How do I gain space on my Macintosh hard disk?

How to recover space on the hard drive

If you are like most users what is taking up a lot of HD space is your media libraries, in other words photographs, music and movies. The best method of handling this is to offload these libraries to an external HD, which is very simple to do. Apple explains how in:
iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD
iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD
iMovie: How to move the Library to an EHD

Similar Messages

  • HT201364 how do i make space on my start up disk

    How do I make space on my start up disk to allow for updates?

    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.
    Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
    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!

  • HT201364 how do i remove space from my start up disk

    How do i remove space from my start up disk?

    Do you mean "make" space on your HD?
    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.

  • How do i create space in my start up disk on mac book pro?

    how do i create space in my start up disk on mac book

    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 restart the computer. 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—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. 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. Ask for instructions in that case.
    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 by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. 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. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.
    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.

  • No way to free space in the internal hard disk.

    Hi guy
    There's no way to free any space in the internal hard disk. If I throw 5 giga of files in the trash and empty it, I don't find 5 more giga of avalaible space in the internal hard disk. Time Machine is not activated. Any idea to solve the problem? Sorry for my english....

    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.

  • How to export the comp/interface to local hard disk

    hi all,
    can any one send me how to export the comp/interface to local hard disk
    thanks,
    viswa

    Hi Vishwa,
    It is not possible to export the project or comp/interface from a WDA project to your local hard disk.
    Also if you need more information on WD ABAP please post in WebDnpro ABAP forum. You will definitely get more information regarding your queries in that forum.
    I hope this answer helps you.
    Thanks and Regards,
    Pravesh

  • Problem with Startup; Macintosh Hard Disk (internal) won't mount

    Hi. I hope you can help me.
    I was getting ready to install Leopard on my computer but was stupid enough not to make a backup first. During the installation process, Leopard warned me that for it to upgrade to Leopard from Tiger, it will have to completely erase my hard disk and reformat it. I don't know why that is. Perhaps because at that time, I only had 6GB left in my drive. So, I cancelled out of the installation process. Something happened however and now my PowerPC G5 won't restart. It completely blanks out and shuts down in the middle of the restart. So I restarted using my Tiger install DVD. I then started Disk Utility. From there, I can see that while it can see my Macintosh hard disk, it is greyed out and shown as not mounted. I clicked on the Mount button, but that didn't work. I repaired disk, and that encountered errors and didn't go all the way through. I realize my only option might be to competely erase the drive and install Leopard or Tiger again. Before doing that though, I'd really like to rescue some of the files in the hard disk. What can I do? I have the use of a macbook and an iomega external drive at my discretion.
    Thanks so much!

    Diskwarrior has been known to find disks.  Or try Techtool Pro.

  • For Windows user, how to backup ipod songs to the external hard disk?

    For Windows user, how to backup ipod songs to the external hard disk?
    Is it only possible for mac but not Windows computer?
    Thx for any help!

    Hi Aston,
    Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
    If you'd like to back up your iTunes library to an external hard drive, see this article for the steps:
    iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751
    Best,
    Jeremy

  • How to see my IPAD hardware configuration ( Like Hard disk  drive , processor and camera pixels )

    How to see my IPAD hardware configuration ( Like Hard disk  drive , processor and camera pixels )

    Yeah. It is called System Status.
    Check out this application on the App Store:
    System Status - device activity monitor (battery level, disk usage, file stats, CPU load, network details, memory info, process list, work time, charge monitoring, connection overview, routing table, os data, hw report, console log, netstat information)
    Techet
    Category: Utilities
    Updated: Oct 27, 2011
                       687 Ratings
    iTunes for Mac and Windows
    Please note that you have not been added to any email lists.
    Copyright © 2012 Apple Inc. All rights reserved
    Sent from my iPad

  • How can i download movies from my portable hard disk or usb to my Ipad2 ?

    how can i download movies from my portable hard disk or usb to my Ipad2 ?

    Import them into iTunes, then sync to your iPad. Movies may need to be converted to an iTunes compatible format. There are any number of utilities for that such as HandBrake 0.9.5.
    Please get the iPad iOS 4 user guide.

  • How to make more space avilable on strt-up disk?

    I've just started burning DVDs on iDVD, using movies I have produced in iMovie and then transferred, via the Media Browser. But when I come to burn the finished product I am severely limited. The 'help" article informs me "be sure you have at least twice as much free space as your project uses available on your hard disk ... eg. if your project uses 4GB, you need at least 8GB of free space on your hard disk. I checked via control-click onto my hard disk icon how much space I have. The capacity is 148GB of which only 938MB is available! Does this mean I can never burn a DVD with more than 469 MB content (i.e 50% of the total)? If so, how can I make more space available on my start-up disk?

    You could free-up nearly 2 GB by deleting two "bloatware" items:
    /Applications/Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive
    /Applications/iWork '08 ... (the 'free trial' version)
    On my system, they're 1001568 KB and 701940 KB, respectively.
    If you don't use them, iWeb.app and GarageBand.app are also
    very large (345344 KB and 187056 KB). If you delete them, you
    can always restore them later from the install DVDs.
    Looby

  • How to make free space on your start up disk

    Hey!
    I'm experiencing some problems with my MacBook Pro. Everytime I'm trying to save something or downloading something, it say my start up disk is almost full. And sometimes it tells me I have to quit applications to make space.
    How can I make free space, I mean, I can't have used all the memory on my computer already, I've only had it for a year. I'm guessing I've got a file that's taking up a lot of space. How can I identify it? And how can I make free space on my start up disk?
    Thanks for the help,
    leozinho2r

    Download and use either WhatSize or Omni Disk Sweeper to see what files are filling your drive. Trash them if you don't need them.

  • HT1338 how do i make space in the start up disk

    how can i make space in my start up disk

    Check out https://discussions.apple.com/message/21475397#21475397 this should help

  • HT201364 How do I clear space on my start up disk?

    My computer keeps telling me that my start up disk is almost full, I've tried to delete things, and that didn't work, but how do I even get to the start up disk?

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6047
    http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142
    Disk Inventory X: http://www.derlien.com/
    Grand Perspective: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

  • How to migrate win 8.1 from sata hard disk to ssd

    I brought an Intel SSD 730 480GB 5GBs Sata 3
    I also brought  a RAID CARD SYBA| SYPEX40039 bootable. attached the ssd to that.
    I like to migrate the Windows volume to the SSD.
     but I have trouble to get the boot manager on to the ssd. despite not using uefi on the original install on the 1Tb drive. I can't use ghost. if I use ghost form the other partition(vista)  I can clone partition but  the 1TB is too huge to
    for disk to disk cloning to  ssd 480GB
    Can I start w 8.1 DVD to do a repair on the ssd to get the boot manager to there?

    Hi fs - ab,
    Since third party clone software frequently cause system corruption and it’s not fixable, we only recommend two ways for system installation on new hard disk: performing a clean install or using windows system image restore and both ways need reactivate
    Windows 7. And for system image restore, you can only do a system image recovery to a HDD or SSD that is the same size or larger than the one(s) included in the system image when it was created. You will not be able to do a system image recovery to a smaller
    HDD/SSD. If the HDDs/SSDs are larger, then you will have "unallocated" space afterwards that is left over from the difference that you can extend into.
    In that case, we VERY recommend you to perform a clean install for new hard disk.
    Note: If you decide to use windows system image to restore your computer, you need to create a windows recovery disk (drive) for entry to Windows repair environment.
    About windows recovery disk:
    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive
    Regards

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