Start up disk full - doesn't add up!
Hi,
I'm a first time Mac user and, I am having trouble with a full start up disc. My iMac 1 TB hard disc only has 12 GB unused space. I've seen a number of questions posted, so it seems I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. However I've not seen any answers for the problem I'm experiencing. I've downloaded DaisyDisk hoping it would point me in the right direction as to what files to delete. However this has only confirmed that something unidentifiable is eating away at my disc space (probably something in the "dark slice" seen in the graphic presentation of my hard disc seen below). When checking out the hard disc i can se that 85 GB is space used by Users (of which home video and pictures is about 45 GB), 7 GB Library-directory, 3,2 GB System, 2,5 GB Program, and finally about 2,5 GB Other smaller files. In total approx. 100 GB used space!! What is occupying the 800 GB which cannot be seen? Something not visible is eating away space or is there a problem with OX Lion which I've upgraded to?
Please help! I hope there is a MAC guru somewhere out there who can solve this in laymans terms.
(And please do not tell me there are personal files clogging my computer - there is no way that is creating this problem. As stated above I've checked for this and it only amounts to 100GB. There must be some system log file or cache file, under the radar creating this problem. And yes I have emptied the trash can, web cache as well as disconnected my gmail account from Mail and emptied it)
Pondini,
Thank you for the great help! I downloaded WhatSize (one of the programs referred to in the article you guided me to.). Logged on to every user account and ran this disk utility. Turns out Mail (connected to a gmail account) for one of the users has been creating the problem. A faulty mail has been resending and failed again to infinity and created some sort of backup log which reached more than 800 GB! I'm now back at 100 GB used disc space of 1 TB. (Perhaps DaisyDisk might have done the same thing, but I was getting desperate. WhatSize was worth every penny!)
The air is back, I can breath again.
Once again many thanks!
Similar Messages
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On startup my macbookair says start up disk full/delete some files. When I look at storage disk utility I see 51GB of a possible 60GB is used with Other. What is Other? and how can I view and delete some of these files?
A MacBook will use Time Machine to make local backups so that when connected to an external drive it will backup a lot faster.
to disable this, you must use a command under terminal.
to locate terminal, do a search for it under spotlight (the magnifying glass on the top right corner), should be the first hit.
once under terminal, type the following text exactly:
sudo tmutil disablelocal
hit enter.
you will be asked to input your password, if you do not have a password, you will have to create one before performing this command. after entering your password, hit enter again and close terminal.
in a few minutes the space taken up by time machine should be cleared. -
Upon start up I get a "start up disk full message, delete files". Now on startup I only get a blue screen. How do I get past the blue screen and how do I delete files.
That;s really not enough free space... you can use a tools such as OmniDiskSweeper to find out where your large files reside and begin pruning (or copying to an external if they're files that you want to keep).
One thing is certain - if you're going to continue your current usage you're certainly going to need to install a larger boot drive.
Clinton -
Imac frozen at blue screen after i went into disk utilities and cleaned free space.
I tried holding down T key as it reboots
and i get a message. Start up disk full empty it how can one emptie it if you cant get past the blue screen?
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please remember how frustrating it is when asking for help when the helper telling you to type something on the screen when its frozen
Tell us when you can type some instuctions to the software how do you get to the doss prompt so to speak to do this
Thanksi tried all this thanks
i can not get past blue screen and message Your disk is full it needs to be emptied Please not I cant proceed past this message.
no matter what you tell me
Am i right ok in thinking that
when i went into disk utilities and chose to clean my free space i left it over one hour to do its stuff
i came back and there was no progress bar just the box so i quit the program and when i opened mac mail the system just froze i forced quit mail rebooted and blue screen death
Now when free space is being cleaned is it the same as windows dose the utility write lots of 0 on the hard drive then rebbot its self to free the space
basicly is my hard drive full of 00000 is this why im getting this message because the process was interupted
I need to know if i need outside help i bought the computer on line on amazon uk what dose one do next -
Start up Disk full and MacBook Pro won't reboot. Only white screen but can sleep, restart, shut down.
Reboot into Safe Mode (hold the shift key down at the sound of the chime, release when the progress bar appears) Safe Mode will take longer to boot than normal.
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I continue to get a "Start up disk full" message when I try to use iPhoto or iMovie. It then tells me to delete items, but it does not tell me how to do this.
Can some one walk me through it?
ThanksMark,
Evidently, you have filled your hard drive completely. You must get rid of some files. Make some determination as to what you can safely delete, then begin placing files in your trash, and emptying it.
You mention iMovie. DV footage, imported into iMovie, requires about 20 GBs of disk space per hour of footage. This could be the biggest consumer of your disk space. Placing an iMovie project file in the trash, then emptying it, might go a long way toward freeing up some space for you.
If you can't find anything that can be safely deleted, you're going to have to purchase an external hard drive, copy some file to it, then delete them from your internal hard drive. In fact, I recommend you purchase an external drive regardless. You can use it to make backups of your important data, as well as using it to free up disk space.
Scott -
In cleaning up files based on a start up disk full message, i placed my music in a place where I tunes can't find it to play. any suggestion?
Provided that you moved the ENTIRE itunes folder...
Quit iTunes from under the iTunes menu (by the apple), or hold CMD and press Q. Then, hold Option on your keyboard and click the itunes icon on your dock. Continue to hold Option and you'll see a popup where you can select "Choose Library". Navigate to, and select, the itunes folder at its new location.
If you didn't move the entire itunes library folder, you'll have to be specific about what you did. -
Capacity available but still getting start up disk full message
Hi
I got the start up disk full message a few days ago. I did command i and ran Omnisweeper and deleted all the large files. I now have over 50% available capacity but my Mac is still running on slow and I still get the start up disk full message....and request to force quit.
Any thoughts on what I can do. Run idefrag?
Many thanks
ClaireWe never asked for the serial number. I've asked it be removed. It is a link to your personal information which others can use to search about you.
Remove McAfee. It is only necessary if you run Windows.
Early 2008 models were not Intel CoreDuos. They might a have been Core2Duo, but not CoreDuo.
Your model if the serial number is correct, which I verified with:
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
is indeed a Core2Duo Early 2008 model by serial number.
Go to Apple menu -> About This Mac to verify you have a Core2Duo and not a CoreDuo, otherwise you are getting your serial number and processor information from two sources that got wrongly combined.
An Early 2008 model can upgrade to Mavericks and Mountain Lion. It can also install any version of Snow Leopard that is retail, and not system specific with a Mac model name on it. So your issue with file space is likely due to something else you installed. Not a virus per say, but probably something that eats up a lot of temporary space. I would run the machine overnight in screen saver, not energy saver model to ensure the logfiles get properly cleaned up. I'd temporarily turn off any backup software. And the next time you shut down, make sure not to leave any applications open, by checking command-tab that the Finder is the only open application before shutting down or restarting. -
Start up disk full message/incomplete image
I just upgraded to iDVD 6 and am trying to burn a DVD. First time it rendered/encoded/burned all night and then some. I got a messsage that start up disk was full and to delete files. It resulted with an incomplete DVD (Moives were on, slide shows not). I freed disk space - Project info shows 2.8 of 4.2GB for project and 35.78GB available. I even used an older theme, thinking that might help. It churned for 12 hours+, and I got the same result (start up disk full/incomplete DVD). I have to deliver 20 copies of this by Friday. HELP!
don't know if this will help you at all but it helped me.. Using WhatSize - 10.3.9 at versiontracker allowed me to see where all my memory was going when I got that same disk full message. I have a new iMac and I didn't hink it was possible to be full up yet but a few of my undeleted iDVD slideshows were taking up gobs of memory... Make sure you empty the trash too... Once I made even more memory available I was able to burn again...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21149
iMac Intel Mac OS X (10.4.6) -
Start up disk full--computer will not boot.
Our Mac gives a "start up disk full" error message and freezes on the blue screen after the password login. Resetting did no good, and entering safe mode only allows it go one step further but without any icons. Unfortunately, we are traveling overseas and do not have a boot disk to use. Is there a way to boot the computer, with a full start up disk, in order to resolve the issue without using a separate boot disk?
If you have files on the drive you can delete then you can try this:
Boot into single-user mode by holding down the COMMAND and S keys until the computer starts up to a black screen with white type. Once it stops scrolling you should see a prompt with the cursor. Enter the following:
/sbin/fsck -fy
Press RETURN. If you receive a message that says "***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****" then re-run the command until you receive a message that says "** The volume (name_of_volume) appears to be OK." If you re-run the command more than seven times and do not get the OK message, then the drive cannot be repaired this way. If you were successful then enter:
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /Users/username
Replace "username" with your admin account's username or shortname. Press RETURN after each command line.
You may navigate into any one of your folders located in the Home folder which include:
Desktop
Documents
Downloads
Movies
Music
Pictures
by using the 'cd' command. For example, to move into your Documents folder:
cd Documents
ls -al
This moves you into the Documents folder then lists the contents of the folder. Press RETURN after each command line.
To return to your Home folder enter:
cd ..
which moves you up one level in the hierarchy. To delete a file enter:
rm -rf "filename"
where "filename" is the name of the file you want to delete. For a whole folder it's the same command only use the folder's name instead of the file's name. The quotes are use for names that have spaces in them.
If you are able to delete some large files this will free up space on your hard drive.
To restart the computer normally enter:
reboot
Be careful to enter commands correctly because in single-user mode you can permanently screw things up if you aren't careful what commands you enter. I suggest you print this out so you will have everything at your fingertips for verification.
Alternatively, find an Apple retailer and see if they will fix things for you, perhaps install a larger hard drive. -
Got an error message that said "start up disk full". On reboot, only got a blue screen. Can move mouse around and shutdown but that is it. Firewired it to another mac and cleaned off about 2 gigs of space. Still on reboot only getting blue screen. ???
Startup in Safe Mode.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11212?viewlocale=en_US -
Why do I get a start-up disk full error message? I have 800 GB and have used approx. 249.
why do I get a start-up disk full error message? I have 800 GB and have used approx. 249.
Here's the appropriate answer:
Last login: Fri May 23 13:19:44 on console
[la-mes883094mn:~] joannhackett% diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *251.0 GB disk0
1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1
2: Apple_CoreStorage 250.0 GB disk0s2
3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD *249.7 GB disk1
[la-mes883094mn:~] joannhackett% diskutil cs list
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 098533C8-3936-4FB1-BCB8-2FE94E6E0500
=========================================================
Name: Macintosh HD
Status: Online
Size: 250006216704 B (250.0 GB)
Free Space: 16777216 B (16.8 MB)
|
+-< Physical Volume 9518DA81-D7D6-4D76-8B4D-1F235D8AEA3A
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk0s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 250006216704 B (250.0 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family C1A37CDE-6624-4094-A29A-2BB706380979
Encryption Status: Unlocked
Encryption Type: AES-XTS
Conversion Status: Complete
Conversion Direction: -none-
Has Encrypted Extents: Yes
Fully Secure: Yes
Passphrase Required: Yes
|
+-> Logical Volume 7175D310-4566-455D-9C50-1BD4CCF257CE
Disk: disk1
Status: Online
Size (Total): 249670668288 B (249.7 GB)
Conversion Progress: -none-
Revertible: Yes (unlock and decryption required)
LV Name: Macintosh HD
Volume Name: Macintosh HD
Content Hint: Apple_HFS
[la-mes883094mn:~] joannhackett% mount
/dev/disk1 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
map -fstab on /Network/Servers (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
localhost:/4OM-aHuM-mGML9PliXARLB on /Volumes/MobileBackups (mtmfs, nosuid, read-only, nobrowse)
[la-mes883094mn:~] joannhackett% df -m /
Filesystem 1M-blocks Used Available Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on
/dev/disk1 238104 227599 10255 96% 58329357 2625394 96% /
[la-mes883094mn:~] joannhackett%
As for the 251 disk, what is this? I assume it's the wrong kind of memory? Thanks, Jo Ann -
Photoshop - Scratch & Start Up Disk full messages
Hi all,
I am working on a large image file in Photoshop and as I know that this could cause my Macbook Air to run out of memory space I was saving the file onto my external hard drive. Unfortunately the Start Up Disk and Scratch Disk 'almost full' messages appeared. I saved what I could, closed all my apps/programs and checked out my memory situation on my Mac. I discovered I only have 9.6GB free and 36.14GB is being used by 'Other'. I have only music and iTunes movies on my computer and save all my work onto my external hard drive. I ran Disk Utility and it said there were no errors or anything to fix. I opened finder and selected 'All My Files' and there were 1,000+ of images I had just moved from iPhoto (there were off my iPhone) to my external hard drive. Some were even doubles. So I deleted all of these and ensured my trash was empty.
I do not know how to empty any more off my Mac as I cannot see any more files other than music. Please help, I've looked through lots of forums and found no solution.
Many thanks.Here are some general tips to keep your Mac's hard drive trim and slim as possible
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 Mac's Trash icon in the Dock?
If you use iPhoto or Aperture, both have 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 are an iMovie and/or a Final Cut user, both have its own individual Trash location that needs to be emptied, too!
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.
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.
To find other large files, download an app called Omni Disk Sweeper.
http://www.omnigroup.com/more
Download an app called OnyX for your version of OS X.
http://www.titanium.free.fr/downloadonyx.php
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.
Moving iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Moving iPhoto library
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506
Moving iMovie projects folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph2289
Good Luck! -
I keep getting a message that my start up disk is full. I have been deleting from my audio and movies but can't figure out what constitutes as "Other". Help?
For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the 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—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. 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 a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a 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.
Install the app 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.
For ODS:
security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-
For GP:
security execute-with-privileges /A*/GrandPerspective.app/*/M*/* 2>&-
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 and start typing the name.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.
The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show 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. -
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