Start up disk almost full - what can I delete?

I keep getting this error msg - startup disk is almost full delete files and I am sure there are useless files on here somewhere...
I have no idea what to delete - where to look for those useless files - help... anyone?   Thanks mucho!

In addition to the XLab's advice (which is always very good advice) what I would recommend doing is moving your media (music, photographs and music) onto an external HD. Media tends to take the most space and offloading them from the internal HD is easy and a wise thing to to. Here some Apple Article about how to do so, I think you will agree it's a pretty easy solution.
iPhoto: How to move the Library to EHD
iTunes: library on EHD
Roger

Similar Messages

  • Start up disk is full, what can I delete?

    I have a new MacBook Air, had a MacBook Pro and had all of my apps and saved files transfered to my Air. Now when I try to open ANY doc it says start up daisk if full and for mr to delete some items first. I just dont know what to delete, I have deleted all of my personal content like pics and such. Is there anything else I can delete to make more room? Please Help......thks 

    remove a few things to another external drive or flash drive - enough to load a couple of apps which are definate space-savers. I use an SD card since I've got a 13"...works great for storing stuff off of the mac where needed.
    Find monolingual.   This removes any/all of the built-in languages which come with the OS and applications.  I ran it on mine (just had rebuilt it), saved over a Gig of space in just doing that alone.  Once you've run it you can uninstall it to save even more space.  It's free.
    There's also another app called xslimmer.  it goes through your apps (you tell it what to run against), and removes files which weren't meant for your specific system - again, saves a lot of space.
    Cheers

  • HT201210 my start up disk is full what can i get rid of i have no movies or videos ?

    my start up disk is full what can i get rid of i have no movies or videos ?

    Download and install OmniDiskSweeper. It will tell you the names of the folders and files taking the most disk space.
    If you are not absolutely sure about something please ask here before deleting it.
    Allan

  • My brand new macbook pro shows shows that my had drive is filled with 481 gb of other!!! mac keeps showing me that my start up disk is full. what can other be???

    mac keeps showing me that my start up disk is full. what can other be???

    Where  did  my  Disk  Space  go?
    Slimming your hard drive
    OmniDiskSweeper is a free utility that checks HD space.
    FreeSpace cost $1 or is a free utility that checks HD space.
    SpaceControl is a free utility that checks HD space.

  • Startup Disk Almost Full, what can i do??

    When I'm adding things to my iTunes, or even just start up my laptop, i keep getting a message that says my startup disk is almost full and i need to delete stuff off of it. Where is the startup disk that i can look at a list of files so i can delete them or is there something else i can do like buy an external hard drive? Or do i just need to update my macbook software?

    It's almost certainly your stuff (music, video, etc) that's filling up the disk.
    On a laptop, your startup disk is typically the only disk.
    It's also the disk where your home directory and desktop are located.
    Start by looking at your home directory, desktop, downloads and such; select the detailed view in Finder, and look for big files, or stuff you don't need any more.
    Empty your trash, too.
    Get yourself an external disk, connect it, and relocate some of your stuff there.
    If you can delete enough stuff to load this, have a look at the [GrandPerspective|http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net> tool.
    This forum is the Mac OS X Server forum, and you're almost certainly not running the Server version of the software here. Here are the client forums for the recent client versions: [Tiger client 10.4|http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=177],
    [Leopard client 10.5|http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235], and [Snow Leopard client 10.6|http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=263]. The Mac OS X client software is far more commonly used on a Mac laptop than is the Server software.

  • How can I find where this came from? - start up disk almost full

    Hi, my mac began saying this to me today "Start up disk almost full"
    So I began deleting files. I deleted a lot via DiskWave.
    But now Diskwave says I have enough space but my mac sure doesn't.
    What do I do? What's all that 'other' stuff and where can I find it?
    Thanks in advance!

    For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
    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 restart the computer. 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 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. 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. Ask for instructions in that case.
    See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
    You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) 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. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
    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 or GP 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 the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
    Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding 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
    sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective
    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 by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. 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. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
    I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything 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 the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

  • I have an iMac 5.1 with Mac OSX 10.6.8 and 2 GB memory and an L2 cache of 4 GB.   lately I have been receiving error messages of " start up disk almost full; please delete files." is the start up disk the same thing as the hard drive?

    I have an iMac 5.1 with Mac OSX 10.6.8 and 2 GB memory and an L2 cache of 4 GB.   lately I have been receiving error messages of " start up disk almost full; please delete files." is the start up disk the same thing as the hard drive?  I opened the hard drive and from the column on the left of the menu I've selected "search for" and under that " all images" then "all documents"  I've deleted a few files from each. Are documents and images that I have deleted from here also deleted from the folders on my desktop?

    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.
    Delete any other mail in your Junk folders. Also, look through your Sent Mail to see if there is anything that can be deleted.
    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!

  • 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.

  • HT1310 start up disk almost full

    get error message - start up disk almost full? What do I do?

    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.

  • 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.

  • Startup disk almost full, what are my option

    "startup disk almost full"
    What are my options for additional space on my startup disk??????
    Previously I have copied my photos and documents onto disks to make more space.
    I do have lots of program on my computer which I guess is taking up most of the space.
    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    1030/3476
    Hi deeswaz,
    I would download and run WhatSize or OmniDiskSweeper, separately from each User Account, to make sure about some files that may exist somewhere, grown enormously with no reason to keep them on your hard drive.
    Also:
    Does your periodic maintenance (aka "cron scripts") run regularly enough? If it never ran, your log files too can take a huge space in some cases.
    Caches:
    You can delete Users caches folders to gain space. Use WhatSize or Finder's Find (⌘F) to locate them and drag them to the Trash.
    They will rebuild themselves automatically (experiencing some small, harmless slowdowns sometimes), with nothing but the caches your applications actually use, not the old stuff that you don't use since months.
    Other:
    Of course the obvious:
    Uninstall all that is useless. Did you Custom-Install Mac OS X, with only the printer drivers you need, with not all languages installed etc (keep BSDSubsystem though).
    Good luck!
    Axl

  • 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.

  • HT3680 Hi,A message on my computer keeps coming saying my startup disk is full.what can I do to solve this problem??

    Hi,A message on my computer keeps coming saying my startup disk is full.what can I do to solve this problem??

    You need a minimum of 5GB free space, and typically you need about 15% free space.
    Your Mac needs adequate hard drive space to operate normally. A low amount of RAM requires more drive space for Virtual Memory’s swap files. Problems from insufficient RAM and free hard disk space are discussed in this link http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/lackofram.html
    Look at these links.
    Where did my disk space go?
    http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Forum38&Number=770243
    Download & use *WhatSize* described in this link or Disk Inventory X @ http://www.derlien.com/
    Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk
    http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
    Amazing Disappearing Drive Space
    http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/TigerMisc.html
    Increase HD Free Space by using Monolingual @ http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/
    How to free up my disk space
    http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
    Where Did My Disk Space Go?
    http://www.macfixitforums.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/770243/site_id/ 1
     Cheers, Tom

  • I changed the date on my mac to 1995 now date and time or start up disks wont open what can i do?

    i changed the date on my mac to 1995 now date and time or start up disks wont open what can i do?

    Many system actions will misbehave, given an inaccurate date. If you cannot open System Preferences you can reset your system date and time using Terminal.
    Please read everything that follows before proceeding. Write them down if necessary because the effects of setting a preposterous system date are unpredictable.
    Quit System Preferences, force quit if necessary: OS X: How to quit an unresponsive application using Force Quit
    Open Terminal - it is in your Utilities folder and looks like this
    You can find Terminal by using the Finder's Go menu and choosing Utilities, then double-click the Terminal icon.
    At the prompt, you will be typing a command resembling the following:
    sudo date mmddhhnnyyyy
    ... but you must substitute the actual date and time in the command that corresponds to the date format used for your location. In other words if your custom is to use a date like 16 December 2013 then reverse the mm and dd values.
    Substitute numerals in the above command according to the following:
    mm = month
    dd = date
    hh = hour (24 hour format)
    nn = minutes past the hour
    yyyy = year
    Each of those values must be two digits except for the year which can be two or four digits. As an example if the current date and time is December 16, 2013 at 9 PM your command will be the following:
    sudo date 121621002013
    or
    sudo date 1216210013
    Either one will work.
    To recover from your inability to use System Preferences to set the date and time, the value entered does not have to be precise, it just has to be approximate.
    Enter that command using the actual time and date for your location and in the appropriate format, then press the Return key. Terminal will ask for your Admin Password - the same one you use when you log in to your Mac. Type it and then press the Return key. What you type will not appear, not even with •••• characters.
    To determine if your change was effective just type the date command and press the Return key. Terminal will reply with the date and time. If it appears correct and in the correct format, you should be able to open System Preferences > Date & Time once again. Selecting the "Set time and date automatically" and choosing an appropriate time server will adjust your Mac's system clock to the precise time.

  • I can't download anything as it keeps telling me my start up disk is full.  I have deleted loads of files and it still keeps popping up with the same messge??

    Please help - I am not too computer savvi and my computer keeps telling me my start up disk is full.  I have purchased a passport and transferred loads of images and files onto that and then deleted them from my computer but the message is still the same and I can't download anything.

    How big is your hard drive, and how much space is used/free?
    To find out, click once on the hard drive icon on your desktop to highlight it (it will be called Macintosh HD unless you renamed it). Click the command and I keys on your keyboard to open the information window. In "General", you will see Capacity and Available. What are those figures?
    If you have a little bit of space left, I recommend that you install Omnidisksweeper (it's free) to tell you what folders are using up the most room.
    Be careful when you transfer files - only move files that you know are yours. Don't move or delete any system files unless you're specifically recommended to do so (some files are safe to delete; some are not).
    Matt

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