Mac Air says start up disk is full

MMac air says start up disk is full & now won't turn on. What can I do?

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.

Similar Messages

  • HT201364 my macbook air states "start-uP disk is full" how do i fix this?

    my macbook air states "start-uP disk is full" how do i fix this?

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    You need to remove files. First, if OS X does not get into Desktop and you only see that message, turn off your Mac and hold the Shift key while your Mac is starting up to start up in safe mode.
    There are different things you can do in order to get free space in the MacBook Air hard drive. Have a look at this website > http://thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
    Apart from that, you can also delete personal files or move them to an external drive

  • What does hd macintosh full mean please help I am also getting an error message saying start up disk is full i need to free up some space how do i do this please?

    what does hd macintosh full mean please help I am also getting an error message saying start up disk is full i need to free up some space how do i do this please?

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

  • IMac says start up disk is full. now what?

    iMac says start up disk is full. now what?

    Here are two links that may help.
    Where  did  my  Disk  Space  go?
    http://macmost.com/what-to-do-when-your-hard-drive-is-full.html

  • 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 fix macbook air that is frozen after log in, it says start up disk is full.

    Hi! Im getting an error message on my macbook air that the start up disk is full, so i trashed some files and this morning when i turn it on it still says the same error message, and just freezes upon log in.. it wont let me do anything, it only display blank screen. plaese help. thanks.

    Hi Laiwin,
    What did you delete? Did you by any chance delete anything out of the /Library or /System folder off the root level of the drive? Probably the best option is startup the computer and then immediately hit Command + V. This will boot into Verbos mode. When does the boot process stop? What does it say? This will help tell us where it is failing in the boot process.

  • My mac book pro start up disk is full how do I fix this ?

    My start up disk is full what do I do to fix this?

    Remove files.
    Get an external drive and off load the files you want to keep but archive. Then delete those files from your Mac. You should try to keep at least 15% free space on your hard drive least you will trash it. Without your being specific with more details that's as general as it gets.

  • 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:
    Press D during startup

  • HT4718 im getting a notification while start up of my mac that your start up disk is full you need delete some files .even thoug i deleted up to 15 gb ,it is showing 600kb of free space is available in disk utility .what should i have to do now?

    how to recover the disk space after moving a file to trash

    harshab wrote:
    how to recover the disk space after moving a file to trash
    Empty the Trash.

  • Just bought a airport time capsule because my mac book pro start up disk is full. How can I put stuff onto the airport now from the MacBook Pro to free up some space?

    http://www.prking.com.au/Products/StairLifts/StannahStairliftsCurved/Description Features.aspx

    Yes, look in your Finder's sidebar under Shared, you should see the TC there. Connect to it using whatever password you set up when you first configured the TC, and then you can move files into the shared volume.
    Don't forget that only one copy of a file is not a backup, so ideally you would have a second copy of your files somewhere else.
    Matt

  • 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 is full in my iMac

    my imac is 500GB and it says start up disk is full, so i deleted most of unwanted things in my imac. when i press Command + I on my home folder it says i used 170GB but when i press Command + I on the MAC HD icon in desktop it says 0 bytes free! My trash is empty.  i'm using MAC OS 10.8. can some one help me

    Be sure you Empty the Trash after you put files into the Trash.
    It's probable that your drive's directory is corrupt as a result of running out of disk space. You will need to repair the hard drive after you have freed up enough space.
    Repair the Hard Drive
    Boot from your Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list.  In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive.  If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
    If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

  • My mac air says " startup disk is full".How to solve ???

    My Mac air has a message during starting the computer and says that startup disk if full. In the composition of my hard there are 120 GB used space on other parts, which I have not understand where is these files.

    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. 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.
    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.
    To locate large files, you can use Spotlight. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
    You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your 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.
    Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
    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 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 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.
    The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders. It may take some minutes for ODS to list all the files.
    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.

  • Mac Air Start up disk is full

    I'm new to Macs. My Air says my start up disk is full and to delete some files. How do I do this?

    start up disk full
    http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-get-rid-of-the-startup-disk-full-m essage-in-os-x/#!LXQLu
    BTW, this is the Mac Mini desktop forum

  • 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

Maybe you are looking for

  • How can I restore email address-expired MobileMe

    I used to have a MobileMe account and an email address I preferred.  I let the account expire maybe 6-8 months ago on rumors of a free service.  Now that iCloud is here I would like to use that email address again. When I try to establish the address

  • How to view previous version of a page

    I'm wondering if it's possible to view a particular page in the cache. Earlier today I attempted to make a hotel booking and when I clicked on "purchase" the site reported a problem so I phoned the hotel and made the booking by phone instead. However

  • Problem regarding service purchase order

    Hi gurus, when i am trying to create a purchase order(NB) with reference to service purchase  requision, the item category "D" is not coming in the purchase order.i have maintained all the item categories to document type(NB).please give the solution

  • How can i add my report.rdf file in portal

    Hi, How can i add my report.rdf files in portal .. it's urgent and i have 30 report like to be executed based on user parameters.... can anybody help me please... thanks in advance.... vipin null

  • Photoshop batch produce titles from XML

    Hi, Is it possible to use photoshop to batch export a large list of titles from XML or some kind of text list? e.g. Home My Account Products Downloads Help etc Cropping the images down to the correct sizes as it goes? Any help on this would be great.