Hard drive almost full need help

A few years ago I saw software which would show the contents of the hard drive in a colored graphic display. This made it easy to spot where the most likely items to delete were to free up hard drive space. I looked around but don't remember the name of the software. Can anyone point me to the right direction?

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion's 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.

Similar Messages

Backup/Synchronization Warning Hard Drive Almost Full

Every time I try to create an album in Photoshop Elements 10, when it goes to upload to Photoshop.com, I get a warning that my hard drive is almost full. If I repeatedly indicate I have fixed the problem, the album will eventually synchronize. My hard drive is not even close to full; I have 1.36TB free of 1.80TB. My Photoshop.com account is also not nearly full, I am using 2.6GB of 20.0GB available, as I purchased additional storage.
What is causing this error and how do I fix it?
Robert

Hi Robert,
Please try signing out of your Photoshop.com account from PSE and then sigining in again. Also verify that your C drive also has free space. Backup/synchronization also downloads files from your online account to the local hard disk . The default save location is the Pictures folder of the system. You may receive this message if downloading the online files fills up the loacl disk. See if its useful. Would be glad to help further. Thanks.

Mac book is starting up funny. I have a flashing folder and question mark or just a grey screen. IT at university is backed up all week and said it's the hard drive! Ugh need help in class now will be calling ASAP! Help please.

I get either a grey screen or a flashing folder question mark. IT at my university said it wouldn't be till after the weekend and than still a few days to get it fixed so she told me to try to back it up myself because that's the only sure fire way to ensure I get all my Info. So any hints or help? They did a hardware test and they think it's my hard drive. I did a r+command restart
And it won't let me verify the disk.... Or download mountain lion.. Okay I know I sound clueless but can anyone help me?

Question (?) Mark, Blinking Folder, or Gray Screen at Startup
These are related but not identical issues. Their causes are outlined in Intel-based Mac- Startup sequence and error codes, symbols. Solutions may be found in:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
Mac OS X- Gray screen appears during startup
In most cases the problems may be caused by:
Problem with the computer's PRAM - See Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM.
Boot drive's directory has been corrupted - Repair with Disk Utility.
Critical system files are damaged or deleted - Reinstall OS X.
The disk drive is physically non-functional - Replace the hard drive.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
The main difference if you are using Lion or Mountain Lion is that you must first boot from the Recovery HD:
Boot From 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.
Reinstall Snow Leopard Without Erasing The drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing The Drive
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.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

I have moved all of my music from my laptop to a portable hard drive...need help :( cant play music

Hi all,
I moved all my music from my laptop to a portable hard drive, my hope was that i could just plug and play into my mabook air not the case...
I was wondering if anyone could help with the following, in a perfect world i would love to be able to keep the music on my drive (there is about 500 gb worth) and then when i want to play through mac to apple tv be able to just plug into mac and then be good to go, or if poss for itunes to be able to recognise the music on my portable drive...and for me then to play through itunes without adding it (as there wouldnt be enough space)...and to also have the capability to plug the drive into my windows comp and be able to also still play from there.
I dont know if any of this is poss...it all seems really complicated to me...and i am new to mac.
If anyone thinks they could help please get in touch!
my main goal is to be able to play my music through apple tv to the surround system in the house, and to be able to play music through my mac if poss, doesnt have to be itunes so long as i can air play or even better select through apple tv.
thanks so much in advance to anyone who can help me out
p.s. i tried this...didnt work, unless i am doing it wrong
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168
Windows users see tip at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18879381
If you put it in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
Do not confuse (as you did) moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

Upgrading hard drive... need help on how to prepare current CS6 for reinstall on new hard drive

I'm about to upgrade my hard drive to a larger one and will need to reinstall my CS6 Web/Design Suite... I've seen many people having issues with activation and licensing after they reformat their computers or buy a new one and try to install the programs on the new "system". How should I go about preparing my Adobe software on the current hard drive so I won't have any issues resintalling on the new hard drive? I will be installing CS6 Student/Teacher version on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit...
Thanks for the help!

Thanks!
I wondered if that was all I needed, but when I built my new system and installed PS CS4 I kept getting errors. So, I went back to the old system and deactivated it and still got errors. Uninstalled it deactivated and still got errors on the new system. When I talked to Adobe they just kept telling me the key was invalid (even though I had been running that same program and key for the last 4 years without problems lol) and it was not a burnt copy or pirated. I had the orginal box with the original DVD case and serial number on the case... A friend of mine had upgraded their rig and went to a Suite so he gave me his CS4. But, needless to say (as it is said all over these forums apparently) Adobe was of no help at all so I had to buy a new version. I'm not looking to go through all of that BS again, haha.
So as long as I deactivate the Suite (or do I need to deactivate each program separately?) I should be able to reformat (or upgrade hard drives) and reinstall CS6 as many times as I want? (I usually do a reformat like once a year to keep my computers clean and free of junk that may have been downloaded by other household members...)

Hard Drive is full, need to move photos

My hard drive is out of space. I have installed a second hard drive that I want to move all of my photos to. But I want to keep the keyword tags/etc. Can someone give me step by step instructions on how to do this using PS Elements 7?
Thanks.

I keep my images in multiple folders, and if you as well, then you may want to create corresponding folders in the destination area and move one folder at a time.
Use display by folder location, select all images in that folder and then the move function in the file menu.
If the folder only contains items that are in the database you are moving then it is easier to drag the folder in the finder. If there is anything extra then Elements asks if you really want to move the folder and you need to do it as above.

System memory vs disk usage -- why is my hard drive almost full if my system memory is half empty?

I have a white Macbook, 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 GB of memory, Mac OS X, version 10.5.8, purchased in 2008. My Mac keeps warning me that my startup disk is almost full, and indeed Activity Monitor shows that my disk usage has minimal free space (2.31 GB). However, the System Memory tab shows that half my space is free.
Does the discrepancy mean that there is lots of space left on my Mac? If not, how can I identify if some sort of error is filling up my memory? Right now, I have a lot of music and documents stored on my laptop, but nothing else, and I would like to be sure it's those two things that are filling up the space.
What is the recommended method for adding more memory to my Mac, if nothing else?

There are two different types of memory in your Mac. There is system memory, more commonly referred to as RAM, and there is disk space. RAM is where the Mac works on data. Disk space is where data is stored for long term storage.
You are in serious danger of causing your Mac to die completely by running it with so little free space on your system drive. It is imperative that you start either deleting or move data off the disk drive. You should have 8 to 10 time as much free space at least at all times for OS X to run will.
A tool that can with cleaning up your disk drive is OmniDiskSweeper. It will tell you the files and fol,der that are using the most space. That will give you good candidates for deletion or movement.
Allan

Sluggish, hard drive almost full...

Hello. I noticed that my computer has become a bit slugggish, so I opened disk utility and it told me that I have used 48 of my 55 gigs on my hard drive. So there are only 7 gigs available.
I assume that this is the reason why it's starting to act sluggish.........?
Now, what is confusing to me is that when I try and find all the folders (and files inside those folders) that add up to the 48 gigs that are being used, I can't do it.
Starting at the top level of my Hard Drive (by clicking on "Computer" in the GO menu), the Application folder is 13.6 gigs, the Library folder is 5.12 gigs, the System folder is 1.65 gigs, the Users folder is 18.3 gigs, and there are just a few more folders which all add up to less than 500kb. So that all adds up to about 39 gigs.
Where are the other 9 gigs?
Disk Utility says that I'm using up 48 gigs on my computer.
I have 2 users on this computer and I am the owner and administrator for both.
Regardless, all that is included in the Users folder on the top level of my Hard Drive anyway, correct?
When I "Got Info" on the Users folder, that included every folder and file in the other User, right?
So I'm just trying to account for where all this memory is being used up so that maybe I could do a little manual spring cleaning. But it's difficult when I can't account for all of it.
Can anyone help?
thanks.

Hi,
WhatSize (freeware) will show you the size of every file/folder on the drive. Run it and post the results (any surprises).
John

Start up disk and hard drive almost full i have tried clearing things but it is not working it says its full from (other)

Hi so I keep getting pop up messages saying that my start up disk is almost full. SO I go into my Macintosh and try to erase some things however it isnt freeing any space most of the storage has been filled up by the word (other). Not movies or music but (other) not too sure what it is? please help

“Other" includes everything that is not audio, movies, photos, apps and backups. In other words it includes the OS, mail, documents... See http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html and What is "Other" and What Can I Do About It? and Apple Support Communities https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142
Also see Where did my disk space go: http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
For hints on how to free disk/SSD storage see
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5872318?tstart=0
and
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5939678?tstart=60

Hard drive almost full, but I can't access info to delete!?

I opened up Safari for the first time in a long time and it asked to update my keychains. I did. Then after I restarted my mac everything went back to default and I can't find anything I had saved. All music, pictures, gone!
The strange thing is when I look at the free space available, it says I have 5.6 gigs left, which is the same amount of space I had before everything was erased! Does anybody know what's going on? How can I find everything that was lost?

Hi inergi, Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Did you attempt to rename your home folder? If not, WhatSizemay help you find it.
-mj
[email protected]

Hard Drive Almost Full

I thought I couln't, but I did. 250 GB HD has 10 GB left. Now what? I have lots of photos in iPhoto. I also have four accounts on this Mac. Two of the accounts are for my daughters who have their own Macs. Should I remove their accounts to create space? How do I do that? Help!!

Yes, you are extremely low on free disk space.
Only if their accounts are using significat amounts of disk space would it be worthwhile doing that.
A solution would be to move your iPhoto library to an external disk.
A tool to help you see what is using up the disk space is OmniDiskSweeper. It will show you the folders and files that are using the largest amount of disk space.
Allan

Why is my recovery drive almost full and how do i clean it.

Also why is my hard drive almost full when i have very little on the computer?

My recovery is full too exept ive got windows 7.... I do have a lot of crap on my laptop though.....i dont know whats causing it ... im 12 so all i do is take photos and videos , play games on hp games , watch netflix and youtube , go on kids chat....Well, there was this one time where i was on the chat when my computor was hacked and i just turned it off then it was fine if it helps..... i actually have no idea....ive had my laptop for about two years now ...my laptop is hp and part of the pavilion g series.....its red ?it has intel core....i dunno if any of this helps but please help ....My parents will get really mad if i run out of memery

Startup Drive Almost Full!! Help Please

Hi everyone, I have a 1.25mhz, 1.25gig MDD (w/FW400)and today I got an alert message that said "Startup Drive almost full"....The computer has the stock 80gig harddrive, and I'm guessing that all of those RAW photos have just filled up the drive.
I was thinking of getting a 160 or 200 gig internal harddrive, and then using the 80 gig drive specifically for music and photos. My question is how do I move all of the info from my current hard drive onto the new drive. I also have a 300 gig external firewire harddrive that I can use to help with the transfer.
I'm pretty sure that I will be able to physically install the new drive.
Thanks,
Tom
PowerMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Basically you need to clone your existing drive to the new drive. This is very easy to do with programs such as Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. I use CCC all the time and it works fine for me, but I have heard that SD makes it even easier. Once the old drive has been cloned to the new, you can select it as the startup disk and begin booting from it.
After you are comfortable that all is well, feel free to format the 80GB disk and use it for other things.

Message that hard drive is full when clearly it is not!!!! HELP!!!

This is weird. Got a message that I had 117 mb left on hard drive. Dumped a bunch of programs and pictures. Then it said I had 25 gb on drive. Three days later, having done NOTHING, I got a message I was totally out of hard drive space again. Dumped a couple of programs - back up to 1.84 gb. An hour later it is full FULL AGAIN. I had done NOTHING. What is going on here??? My user folder says I have no space when I go to "get info" but when I check "get info" on all the folders inside (system, library, pictures, music, etc) it only adds up to half of the capacity of my hard drive (250 gbs). So in fact I know I only have less than 100 gb on that computer This is very strange. The drive is not full, and when I dump programs and data, it fills itself back up but can't find out why/how/where. I threw out the finder preferences but that didn't work. I booted up from my Leopard disk and it said my hard drive was full, but I KNOW it is not. What is going on??

Sounds like something is generating garbage. You've got a couple of options (at least) to track it down, starting with one tool built into the command-line interface. Pop open the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Termain.app) and type in the following:
cd /
sudo du -hd 1
Enter your password when prompted. du is the Disk Usage command, which will print out the disk space taken up by each folder, including invisible ones. Note that du can take a fair bit of time to complete; my own drive took about 5-6 minutes with only 27GB on it, so yours will probably take longer.
Your other option is to grab Disk Inventory X, a freeware utility which performs a very similar job to du, but with a shiny user interface to help you locate the offending space waster. If you're not comfortable with the terminal, this may be the best place to start.

I can not get the new updates because my start disc and hard drive are full, I need 1.98 GB.

I can not get the new updates because my start disc and hard drive are full, I need 1.98 GB.

Some folks recommend OmniDiskSweaper to allow you to review your stuff to find possible candidates to throw away.
Even if you throw away some stuff and your desired "1.98GB", then what? If that's the number you need for the update, you'll just use most or all of the reclaimed space with the update and you are right back to where you started.
You don't specify what kind of machine you got but presumably it's a mac pro since you posted in the Mac Pro community. In which case just get yourself another drive or two and move stuff around to free up your boot drive.
[Perhaps you should hurry too since I expect hdd prices might be going up due to possible impending hdd shortages.]
Finally, if some of those updates are major system updates you want extra drives for backups because I always recommend you never do major updates to your system without backups to that system.

Hard drive almost full need help

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