Start-up disc almost full

Recently when adding images to iPhoto or burning a disc in iDVD i receive an error message indicating my start-up disc is almost full and i should delete some files...??
can anyone help me in understanding what thismeans and how i go about resolving the issue...
is there a disc clean-up utility or any other system utility i can use to clean my Mac?

Hello Stuart.
Check Problems from Insufficient RAM and Free Hard Disk Space for information on the potential problems when not having adequate free hard drive space required for OS X to function properly, determining your hard drive capacity and available free space and a rule of thumb to follow for the amount of free hard drive space.
In addition, check Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.

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    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.
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    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.
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    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.
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    Step 1
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  • My start up disc is full i have a macbook air, i back everuthing up with time capsule and  have movies all my music libraries and photos onto that too so as i have free space, but my max still says my startup disc is full with "other"

    my start up disc is full i have a macbook air, i back everuthing up with time capsule and  have movies all my music libraries and photos onto that too so as i have free space, but my max still says my startup disc is full with "other"

    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.
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    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.
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    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:
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    ☞ 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.
    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.
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  • What does "your start up disc is full" mean?

    Getting the message, "your start up disc is full."  Can you help me know what to do?

    Make sure you select your main hard disk & 'Get info' on it (in the file menu).
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  • My Spotlight is not working.  I get the message that my start up disc is full and to start deleting files.  What kind of files?

    I am getting a pop up message that my start up disc is full and my spotlight is not working.  The message tells me that I need to delete files.  My question is what files do I need to delete? And why is my Spotlight not working?

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

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