Start up disk full - won't start up.

I have a MacBook Pro that has a full hard drive. I was trying to temporarily move some files to an 80 GB ipod, but my MacBook was not showing that the ipod was connected. After patiently waiting, and about 20 friendly reminders that my hard drive is full - I thought maybe if I restarted, it would recognize my ipod on start up.
Now all I have is a bright screen. My ipod says Do Not Disconnect, but my mac book won't turn on. I can power it on and off by pressing the power key, but it won't boot up beyond the start-up chime. I also tried inserting the installation CD and restarting while holding the C key, but that hasn't worked either.
How can I get my computer "On" so I can free up some space? Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

I don't know exactly what happened - but after trying just about everything... suddenly it is working again.... I did so many desperate acts from Removing the battery to adding and ejecting installation disks, to unplugging a frozen iPod (with read "Do not disconnect"), to holding the "T" key, "C" key, to praying to the computer Gods. And now it is working again?! I'm just really happy. Thanks for all the help - I'll follow your advice (which should be 15% - sorry about saying 10% before) and free up space on the hard drive and be sure I never let it get this full again!

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Start up Disk full and MacBook Pro won't reboot. Only white screen but can sleep, restart, shut down.

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.

HT4847 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?

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 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

Start Up Disk Full Error

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?
Thanks

Mark,
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?

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
Claire

We 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. ???

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

I have an MacBook Pro 10.6, using disk utility I tried to verify my disk, but it came up with the message, please use your start up disk, I tried this, starting the computer up and pressing C, but it ejected the disk, the same thing happened while I runni

I have an MacBook Pro 10.6, using disk utility I tried to verify my disk, but it came up with the message, please use your start up disk, I tried this, starting the computer up and pressing C, but it ejected the disk, the same thing happened while I running the computer. Is the hard drive damaged as laptop doesn't seem to recognize the start up disk ? If so, I presume I will have to put in a new one.
There haven't been any problems with the computer, apart from a sticky curser,I have run a permissions programme from disk utility, there were a lot of different ones, but it seem to be able to fix them.
Any comments or ideas ?
Thank you in anticipation.

First backup your users files off the machine to a external storage drive (not TimeMachine!)
Most commonly used backup methods
Next to startup from the disk, have it inserted, hold c or option/alt (wired or built in keyboard) and then boot the computer and or select the disk when it appears and click the arrow.
Disk Utility is under the Utilities menu on the second screen.
Step by Step to fix your Mac
If you used the wrong 10.6 disk, it will spit it out or have issues, use the one that came with that machine or if it's defective, call Apple for a new one.

Won't Start/ Start-up disk full/ How to open CD Tray manually

UGH. I was duplicating a catalog in Adobe Lightroom, and wasn't in the room. It tried to tell me that the start-up disc was full, but I didn't respond, and it came on several more times, finally crashing the computer. Now it won't start up. I get the chime, the grey screen with apple, then black screen with the following....
/etc/master.passswd: Invalid argument
Missing Self ID for node 2!
node 3!
node 1!
I THINK I need to get in and clear out some of the start-up disc. I tried to start it as a target, but it did nothing. If I could get the CD Tray out, maybe I could use my Disk Warrior, but I don't know how to do it manually- is there a Paperclip trick on the metallic G5s that have the sliding-down door?
HELP!

You can eject the tray by holding the mouse button down while it boots. Try a USB mouse & keyboard if you have one, but a bluetooth one should work.
If the mac is booting correctly you should get a dialog asking you to pair the mouse & keyboard if the OS cannot detect one that is paired. I think some startup key combinations work via bluetooth.
A known working USB keyboard is really the answer if you need to trouble shoot startup issues I'm afraid.

Start up disk full, computer won't turn on

I have a 2008 Macbook pro, and earlier today it said "start up disk almost full", and did not want to let me download some pictures to the desktop. Now the computer will not turn on at all!
It gets as far as the spinner and the apple logo and then the screen goes black and nothing happens. I tried safe book, single user mode, and even just taking the battery out and putting it back in, but nothing works.
I do not know where my install disk is and I really don't want to lose my files, there is some irreplaceable stuff there.
Is there ANYTHING I can try????? Do I have no choice but to try and find the installation disk? If I can't find that, what are my options?????

It appears that you are left with two choices. You can try Target Disk Mode:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1661
Or take out the HDD and install it in an enclosure and attach it to another Mac.
That will allow you to transfer and/or delete files from the HDD. Do not forget to empty trash. Only then will free space be allocated.
Ciao.

Start up disk full - won't start up.

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