Freeing disk space

I am down to 30GB's on my SL Mac. Anyone got any ideas on what I can delete? I have done all the obvious steps which is emptying the trash, and deleting unwanted apps.
John

The following article is useful to read
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/how-to-detox-and-spring-clean-your -mac-672433
However as already said it's likely that your biggest culprits will be large music collections or movie files within iTunes, or large photo collections. In this case you won't want to delete these, so will instead have to look at buying external storage and moving onto that.

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There is no more space for virtual disk ServerName_2.vmdk. You might be able to continue this session by freeing disk space on the relevant volume, and clicking Retry. Click Cancel to terminate this session.   Time: 30/05/2014 1:16:20 AM

Recently, our mail server crashed at about 7pm one night, with the error 'There is no more space for virtual disk ServerName_2.vmdk. You might be able to continue this session by freeing disk space on the relevant volume, and clicking Retry. Click Cancel to terminate this session.'
When we click Retry, the server starts up OK.
There are no snapshots listed in Snapshot manager for any of the virtual machines on the host.
There is also free disk space available on the host and for the VM with the disk errors.
This happened at least three more times, often at bad times. Each time, we were able to click 'Retry' and the disk/system would allow the VM to start-up successfully.
I checked the Forums, the VMware support articles and the internet as I had not seen this problem before. I have completed the VSphere 5.1 - Fast Track course and this issue was NOT covered in the training.
Most of the advice on-line and even that on the VMware web-site was pointing to snapshots being the cause of this issue. There are no snapshots enabled and I cannot see evidence of snapshots ever being used.
- We are running VMware vsphere (5.1.0) and there are (were) 4 virtual machines running on the ESX host. We are using the free version of VMware/ESXi.
- The Hard disk types we are using for this Virtual Machine are 'Thin Provisioned'.
- There are 4 [Thin Provisioned] Hard Disks for this virtual machine.
- There are 6 CPUs
- There is 20GB of RAM (memory)
- The VM is running Windows Server 2008 R2 as the guest/VM operating system. It is an Exchange 2010 SP1 mail server. There is plenty of available disk space on all the drives. The [Exchange] log files are cleaned out regularly (automated).
I decided to move one of our non-critical servers off this host and on to another host to see if this helped the problem. This took quite some time, as we are not using HA or vmotion, nor do we have VCenter Server...nonetheless, I finally managed to get the non-critical server on to another host (n.b. This was a much smaller machine with less virtual resources assigned to it).
After moving the non-critical server off this host, we decided to monitor the Host and see if the issue resolved itself.
I checked the host about 6-10 times a day, from first thing in the morning till last thing at night - monitoring the performance of not only the Virtual Machine, but the ESXi host also.
There were no adverse performance issues. The only thing I did note, was in the Summary page on the ESX Host, under Storage, was If I right-clicked on the datastore and clicked refresh, then the free disk space would drop (ie from 140GB to 125GB).
After monitoring the host and VM for about 2 weeks, we did NOT have another instance of the above error.
Sorry for the long winded post, but I wanted to give as much detail given this error has been raised before and snapshots are usually blamed as the cause.
My question is this:
If the ESX host had plenty of available disk capacity and there were no snapshots enabled on the VM (or any other VM's on the same host), then why did our Virtual machine crash with the error that 'there is not more space for virtual disk Servername_2.vmdk'?
How do we prevent this issue from happening if we don't know the underlying cause?
I would greatly appreciate any advice or suggestions.
If I have not provided enough info on the specs or environment, please let me know and I will provide more information.
Thanks all,
Kurt

The type of storage is really based on your requirements, and your ability to withstand downtime.
iSCSI as you are using with a NAS such as Synology or QNAP. NAS Selector - Support - Synology - Network Attached Storage (NAS)
I wouldn't use iSCSI for Exchange or any database. It's a bit slow.
Do you have a single physical host? Then I'd probably to an external direct attached storage. This would be a card inserted in your host server that gives you multilane SAS/SATA connectivity (www.techcable.com/SAS-SATA/SAS-SATA.pps) and an external disk enclosure/array.
For multiple hosts to a single array, I recommend a fibre channel connection to a FC capable switch, and on to a FC connected array.
We used to use a HP P2000 (on old G1), but it's since been retired. Worked pretty well once firmware was upgraded. http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/disk-storage/product-detail.html?oid=4118559#!tab=features. They can be connected via iSCSI, Fibre Channel or 6GB SAS so they are flexible and reasonably priced.
Recommendations:
     Use RAID 6 with your large disk arrays. With large disks there is a measurable failure rate when rebuilding a failed RAID5 array based on MTBF.
     Use smaller 15K disks in RAID 0+1 for speed on databases/Exchange.
     Use slower 7.2K disks in RAID6 for file storage.
We are a small hospital and we have 3 VMware servers with dual CNA (FC and Ethernet in a single twinax cable) connections to 2 redundant Cisco Nexus 5K switches and then 4 Fibre Channel connections to an EMC VNX 5300. It's extremely fast with about 50 virtual servers, but was quite an investment. One thing we don't have to worry about is down time. If there ever is an equipment failure, we have redundant everything, including power split between two UPSs.
Our VNX has 3 tiers of performance. 3 100GB SSD "Fast Cache" in RAID 1 with hot spare, to keep the most used data ready, but it's not really a tier, however one could be built utilizing the same disks. A second tier is performance tier with a 8 600GB RAID 0+1 and hot spare. The third is a bunch of 7.2K 3TB disks in RAID6. The VNX autotiers, placing data on disks depending on where it's needed. The volumes are sliced and diced automatically in the background to make this happen and we never have to touch it. I used a demo of Solarwinds Storage Manager to monitor performance for a while and the utilization was always low, meaning all data access was fast, througout the day.
D

Quitting Mail with no free disk space causes it to freeze.

I run out of disk space frequently and, as a result, have encountered one recurring problem.
Mail will attempt to retrieve new messages without disk space on which to store them.
After freeing disk space, Mail remains caught in a loop. Clicking "Get Mail" doesn't refresh the process. Attempting to quit causes Mail to freeze and only a force-quit will end the process.

‘Other’:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6047

Is there a way to Move files to the iCloud thus freeing up disk space on my Mac? Or does iCloud only sync (replicate) files between my Mac and the cloud?

Is there a way to Move files to the iCloud thus freeing up disk space on my Mac? Or does iCloud only sync (replicate) files between my Mac and the cloud? I want to free up disk space on my Mac and assumed that the icloud would be a good way to do this, but having 'moved' 70Gb of files to the iCloud drive (I've upgraded to 200Gb storage) my Mac is still nearly full and I've realised that it seems to just Sync files just like dropbox.

So, the big question is did the Apple guys confirm that this is how the new iCloud drive should be working? I'm guessing, from your response, that this is indeed the case. Are they going to fix this anytime soon? I thought that this was a new function of the iCloud drive in Yosemite.
I just want an online storage facility to back up my photo & music collections. I did look at Dropbox as they have a good deal going with their Dropbox Pro, however this is still just a sync service where the Master files reside on your local disk drive - although I have read that there may be a way to work around this. Still not ideal.

How to search by File Size--Freeing up Disk Space

I'm wondering if there is a way to search my hard drive for the largest files...I have a 120GB hard drive and no space left, and I want to find out what is taking the space...
Is there a way to view the largest files on my hard drive?
Is there a utility to help clean up files that are no longer being used or that are irrelevant?
Thanks!
-dave

Look at these links.
Where did my disk space go?
http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38&Number=770243
Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
Increase HD Free Space
http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/275191-how-easily-increase-hd-free-space-lap top.html
 Cheers, Tom

Re : Lion freeing up Hard Disk Space automatically

Hey,
I know this will sound strange but ive been noticing my Har Disk space automatically going up. It was 80 GB yesterday, this morning it was 120 GB and now its 152 GB !! I havent deleted anything and i have no idea what files are being deleted ! is anyone else facing this ? Should i be worried ? Or should I just enjoy the new found leg room !!
Thanks,
Maahir

So would time machine cause the finder to show me additional memory ? Also strangely when I check the space thru system information, it shows me around 60 go which is more or less what it should be. But the status bar at the bottom of finder windows and the info for the macintosh HD both show the extra 90 gb

Advice on freeing iMac disk space

Machine Model: iMac
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.7.8f1
I want to upgrade Panther to Leopard but don't have the 9 GB free disk space required. I transferred document files and iTunes to an external hard drive, deleted photos, got rid of games and Garageband, turned off file vault but still need 4+GB. I use a laptop for most things so can live without non-critical applications but don't want to accidentally discard critical ones. Any suggestions? I can't imagine what's taking up all the space on this computer.

Hello and Welcome to Apple Discussions.
OmniDiskSweeper will help you identify what's taking up the space but I suspect you won't want to get rid of much:
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/
An external hard drive will add loads of space and is really good value. You can even just install Leopard on the external and leave Panther intact on the internal as a spare. Go for a firewire drive with an Oxford chipset. Here are some good examples:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
regards
mrtotes

OS X 10.4 Library Files Disk Space

Hi,
I recenlty purchased a MacBook and am very very impressed.
Having been a Microshoft/Wintel user for many years now it makes a change to use something so different...
My only gripe is that I bought My MacBook with a 60Gb disk thinking this would be plenty.
I have copied over all my iTunes library (30Gb) and only have 10Gb of free space left. I have also installed Dev tools x-Code (2Gb) which I would like to keep.. but could remove.
Using WhatSize I have managed to identify that there seems to be a lot of what I think may be bloatware in the library directory... Looks like this folder is nearly 9Gb (~/Library i think...)
Can anyone tell me what it is safe to delete or recommend what I can delete, as I would like to reclaim some disk space but don't want to delete anything that is going to be vital later on.
TIA.
Rob.

Hi, Rob. Welcome to the Discussions.
See my "Freeing Space on your Mac OS X startup disk" FAQ.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

When i import movies from my iPhoto app to my iMovie app does it make a copy (thereby using double the hard disk space) or does it link to my iPhoto app? The reason i ask is i want to archive all my videos from iPhoto/iMovie. HELP!

When i import movies from my iPhoto app to my iMovie app does it make a copy (thereby using double the hard disk space) or does it link to my iPhoto app? The reason i ask is i want to archive all my videos from iPhoto/iMovie. Do i need to archive the movies in iPhoto AND iMovie? HELP!

Hi - I'm having the same problem with freeing up space on the HD. If I can't free space if I'm using any part of the clip, how can I split up the clips so that I can discard the part I won't use? This is crazy! I have only 4 GB of free space left!
Also, I've tried to transfer the project file to my external HD but I keep getting an error saying I can't transfer it. I've been told this is because I don't have enough space on the HD for the transfer. I tried a similar transfer with another computer with plenty of HD space but the same error occurred. Is there a way to break up the project file into small pieces for the transfer (I'm thinking the whole movie file is just too big)?
Thanks for any info!

Installation and required disk space

Hi,
I have just gone to install Leopard on my iBook. In the installation process when I select the hard drive on which I want to install on, it say that I need something like 6 gigs of free space. I only have 5 gigs free, so will this mean that I need to delete some files to have 6 gigs free and then when I install I'll have no space left on my hard drive and therefore need to delete a whole lot more stuff?
Thanks in advance.

In general you need 15% more free disk space than required specs to get best performance. This number is arbitrary.
See my FAQ* on freeing up disk space:
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
120 GB hard drives exist for your iBook which you can use to get more space. They are Parallel ATA (not SATA!).
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Unable to free disk space

Hi
I'm running on an encrypted HD. I have around 400mb of free HD space and just freed up about 10gb. However when I restart my Mac, I don't get the prompt saying that it is freeing up any disk space. So when I relog, i've still got just 400mb.
I'm not using any third party apps, just those built into leopard.
Any assistance gratefully appreciated
Matt

I have just tried to turn of the Filevault encrytion but it reports in needs over 130gb of free space in order to deactivate it :o

CSA MC insufficient disk space

Hello!
There is a little problem - low disk space on CSA MC machine. Shrinking database doesn't help. And backups store on anouther logical disk so they don't take free space.
As I understand the way is to "move" all CSA MC database to anouther machine by reinstalling CSA MC with "Remote Database" option. Am I right? So is there different ways to move CSA MC database files without reinstalling product?
Thank you,
Ann

To free Up Disk Space on CSA MC (Insufficient Disk Space Event)
Use the following procedure to shrink your database files and log files and increase the amount of free disk space on your CSA MC system. If your CSA MC event log contains an "insufficient disk space" message, this is an appropriate procedure for freeing up space.
Delete old log files and old CSA MC database files
Step 1 Stop the CSA MC and agent services.
From a command prompt window, type the following commands:
net stop Cisco Security Agent
net stop Cisco Security Agent MC
Step 2 Access the CSCOpx\CSAMC\db and CSCOpx\CSAMC\cfg folders and delete old database files with names such as: csamc.mdf.Vm.n.0.ddd, csamc_log.ldf.Vm.n.0.ddd, csamc_volatile_data.ndf.Vm.n.0.ddd.
Caution DO NOT delete files csamc.mdf, csamc_log.ldf and
csamc_volatile_data.ndf. (Files with no old version number suffixes.)
Step 3 Access the CSCOpx\CSAMC\log directory and delete old log files of the form csamc.nnn.
Step 4 Start the CSA services. From a command prompt window, type the following commands:
net start Cisco Security Agent
net start Cisco Security Agent MC

Help! Emptying Trash in iMovie isn't freeing up space

I am quickly running out of GB in iMovie. In all the previous editions if you emptied the trash you got that GB space back.. But when I do it now, it's not freeing up any space.. I am down to 1.11 GB available.. can anyone help?

Eric, iMovie HD uses non-destructive editing of clips. That means you can always restore a clip to its original length. If you import a 5-minute clip and split it into three parts, each of the three clips can be restored to the length of the original clip. If you screw up, recovery is just a few mouseclicks away.
In iMovie 4, if Clips 1, 2 and 3 share the same source file, trashing Clip 2 will remove its frames from the source file, shortening the file. You will recover that disk space when you empty the iMovie trash.
That's not how it works in iMovie HD. When you empty the trash the source file is NEVER shortened, for Clips 1 and 3 must be restorable to the full length of the original clip. If other clips use that source file, no disk space is recovered because no frames are removed from the source file.
Disk space is only recovered when you discard the LAST clip of a source file. Then iMovie HD discards the entire file.
When it does that, note that iMovie HD moves the file to the Mac Trash (in the Finder). So you must empty the Mac Trash too to recover the disk space.
BTW, you can pretty much ignore the Trash numbers reported by iMovie HD. It's reporting the size of the source file, which may or may not actually be discarded.
There are pros and cons to non-destructive editing, of course. The biggest disadvantage is that we recover less disk space. The advantage is we can always restore a clip -- even when Copying and Pasting clips between projects.
There's also improved reliability. When emptying the Trash, we no longer see the project corruption we sometimes saw in iMovie 2/3/4.
Fortunately, large FireWire drives are cheap and getting cheaper. (You may need one, by the way, for your drive is very full. Best advice I hear is to leave at least 10% empty or Mac OS X itself can get into trouble.)
If that's not an option, one solution is to export the iMovie HD project back to the camera, then re-import it to a new project. The new project won't contain the discarded stuff.
Karl

Best way to free disk space/memory?

Need to free up disk space/memory in order to back-up my iPhone 4 before switching to the iPhone 6. More PC than Mac, where do I look, and what is safe to delete from my computer? I don't know what is using all the space.

Hi ..
Help here > Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
Just so you are aware, your Mac must be running v10.6.8 or later to backup an iPhone 4 and syncing an iPhone 6 > Apple - iPhone 6 - Technical Specifications

The Case of the Disappearing Disk Space

Last week when I noticed I only had 5.5 gigs on my hard disk, I decided to start deleting files and programs that I didn't really need anymore. I ended up freeing up about 7 gigs! However, I have since noticed something peculiar...
As I use my computer (mostly browsing and e-mail, no other downloading), my hard disk mysteriously gets filled up. And I don't mean a few megabytes here and there, but rather more than two gigs in just a couple of days! This doesn't seem normal to me at all. Even if I do save files, they are usually just small Word documents for school. A few minutes ago, Finder said I had 10.7 gigs on my hard disk with the trash emptied. After I restarted, it said I had 13.15. Since then, I've already lost .02 gigs and the only programs I have open are Mail and Safari.
Can someone please explain to me what is happening here? Thanks!

Okay, my hard disk is at 12.71 now and a random .rtf file reads 8 kb. I'll check it later (if I am doing this right...)
You don't seem to be doing it correctly. Open TextEdit, create a new window, and note down the usage of disk space reported by WhatSize by typing it out into this window. After the amount of free space on the hard disk has decreased, run WhatSize again and note down what is reported this time. Compare the differences in the two sets of notes.
Another possibility is to choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu, enter /private/var/vm/ as the folder's path, and keep an eye on the number of items in this folder as you use the computer.
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Freeing disk space

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