My Start Up Disk is Full and I can get no acces to anything when the computer starts
The computer turns on and I can get no acces to anything. It display a message "Your Start Up Disk is Full" and comes to a white screen. I can only move the mouse but there is nowhere to click.
How can I delete any files, so the computer can come back to life?? Is there any way I can acces those files??
I'm using 250GB and this Mac has 500GB total memory.
Supposedly one can hold the Shift key down while booting (Safe Mode) and that's supposed to allow one to boot the machine when the startup disk is full.
Step by Step to fix your Mac
If that works, then use a storage drive (not TimeMachine) to move excessive files too likely starting with Movies (large and easy) or iTunes supscirptions downloads which have gotten out of control.
Most commonly used backup methods
Another method is to create a boot drive on a external drive, this then will allow one to option key boot the computer and remove files off of the internal drive, allowing the free space needed for OS X to swap stuff to the drive and operate.
Create a data recovery, undelete boot drive
Now for some reason it takes rebooting the original drive to get OS X to recognize there is free space available again, so reboot the machine normally (no Shift key). Just saying that because you may be wondering how come it does't register when you delete stuff later.
Similar Messages
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My start up disk is full, and I can no longer access my username to remedy it or remove files. I can only access the guest user profile in safari only mode. I am currently overseas and my coverage expired the day this problem happened. sos what do i do? i need to access iphoto and itunes. and everything else I have
My start up disk is full, and I can no longer access my username to remedy it or remove files. I can only access the guest user profile in safari only mode. I am currently overseas and my coverage expired the day this problem happened. sos what do i do? i need to access iphoto and itunes. and everything else I have
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I can not delet files as Start up disk is full and I can not open up
My macbook air do not start up as I can not delite files and make more rooms for start updisk
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the arrow button below the icon.
Connect an external completely erased USB drive to one of the USB ports. Select Disk Utility from the Utility menu and click on the Continue button. Clone your startup volume to the external drive:
Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility
1. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
2. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
3. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag
it to the Destination entry field.
4. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
the Source entry field.
5. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup volume.
When the above is completed you need to erase the internal drive and reinstall OS X.
Install or Reinstall Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
OS X Mavericks- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mountain Lion- Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion- Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless. -
I am having problems gettting my mail to work ... Mac telling me that my start up disk id full and to delete some files to free up space ... have done this but when i open mail from the dock it just brings up the colour wheel and nothing happening ... it shows when you right click on the mail icon that " application not responding"
If your hard drive is getting full, you need to free up, at least, 20 GBs of space on your iMac's hard drive.
If your Mac is running a fairly recent version of OS X, here are some general guidelines.
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 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 to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
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.
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
When you install and launch it, let it run the automatic ans S.M,A.R.T. tests, then go to the cleaning and maintenance tabs and run the tabs that have the ability to 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! -
My start up disk is full and I need to move my files to an external hard drive, how do i do so?
My start up disk is full and i need to move my files to an external hard drive, how do i do so?
Ensure that the external is correctly formatted
Drag and dropped the files
Test to be sure that the moved files work
Once the moved files work delete the originals
Allan -
When I search a file called start up disc, nothing shows up. How do I delete files so when my computer starts up, I no longer get a message stating that my start up disc is full and that I need to delete some files?
There is a boot drive inside the computer and it's storage space is filled up.
You need to create a external storage drive and transfer some of your files off the internal boot drive.
TimeMachine doesn't work for this as it's just a rotating backup image of what's on your boot drive, it's not a storage drive for more space and to save things permanently.
So what you need to do is get three external drives from the office or computer store.
I suggest 3-4 separate drives at 1TB each (or more capacity if you really got a lot of stuff), USB 2 is currently fine, the newer USB 3's are more expensive but your Mac doesn't have USB 3 ports, so get the less expensive USB 2 drives and save some money. If you can get Firewire 800/USB combination drives, those would be a better choice as Firewire 800 is the fastest for most Mac's. Only the very new ones have Thunderbolt and the new drives for that are rare and expensive.
Make sure they are self powered drives with their own power supply, not port powered as those are a bit flaky as Apple can just determine the device is drawing too much current from the computer and turn it off.
Note: sometimes if your computer is so full, you might actually have to delete some files in order to be able to get it to function transferring files, so pick ones that you can get new copies again, like free iTunes podcasts or movies for instance.
TimeMachine Drive
The first drive you connect to the Mac is going to pop up a window to ask if you want to make this a "TimeMachine Drive" go ahead and allow it to do that, it's backing up everything on your internal boot drive, it's going to take a long time.
Once it's finished, disconnect this TimeMachine drive and label it as a "TimeMachine Drive"
Extra space /Storage drives
The second drive you connect is going to be your "extra storage drive" basically to free up space off the internal boot drive by transferring files to it.
Formatting:
You first need to format this drive, you use Disk Utility in the Applications> Utilities folder.
On the left will be the 'name of the drive' + "media" click that and then click the Partition tab
Now click 1 Partition, Option: GUID, format OS X Extended (Journaled), give it a name like "StorageOne" and click Apply.
Now click the Erase Tab and Security Option> Zero All Data and click Erase (use the same name) this will take a long time, like 2 hours per 1TB. It's going to check the drive for any errors and make sure it's working.
Note: If the drive fails to format, then perform the Zero All Data first, then visit the Partition tab.
Once the second drive is finished, then do the third drive in the same manner, this time naming it "StorageTwo"
Transferring Data off to the Extra Storage drive
Connect only StorageOne drive and visit your User/Movies folder, it's likely the biggest culprit of oversized files. Create a new folder on the StorageOne drive called "ExtraMovies" and transfer the contents of User/Movies to the "ExtraMovies" folder via drag and drop methods.
Confirm the files were transferred and then delete those movies by dragging them to your Trash can and selecting "Empty Trash" from the Finder menu (if you select Secure Empty Trash on large files it takes a really long time to finish as it's scrubbing the drive, likely unnecessary except for sensitive files)
If you have a large amount of User/Files elsewhere, you will have to search yourself and repeat the same steps to free up room on your internal boot drive.
Once you have made some free space, download this free program to help you visualize where all your space is being taken up.
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/#download
Once you have completed moving files to the StorageOne drive, connect StorageTwo and copy the contents of StorageOne folders to StorageTwo drive. Both drives have to be connected of course.
Rule of thumb
Maintain TWO separate hardware copies of your User data at ALL TIMES
Because you need more room, thus the storage drives are for extra space. The TimeMachine drive is a backup of your internal boot drive and the second storage drive is a backup copy of the first storage drive. So that way your sticking with the rule of thumb, get it?
Don't connect TimeMachine while your transferring files, or formatting drives, you don't want it to "kick in" while your doing all this heavy work or transferring a large amount of files, I think it does so every hour, which you are going to taking quite some time to do all this work.
Once your all done making room and copying files to the Storage drives, disconnect them and label them and date them.
Reconnect TimeMachine drive
Then connect the TimeMachine drive and it will make a NEW backup of your now newer configuration on your boot drive and keep it updated every time you connect it.
Again, TimeMachine is NOT a storage drive for permanent keeping of data, it deletes old stuff as time progresses. So even though you can "go back in time" and recover a file you transferred then deleted off the your internal boot drive, it won't keep everything forever like a storage drive can.
Consider Cloning your boot drive.
TimeMachine drives can only restore, they are not bootable like a clone is, so a TimeMachine drive isn't a heck of a lot of help if your hard drive fails to boot the computer, so a "hold the option key bootable clone" made with third party software is a very useful as you get to use the computer just like it was before and can get online, grab files off the internal drive and so forth. Even erase and reverse cloning!
The trick with a clone is you make one and keep it disconnected, updating it from time to time. If a software update or install hoses your machine, you can option boot off the clone, grab the latest copy of your files and reverse clone the clone with the updated files back onto your OS X partition, reboot the computer and it's like nothing happened.
It's a advanced technique, you will have to learn a lot more perhaps before attempting it, but it's a lifesaver.
Cloning requires another separate external hard drive and free cloning software.
You can read more about it all here. Take your time, you have a lot to absorb.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201 -
i cant update my software as it always prompted me ,your start up disk is full and not enough space, when i had done the deleting some of my documents and stuff that i dont need it.
I use CCleaner from the AppStore to delete the 'useless' stuff. It's free and works great for me
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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 start up disk is full and my mac wont start
Hi My start up disk is full and my computer wont start how do I get the system to reboot again?
Ensure that the external is correctly formatted
Drag and dropped the files
Test to be sure that the moved files work
Once the moved files work delete the originals
Allan -
My startup disk is full and I can't get into my computer to delete files?
My startup disk is full and I can't get into my computer so I can delete some files???
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
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it's saying that my start up disk is full - so I can not update my phone. How can I get more room on my disk?
it's saying that my start up disk is full - so I can not update my phone. How can I get more room on my disk?
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I have tried everything and nothing works. When the computer starts it makes weird sounds and also when I try to eject it. Nothing Works! Please Help.
I had that happen with a MacBook. It turned out that the metal case above the slot was slightly bent down.
Putting a flat blade screwdriver in the slot and gently twisting it to move the metal case up allowed it to eject. Don't put it in too far you only want to bend the case not the drive.
The case can get bent down by picking it up with your thumb pressing down on the case above the slot. -
Bluetooth no longer loads automatically when the computer starts
I have the Bluetooth Stack version 2.01.21.1. It was working fine. When the laptop booted up, the bluetooth mouse was automatically connected.
All of a sudden the icon no longer appears automatically in the system tray and so I have to manually connect the mouse each time
It is still listed in the startup menu on the desktop and it is still checked in startup in the msconfig.
How do I fix this?
Thanks in advanceI have just gotten off the phone with a microsoft tech who actually seems to have fixed this somewhat
He went to start/run to get to services.msc.
He chose "SSDP Discovery Services" which "enables discovery of
UPnP devices on your home network" and DISABLED it.
Go figure
The BT icon now appears in my system tray and starts up automatically when the computer starts.
I say somewhat because It still disconnects if left idle for a long period, which it did not do previously, but at least it is there when I log on.
I want to mention that I have a Dell, not a Toshiba (did not realize this forum was for Toshiba laptops rather than Toshiba software) but perhaps
you will find this information useful.
Also, at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx you will find an autorun tool that lets you fix what is or is not
in the startup menus. It seems to work better than using msconfig which on my laptop was not making a difference as to what started up and what did not.
It is meant for IT professionals so I would not mess with it too much. However if you just check or uncheck in the startups for the BT manager you will
not do any damage. -
My device is disabled and I can't open/unlock it to trust the computer so I need to know how do I get around this problem please. I don't mind restoring it updating anything that will work
Follow the instructions in the support document that you linked to the forum with. See the section about not syncing. You will probably need to erase it in iCloud to be able to restore it as new. Remove the device from your iCloud account which will disable Find My iPhone.
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My start up disk is full and the now the mac will not start
How do I get on my computer when my start up disk is full?
If you don't have a recent backup, then all your files will be lost.
Clean Install of Snow Leopard
1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came
with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.
After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see
a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.
2. 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 the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive
size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of
partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button
and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended
(Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.
3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed
with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.
4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup
Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same
username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup
Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh
install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software
Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.
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