. Is there a way to restore the media files from a Time Machine backup or from iTunes Match? What are the steps to do this?

If you have been backing up on Timemachine.
All you need to do is enter time machine... Then the rest is obvious.
Find the iTunes folder and hit 'Restor'.
If not the only way to get all your iTunes music back is to enter iTunes Store.
On the right hand side you should see 'Purchased'.
Click 'purchased' and there you have it.

I need to do a clean install of maverick on my 2010 mbp what disk do i use and how do i move certain files from an external hard drive

I want to do a clean install of maverick on my 2010 mbp. I need to know what disk to use and also how i take certain files off my external hard drive and put on my computer. When I was having problems with my airport they did a clean install and they pulled files of my time machine.   however they forgot to put the partition back in for a windows side. Originally I had Parellels on my computer. After my external hard drive got corrupted i called apple and they fixed the problem but didn't have me set up the time machine except for the external hard drive. Now my only back up is from the external not from the laptop.    I am not sure how to do any of this. I am not computer savvy...PLEASE I NEED HELP>

First, you need to make a backup of your MBP onto your external drive. I suggest you start by cloning your MBP drive to the external drive:
Clone Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
This clone is fully bootable and also contains a clone of your Recovery HD.
Second, you need to do a clean install of OS X onto your MBP as follows:
Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
            because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should accomplish your goals. You will have a clean install of OS X on your MBP and a bootable clone of your old system and all your files on the external drive.

When I turn on MacBook Pro it telling me that my start up disk is full and I need to delete files. How do I get to start up disc?

When I search a file called start up disc, nothing shows up. How do I delete files so when my computer starts up, I no longer get a message stating that my start up disc is full and that I need to delete some files?

There is a boot drive inside the computer and it's storage space is filled up.
You need to create a external storage drive and transfer some of your files off the internal boot drive.
TimeMachine doesn't work for this as it's just a rotating backup image of what's on your boot drive, it's not a storage drive for more space and to save things permanently.
So what you need to do is get three external drives from the office or computer store.
I suggest 3-4 separate drives at 1TB each (or more capacity if you really got a lot of stuff), USB 2 is currently fine, the newer USB 3's are more expensive but your Mac doesn't have USB 3 ports, so get the less expensive USB 2 drives and save some money. If you can get Firewire 800/USB combination drives, those would be a better choice as Firewire 800 is the fastest for most Mac's. Only the very new ones have Thunderbolt and the new drives for that are rare and expensive.
Make sure they are self powered drives with their own power supply, not port powered as those are a bit flaky as Apple can just determine the device is drawing too much current from the computer and turn it off.
Note: sometimes if your computer is so full, you might actually have to delete some files in order to be able to get it to function transferring files, so pick ones that you can get new copies again, like free iTunes podcasts or movies for instance.
TimeMachine Drive
The first drive you connect to the Mac is going to pop up a window to ask if you want to make this a "TimeMachine Drive" go ahead and allow it to do that, it's backing up everything on your internal boot drive, it's going to take a long time.
Once it's finished, disconnect this TimeMachine drive and label it as a "TimeMachine Drive"
Extra space /Storage drives
The second drive you connect is going to be your "extra storage drive" basically to free up space off the internal boot drive by transferring files to it.
Formatting:
You first need to format this drive, you use Disk Utility in the Applications> Utilities folder.
On the left will be the 'name of the drive' + "media" click that and then click the Partition tab
Now click 1 Partition, Option: GUID, format OS X Extended (Journaled), give it a name like "StorageOne" and click Apply.
Now click the Erase Tab and Security Option> Zero All Data and click Erase (use the same name) this will take a long time, like 2 hours per 1TB. It's going to check the drive for any errors and make sure it's working.
Note: If the drive fails to format, then perform the Zero All Data first, then visit the Partition tab.
Once the second drive is finished, then do the third drive in the same manner, this time naming it "StorageTwo"
Transferring Data off to the Extra Storage drive
Connect only StorageOne drive and visit your User/Movies folder, it's likely the biggest culprit of oversized files. Create a new folder on the StorageOne drive called "ExtraMovies" and transfer the contents of User/Movies to the "ExtraMovies" folder via drag and drop methods.
Confirm the files were transferred and then delete those movies by dragging them to your Trash can and selecting "Empty Trash" from the Finder menu (if you select Secure Empty Trash on large files it takes a really long time to finish as it's scrubbing the drive, likely unnecessary except for sensitive files)
If you have a large amount of User/Files elsewhere, you will have to search yourself and repeat the same steps to free up room on your internal boot drive.
Once you have made some free space, download this free program to help you visualize where all your space is being taken up.
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/#download
Once you have completed moving files to the StorageOne drive, connect StorageTwo and copy the contents of StorageOne folders to StorageTwo drive. Both drives have to be connected of course.
Rule of thumb
Maintain TWO separate hardware copies of your User data at ALL TIMES
Because you need more room, thus the storage drives are for extra space. The TimeMachine drive is a backup of your internal boot drive and the second storage drive is a backup copy of the first storage drive. So that way your sticking with the rule of thumb, get it?
Don't connect TimeMachine while your transferring files, or formatting drives, you don't want it to "kick in" while your doing all this heavy work or transferring a large amount of files, I think it does so every hour, which you are going to taking quite some time to do all this work.
Once your all done making room and copying files to the Storage drives, disconnect them and label them and date them.
Reconnect TimeMachine drive
Then connect the TimeMachine drive and it will make a NEW backup of your now newer configuration on your boot drive and keep it updated every time you connect it.
Again, TimeMachine is NOT a storage drive for permanent keeping of data, it deletes old stuff as time progresses. So even though you can "go back in time" and recover a file you transferred then deleted off the your internal boot drive, it won't keep everything forever like a storage drive can.
Consider Cloning your boot drive.
TimeMachine drives can only restore, they are not bootable like a clone is, so a TimeMachine drive isn't a heck of a lot of help if your hard drive fails to boot the computer, so a "hold the option key bootable clone" made with third party software is a very useful as you get to use the computer just like it was before and can get online, grab files off the internal drive and so forth. Even erase and reverse cloning!
The trick with a clone is you make one and keep it disconnected, updating it from time to time. If a software update or install hoses your machine, you can option boot off the clone, grab the latest copy of your files and reverse clone the clone with the updated files back onto your OS X partition, reboot the computer and it's like nothing happened.
It's a advanced technique, you will have to learn a lot more perhaps before attempting it, but it's a lifesaver.
Cloning requires another separate external hard drive and free cloning software.
You can read more about it all here. Take your time, you have a lot to absorb.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

My start up disk is full I want to transfer files to my external hard drive how do I do that

Mac Book Air start up disk is full
I moved my iTunes to an external drive
But this keeps happening
Any ideas?

time machine or keep your collection of large media files on an external HD
To show HD on desktop
go into FINDER at top then PREFERENCES then GENERAL tab
then check "hard disks" and "external disks"
You already moved your music to your ext. HD, why are you having any issues to transfer anything else?
check your SSD contents in your Air
See here for answer about the OTHER which is taking up space:
http://pondini.org/TM/30.html
and here:
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
See Kappys excellent note on the rest of “other” files taking up your space:
What is "Other" and What Can I Do About It?

I have a an external hard drive formatted for Windows, and I want to move those files to a new hard drive formatted for both Windows and OS. Is this possible?

I just purchased a MB Air 13", as well as a Seagate Slim Backup Plus. I have an older external hard drive that I was using with a Dell laptop. I would like to get the files off of the older external hard drive, and onto the new Seagate drive. Is this possible? I'd also like to be able to add files going forward to the Seagate from either a PC or a Mac and be able to view/use them on the MB Air 13".
Thanks in advance.

You will have to format the Seagate external HDD to a format common to both Mac and PC such as ExFAT. That should allow you to transfer files from the old HDD and still allow you to use with your MBA.
Ciao.

I am having problems gettting my mail to work ... Mac telling me that my start up disk id full and to delete some files to free up space ... have done this but when i open mail from the dock it just brings up the colour wheel and nothing happening

I am having problems gettting my mail to work ... Mac telling me that my start up disk id full and to delete some files to free up space ... have done this but when i open mail from the dock it just brings up the colour wheel and nothing happening ... it shows when you right click on the mail icon that " application not responding"

If your hard drive is getting full, you need to free up, at least, 20 GBs of space on your iMac's hard drive.
If your Mac is running a fairly recent version of OS X, here are some general guidelines.
Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.
Have you emptied your iMac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto, iPhoto has its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
Other things you can do to gain space.
Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.
Again, archive to disc, flash drives, ext. hard drives or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
When you install and launch it, let it run the automatic ans S.M,A.R.T. tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the tabs that have the ability to clean out all web browser cache files, web browser histories, system cache files, delete old error log files.
Typically, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are the biggest users of HD space.
move these files/data off of your internal drive to the external hard drive and deleted off of the internal hard drive.
If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be archived or moved, also, to the optical discs, flash drives or external hard drive and then either archived to disc and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.
Good Luck!

My start up disk is full, and i can no longer log in to my username to remedy it. i am abroad and my coverage is about to expire. what to do?

My start up disk is full, and I can no longer access my username to remedy it or remove files. I can only access the guest user profile in safari only mode. I am currently overseas and my coverage expired the day this problem happened. sos what do i do? i need to access iphoto and itunes. and everything else I have

My start up disk is full, and I can no longer access my username to remedy it or remove files. I can only access the guest user profile in safari only mode. I am currently overseas and my coverage expired the day this problem happened. sos what do i do? i need to access iphoto and itunes. and everything else I have

I cant update my software as it always prompted me ,your start up disk is full and not enough space, when i had done the deleting some of my documents and stuff that i dont need it.

i cant update my software as it always prompted me ,your start up disk is full and not enough space, when i had done the deleting some of my documents and stuff that i dont need it.

I use CCleaner from the AppStore to delete the 'useless' stuff. It's free and works great for me

HT1492 Start-up disk is full and can't go past the blue screen; can't delete read-only files on single-user mode. Please help.

I have had my Mac mini for about 6 years and I guess it had enough of me (haha), so the start-up disk got full and it shut down before I could empty files on my drive. Unfortunately, all these years I hadn't backed up anything and now I can't access anything since it won't boot past the apple logo (and the blue screen for that matter). I have tried rebooting (holding shift as the mac mini loads), but that didn't help since the start-up disk will still be full and stuck on the blue screen. I am now trying the single-user mode (holding command key+s), and I tried to delete files in the trash bin but all of the files are read-only and access is denied! so I basically can't delete anything on the mac mini (it says "Root device is mounted read-only"). So the key here is to change the permissions but I don't know how to exactly do that. Can someone help me figure this out? (and type the command in the unix language please!!) [ Note: We have two users on this mac mini if that helps.]

Run the following command:
mount -uw /
This isn't a permissions issue.
(87807)

My Start Up Disk is Full and I can get no acces to anything when the computer starts

The computer turns on and I can get no acces to anything. It display a message "Your Start Up Disk is Full" and comes to a white screen. I can only move the mouse but there is nowhere to click.
How can I delete any files, so the computer can come back to life?? Is there any way I can acces those files??
I'm using 250GB and this Mac has 500GB total memory.

Supposedly one can hold the Shift key down while booting (Safe Mode) and that's supposed to allow one to boot the machine when the startup disk is full.
Step by Step to fix your Mac
If that works, then use a storage drive (not TimeMachine) to move excessive files too likely starting with Movies (large and easy) or iTunes supscirptions downloads which have gotten out of control.
Most commonly used backup methods
Another method is to create a boot drive on a external drive, this then will allow one to option key boot the computer and remove files off of the internal drive, allowing the free space needed for OS X to swap stuff to the drive and operate.
Create a data recovery, undelete boot drive
Now for some reason it takes rebooting the original drive to get OS X to recognize there is free space available again, so reboot the machine normally (no Shift key). Just saying that because you may be wondering how come it does't register when you delete stuff later.

My start up disk is full and my mac wont start

Hi My start up disk is full and my computer wont start how do I get the system to reboot again?

Ensure that the external is correctly formatted
Drag and dropped the files
Test to be sure that the moved files work
Once the moved files work delete the originals
Allan

I got a message saying that my startup disk is full and I need to delete files. What files and where can I find them?

I got a message saying that my startup disk is full and I need to delete files. I don't know where to fined the files I need to delete and don't understand how my disk can be full. Can someone help me with this?

To see how much disk space is available ...
Click your Apple menu  top left in your screen. From the drop down menu click About This Mac > More Info > Storage
Make sure there's at least 15% free disk space.
Photos, video, documents, etc. all require disk space.
OSX Tips Where did my Disk Space go?
5 Quick Tips to Free Up Disk Space in Mac OS X
Freeing Up Hard Disk Space - Mac Guides
Never remove any Apple pre installed apps or system files.

I have a Macbook Pro that was slowing down. The HD was nearly full as I do a video work. I removed over 400gb of photos and video and it made no difference. I ran disk inventory x and that says that there is only 60gb on the hard drive but disk utility sa

I have a Macbook Pro that was slowing down. The HD was nearly full as I do a video work. I removed over 400gb of photos and video and it made no difference. I ran disk inventory x and that says that there is only 60gb on the hard drive but disk utility says there is still 430gb on the HD. How do I remove what DU says is still there.
Thanks

You may notice a difference in available space statistics between Disk Utility, Finder, and Get Info inspectors. This is expected and can be safely ignored. The Finder displays the available space on the disk without accounting for the local snapshots, because local snapshots will surrender their disk space if needed.
About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs

My start up disk is full and I need to move my files to an external hard drive, how do i do so?

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