How to I resolve the "start up disk is full" error

I keep getting the "start up disk is full" error. I've cleared as much stuff off of my system and have taken it from 4GB to now having 21GB free space. I've also reset Safari. Still no love. I don't know what else to do. Can anyone please help?

Try restarting the computer.

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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.

Start up disk space full error

Hi,
I keep getting the Start-up Disk space full error.
I already did the following-
1. Back up my imprtant data.
2. Disk-Utility- Verify disk etc etc
3. Check other online forums and try to empty sace.
4. I deleted about 60-70GB worth of files from my macbook, but it still says only 1.89GB available.
5. I have emptied by Trash at least 10 times, but all files in it are still intact.
Please help.
I think my files are not getting deleted or something.
I am far away from a applestore and fear that my hard-drive will crash or something.
Thanks!

Also, you may find this link of intereset and value...
http://macmost.com/what-to-do-when-your-hard-drive-is-full.html

I have a Macbook Air and the start up disk is full so it won't boot up. How can I get it to boot so I can delete files?

I have a Macbook Air and the start up disk is full so it will not boot up. How can I boot it up so I can delete some files?

You will have to see about booting it from another drive or USB flash drive or another computer. When you are able to then see the following:
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 to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

My Mac Book Pro is giving me a message that the start up disk is full, how do I delete files, and what files should I be deleting

My Mac Book Pro is giving me a message that the start up disk is full, how do I delete files, and what files should I be deleting

There are several nice programs that can help you figure out what's on your computer - OmniDiskSweep, WhatSize, and DaisyDisk are the three I like. If you've had your computer for a while - and especially if this isn't your first Mac and you've been migrating from one computer to another, one of these programs can help you find files you didn't know your computer still had. For example, when I was trying to shed files to fit int a 256GB SSD, I discovered I had nearly 1GB of files in my Application Support folder belonging to programs I no longer used.
Other than that, your easy choice are music, video, and photos. They tend to be the big files. A movie will generally be at least 1.25GB, for example.

How do I switch the start up disk on my G3

I recently developed a problem where my Blue and White G3 Power Mac will not start in OSX. It starts but then displays a screen that tells in four languages to restart my machine. When I restart I just get the same message.
This all started when I switched from booting in OS 9 to OSX. Both had worked in the past. Now I cannot return to OS 9. Is there a short cut of keys to press to bring up the start up disk control panel during start up to try switching back to OS 9?

Some need a firmware update to get past 10.2/10.3...
Apple firmware updates...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
G4 only...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120068
Tiger Requirements...
To use Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, your Macintosh needs:
    * A PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
    * Built-in FireWire
    * At least 256 MB of RAM (I recommend 1GB minimum)
    * DVD drive (DVD-ROM), Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) or SuperDrive (DVD-R) for installation
    * At least 3 GB of free disk space; 4 GB if you install the XCode 2 Developer Tools (I recommend 20GB minimum)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1514
See Tom's, (Texas Mac Man), great info on where/how to find/get Tiger...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15305521#15305521
Or Ali Brown's great info on where/how to find/get Tiger...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10381710#10381710
Leopard requirements/10.5.x...
    * Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor
minimum system requirements
    * 512MB of memory (I say 1.5GB for PPC at least, 2-3GB minimum for IntelMacs)
    * DVD drive for installation
    * 9GB of available disk space (I say 30GB at least)
Trouble is Apple no longer sells it, check eBay & such for the Retail version, not the Gray Discs...
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mac+os+x+leopard+retail+10.5
There are workarounds if the 867MHz is the only hangup...
http://sourceforge.net/projects/leopardassist/
http://lowendmac.com/osx/leopard/unsupported.html
List of Applications Not Compatible with Leopard...
http://guides.macrumors.com/List:Applications_Not_Compatible_with_Leopard

How do I expand the start-up disk partition?

A few weeks ago, I learned about partitioning. I thought I would give it a try on my Mac Pro. I have two 1TB Hard Drives on it. I partitioned all the hard drives into 4 seperate partitions. I also partitioned the start-up disk. Except, I goofed up. My start-up disk partition seems to be stuck at 102.08.
The problem comes because all my programs, applications, etc. are on the bootup disk partition. I get anywhere near 10GB’s, and the computer doesn’t run quite properly. I current sit around 30GB free space, but constantly have to clean up this partition.
In Disk Utility, I click on the hard drive, then click the "Partition" option. In the partition information, where I can normally resize the partition, it won’t allow me. I can resize most other partitions, except the start-up disk partition.
If there is any suggestions or help, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

Clone and restore
Cloning as a Backup Strategy
Backup and Cloning
Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.2

Macbook air won't turn on and the screen will go white. It says that the start up disk is full. HELP

When I turn my macbook air on it sends me a message saying that my start up disk is full and that I have to free up some space. When I log in into my account the screen will go white and I won't be able to do anything. I tried to restart my computer in safemode holding down the shift key while restarting it but it won't work. HELP PLEASE.

If you could boot from an external OS X boot drive then you could delete some files. You probably don't have such a HDD/Thumb drive but a Genius at an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider could help you. This is not a hardware repair so a Genius should not need to charge you for this service.
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/ .
or find an Apple Authorized Service Provider https://locate.apple.com/country
After it is healthy again I would buy a new external HDD and use Carbon Copy Clone or Super Duper! to create a bootable clone. Keeping a clone current is also an excellent backup methodology in addition to Time Machine.
Commonly used backup methods:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection

Start Up Disk is Full Error?

I am getting a pop-up message saying the above "Your start-up disk is full". Has anyone had this error message & what is a good solution? Last time this error message occurred I deleted some files I shouldn't have &... well, it wasn't pretty.
Thanks for any & all assistance!!

Hi Charlotte and welcome!
In addition to SimonUK's excellent advice there are a few things that you can do to free up space depending on what Applications you use and what duplicates you might have.
For example, on my iBook, I have removed GarageBand from Applications and its Loops from HD/Library/Application Support. As my iBook only has a combo drive and I'm not into video editing anyway I have trashed iDVD & iMovie. (Not DVD player). I have also trashed preloaded games and World Book, and its associated files.
OS X comes with a vast library of printer drivers, the large proportion of which will never be used by the average user.
Printer drivers are in the HD/Library/Printers folder. You can safely delete any named drivers that you don't have a printer for. For example, if you have a Canon, you can remove Epson, Lexmark, Hewlett Packard & Brother drivers. Epson alone takes up close to 1gb. You can even remove specific drivers from within the manufacturer's folder. For example, if you have an Epson C86 you can safely trash any other specific drivers in the Epson folder like C46, C66 etc. If, at a later date, you buy a printer whose driver you removed they can be added from your install disk, the disk that comes with the printer or downloaded.
A word of warning: More cautious heads than mine advise against messing in the HD/Library, but if you stick to the examples above, i.e. GarageBand loops, World Book and printer drivers you will be OK.
Certainly, I have had no problems with my system after removing those examples.
Check, too, in your music folder. If you have 'Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library' selected in iTunes preferences/Advanced it is possible that you have, say, 'xyz song' in the first level of your Music folder and the same song in Music/iTunes/iTunes Library. If you are sure that you do have 'xyz song' in iTunes, it is safe to delete from 'Music'. If you download music it is again possible that you have duplicates depending on where the music was downloaded to, e.g. Desktop, Music folder or Downloads folder. The same principle can apply to your Pictures folder and iPhoto Library, but staying with iTunes for a moment, with iTunes open select Edit in the menu bar, then 'Show duplicate songs'. You can trash duplicates if you are sure that they are true duplicates, i.e. exact name, artist and file size. Another little note of caution, neither iTunes nor iPhoto likes having its library messed with from within a Finder window. Resolve duplicates from within the respective application only.
Some excellent advice has been posted by ~JB~, with corresponding words of caution.
Dr Smoke has some advice here too.
Last but by no means least, when you have finished dumping your unwanted stuff in the trash, don't forget to empty it. You haven't regained the space until you do
…and definitely last this time: If in doubt leave it alone and ask!
Have fun,
Adrian

My HD is full of mystery data? getting the "start up disc is full" error.

For a while I have been getting the "your startup disc is full" prompt,
which is strange because I have no where near 27G's on the HD.
Looking in the finder I see my file vault is listed with an extra 10GB that is not there.
I ran the maintenance scripts, they did not fix the problem.
Any help will be appreciated! thanks

Jonathan,
what happens if I take off all the files and there still is not enough room?
Good question. One possible solution: Download Monolingual and remove all languages you do not need. On my computer this freed up 1.5 GB today. After that you should have enough disk space to turn off FileVault.
Do not forget to mark the tread as "SOLVED" once this is accomplished.

How do I switch the Start Up Disk back to Mac OSX hardrive ?

Hi Mac users....
I think I created a huge problem on my computer. I was looking to stop a program from opening up, snapz pro x, every time I restarted my computer. I found out how to delete eventually, but during my search I went to system preferences...than hit startup disk...then clicked on Network startup without switching back to Mac OSX hardrive startup. When I restarted the computer it only flashes a small world button logo and doesn’t reboot. How do I get back onto the computer to change it back to startup with MAC OS X on Mac system. Would I hold the control button down while restarting? I am worried...I hope I didn’t crash my computer? Thanks for help in advance. Please email me if this is quicker to respond.
[email protected]
PowerMac6,3 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hi,
Welcome to the Discussions.
Hold down the option key while starting. That will launch Startup manager and you can choose your drive there to start from. Once started go to System Preferences>Startup Disk and select the hard drive again.
John

"start up disk is full" now gray screen

Help!
I was getting the "start up disk is full" error message. I deleted and transfered files, and had stopped receiving the warning. Then my Iphoto gave an error message that it needed to "repair". When I "repair"ed iphoto - all of my photos that I had transfered or deleted came back.I photo started to not run proberly, and then went to gray screen before I could delete more and empty the trash. Now all I have is a gray screen - only my password screen comes on and then gray screen - no function at all on the laptop at all. Anyone have any ideas?

Repair Disk
Steps 1 through 7
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836?viewlocale=en_US

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.

HT1492 Start-up disk is full and can't go past the blue screen; can't delete read-only files on single-user mode. Please help.

I have had my Mac mini for about 6 years and I guess it had enough of me (haha), so the start-up disk got full and it shut down before I could empty files on my drive. Unfortunately, all these years I hadn't backed up anything and now I can't access anything since it won't boot past the apple logo (and the blue screen for that matter). I have tried rebooting (holding shift as the mac mini loads), but that didn't help since the start-up disk will still be full and stuck on the blue screen. I am now trying the single-user mode (holding command key+s), and I tried to delete files in the trash bin but all of the files are read-only and access is denied! so I basically can't delete anything on the mac mini (it says "Root device is mounted read-only"). So the key here is to change the permissions but I don't know how to exactly do that. Can someone help me figure this out? (and type the command in the unix language please!!) [ Note: We have two users on this mac mini if that helps.]

Run the following command:
mount -uw /
This isn't a permissions issue.
(87807)

My macbook air won't load. Says start up disk is full but I can't get the home page to open

My Macbook air won't load. Says the start up disk is full but won't open the home page so I can do anything about it

Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. 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.

How to I resolve the "start up disk is full" error

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