Start up disk full message, how do i free up space?, start up disk full message, how do i free up space?

Got a popup message 'startup disk full' - what do I do to create more space? My son tried to download some movies for me and there wasn't enough room...

"what do I do to create more space?"
Get rid of and/or archive files that take up space and/or you don't need. How much free space is left on the hard drive?

Similar Messages

  • I keep on getting message that my start up disk is full. How do i resolve this?

    i keep on getting message that my start up disk is full. How do i resolve this?

    Move items you don't need on it, such as the iTunes and iPhoto libraries, to another drive, verify they work in the new location, and then delete them from the internal drive. If you don't need something at all, drag it to the Trash and empty it.
    (91713)

  • I have a mid 2007 iMac.    2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, OSX 10.9.5.   I attempted to do the latest update and got the message:  Start up disk is full.  Delete files.  How do I do that?

    I have a mid 2007 iMac.    2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, OSX 10.9.5.   I attempted to do the latest update and got the message:  Start up disk is full.  Delete files.  How do I do that?

    Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
      1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' 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. Get an external hard drive on which to store some of your files after which you can
          erase the data from your internal drive to free up space.
      5. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
      6. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
      7. 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.
    Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

  • Upon start up I get a start up disk full message and to delete files, now I only get a a blue screen on start up. How to I get past the blue screen and how do I delete files?

    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 my 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

    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?
    to make matters worse we bought the IMAC of amazon uk on the 4/07/011 so what can we do?
    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
    Thanks

    i 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

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Received message that my start up disk is almost full. Where is this located and how do I know what I can delete?

    Received a message that my start up disk is almost full. Where do I locate my start up disk / files and how do I know what i can delete from this folder to make more space?

    Start up disk is the main, and only, internal disk of your computer.
    I hope you know what you saved on it, so you also know what can be removed

  • I keep getting an error message stating 'my start up disk is full'

    Hello. I am a new mac user with a macbook with 120 gb. I was copying my itunes over to my mac from my ipod when I got the message 'start up disk is full' I am not sure if I understand..how can my disk be full when I just purchased my computer and don't really have anything on it. How can I fix this and why is it happening? Surely, I don't need more memory.
    I really would appreciate any advice.
    thank you,
    Lena
    macbook   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

    Download this and scan your hard drive. It will show you what exactly is take up all the space.
    WhatSize >>
    -Bmer
    Mac Owners Support Group
    Join Us @ MacOSG.com
    iTunes: MacOSG Podcast
     An Apple User Group 
    Note: I receive no compensation for product endorsements.

  • My start up disk is almost full and seems to have lots of files in other how can i tell what they are

    I keep getting the message saying that my start up disk is nearly full and I have been deleting as many files as I can but now I find that actually it isn't my photos which I thought it might be, I have no music, videos or movies downloaded and just a small amount of document files.  It seems that I have 91.56 GB of files in 'other' does anyone know what they might be and how I find out what they are?
    Thanks

    See here for answer about what is taking up space:
    http://pondini.org/TM/30.html
    and here:
    http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html  
    Seen in your "about this MAC" under storage as "OTHER

  • 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.

  • Every time I start up, I get a flag that tells me my start up disk is full. How do I empty this?

    Both my start up disk and my hard drive apparently are full. My main concern is that I can no longer download anything because it says my drive is full and there is not enough room left. How can I get rid of the "Stuff" that is plugging up my computer?

    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.

  • My mac book startup disk is full and when I start it, it give me a blank blue screen. I have tried the shift and I started in safe mode, and it gave me the stars screen. How can I delete files to fix the problem

    My mac book startup disk is full and when I start it, it give me a blank blue screen. I have tried the shift upon start
    and I started in safe mode, and it gave me the stars screen. How can I delete files to fix the problem

    1. Start up in Safe Mode.
        http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11212
    2. Empty Trash.
        http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677
    3. Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
        Hold the option key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.
        Select "Library" from the dropdown.
        Library > Mail > V2 > Mailboxes
        Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
        Empty Trash. Restart.
    4. Delete old iOS Devices Backup.
        iTunes > Preferences > Devices
        Highlight the old Backups , press “Delete Backup” and then “OK”.
        http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
    5. Re-index Macintosh HD
       System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
       http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

  • My start up disk Macintosh HD is full on my McAir OSX 10.9.4 memory 4GB. I need to clear the disk so that I can update it with the new software IOS 10.9.5 requiring 2.05GB. Need guidance on how to clear space.

    My start up disk Macintosh HD is full on my McAir OSX 10.9.4 memory 4GB. I need to clear the disk so that I can update it with the new software IOS 10.9.5 requiring 2.05GB. Need guidance on how to clear space.

    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—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 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. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.
    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.

  • When I turn on MacBook Pro it telling me that my start up disk is full and I need to delete files.  How do I get to start up disc?

    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

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