How to clean the startup disk

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.

Similar Messages

  • I RECEIVE MASAGE THAT TARTUP DISK IS FULL. KINDLY ASSIST WITH HOW TO DECONGEST THE STARTUP DISK OR OTHER OPTIONS?

    Dear all,
    I have this massage that says the startup disk is full, how can I decongest it?

    It would help to know what you were doing when you received the message. It is always wise to leave about 10 to 15% of your HDD capacity free so that there is plenty of workspace for temporary files and so on. If you have a lot of movies or thousands of photos (especially RAW files) then your disk very well might be reaching its workable limit. The safest solution is to have a reliable backup (such as Time Machine) where the contents are stored, then you could do a safety redundant backup of your movies, photos and audio by copying them to a different external HDD, then remove them from the internal drive. In that way they would be accessible for restoration by way of Time Machine, or they would be accessible as files from the external. The prices of external drives are now very low and affordable so the purchase of a 1TB or 2TB HDD is no longer prohibitive. Any long-time user will tell you that 'backup' + 'backup of the backup' [that is: redundant backup] is never a bad idea when working with important files. The time to do this is NOW before a drive failure not after when it might be impossible.     

  • How to clean up 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

  • How can I remove files from the startup disk

    I am getting a screen when I am trying to quit saying   the "MAC OS X startup disk has no more space available for application memory"  by closing the windows and removing files from the startup disk will help.
    How do I do this?

    That error message is misleading. Your problem is excessive swapping of data between physical memory and virtual memory.
    That can happen for two reasons:
    You have a long-running process with a memory leak (i.e., a bug), or
    You don't have enough memory installed for your usage pattern.
    Tracking down a memory leak can be difficult, and it may come down to a process of elimination.
    In the Activity Monitor application, select All Processes from the menu in the toolbar, if not already selected. Click the heading of the  Real Mem column in the process table twice to sort the table with the highest value at the top. If you don't see that column, select
    View ▹ Columns ▹ Real Memory
    from the menu bar.
    If one process (excluding "kernel_task") is using much more memory than all the others, that could be an indication of a leak. A better indication would be a process that continually grabs more and more real memory over time without ever releasing it. Here is an example of how it's done.
    The process named "Safari Web Content" renders web pages for Safari and other applications. It uses a lot of memory and may leak if certain Safari extensions or third-party web plugins are installed. Consider it a prime suspect.
    If you don't have an obvious memory leak, your options are to install more memory (if possible) or to run fewer programs simultaneously.
    The next suggestion is only for users familiar with the shell. For a more precise, but potentially misleading, test, run the following command: 
    sudo leaks -nocontext -nostacks process | grep total
    where process is the name of a process you suspect of leaking memory. Almost every process will leak some memory; the question is how much, and especially how much the leak increases with time. I can’t be more specific. See the leaks(1) man page and the Apple developer documentation for details.

  • How do I restore a disk image on the startup disk?

    Hello,
    Where do I begin?  Ok, my computer is an iMac and I mainly use OS 10.6.8.  I have partitioned the disk into three parts:  Snow Leopard, Lion and Tiger ( and I'm thinking of deleting Tiger).  The main OS I use on my computer is Snow Leopard (10.6.8).  I wanted to try out Yosemite so I upgraded the Lion partition and it soon became Yosemite.  I was able to switch back and fort a couple of times last night, but today, when I went to the Startup Disk to go to Yosemite the disk image for Yosemite was gone and it only shows the disk image for Snow Leopard.  I did a little research and if I'm not mistaken and read correctly, it indicates that Apple has done away with the disk image for Yosemite?  How is one to switch back and forth between systems?  Thank you for any insight to my question.   -Della
    P.S. If I have posted in the wrong category, please feel free to repost in the correct category, but please let me know.  Thank you!

    If it's a Windows executable file other than a self-extracting zip, you won't be able to open it without installing Windows; on a PowerPC Mac, this requires Virtual PC or the Q emulator.
    If it's a self-extracting zip, StuffIt Expander will open it.
    If it's actually a disk image, change its extension to dmg or iso and double-click it.
    (109118)

  • How to fix this error? The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.

    Hey guys,
         I am trying to install windows 7 ultimate 64 bit via bootcamp assistant. I open bootcamp assistant from utilities and i get the second window and try to click continue and i get a pop up, saying "The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extneded (journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows." I looked around on the internet, i found that my internal HD must be set to OS Extended (Journaled). I went into disk utility and i clicked partition tab and the option was set to OS extended (journaled). Any ideas on how to overcome this error so i can install windows 7?

    Error is:
    1: common
    2: misleading and poorly worded
    3: space must be:
    A: contiguous, that means unfragmented and in ONE section, not multiple
    B: files cannot be loced, anchored or in such a manner as to prevent or block partition operation
    C: to move, unlock and shuffle files requires booting from another drive or device
    Shrink the HFS+ volume by as much or more than you need to set aside to use
    If that does not,
    Try iDefrag from another hard drive or by burning and using its own CD that is just for consolidating free space
    Clone your system (should have backups already, clone is just bootable)
    Erase and restore from clone - SuperDuper does consolidate files and free space and result in unfragmented (99% success rate)
    None of which has to do iwth what that error message says. This error has been almost a daily threat topic - has gotten less but has not "gone away."

  • TS1702 how do i delete from the startup disk? I am trying to get Mountain Lion from the App store and it says that the purchase was not complete because i need 4.06 GB space to download OS x 10.8. and to remove items from my startup disk to increase space

    how do i delete from the startup disk? I am trying to get Mountain Lion from the App store and it says that the purchase was not complete because i need 4.06 GB space to download OS x 10.8. and to remove items from my startup disk to increase space. How?
    Thanks

    You can use iCloud with 10.7.5. You do not need to upgrade to Yosemite. You should provide a minimum of 15 GBs of free space or 10% of the hard drive's capacity, whichever is greater.
    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 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?

    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.

  • TS1550 Error message: Backup Failed.  However if the startup disk permissions are repaired one only backup will succeed before the permissions are again repaired.  How is this to be fixed?

    Error message: Backup Failed.  However if the startup disk permissions are repaired one backup will succeed before the permissions are again repaired.  How is this to be fixed?

    Hi,
    Bootup holding CMD+r, or the Option/alt key to boot from the Restore partition & use Disk Utility from there to Repair the Disk, then Repair Permissions.
    Then Repair the backup Disk... any change?

  • How do I gain startup disk space

    Sorry for what is probably a stupid question ... I ran the usual software update and when I tried to install the Mac OSX update, I got a message that "Your hard disk does not have enough space" and "You need 5.19 GB of available space to download and install the updates. To increase available space, remove files from your startup disk, and then try again. "
    But I have no idea how to access my startup disk (I didn't even know I had one). How do I find it and how do I choose which files can be deleted safely?
    Thanks for any advice for this novice.
    J

    A few suggestions:
    Empty the trash!
    Open up your application folder & go through all your apps. Trash all the apps you no longer want and/or use.
    An easier way to do this is to open the Application folder in list view & press the Command+j keys.
    In the the dialog that appears, click the "This Window Only" button & the "Calculate All Sizes" check box.
    Wait a bit until your file & folder sizes have all been calculated, then click the "Size" column to sort your apps from the fattest to the most anorexic.
    Get rid of all your photo files you don't want and/or need. Same goes for those pics off the websites you downloaded (gifs, jpegs, etc.).
    I'm old fashion. I still keep my photos in a photo album. So when people come over my house, they can actually "touch" & "feel" my photos without me running to my computer to "show my photos".
    Get rid of all your music files you no longer listen too. Especially, if you already have the actual CD/DVDs or you can later redownload from a website.
    Use Spotlight to make sure you got rid of everything. You can even trash directly from Spotlight!
    Drag what you don't want and/or need to the trash. Better yet, download this neat little shareware app demo called AppZapper. It basically does all the work for you by not only trashing the apps but the apps preference files, caches & all its associated files.
    Another software that does the above is AppDelete. Best of all this software is free!
    Burn what you want and/or need onto CDs or DVDs.
    Not everyone has the luxury of purchasing an external HD and/or Mobile accounts to store their "stuff, junk, music & photos".
    You can check with your ISP to see if they offer free storage space. Most if not all do now-a-days.
    There are thousands if not millions of free storage facilities on the web also. Use your favorite search engine to search them out as they come in different storage sizes to fit your needs & wants.
    Check for duplicate fonts.
    Applications>Font Book
    Select “All Fonts”
    If you see any “black dots” next to any fonts this mean you have duplicates and/or multiple versions of these fonts.
    To clean this up, select a “black dotted” font or the Apple + click to select multiple dotted fonts;
    Edit>Resolve>Duplicates.
    What the above does is turns off the duplicates & multiple version fonts. Not delete them.
    More than likely the “extras” were installed by other programs and/or other users.
    Clear out font caches
    Use FontNuke. It does all the work for you. And, best of all it’s FREE.
    Printer Drivers
    Get rid of all the printer drivers you don’t need & use except the ones for your current printer(s)/scanner(s).
    HD>Library>Printers Folder
    If you accidently threw something out that you needed for your printer/scanner it can be easily obtained from the manufacturer’s website and/or from the CD that came w/the printer/scanner.
    Garage Band
    Has about 1GB of loops stored. Get rid of some some them. You surely don’t use, like and/or need them all.
    HD>Library>Audio/Apple Loops>Apple>Apple Loops For GarageBand
    Or just get rid of the Garage Band app altogether if you don’t use it.
    Get rid of extra languages
    Strip your computer down to your “native” tongue.
    You can do this with a FREE utility called Monolingual. Another app that apparently does all the work for you. I’ve never used it. However, a lot of users here swear by & recommend it highly.
    However, there is a warning for *native English speakers*. Make sure you keep BOTH English and English (United States).
    Other Resources:
    HD Space Checkers:
    Disk Inventory X (FREE)
    WhatSize (SHAREWARE)
    OmniDiskSweeper (FREE)
    GrandPerspective (FREE - donation)
    Knowledge Base Article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303602 Mac Maintenance Quick Assist
    Scroll down to "4) Prune Through Your Files".
    Slimming your hard drive
    Rule of thumb: You should never let your hard drive get to where you have only 10-15% of space left.
    !http://i50.tinypic.com/izvwo1.gif!

  • What is the startup disk that the iMac says is full?

    Where is the startup disk and how can I access it to delete files.

    Do a search for and downlaod and install OmniDisk Sweeper and OnyX.
    Hard drive getting full or near full?
    Here are some of my tips for deleting or archiving data off of your internal hard
    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 use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
    Other things you can do to gain space.
    Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive older emails you want to save to disc, Flash drive/s or to ext. hard drive.
    Look through your Documents folder and delete any type of old useless type files like "Read Me" type files.
    Again, archive to disc, Flash drive or ext. hard drive and/or delete any old documents you no longer use or immediately need.
    Uninstall apps that you no longer use. If the app has a dedicated uninstaller, use it to completely uninstall the app. If the app has no uninstaller, then just drag it to the OS X Trash icon  and empty the Trash.
    Also, if you save old downloaded  .dmg application installer  files, you can either archive and delete these or just delete the ones you think you'll never install, again.
    Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
    When you install and launch it, let it do its thing initially, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run all of the processes in the tabs. 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.
    If you have any other large folders of personal data or projects, these should be thinned out, moved, also, to the external hard drive and then either archived to disc, Flash drive or ext. hard drive and/or deleted off your internal hard drive.
    Good Luck!

  • Trying to get rid of error "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition". Recovery HD visible.

    Hello,
    I've been stuck for some hours now trying different things to install Windows 7 on my Macbook Air, and I think now is the time to call for some custom help.
    I'm using OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks.
    So some months ago I just wanted to run Linux on my laptop so I installed rEFInd, shrunk the Macintosh HD partition by 25GB and booted on a linux live USB flash I burned using dd.
    Then I used gparted to create my linux partitions.
    It worked just fine, even though disk utility from OS X seemed quite unhappy about this (it seemed to have incorrect informations about the filesystem on these partitions, seeing them as journaled Mac OS while they were clearly not). At this point already, the Recovery HD from mac showed up in disk utility, which I found weird but didn't bother me.
    But recently I needed windows on my Mac. So after a few tries for the triple boot, I managed to create a bootable USB stick with boot camp, which already showed me the message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" and hence refused to partition/install himself.
    So I thought "OK, that's no big issue, I can just partition with disk utility and then boot on the USB stick and everything will work fine". But when EFI booting on the USB flash drive I got stuck at the beginning of Windows installer with no keyboard or mouse support.
    After some hours spent googling, I was unable to find a working fix for that, and as there was no support for my case (where I used bootcamp to create the bootable flash but NOT to partition/reboot) I decided to give bootcamp a try.
    So I erased my linux partitions, and cleaned up everything I could on the HD with disk utility. That means I now have two partitions showing in disk utility : Macintosh HD and Recovery HD.
    When using disk utility from terminal, the list is :
    /dev/disk0
       #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
       0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
       1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
       2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            80.0 GB    disk0s2
       3:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk0s3
    But boot camp still isn't happy, and the message "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition" keeps popping after the intro and I can't partition/boot from bootcamp.
    So, as I don't understand what is wrong here anymore, any help would be greatly appreciated!
    I will be watching the thread a lot because I really would like this resolved (or windows installed one way or another) this weekend; so any questions on my past manipulations or config just ask!
    Thank you.

    keyboard issues are also something of a common issue.
    I wish the best threads were voted to the top of forums, something! Me, I literally burned out here, but after installing 10 Preview, wanted to "see what was going on" after hiatus of a couple years and see if anything had changed (no, not really!)
    Also, these new Communities are not putting "more like this" and failing to help too.
    I think rewriting Boot Camp Assistant's built in help and pdf would help a lot, and needs to be clearer and go into details. And Yosemite was not it seems tested against Boot Camp, and drivers for new Macs + new OS also lag behind. Again, common and no sign of improvement or change.
    One of the tricks to the "can't partition" is rather simple - of course backup is step #1 and is spelled out - SHRINK the main HFS+ partition! then stretch it back to full length. Sometimes a reboot is needed, and sometimes even do a Safe Boot - not sure what but Recovry Mode might be a good option too. That does seem to consolidate free space, move files that are locked and cannot be moved otherwise, and allow BCA to partition, jusst be sure to have enough space left and large enough for a proper Windows install (and fudge factor).

  • The startup disk can't be used as a restore source

    Dear,
    can anybody tell, whenver i tried to clone (thru disk utility using firwire cable ) my macbookpro with imac (latest one), it shows me the folloing information/error
    i.e.
    The startup disk can’t be used as a restore source.
    To use this disk as a source, restart your computer using the recovery system, and open Disk Utility again.
    Followed the below steps_________________________
    Disk Utility>  Selected HDD > Restore (tab) > drag hdd  to SOURCE (it is my MBP) > dragged hdd to DESTINATION (it is iMac) > Restore
    Looking your reply.
    Regards
    K.Pradhan

    Are you trying to copy the OSX drive from a MacBookPro to an iMac?  If so, be glad it won't let you.  Most likely, it won't run at all; if it does, all sorts of things will go wrong.
    What are you trying to do?   If you're trying to set one Mac up like another one, see How do I set up a new Mac from an old one, its backups, or a PC?

  • I'm trying to up grade the os but I keep getting the startup disk is full I ordered more memory I was told this will not help. What do I do?

    I'm trying to up grade the os but I keep getting the startup disk is full I ordered more memory I was told this will not help. What do I do?

    I think as drive capacities increase, the old 10-15% becomes less accurate.  The amount of free space you need doesn't really have anything to do with the drive size.  So, increasing your drive size shouldn't mean that you need to have more free GB (which using a % of drive space would mean).  You need free space to accommodate page outs (the amount of which would depend on how much RAM you have installed and how memory intensive the applications are), sleep images (again, this would max out at your total amount of RAM), and a bit to minimize fragmentation.
    With desktop drives commonly in the 2TB range today, it is certainly not necessary to have 200GB+ free in order to maintain proper operation.  I generally find about 30GB to be the minimum I'm comfortable with.  Mind you, I pretty much always have way more than that available.  But, if I'm working on a system and the amount of free space is at least 30GB, I would generally not site drive space as the cause of any performance issues.  I'd say that 30GB is a minimum for a stable system (with 8GB or RAM installed).  Of course at that amount, you would still need to free up space if you were to want to install or download any significant amount of data.
    With servers being more likely to run into the 16GB of RAM range, more storage would be necessary.  Most servers should be well stocked with storage, but the actual needs would vary greatly depending on what's being "served".
    The 10-15% thing came about when we used to talk about drive capacities in hundreds of MBs and RAM in terms of KB (not MB and certainly not GB).  More drive space is always a good thing, but as drive capacities continue to sky rocket, we don't need to dedicate larger amounts of storage on systems with the same specifications.  A set amount of space is required for proper operation regardless of the capacity of the drive installed.

  • How to silence the startup sound?

    My MacPro emits the startup chord, loundly, from the internal speaker. All other sounds come from the external speakers. When I get home late it's like to wake the dead if I turn on my Mac.
    This did not work this way before, the startup sound played through the external speakers and I could turn them down.
    Any ideas how to kill the startup sound or make it play through the external speakers?
    Thanks.

    Well, you know that's a funny thing, because I didn't actually intend to mute the startup chime. I just wanted it routed to the external speakers where I could control the volume properly, like the first poster. But the chime doesn't sound out of my external speakers. I don't hear it at all.
    And I don't care. If my Mac fails some test, it isn't going to work right, I'll find out about it anyway. I also don't care because in 20 years of owning Macs, if there was a problem with my Mac I can't remember any of them being due to a failed self test, it was usually a hard disk failure or something on the motherboard while I still got the normal startup chime. The power on self test does not, for example, tell PowerBook G4 owners about the widespread problem that their lower RAM slot has failed. I just haven't found the chime to be useful, while many users find it to be extremely annoying. Apple could just flash the front panel LED differently.
    The only time I've ever heard the failed self test tones is when I've played them back from some web page or utility that tells you what they mean.

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