How do I rectify start up disk almost full. I am new to Macs and struggling

How do I rectify a start up disk almost full message? Never had this until I put a load of photos on to my Mac book air

Hello Kirkcaldy Ronnie,
As Plotinus Veritas said take a backup for your Images on External Hard Disk.
As your Macbook Air Startup disk is full and if you are unable to do anything on your Mac follow the below process to boot your Mac in Safe Mode and then delete some files on your Mac to free up some disk space and then you should be able to boot in Normal Mode.
Steps : > Turn of your Macbook completely by holding the Power On/Off key on your Mac's keyboard > Turn On your Mac again and simultaneously press and hold the Left Shift key on your keyboard and this should take your Macbook in Safe Mode. ( Note : You will see a loading bar at startup when you boot your Mac in safe mode and your Mac will take some time to boot) > Once you login to the User Account on your Mac go ahead an delete as many files as you can from your Mac to free up some space (try to delete and make as much space as you can and keep at least 20% space free of the total amount of your disk space on your Mac Disk) and also empty the Trash of your Mac to completely remove the files from your Mac. > Now you can restart your Mac and let it start in Normal mode and check of you are able to login. If you are able to login in normal mode then try to transfer the data which you do not use regularly on an external hard disk and keep internal space free as much as you can as that will help you to get a better performance of your Mac. Hope this helps you.

Similar Messages

  • How do i solve the 'start up disk almost full' problem?

    when i turn on my macbook air, it comes up with a warning message that says 'start up disk almost full' and that i need to clear some space, how do i do this?

    For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
    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 asBackups. 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) 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.
    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.
    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 ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
    Triple-click anywhere in the 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
    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 with the largest at the top. It may take a few minutes for ODS to finish scanning.
    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.

  • How can I find where this came from? - start up disk almost full

    Hi, my mac began saying this to me today "Start up disk almost full"
    So I began deleting files. I deleted a lot via DiskWave.
    But now Diskwave says I have enough space but my mac sure doesn't.
    What do I do? What's all that 'other' stuff and where can I find it?
    Thanks in advance!

    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. 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.
    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 have an iMac 5.1 with Mac OSX 10.6.8 and 2 GB memory and an L2 cache of 4 GB.   lately I have been receiving error messages of " start up disk almost full; please delete files." is the start up disk the same thing as the hard drive?

    I have an iMac 5.1 with Mac OSX 10.6.8 and 2 GB memory and an L2 cache of 4 GB.   lately I have been receiving error messages of " start up disk almost full; please delete files." is the start up disk the same thing as the hard drive?  I opened the hard drive and from the column on the left of the menu I've selected "search for" and under that " all images" then "all documents"  I've deleted a few files from each. Are documents and images that I have deleted from here also deleted from the folders on my desktop?

    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.
    Delete any other mail in your Junk folders. Also, look through your Sent Mail to see if there is anything that can be deleted.
    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!

  • HT1310 start up disk almost full

    get error message - start up disk almost full? What do I do?

    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.

  • HT3819 I want to send my itunes library from my old macbook (start up disk nearly full) to my new iMac then delete my itunes library from my old macbook.  Is Homesharing my best choice for this?

    I want to send my itunes library from my old macbook (start up disk nearly full) to my new iMac.   Then delete my itunes library from my old macbook.  Is Homesharing my best choice for this?
    What I don't want to happen is once I delete my itunes library from my old Macbook that the iMac itunes library to delete itself because I am using Homesharing.  Does homesharing sync and make that happen?

    Here is some help.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3849933
    After confirming that all your stuff is on the drive, delete the photos you have copied. You will need to empty the iPhototrash to free up the space.

  • Start up disk almost full

    hi all. I am a new user for the ibookg4. I just received an error "start up disk is almost full, delete
    files. I am now sure what or where to do this. can anyone advise.
    thanks all and good day to everyone

    tony:
    A too full startup disk is a serious issue as it can cause directory issue which can result in data loss or corruption. It is therefore an issue you cannot afford to ignore.
    Your startup disk can be too full either because you have too much stuff which you have put on the disk, or because the system is repeating processes and creating entries in the console. If the former is the case there are two things you need to do. First, you should backup you drive immediately, using an external HDD and a utility like SuperDuper. Second, you need to lighten the load by removing some files. Third, even if you delete some files, you will probably run into the same issue again as your computing habits seem to indicate the need for a larger HDD.
    To determine exactly what is on your HDD, and where your disk space is going, download and run either WhatSize 10.3.91 or Disk Inventory. Either one will scan your HDD and list your files/folders by size. Then you need to look over the list and see if you see any very large file that looks suspicious. Post back with your findings.
    Here are a couple of article you may find helpful:
    Where Did My Disk Space Go?
    Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
    Good luck.
    cornelius

  • Start Up Disk almost full message?

    When I down load photos from my camera to iPhoto I get a message telling me my Start Up Disk is almost full and I should consider deleting files.
    In addition, videos from my camera are not being imported as they previously were. I get a message that certain jpg are not recognized.
    I have not changed my camera or the way I download photos and the downloads work fine to other computers.
    What is causing the problem and what should I do?

    Liat:
    Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Assuming you have sufficient free space on your HD consider this: did this begin after upgrading to Leopard? If so then it's a problem with the differences between Tiger and Leopard and privileges. I had to do the following go fix my library:
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    3 - enter your admin password when prompted and hit the Return key again.
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    Thomas is correct about free space. It is desirable to have a minimum of 15GB free for optimal system and application performance. The system can run with as low a 5GB or even a little less but not without taking a big performance hit. If you accidently let the free space get down to 500 KB or less, you can get to a point where your can't boot. A few have gotten there.
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  • My macbook air said start up disk almost full then died and wont start up again

    i got a message saying start up disk was almost full so i deleted a load of stuff.  i thought this would solve it but the next time i turned it on all i got was the apple logo and a wheel going round and round.  Apple have now told me that when the disk gets full it doesnt read the start up data correctly and thats why it wont switch on.  I have lost everything on the machine and am going to have it rebuilt.  Has anyone else had this problem following the java script update that added a huge number of files to the hard drive

    Disconnect all peripherals.
    Try an SMC reset.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
    Try booting in Safe Mode.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1564
    Run hardware diagnostics:
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  • Start up disk almost full - what can I delete?

    I keep getting this error msg - startup disk is almost full delete files and I am sure there are useless files on here somewhere...
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    In addition to the XLab's advice (which is always very good advice) what I would recommend doing is moving your media (music, photographs and music) onto an external HD. Media tends to take the most space and offloading them from the internal HD is easy and a wise thing to to. Here some Apple Article about how to do so, I think you will agree it's a pretty easy solution.
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    iTunes: library on EHD
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  • Startup disk almost full on brand new laptop - Impossible - Help!

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        http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11212
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        http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677
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        Hold the option key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.
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       http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878
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        iTunes > Preferences > Devices
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        http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
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       System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
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    OmniDisksweeper can help you find what's hogging your disk space, or help determinie if this is a bogus message.

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    Many thanks!

    The following articles have some good tips:
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    Freeing Up Hard Disk Space
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    Message was edited by: lschat

    also see this:
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    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/lackofram.html
    Here’s some general guidelines for minimum hard drive free space:
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    Look at these links about freeing up more space.
    Where did my disk space go?
    _*http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38&Number=770243*_
    Download & use WhatSize described in this link or Disk Inventory X @ _*http://www.derlien.com/*_
    Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
    _*http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html*_
    Amazing Disappearing Drive Space
    _*http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html*_
    Increase HD Free Space
    _*http://macosx.com/forums/howto-faqs/275191-how-easily-increase-hd-free-space-lap top.html*_
    How to free up my disk space
    http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
    JGG

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