Getting to a 'clean' finder from Startup Disk?

I am having huge problems with new monitors holding a calibration. My tech at Lacie has recommended starting up from the startup disk with basically a 'clean' finder so we can determine if I am having a hardware or software issue that is causing the problem. I can find no way to do this however. Is there a way to do this other than installing the OS on an external hard drive and booting from that?
Thank you!!

Thank you! Here's what I have:
Model Name:          Mac Pro
Model Identifier:          MacPro3,1
Processor Name:          Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed:          2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors:          2
Total Number Of Cores:          8
L2 Cache (per processor):          12 MB
Memory:          6 GB
Bus Speed:          1.6 GHz
ATI Radeon HD 5770:
Chipset Model:          ATI Radeon HD 5770
Type:          GPU
Bus:          PCIe
Slot:          Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width:          x16
VRAM (Total):          1024 MB
Vendor:          ATI (0x1002)
Device ID:          0x68b8
Revision ID:          0x0000
ROM Revision:          113-C0160C-155
EFI Driver Version:          01.00.436
Displays:
LaCie 324i:
Resolution:          1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth:          32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display:          Yes
Mirror:          Off
Online:          Yes
Rotation:          Supported
Display Connector:
Status:          No Display Connected
Display Connector:
Status:          No Display Connected

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Unable to delete files from my startup disk; can move to trash and delete them there, but cannot delete from startup disk?

I constantly get a warning message that my startup disk is full and I need to remove/back up files from it. I have already backed up the files from my "All Documents" folder, which is on the left side of the menu in my startup disk. The problem is, I cannot delete those same files from the "All Documents" folder on my startup disk. It will let me move them to the trash, which I can empty, but they still do not delete from the "All Documents" folder. Does anyone know why?

Drag the files you want to delete (this applies to applications too) from their current location to the Trashcan icon in the dock. The trash will appear full. Hold down the control key and click on the Trashcan and select "Empty Trash" from the pop-up menu.
Alternatives to the control-click method: double-click on the Trashcan and click the "Empty" button in the upper right corner of the window that comes up; right-click on the Trashcan (only works if you have right-click enabled); press shift-command-delete; select "Emtpy trash..." from the Finder menu.

HT201364 how do I remove items from startup disk to load OS X Mavericks?

I'm trying to load OS X Mavericks and I'm getting a message to remove items from startup disk. Can anyone tell me how to do that??

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
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. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
When Time Machine backs up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of recently deleted files. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself. If you followed bad advice to disable local snapshots by running a shell command, you may have ended up with a lot of data in the Other category. Reboot and it should go away.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

I'm getting a message that says my startup disk is full

I'm getting a message that says my startup disk is full and I need to delete files. Which files and how do I delete them. My computer is becoming real slow and the color wheel comes on a lot of the time. HELP!!!

You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
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 store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
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.
Other things you can do to gain space.
Once you have around 15 GBs regained, do a search, download and install OmniDisk Sweeper.
This app will help you locate files that you can move/archive and/or delete from your system.
STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!
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.
Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX 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 Macbook air keeps getting a message saying that the startup disk is full. I don't have picture, music, or movies on it. Im not sure whats wrong with it.

My Macbook air keeps getting a message saying that the startup disk is full. I don't have picture, music, or movies on it. Im not sure whats wrong with it.

The first step is to check and see how much space really is there. From the desktop right click on the drive in the upper right corner (at least it's there by default) and select "Get Info" to see how much space it reports as free.
It's not just media files that eat up disk space, though they are often a major contributor. Do you happen to be running one of the virtual machine programs (Parallels or VMWare Fusion)? When you create a guest drive there you normally have a fairly decent amount of disk space dedicated to it and that can fill the drive.
As well, a quick fix that may buy you some time is to empty the trash if you've not done so recently. Click on the trash folder in your dock and then in the window that comes up select the option to empty the trash.
If you can free up some space, there are programs that will help you find what files and directories are using disk space. I've used Space Gremlin (in the App store) for that sort of thing, though there others. If you run that sort of utlity you'll get some idea about what is really eating up the drive space.

Unable to update software or upload pics from SD card-how do I remove files from startup disk? Please help!

Unable to update software or upload pics from SD card-how do I remove files from startup disk? Please help!

Hello Smile_333
The article below will assist with finding things and help increase the hard drive space for your computer. The best way is to have an external hard drive to copy things to if you do not want to delete and loose things.
OS X Mountain Lion: Increase disk space
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
-Norm G.

I was surfing online when suddenly my mac just freeze. So i had forced shut down it and turned it on again but then the folder with questionmark icon shows up. And i pressed (option key) to go to the utility but i cant find my startup disk anywhere!

I was surfing online when suddenly my mac just freeze. So i had forced shut down it and turned it on again but then the folder with questionmark icon shows up. And i pressed (option key) to go to the utility but i cant find my startup disk anywhere!

Well, if the internal hard drive is no longer readable, there's pretty much nothing anyone here can do about it. There are no magic words that will fix a hardware problem.
Make an appointment at the genius bar and have it looked at.

HT3680 My 3 year old iMac is freezing and I get a message "startup disk almost full for running applications. delete files..." Where do I find the startup disk and what should I delete?

My 3 year old Mac is having trouble and freezes up from time to time lately. I get a message saying "startup disk almost full, delete files ..." something about having enough room for applications to function. I know my startup disk is the Macintosh HD, but what kind of files do I need to delete and how much space do I need to free up? In my "about this mac" area, it says I have 4.89gb free out of 319.21 So I am confused why I need to do this.

You're less than 2% free and should always have at least 15% (my SWAG). Best is to get an ext FWHD and move stuff from the startup disk to it and delete it from that. Best things to move are movies, music, and photos, using the apps that manage those things.

I'm getting this error with bootcamp "The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned"

Here's the story...
I had a dual boot configuration on my mac with Mac OS X Lion and Windows XP (made with bootcamp).
I decided to reinstall windows.
I deleted the windows partition using BootCamp.
Tried to recreate the Windows partition with Boot Camp and got: "The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned You must have at least 10 GB of free space available"
After reading several posts on this forum I decided to defrag the hard drive and try again.
The defrag did not work and I'm still getting the error, I have 22 gb of free space on my drive.
Any suggestions?
Also, I tried repair disk and repair permissions
Hmm, my external harddrive says on the box "OS X 10.5.8 or higher (32-bit kernel only)" Could the 32-bit requirement be an issue? Is lion 64-bit?

Boot Camp must be able to allocate a contiguous block of space on the drive. If it cannot find 10 GBs of contiguous space, then you cannot create the Windows partition.
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
Boot from the external hard drive.
Erase the internal hard drive.
Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Do not quit Disk Utility.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

Delete files from startup disk?

Under system preferences I see the StartUp Disk, but where do I delete files from that in order to clear up some space?
I have MacBook Air OS 10.6.8. Is it just under my User? everything like applications and documents, etc?

Open Finder and look on the sidebar for the House Icon:
Click on it and you should see a list similar to this:
You should be able to delete any items in those folders to create the required space.
You may also delete any third party applications from your Applications folder.
Ciao.

Where can I find a startup disk for Powermac 7600?

When I tried to boot my powermac 7600 i received the '?' icon in the center of the screen. So I thought I would try to boot from the startup disk. Uh-Oh, I seem to have lost my startup disk to my powermac 7600. Where can I find a start up disk? Or is their another way around the issue?

A Disk Tools PPC file can be found via Apple's Older Software Downloads list (http://www.info.apple.com/support/oldersoftwarelist.html).
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/System/Mac_OS_8.1_Update/Disk_Tools_PPC.img.bin
A floppy from the above file should work as a startup disk for your computer (it is intended for Mac OS 8.1 and Mac OS Extended, but it should at least allow you to boot the 7600). However, the problem is that you would have to locate someone with another old (pre-1998) Macintosh computer with Disk Copy 6.3.3 (the Make a Floppy command under the Utilities menu) in order to create the floppy.
http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Disk_Copy/Disk_Copy_6.3.3.smi.bin
Jan

Get an error..OS X startup disk full???

Get an error message...OS X Startup Disk is Full.
How do I fix this?

You will need to move data off of it. Mac's need 10-15% of the total HD available at any time. What tends to take up the most space is media such as music, photographs and movies. If this is your only Mac then you will need to try boot into Verbose Mode and then move those libraries to an external HD. The HD's must formatted correctly (Mac OS extended (Journaled) and then you can move them. Here are articles from Apple on how to move the libraries.
iMovie: How to move the Library to an EHD
iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD
To learn how to restart in Verbose mode click http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1492. If you still can't boot in then I'd recommend using another Mac and restart in Target Disk Mode and manually move the libraries to an EHD. Here are instructions for Target Disk Mode http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661 If you don't have another Mac you can use a friends or you can take it an Apple Store or AASP.
Good luck!

Startup problem - won't boot from startup disk

I have a MacPro 1,1 with 2 hard disks and 3 volumes. Disk 1 has Tiger and disk 2 has Snow Leopard plus a windows partition for Boot Camp. I am the sole user in both versions of OSX and in both accounts I have the startup disk set to Snow Leopard. Recently when I start the machine it doesn't get past the blank grey screen unless I hold the Option key to show the 3 volumes when I can pick and go.
I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions yet nothing is fixed.
The only thing I've changed recently is to have upgraded my copy of Cinema 4D but I hardly think that can be to blame. Any suggestions?

Yes. As I wrote in my first post I am the only account holder in both my OSX volumes, Tiger and Snow Leopard, and in both I have Snow Leopard nominated as the start-up volume. Also, in my Windows XP partition (on the same hard disk as Snow Leopard) I have Snow Leopard nominated as the start-up volume in the Boot-Camp control panel. So everything I can think of in every volume on my machine is pointing towards "start in Snow Leopard", only it seems to be having trouble doing that.
As I mentioned before, if I command a restart it works OK, but if the machine is off and I press the button I get the grey screen and I have to power it off with the button then boot with the Option key to see the three volumes.
Disk Utility - Repair Disk run from my installation disk or from my hard disk reports that the disk appears fine. I have repaired permissions from my hard disk to the point that it doesn't report any repair at all.
The MacPro used to start up fine but something has changed, only I have no idea what. I was hoping someone here might be able to tell me it's this or that.

G4 won't boot from startup disk, disk utility can't repair, is all lost?

My G4 will not boot from the startup disk which is my second hard drive a 160GB. That's been my startup disk for the past 3 years. I tried running disk utilities, but get the error message "underlying task reported a failure on exit." "Invalid key length." "Volume check failed." "Disk repair failed."
I've tried loading in safe mode, and fsck (or something like that) nothing has worked. When I did force start by holding down the "x" key, the second hard drive image was on my desktop, but when I clicked it-it did not have any current information or files. Is everything lost? Is there a way to boot this hard drive or save all of my photos and music?
Thanks in advance for the help.

DiskWarrior can probably fix your problem. DiskWarrior by Alsoft
http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html
 Cheers, Tom

How do i delete items from startup disk

how do i delete items from startup disk

You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
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 store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
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.
Other things you can do to gain space.
Once you have around 15 GBs regained, do a search, download and install OmniDisk Sweeper.
This app will help you locate files that you can move/archive and/or delete from your system.
STAY AWAY FROM DELETING ANY FILES FROM OS X SYSTEM FOLDER!
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.
Look in your Applications folder, if you have applications you haven't used in a long time, if the app doesn't have a dedicated uninstaller, then you can simply drag it into the OS X Trash icon. IF the application has an uninstaller app, then use it to completely delete the app from your Mac.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
When you install and launch it, let it do its initial automatic tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the maintenance tabs that let OnyX 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!

Getting to a 'clean' finder from Startup Disk?

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