Keep getting a popup window stating" startup disc almost full, need to delete files"

keep getting a popup window stating" startup disc almost full, need to delete files", what can i do to help with this, i generally have only photos in iphoto, some imovies, and a small amount of documents

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!

Similar Messages

I keep getting a message that my startup disc is full, even though I have moved everything I can to an external hard drive. Any idea how to fix this?

I can't figure out what is talking up space on the memory.

Make sure all of the files actually are deleted from the hard disk and that the trash is emptied.

I keep getting the message that my startup disk is full, yet I have about 300GB of space left on my HD? Any solutions for fixing this problem?

I keep getting the message that my startup disk is full, yet I have almost 300GB left on my hardrive. I have emptied the trash on my desktop and in iPhoto, and I have removed unnecessary programs. The only way I can get the message to go away is to restart my computer. If I let the computer go to sleep, I get the message back when I start using it again. Any suggestions?

Mountain Lion Recovery
Boot up from your computer by holding down the command+r keys. This will take you to the recovery drive.
Select Disk Utility & hit Return.
In Disk Utility select the HD on the left & click on Repair Disk (bottom right).
=======================
Empty the trash in the Dock as well as iPhoto’s 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.). Or transfer/move them all to a photo/movie storage site like ImageShack and Photobucket, 2 of the most popular FREE storage sites.
Get rid of all your video & music files you no longer view and/or listen too. Especially, if you already have the actual CD/DVDs or you can later redownload from a website. Or transfer them all to a FREE video/movies and/or music storage site.
Use Spotlight to make sure you got rid of everything. You can even trash directly from Spotlight! Better yet, download this FREE software called Find File. This app puts Spotlight to shame (works w/Mountain Lion).
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 the system requirements for iCloud to store their "stuff.”
Dropbox is a free storage utility to check out.
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)
Mac Performance Guide
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.

In attempting to install recommended software updates I get a message saying my startup disc is full. I have an Intel-based desktop with 1GB memory. What can I safely remove?

In attempting to install recommended software updates I get a message that my startup disc is full. I have an iMac (intel-based) with 1GB memory. I suspect my iTunes library is using up much of the space (I have no movies installed and have already copied most of my photos to a DVD to free up space). If I follow the instructions to move my iTunes library to an external HD (can I use a flash drive?) will I have enough working memory to plug it back in for use when I want to access the library?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Moving libraries off the boot disk while doable is not very viable. It creates many new problems in backing up your data, as now you have more than one source to backup. See my backup FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
My suggestion is to get at least two copies of all your essential data in one manner or another, and get a larger boot hard drive to replace what you currently use to be able to consolidate your libraries.
As for cleaning space, see my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html

I am using a Seagate backup plus portable drive on my iMac 7 with OSX 10.9.2. At startup up I always get a popup window stating "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer. I click ignore and everything seems OK. Is it?

I am using a Seagate backup plus portable drive as my time machine backup on my iMac 7 with OSX 10.9.2 Mavericks. At startup I always get popup window stating "The disk you inserted is not readable by this computer..? I click ignore and everything seems to be OK. Time machine seems to be backuping up to the seagate. I can open time machine and see the history of backups. Why does this message come up at startup of computer????

If you installed the Seagate software, remove it according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Why do I keep getting a popup window asking for a Yahoo password... I do not know how to disable this?

I keep getting a popup asking for the Yahoo password... even when I am not online... it is very annoying... what do i do?

Please Update to the latest Firefox 19.0.x version.
*Help > About Firefox
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/update-firefox-latest-version
*https://support.mozilla.com/kb/Updating+Firefox
The Firefox Firefox 17.0 version that you currently run is no longer supported with security updates.

Startup Disc Almost Full?!

I just received a notification that my startup disc is almost full. I have appx. 5 gb of memory used up on my macbook pro; why am I getting this notification. I even checked my finder and it says I still have close to 160 GB of memory available. My computer recently crashed due to a hard drive malfunction and was under the impression that they completely replaced the drive. Is there a chance they didn't and all that information is still on it? If thats the case, why would it warn me my disc is almost full but my finder still says I have all this memory left.
<Post Relocated by Host>

When I say I used up 5GB of hard drive I meant on top of the standard programs that come with the operating system. I'm not really sure my model MBP and ram but its a standard Macbook Pro with no customization. The recent work was done at my local Apple store and I am almost sure they said they completely replaced the drive, due to a "malfunction" and could not retrieve any previous information on my drive. I was downloading legal music torrents when I got the prompt, but I'm begging to think its not really not worth sweating because I have not got the prompt again and according to Disc Inventory X I have over 150GB of free space still. Still curious however as to why I would get a warning that my startup disc is almost full...

I keep getting a message that says HD disc is full. However, the status shows I have plenty of memory remaining. I get the same message when I try to save or email it. Any suggestions?

When I try to save or email a document, I get a message that "the disc is full trying to write to MAC HD. free some space on this drive, or save the document to another disc." I can't figure out how to save to another disc. And, when I check the available memory, my computer has 1 GB of available memory. I closed all programs and deleted the "trash" items. Any suggestions? Thanks

Disk space and memory are two different things.
This is system memory (RAM):
This is disk space:
If your startup disk is full there will be very little green in the above pie chart. You need to erase items from your startup volume for OS X to have space to work.
OS X Lion: Remove files and folders from your computer
Mountain Lion is the same.
Don't neglect to look for potentially deleted email messages, iPhoto items or iMovie clips that may have been moved to their own Trash. These must be "emptied" separately.

Startup disc almost full, can't empty trash, can't access terminal

My startup disc is almost full and I can't empty my trash - I get the error code -8003. I can't access my terminal my shell has an illegal value. Help!

For the Terminal issue, try repairing Permissions.
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/trash.html

I keep getting warnings that my icloud space is almost full, but I have almost 1GB left

I recently upgraded my iPhone 4S to iOS 8, then a couple of days later got an iPhone 6 (obviously with iOS 8), 64GB. I've removed the backups from my old phone, so in my iCloud, it's telling me there's a backup for my iPad of around 800MB and my (new) iPhone of around 3.2GB. All this seems right (it's mostly photos). I am now getting periodic pop-up warnings from iCloud (running on Windows 7 64-bit Pro) that say "iCloud storage almost full". It's showing that I have about 975MB free which while not a lot, is sufficient since each backup should continue to be around the same size.
The thing that's annoying is that I seem to be getting this warning pretty frequently. I haven't timed it, but it seems like these warnings are happening every 10 or 15 minutes. Is there some threshold of free space that I need to maintain to prevent these warnings?
Would deleting my backup and creating a new one help?

In answer to your first question, unfortunately you don't get allocated more iCloud storage as you buy more devices - it is 5GB free per account.
Regarding the pop-up, I too find it annoying but you won't find a resolution to it on these forums - best thing to do is to submit feedback to Apple and hope they improve it.
https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Startup Disc almost full -- delete files

I have an old MacBook, model 1, 1. It is running OSX 10.5.8. I am getting messages telling me my start up disc is almost full and I have to delete files. I am not sure what this means, or what I can do to avoid deleting files. Is deleting old mesages in Mail be enough? Do I have to delete applications? Maybe I need to bite the bullet and buy a new computer? Help.
Thanks.

It is quite clear: too much data/files on your disk. You can:
- delete files, folders and/or move them to an external disk and then delete them
- replace the internal disk with a larger one, i.e. 500 GB or 1 TB
- use one or more external disks for backup and all other additional data
- all of the above
Note that your disk must have at least 10 % free space for a reasonably good run. the final decision belongs to you, as you know what you have there, how important it is and whether you should have one or more larger disks for storing data. My piece of advice based on experience: put inside the largest disk available, 500 GB or 1 TB; take at least one external disk for backup and other storage. I have a 500 GB inside and several external disks for various data. No optical drives lately, they are outdated, unreliable, fragile and already taking too much space. Instead of buying optical disks, I purchase one-two external drives per year.

STARTUP DISK FULL NEED TO DELETE FILES IN OTHER

I know vertually nothing about this computer. Am on the road with it and use it for business in my truck. I keep getting a message that says that the startup disk is almost full and it won't allow me to use it until I remove some files. Somehow, was able to bring up storage bar that shows that the "other" which is expressed in yellow, contains the vast majority of my usage or files and what is in there is beyond me. This has all started since I got the iPhone 5 and had to replace it and redownload all in my truck using my verison wifi. Please help you can. Thank you!

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. 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 your data. I've seen no evidence that there is any advantage to having more available space at any given time 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 available 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.
About local snapshots
Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can 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.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
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.
Triple-click the line of text below 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 (command-V) into the Terminal window. 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.
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 you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

I keep getting a popup window saying there is an important update for FireFox but when I click on "More information about this update" it doesn't show anything. It seems suspicious so I have not downloaded or installed it.

Any thoughts...?? Anyone have this issue and have an answer to it...???

There is a security update for Firefox (Firefox 10.0.2) which you should apply. Unfortunately, it looks as if the updater on your Firefox is messing up somehow.
The easiest way to work around this and get you secure is to go to [http://www.getfirefox.com www.getfirefox.com], and download the latest version of Firefox there. After it downloads, go ahead and run the installer over your current Firefox. None of your settings will be changed, but it will apply the security fix, and you will be all good to go!

I have a macbook air late 2010 and keep getting a warning that my hard drive is full and to delete things so I purchased a external hard drive (1TB) but I'm just not sure what the correct way to transfer and store files to the external drive is. First MAC

I purchased a macbook air about 5 months ago and lately i keep recieving a warning that the hard drive or disk is full and that I will need to move items to trash in order to free up space on it. I purchased a external hard drive 1 TB but I'm very new to mac and ios and unsure as to how I'm suppose to transfer my files (video, pics, music etc.) from my mac over to the external hard drive in the correct way so I won't end up deleting them permenately or screwing anything up with my mac as far as the applications and programs being able to run. Am I supposed to just copy to the external hard drive and then move to and empty the trash? That's pretty much all I could come up with, but then what if i need or want to access that file again at a later time. Also, I have an i Phone and i pad so with i cloud it automatically syncs all my purcheses and if i delete something from itunes on my mac it deletes from my ipad.
I'd appreciate any kind of input i think im just a little lost here. I have to say i love my Mac and wouldn't trade it for anything (except maybe a macbook pro w/more memory)... Is there something I'm missing???

To free up hard drive space the best bet is to move data files that you don't need access to all the time. Likely candidates are music, video, and photos. Things like word processing and spreadsheet files can also be moved but they tend not to be very large and so don't free up much space. The problem with moving the above mentioned files is that iTunes and iPhoto need to know where the files are stored.
Here's an article explaining how to move the iTunes folder. You can move the iPhoto library using the Finder but there is a slight complication. Start iPhoto, open the Preferences and click on the Advanced tab. The first option is "Copy items to the iPhoto Library". If this option is checked, copy the iPhoto library to your external folder (drag it from the Pictures folder to your external drive) and then delete it from your Picture folder. If this option is not checked, it is a bit more complicated and we'll need to talk a bit.

I keep getting a popup that says"host process for window services has stopped"

hp s5220f
microsoft windows 7 home premium edeition (64 bit)
I keep getting a popup window that says "host process for window services has stopped"
How can I get rid of this?

Hello tribefanz,
Sounds like a compatiblity issue with a program and Windows 7. We need to find out what program is causing the issue though. We can do that through event viewer
1. Click the start orb
2. Select Control Panel
3. System and Security
4. Under Administrative Tools select the Event Viewer
In the event viewer you will want to drill down into the Application and System logs and look for anything with a Red X that says Error. Identify the program causing the problem and then we can go from there.
If I have helped you in any way click the Kudos button to say Thanks.
The community works together, click Accept as Solution on the post that solves your issue for other members of the community to benefit from the solution.
- Friendship is magical.

Keep getting a popup window stating" startup disc almost full, need to delete files"

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