Startup disc - deleting files

getting a message that there are too many files on start up disc. How do I clean up the start up disc and delete unnecessary files? Thanks for the help.

Welcome to the Apple discussions.
You need to keep 10%+ of your hard disk free, or system performance can really suffer. When you get the message you've got, you're way over that line.
Find your original OS X disks, insert the first one and boot holding the C key down, which will boot from the OS X disk. From the menu bar, bring up Disk Utility and run repair disk. Does that give you any errors? If it completes with no errors, then you'll need to start deleting files.
When you are able to, download this program: http://www.free-mac-software.com/whatsize/ which will allow you to sort the files on your system by size. This may help you decide what to delete. If you can free up enough space, you might download OnyX, and run the tasks on the cleaning and maintenance tabs. This will do basic disk maintenance including deleting logs and other system files. It's available from http://www.titanium.free.fr/download.php?sid=1a7e8dcebee62c135c2d25d9dc412bfd

Similar Messages

  • Startup Disk: Deleted files but space dwindled from 2G to 300MB.

    Hi guys,
    My Mac Air's Startup Disk space is full. So I have deleted 6G worth of files, applications etc. yesterday. Oddly, my available disk space dwindled from the original 2G to 500MB. In 30 mins, it went down to 300MB even though I did not install anything new. Searching for an answer, I ran disk utility to verify the disk - hoping it will fix any errors. There were no errors - HD was ok. BUT, the available space now dwinded to 86MB - after Disk Utility.
    It is puzzling and I hope to find out why and how to regain my disk space to use my mac air
    thanks in advance for taking the time to read and respond to this question.

    OS X 10. 7 Lion / 10.8 Mountain Lion / 10.9 Mavericks
    About “Other”:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6047
    Try these tips.
    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. Disk space / Time Machine ?/ Local Snapshots
      Local backups
       http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878
    5. 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
    6. Re-index Macintosh HD
       System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
       http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409
    7. For more on this and very helpful tips:
        http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html

  • What do I need to do when I receive the message ". . . your startup disc is full, you need to make some room by deleting some files"

    I hope I'm in the right place since I was sort of redirected here Recently I have been receiving the message that my startup disc is full and that I need to make room by deleting files.  At first I received the message when I left my computer unattended with my virtual machine on, using VMWare Fusion to run Windows.  Recently though, I got the message when I left my computer unattended for about 6 hours without the virtual machine running.  As an aside, I get extremely nervous when anything freezes VMWare because it is usually a nightmare to get back into Windows if I can at all without calling Tech Support. This new message however, appeared without the virtual machine active, so I was relieved that VMWare most likely was not the cause.  After reading a number of Tech Support articles and Community discussion questions and answers, I started wondering if iTunes or the SMC firmware or a combination thereof may be causing the problems.  Mind you I know nothing about the SMC stuff because as I said, I am really new to Mac and know very little about computer code or processors or any of that stuff.  But I do know that iTunes has recently been giving me some trouble, such as opening on start up and I can't figure out why and messing around with my iTunes libraries.  I also read about the SMC firmware and the computer's sleep cycle so that sort of made sense.  But I seriously need advice from someone a lot smarter than me.  So, before you ask, both iTunes and my SMC firmware are up to date. I'm running a mid-2007 iMac Intel Core 2 Duo Processor with 2.4 GHz of speed.
    You may not need all this junk, but in case you do, since the message tells me to make room and delete files, here goes.  Now, if I need to make space and delete files, this is where I get confused and it's probably very simple but I'm still a relatively new Mac user and I still can't seem to find all the info about my Mac!  I'm not exactly sure how much space I have left on my hard drive.  I had to replace my hard drive last December and the invoice says it is a 500 GB 7200 SATA hard drive.  For some reason I thought I had more than that.  Regardless, System Profiler shows 10.26 GB currently available, 499.76 used; I assume that the used portion includes my partitioned drive that has my virtual machine on it?  I may be using the wrong language when calling it that but that's how I understand it as a "partitioned drive".  Now, when looking at the System Profiler, under Volumes, Capacity 209 MB writable diskOs1 - I think this my Virtual Machine.  I also have three Western Digital drives that I use for Time Machine and for pictures and music; however, as I said, I am still new with Macs and do not fully understand the file structure so there may be pictures on my Mac hard drive that are duplicated on 1 or more of my WD drives but I don't know how to find them or if I do, I'm afraid to delete them.  Of these WD external drives, 1 is 500 GB and is full with Time Machine backups; the 2nd WD drive is 3 TB and has 2.18 TB available and is currently being used for Time Machine backups; the final WD drive is 1 TB Firewire and currently has 694.33 GB available.
    Any help would be appreciated.  Please forgive any inaccurate terms or mis-statements of terminology as I do not really know what I'm talking about as far as the pieces and parts of the operating system; I'm just trying my best to describe what I see.
    One more piece of advice that I would appreciate would be recommendations about a good file cleaner, for duplicates, messy file structure, space utilization software; it also needs to be idiot proof software.  I have a trial version of Appdelete that I never really used and I have the purchased version of Tune Up My Mac that I haven't spent much time with because I'm afraid I'll delete something I shouldn't
    Thank you for your help
    Memalyn

    Hi Memalyn
    Essentially, the bare issue is that you have a 500GB hard drive with only 10GB free. That is not sufficient to run the system properly. The two options you have are to move/remove files to another location, or to install a larger hard drive (eg 2TB). Drive space has nothing to do with SMC firmware, and usually large media files are to blame.
    My first recommendation is this: download and run the free OmniDiskSweeper. This will identify the exact size of all your folders - you can drill down into the subfolders and figure out where your largest culprits are. For example, you might find that your Pictures folder contains both an iPhoto Library and copies that you've brought in from a camera but are outside the iPhoto Library structure. Or perhaps you have a lot of purchased video content in iTunes.
    If you find files that you KNOW you do not need, you can delete them. Don't delete them just because you have a backup, since if the backup fails, you will lose all your copies.
    Don't worry about "cleaners" for now - they don't save much space and can actually cause problems. Deal with the large file situation first and see how you get on.
    Let us know what you find out, and if you manage to get your space back.
    Matt

  • Keep getting a popup window stating" startup disc almost full, need to delete files"

    keep getting a popup window stating" startup disc almost full, need to delete files", what can i do to help with this, i generally have only photos in iphoto, some imovies, and a small amount of documents

    You should never, EVER let a conputer hard drive get completely full, EVER!
    With Macs and OS X, you shouldn't let the hard drive get below 15 GBs or less of free data space.
    If it does, it's time for some hard drive housecleaning.
    Follow some of my tips for cleaning out, deleting and archiving data from your Mac's internal hard drive.
    Have you emptied your iMac's Trash icon in the Dock?
    If you use iPhoto, iPhoto has its own trash that needs to be emptied, also.
    If you store images in other locations other than iPhoto, then you will have to weed through these to determine what to archive and what to delete.
    If you use Apple Mail app, Apple Mail also has its own trash area that needs to be emptied, too!
    Delete any old or no longer needed emails and/or archive to disc, flash drives or external hard drive, older emails you want to save.
    Look through your other Mailboxes and other Mail categories to see If there is other mail you can archive and/or delete.
    Other things you can do to gain space.
    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!

  • My startup disc was full. I need to delete files. But my laptop won't open any applications.

    I had widow popping up saying I need to delete some files as my startup disc was full. So I connected External HD and wanted to empty dome of the 40000 photos I have on iPhoto. But my laptop stated to sync automatically to Lacie, and after sometime my laptop kept crashing or switching off. I manage to log in to my desktop but I cannot run a single application except finder

    How much free space do you actually have? Go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac... More Info... and click on the Storage tab. You should see something like this...
    This will show you how much free space you have and what's taking up all the space on your hard drive. You may need to backup and trash some seldom used files, applications, etc. You have to drag them into the Trash and empty the trash to regain the space. A general rule of thumb is that you should have about 15% of your hard drive storage free.
    Good luck,
    Clinton

  • I have a mac notebook and time capsule.  I got a message that my startup disc is almost full.  not sure where to go from here.  if i delete files will they still be on the time capsule.

    I have a Mac notebook and back up to time capsule. I  Got a message that my statup disc is almost full and I need to delete files.   Not sure which files it means and will i lose my files if they are saved on the time capsule.

    Visit
    The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on the hard drive. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
    About TM "Backup Drive is Full"
    Alert TM only deletes older files if they have been deleted from the source and when TM needs space on the backup drive for a new incremental backup. Time Machine "thins" it's backups; hourly backups over 24 hours old, except the first of the day; those "daily" backups over 30 days old, except the first of the week. The weeklies are kept as long as there's room.
    So, how long a backup file remains depends on how long it was on your Mac before being deleted, assuming you do at least one backup per day. If it was there for at least 24 hours, it will be kept for at least a month. If it was there for at least a week, it will be kept as long as there's room.
    Note, that on a Time Capsule the sparsebundle grows in size as needed, but doesn't shrink. Thus, from the user's view of the TC it appears that no space has been freed, although there may be space in the sparsebundle.
    Once TM has found it cannot free up enough space for a new backup it reports the disk is full. You can either erase the backup drive and start your backups anew or replace the drive with a larger drive.

  • Following a message saying that my Startup disc was full and advising me to delete some files, I deleted my trash but then apps started to fail. When I tried to log on again, all I got was a blank screen and a cursor. I am a Mac Book Pro virgin, help

    Following a message saying that my Startup disc was full and advising me to delete some files, I deleted my trash but then apps started to fail. When I tried to log on again, all I got was a blank screen and a cursor, so I am unable to delete any more files. I am a Mac Book Pro virgin, help

    How much free space do you actually have? Go to the Apple menu and select About This Mac... More Info... and click on the Storage tab. You should see something like this...
    This will show you how much free space you have and what's taking up all the space on your hard drive. You may need to backup and trash some seldom used files, applications, etc. You have to drag them into the Trash and empty the trash to regain the space. A general rule of thumb is that you should have about 15% of your hard drive storage free.
    Good luck,
    Clinton

  • How do I delete files on the startup disc on a macbook pro

    How do i delete files on the startup dics to make room to download itunes and such on my macbook pro

    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.
    (92026)

  • Startup Disc almost full -- delete files

    I have an old MacBook, model 1, 1. It is running OSX 10.5.8. I am getting messages telling me my start up disc is almost full and I have to delete files. I am not sure what this means, or what I can do to avoid deleting files. Is deleting old mesages in Mail be enough? Do I have to delete applications? Maybe I need to bite the bullet and buy a new computer? Help.
    Thanks.

    It is quite clear: too much data/files on your disk. You can:
    - delete files, folders and/or move them to an external disk and then delete them
    - replace the internal disk with a larger one, i.e. 500 GB or 1 TB
    - use one or more external disks for backup and all other additional data
    - all of the above
    Note that your disk must have at least 10 % free space for a reasonably good run. the final decision belongs to you, as you know what you have there, how important it is and whether you should have one or more larger disks for storing data. My piece of advice based on experience: put inside the largest disk available, 500 GB or 1 TB; take at least one external disk for backup and other storage. I have a 500 GB inside and several external disks for various data. No optical drives lately, they are outdated, unreliable, fragile and already taking too much space. Instead of buying optical disks, I purchase one-two external drives per year.

  • Ok so my MacBook Pro has begun saying the startup disc is full after importing photos, so I deleted done and the message went away. now my computer won't go passed the login page it gets stuck after I login and goes to a grey screen. Can anyone help?

    Startup disc full

    Step 1   
    The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
    There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
    a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later. 
    b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
    c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
    d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
    Step 2
    You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. 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.

  • I am told that the start-disc of my Mac Air is full and that I have to delete files. What do I do ?

    I am told that the start-disc of my Mac Air is full and that I have to delete files. What do I do ?

    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.

  • .mov file 'converting' causes startup disc full msg

    QT player version 10.3
    OS X version 10.9.3
    I have a 2TB external drive with most of its space empty. I have a set of 15 .mov files (their format is in the screen cap attached at the end of this question) on that drive which I'm trying to open and trim in the QT player. When I open them as a set, each one of them says 'converting' on it and the process takes a few hours. Finally, the process fails and I get a message that my startup disc is full. The QT player is obviously using my internal disc (the startup disc) as the scratch disc rather than the 2TB external (which is write enabled). When I cancel the process, the startup disc goes back to normal size and the scratch files are deleted.
    1. Why is the QT player converting a .mov file to another .mov file?
    2. Why isn't it using the file's location as its scratch conversion location?
    3. There are no preferences in the QT player so how do I set this as a pref?
    4. Is there an alternative app to use for a simple trim operation to a .mov file of this (see screen cap) format?
    Thanks!

    stevens-mbp:~ Steven$ read InstalledLegacyVideoCodecs
    my system showed the exact same list as yours.
    This is the list of "legacy" codecs available to be enabled on your system.
    For stevens-mbp:~ Steven$ qtDefaults read LegacyVideoCodecs
    my system returned no results and displayed another stevens-mbp:~ Steven$ prompt.
    The results indicate you have not enabled any of the available "legacy" codecs while my results indicate that I have re-enabled both Motion JPEGA and Motion PNG for use on my system. (I.e., MJPEG is a handy medium efficiency intermediate codec for editing/conversion in/by QT 7 based apps while the MPNG is an HQ alpha-channel capable codec formerly used by many professional and prosumer level videographers. While I only class myself as a "hobbyist," I still find these two codecs particularly useful on occasion.)
    I'm going to start with the 2008 version of streamclip and see what happens. My task for these clips is actually quite simple: trim off bits of the beginning and end (they're music performances and we just want the performance and not the clapping) and then export for youtube. I'll report back once I get into the project using your great advice.
    Workflow is basically the same for either the free MPEG Streamclip or QT 7 Pro ($29) apps.
    A) TRIM ENDS OF CLIP
    1) Scrub the playhead to the approximate frame you wish to edit
    2) Use right and/or left arrow keys to locate exact frame you wish to edit
    3) Use the "i" and "o" keys to set "in" and "out" edit points
    4) Use the "Trim" or "Trim to Selection" Edit menu option to physically trim content
    5) Save or export the results to a new file.
    NOTE: While step 4 is not really required for MPEG Streamclip, I recommend you use it as different apps can store the resulting file differently causing potential problems in the way QT and non-QT apps handle the resulting content.
    B) TRIM MIDDLE OF CLIPS
    1) Scrub the playhead to the approximate frame you wish to edit
    2) Use right and/or left arrow keys to locate exact frame you wish to edit
    3) Use the "i" and "o" keys to set "in" and "out" edit points
    4) Use the "Cut" Edit menu option to physically remove selected content from the middle of your clip
    5) Repeat steps 1 thru 4 as needed
    6) Save or export the results to a new file.
    NOTE: This approach is handy for removing things like commercial segments from the middle of broadcast recordings.
    Good Luck!
    Thank you for your service.
    My pleasure.

  • HT1338 My start up disc is full. How can I delete files?

    My startup disc is full. It ways to delete files to make more room. How can I do all that?

    Hi...
    Help here >  Freeing Up Hard Disk Space - Mac GuidesFreeing Up Hard Disk Space - Mac Guides
    Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon. Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure there's a minimum of 15% free disk space.

  • Delete files from startup disk?

    Under system preferences I see the StartUp Disk, but where do I delete files from that in order to clear up some space?
    I have MacBook Air OS 10.6.8. Is it just under my User? everything like applications and documents, etc?

    Open Finder and look on the sidebar for the House Icon:
    Click on it and you should see a list similar to this:
    You should be able to delete any items in those folders to create the required space.
    You may also delete any third party applications from your Applications folder.
    Ciao.

  • How do I move music files from the startup disc to iTunes in the other internal hard disk os 10.5.8?

    How do I move music files from the startup disc to iTunes in the other internal hard disk os 10.5.8?
    The music I want to move was in iTunes but is now just files. I had to reinstall a new iTunes and lost all my old music.
    Thank you!

    That article is about using your iPod as an external hard drive, to move files from one computer to another computer.  It is not related to your question.
    You can't use iTunes to move song files from iPod to computer, except for songs you purchased from the iTunes Store (and you can also re-download purchases).  However, there are third-party methods and utilities that can move song files from iPod to computer.  If you do a Google search on something like "ipod transfer," you should get some links.
    Once the song files are on your current computer, add them to that computer's iTunes library by dragging the files (or folder containing the files) to the iTunes window.  After confirming everything is there (and fixing the data issue you mentioned) you can sync the iPod.  You may want to do a Restore on the iPod, if it might have a data corruption issue, which will erase the iPod's hard drive, re-install the latest software, and set it to defautl settings.

Maybe you are looking for