How do I clean my startup disk?
I keep getting an error msg that my startup disk is full? I've emptied the trash, still no luck?
If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Then empty the Finder Trash again and 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 your 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.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. 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.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your 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.
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 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.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C):sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the 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 not to screw up. 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. It may take some minutes for ODS to list all the files.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS 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 ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.
Similar Messages
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How can i clean up my disk space on my MacBook Pro
how can i clean up my disk space on my MacBook Pro something like a disk cleanup on a pc?
Those things you did on your PC you need not worry about on your Mac. Most is done behind the scenes.
Kappy's Personal Suggestions About OS X Maintenance
For disk repairs use Disk Utility. For situations DU cannot handle the best third-party utilities are: Disk Warrior; DW only fixes problems with the disk directory, but most disk problems are caused by directory corruption; Disk Warrior 4.x is now Intel Mac compatible. Drive Genius provides additional tools not found in Disk Warrior. Versions 1.5.1 and later are Intel Mac compatible.
OS X performs certain maintenance functions that are scheduled to occur on a daily, weekly, or monthly period. The maintenance scripts run in the early AM only if the computer is turned on 24/7 (no sleep.)
If you are using a pre-Leopard version of OS X, then an excellent solution is to download and install a shareware utility such as Macaroni, JAW PseudoAnacron, or Anacron that will automate the maintenance activity regardless of whether the computer is turned off or asleep. Dependence upon third-party utilities to run the periodic maintenance scripts was significantly reduced since Tiger. (These utilities have limited or no functionality with Snow Leopard, Lion, or Mountain Lion and should not be installed.)
OS X automatically defragments files less than 20 MBs in size, so unless you have a disk full of very large files there's little need for defragmenting the hard drive. As for virus protection there are few if any such animals affecting OS X. You can protect the computer easily using the freeware Open Source virus protection software ClamXAV. Personally I would avoid most commercial anti-virus software because of their potential for causing problems. For more about malware see Macintosh Virus Guide.
I would also recommend downloading a utility such as TinkerTool System, OnyX 2.4.3, or Cocktail 5.1.1 that you can use for periodic maintenance such as removing old log files and archives, clearing caches, etc.
For emergency repairs install the freeware utility Applejack. If you cannot start up in OS X, you may be able to start in single-user mode from which you can run Applejack to do a whole set of repair and maintenance routines from the command line. Note that AppleJack 1.5 is required for Leopard. AppleJack 1.6 is compatible with Snow Leopard. (There is no confirmation that this version also works with Lion or later.)
When you install any new system software or updates be sure to repair the hard drive and permissions beforehand. I also recommend booting into safe mode before doing system software updates.
Get an external Firewire drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
1. Carbon Copy Cloner.
2. Data Backup
3. Deja Vu
4. SuperDuper!
5. SyncTwoFolders
6. Synk Pro
7. Synk Standard
8. Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQs on maintenance, optimization, virus protection, and backup and restore.
Always have a current backup before performing any system updates or upgrades.
Additional suggestions will be found in:
1. Mac Maintenance Quick Assist,
2. Mac OS X speed FAQ,
3. Speeding up Macs,
4. Macintosh OS X Routine Maintenance,
5. Essential Mac Maintenance: Get set up,
6. Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev up your routines,
7. Maintaining OS X,
8. Five Mac maintenance myths,
9. How to Speed up Macs, and
10. Myths of required versus not required maintenance for Mac OS X.
Referenced software can be found at CNet Downloads or MacUpdate.
Be sure you have an adequate amount of RAM installed for the number of applications you run concurrently. Be sure you leave a minimum of 10% of the hard drive's capacity or 20 GBs, whichever is greater, as free space. -
I have a windows 7 dvd in the drive and the mac is set to launch from the dvd drive. How do I change the startup disk?
Hold the option key at startup and when you get to the boot panel select your Mac OS drive.
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How can I do an startup disk with DiskWarriori included?
How can I do an startup disk with DiskWarrior included?
I want to do it with System 9.2.2. for those days that apperas an ? in the disk... buf!
I did one but the Mac didn't recognize it...
Thanksxjulia...
Remember what I said earlier? ""The tricky parts... Then install your wanted version of Mac OS 9""...
Install is a key word here.
Launch your latest Mac OS 9 CD and run the Installer targeting the mounted image. I prefer to do a minimum universal install from within the installer. Uncheck items of no use. If your CD is an older version of Mac OS 9, run the following version of an updater. Same can be done to update your utilities so long as there is a updater available for the utility.
<hr width="300">
Copying an already installed System Folder, is a bit to be desired, as you have tons of manual trashing (fixing, weeding, etc.) to do.
<--OR-->
Bootable CDs normally contain a copy protected System Folder that is equivalent to fooling around with mother nature. It unfortunately leaves you with many CD cake boxes of coasters in the process.
<hr width="300">
By the way— A mounted image gets refreshed in a funny way. Drag the mounted image to the trash and "chug-chug". Click on the [your named].img file and a fresh image gets mounted. Just keep an eye on both as you get the feel.
...Ron -
I'm getting a pop up that my startup disk is full. What do i do?
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
See Lion's Storage Display.
You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk. -
Finding my macbook slow and can't download updates as the startup disk is full, what is the best way to free up space?
Help here > OSX Tips The Storage Display
Never remove important system files.
If you are using Safari, from the menu bar click History > Clear History
Even if your Mac is running slow, the suggestions might help here > Mac troubleshooting: What to do when your computer is too slow | Macworld -
I am using Lion 10.7.4 adn would like to knnow how to clean my start up disk as the system is taking to long to open.
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
See Lion's Storage Display.
You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
See Where did my Disk Space go?.
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. -
How to select OS X startup disk after booting up in 8.6
I recently purchased an old iBook G3 (original clamshell model) to run some old Mac games I had laying around (was in a nostalgic mood I guess). It came with OS 8.6 and I installed an old copy of OS X 10.2 Jaguar onto it. It wouldn't let me run in the "Classic" environment, as it has OS 8.6, not OS 9.x. I found I was able to launch the computer from 8.6 by selecting the 8.6 start up disk, and thought I could try running some of my really old Mac apps. Long story short, once I booted up in 8.6 I've been unable to figure out how to boot back up in 10.2. It's been over 10 years since I last used anything older than Mac OS X, and I don't remember where everything is, and how to change the startup disk back to 10.2.
If anyone knows, please help. I'd really like to avoid doing a complete system restore if possible.Two ways:
Boot Using OPTION key:
1. Restart the computer.
2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the
"OPTION" key.
3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
4. Select the desired disk icon from which you want to boot.
5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.
Use Startup Disk Preferences:
Open Startup Disk prefs from System Preferences.
Select the volume from which you want to start.
Click on the Restart button.
Click on Restart again. -
i have a error message "hard disk does not have enough space" How do i clean it without buying software?
Information from these articles may be helpful.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html -
how do you free up disk space on macbook pro 2013 model to upgrade and update software
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. -
I have an '09 mac book pro running os x mavericks. How do I empty the startup disk?
I have an '09 mac book pro running os x mavericks. My startup disk is full. How do I empty it? I want to shift my videos to another external hard drive or delete them altogether.
I think you're asking how to free up some space. Either copy the files off to an external drive and delete them, or just delete them. Delete means drag to the trash. Then empty the trash.
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How do I set the Startup Disk to Boot Camp via ARD
All,
I typically use ARD and Set Startup Disk to image and reconfigure our lab computers (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2789) via a network image, namely DeployStudio. This works well. Now I want to be able to set it to a local disk to boot into Windows 7 which we have setup with Boot Camp. I get nothing but Failed responses. I am hoping it is a matter of what name or format I need to use.
I have tried:
BOOTCAMP
Windows
Windows on BOOTCAMP
None of these work. HELP!
These are iMac 21.5's running 10.6.8. ARD is 3.5.1. Same for clients.have you considered using Send Unix Command to set boot Volume?
For instance if you have "Macintosh HD" and "Boot Camp". And you wanted to set the boot volume to "Boot Camp". You could try sending the unix command, as root:
bless -mount /Volumes/Boot\ Camp -setBoot
After setting this, if you reboot, the computer should boot to the Boot\ Camp volume. But One the computer boots to windows, getting them to boot back to the mac os x is going to be a whole other story.
FYI if your boot camp volume is labeled "Untitled" then you would send the unix command, as root, bless -mount /Volumes/Untitled -setBoot. -
How to get early warning startup disk is full?
By the time OS X displays the startup disk full message, you computer is already useless. Is there a way to get this warning at 5GB free space?
Monitor it if you are using that sort of space. In answer to your question, no.
Barry -
How do i clear the startup disk
How do I clear the start up disk
If you mean erase the startup HD, then boot in Recovery
OS X: About OS X Recovery
Go to Disk Utility and erase the startup HD -
How do you make a startup disk for Mac Pro with mountain lion
My Mac Pro did not come with a disk how do you make one or get one??
If you ever need to repair or reformat your hard drive you need one!If you still have - or can download - the Lion Installer app from the Mac App Store, you'll find an app titled "Install Mac OS Mountain Lion.app" in your Applications folder. If it's not there, and you've already purchased it, just go to the MAS, look under your Purchases tab and download it from there. If you haven't already purchased it, you'll need to do so using your Apple ID.
Once you have the installation app, get a 8GB+ USB flash drive and download DiskMaker X - just plug in the flash drive, start up DiskMaker X and follow the instructions. You'll now have a bootable installation disk.
Good luck,
Clinton
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