Startup Disc Full

My iMac is giving me the message "startup disc is full" but I don't know what to do about it. Any ideas?

First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB free on the startup volume for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data.
Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can 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.
Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
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.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.
Launch the 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.
Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then drag or copy — do not type — into the Terminal window:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Press return. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.
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 you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Similar Messages

My startup disc full i tried to clean it but i could not also i could not empty my trash

i have problem with my startup disk
i wanted to install some softwear but always i got a massege says ypur startup disc is full delete some content from it i tried to delete some app but still its full
so i check my trash i fined it full with 21 GB i tried to delete it but also i couldnot
so now i dont know how to solve this issue

Make sure that you don't have many login items.
If that trash won't empty, you can do a secure empty but with 21 GB of items it will probably take a long time. Unless you really need something you should probably just erase and reinstall.

Startup disc full message

I have an iMac G3 running OS10.3, and this last week I have been getting messages that my startup disc is full. I have taken everything off I can, emptied the cache and all trash. The best I can get is 25.2 MB free space, and that will only last for a few hours. How do I get to the startup disc so that I can clean it?
Thanks for suggestions.

jltski:
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Unfortunately you do not tell us what model iMac G3 you have, nor the size of your HDD.
The rule of thumb for free space is that you should have at least 15% of disk capacity free. This allows the computer to function efficiently and avoids directory problems, crashes and consequent loss of data.
You have three basic options:
1. You can free as much space as you can. In the article linked by little shoulders there is reference to the utility What Size, which scans your disk and lists what you have on your HDD by size. However, even if you remove a lot of stuff you will end up where you now are before long.
2. A second option is to purchase and use an external Firewire HDD. These come in very large sizes and generally have speeds up to 7200 rpms. You could partition it and use it for your HDD, as well as for other stuff. However, it has the drawback of not being as portable, which, with a desktop computer should not be a problem.
3. The best solution is to purchase and install a new internal HDD. These, too, are available in fairly large sizes and are relatively inexpensive. If you get a 100 or 200 GB HDD it will be a while before you run out of space. You will need a 3.5" IDE/ATA drive, and you can very likely install it yourself. Here is a list of drives from OWC. The Seagate drives are highly recommended and come with a 5 year warranty.
Please do not hesitate to post back with further questions or comments.
Good luck.
cornelius
Message was edited by: cornelius

.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.

How to make room when startup disc full?

I have been getting pop-up warnings that my startup disc is almost full or full. It says to delete files but I don't know how to go about this nor do I know what is safe to delete. Would someone be able to help guide me through this?

More info overload.....
Quick fix How To Quickly Free Up Hard Drive Space on Mac OS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO-mlLApEuk
Empty the trash in the Dock as well as iPhoto’s trash!
Open up your application folder & go through all your apps. Trash all the apps you no longer want and/or use.
An easier way to do this is to open the Application folder in list view & press the Command+j keys.
In the the dialog that appears, click the "This Window Only" button & the "Calculate All Sizes" check box.
Wait a bit until your file & folder sizes have all been calculated, then click the "Size" column to sort your apps from the fattest to the most anorexic.
Get rid of all your photo files you don't want and/or need. Same goes for those pics off the websites you downloaded (gifs, jpegs, etc.). Or transfer/move them all to a photo/movie storage site like ImageShack and Photobucket, 2 of the most popular FREE storage sites.
Get rid of all your video & music files you no longer view and/or listen too. Especially, if you already have the actual CD/DVDs or you can later redownload from a website. Or transfer them all to a FREE video/movies and/or music storage site.
Use Spotlight to make sure you got rid of everything. You can even trash directly from Spotlight! Better yet, download this FREE software called Find File. This app puts Spotlight to shame (works w/Mountain Lion).
Drag what you don't want and/or need to the trash. Better yet, download this neat little shareware app *demo* called AppZapper. It basically does all the work for you by not only trashing the apps but the apps preference files, caches & all its associated files.
Another software that does the above is AppDelete. Best of all this software is free!
Burn what you want and/or need onto CDs or DVDs. Not everyone has the luxury of purchasing an external HD and/or the system requirements for iCloud to store their "stuff.”
Dropbox is a free storage utility to check out.
You can check with your ISP to see if they offer *free* storage space. Most if not all do now-a-days. There are thousands if not millions of *free* storage facilities on the web also. Use your favorite search engine to search them out as they come in different storage sizes to fit your needs & wants.
Check for duplicate fonts.
Applications>Font Book
Select “All Fonts”
If you see any “black dots” next to any fonts this mean you have duplicates and/or multiple versions of these fonts.
To clean this up, select a “black dotted” font or the Apple + *click* to select multiple dotted fonts;
Edit>Resolve>Duplicates.
What the above does is turns off the duplicates & multiple version fonts. Not delete them.
More than likely the “extras” were installed by other programs and/or other users.
Clear out font caches
Use FontNuke. It does all the work for you. And, best of all it’s *FREE*.
Printer Drivers
Get rid of all the printer drivers you don’t need & use except the ones for your *current* printer(s)/scanner(s).
HD>Library>Printers Folder
If you accidently threw something out that you needed for your printer/scanner it can be easily obtained from the manufacturer’s website and/or from the CD that came w/the printer/scanner.
Garage Band
Has about 1GB of loops stored. Get rid of some some them. You surely don’t use, like and/or need them all.
HD>Library>Audio/Apple Loops>Apple>Apple Loops For GarageBand
Or just get rid of the Garage Band app altogether if you don’t use it.
Get rid of extra languages
Strip your computer down to your “native” tongue.
You can do this with a *FREE* utility called Monolingual. Another app that apparently does all the work for you. I’ve never used it. However, a lot of users here swear by & recommend it highly.
However, there is a warning for *native English speakers*. Make sure you keep BOTH English and English (United States).
Other Resources:
HD Space Checkers:
Disk Inventory X (FREE)
WhatSize (SHAREWARE)
OmniDiskSweeper (FREE)
GrandPerspective (FREE - donation)
==================
Mac Performance Guide
Slimming your hard drive
Rule of thumb: You should never let your hard drive get to where you have only 10-15% of space left.

Startup disc full after file transfer from old mac

Hi everyone,
I had a Macbook pro that was about 6 years old until I bought a new Macbook Air. I tried to transfer my files via the migration assistant but it didn't work, so I backed everything up onto an external hard drive and then transferred everything via that onto my new macbook air. All the files saved onto my desktop in a file called "Olivia's MacBook Pro", but none of the files are directly linked to my new air (i.e., I can access my old pictures through my desktop but they aren't in my new iPhoto). The issue I'm having is that I often get a popup that says my startup disc is full. I followed directions on old threads that said to download omnidiscsweeper, which I did, and all the room is being taken up by that folder of all my old stuff on my desktop (~185 GB).
My question is- do I just have too much stuff? Is there a way to keep my pictures and such on my new computer without always getting this error message and having to shut down different applications? Please help! I am not very computer savvy
Thanks so much for reading.
PS- appx 76 GB of my computer storage is movies...but I don't have any movies saved on here that I know of... another 72 GB is "Other".
Thanks!!

Frankly, You'll probably waste more time and effort than if you just got a Firewire cable. I'm pretty sure you'll need to have a cross connect Ethernet Cable (I usually make my own, not sure where you'd buy one) to connect them via ethernet, and even then you still have to mess around with getting them to talk to each other. Other option is to plug both computers into a hub or switch, or better yet a router.
Another option is to spend $20 on a usb adapter that can connect any drive to your Mac. [Here is one that I have|http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo =2329300&CatId=3770] from Tiger Direct that works quite well.

Why is my startup disc full?

I have a MacBook, and I use iMovie a ton. Like a LOT (I'm on YouTube)
I keep getting notifications saying my start up disc is full, and I'll delete some stuff and it helps a little bit. But then it comes back!
I've deleted as much as I can (there is barely anything on my computer), and I don't know what to do.
Please help!

Hello,
Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions.
This will clear several Cache files.
(Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
DVD sized files take up huge amounts of space.
How much free space is on the HD, where has all the space gone?
OmniDiskSweeper is likely the easiest/best, and is now free...
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/download/
And if needed, you can use Terminal to run it in admin mode to see files/folders your user can't see...
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/how_to_recover_missing_hard_drive_space/
Also...
Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages, making huge log files.

ITunes Library/ Startup Disc Full ...Help Needed!!!

My computer is sending me two messages this week. That my starup disc is full and now "The iTunes music library cannot be saved. The disc you are attempting to use is full. Please delete some files to fix the problem."
I have an 100 GB external hard drive that I thought I was using to keep all of my iTunes songs. (22.54 GB worth).
I went into my Hard Drive and erased one song.
Then went to iTunes and got the exclamation point next to it. The original file could not be found.
I really don't want to erase thousands of songs to get my Mac running more quickly, especially after buying an external HD.
Can anyone tell me how to fix my situation?
Many thanks in advance

Seattle >
Sorry for entering this story late and potentially muddying the waters, but I'm here in sunny Guildford so was asleep when you asked the question and I don't want you to make the same 'mistake' that I did.
Everything the previous posters have told is correct and you can follow their instructions so long as you are certain that you will never use your iTunes library in a non-standard way.
Let me explain: as my screen-name suggests, I am an aficionado (and reseller of) Sonos' Digital Music System and a fine system it is as well. However, if you use Sonos with an iTunes library where the user's home directory is not on the same partition as the iTunes music library (as is the case with the standard solution suggested herein), one key function does not work, namely Imported Playlists presumably because the Sonos software is unable to make the association due to some subtle complexity in the way the XML files are populated.
If you do see yourself ever using a solution like Sonos, the better option is to create a user account (e.g. Media) whose home area is also on the external disk, and then everything works as you would hope.
If you decide to go down this route, please e-mail me and I'll send you the instructions for migrating a home area.

Have a message coming up saying startup disc full,

I Have the 1 T byte time machine, thought this adds room, i guess not to the start up disc, what do I do. I have the IMAC 8'1 Mac OS X 10.5.8

Hello danijams,
And welcome to Apple Discussions!
First of all, you should have probably posted this in the Mac OS X Leopard forum since your system is running 10.5.8. You can access it through this link.
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235
I would check out this excellent page from the XLabs on how to free up space on your startup disk.
[Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk|http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html]
Basically, what needs to happen is you need to find, locate, and trash files that are no longer needed on your Mac or that can just be trashed regardless. You can also locate files and such that you can move to another location such as a another separate external drive.
As you have already noticed, the size of your Time Machine backup drive has nothing to do with how much free space is available on your Mac's actual startup drive.
B-rock

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

After upgrading to mountain lion i keep getting an error message saying my startup disc is full. it shouldnt be full because there is barely anything on there and i was running windows with bootcamp prior to this with no issues

after upgrading to mountain lion i keep getting an error message saying my startup disc is full. it shouldnt be full because there is barely anything on there and i was running windows with bootcamp prior to this with no issues. my computer now freezes and programs close randomly. The usual command for opening windows with bootcamp doesnt work. once in restarted my computer after it froze and it rebooted in windows automatically. i really just want to know if there is a way to take the upgrade off my laptop because it is very annoying.

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

My startup disc is full and I want to find out the size of trash and junk in mailbox before dumping trash & junk

I have gotten this message saying that my startup disc is full.
I know I need to dump the trash can on my home screen and I have done that.
I know that there is both trash and junk in my mail app that I will dump also but I am curious as to the size of the trash and junk in mail but I don’t see how to find the sizes.
Its nice that the Junk tells me that there are 739 messages but it doesn’t say what the size of all of them is.
Do you know how i can see what the file sizes are for trash and Junk in Mail?
I know I can just delete them and see how much this yellow bar decreases but that seems like a crude way to see what the file sizes are that I have deleted.
If you have an answer for how to find out the file sizes of the Mail trash and junk I would like to know how to do it.
I have the latest version 10.9.4 on my Mac Air.

do you have the Size Column selected in the View pulldown?

My HD is almost full. I need to add space. Can I use an external HD to continue using my startup disc as it is?

My HD is almost full. I need to add space. Can I use an external HD to continue using my startup disc as it is?
I create music and have run out of space. the message says 'your startup disc is almost full', and i just thought maybe buying an external hard drive and using it as the startup disc or whatever would do the trick. Does anyone know? Thanks!

External hard drives are relatively inexpensive...see some of those on OWC, www.macsales.com
You can use a large external drive to provide additional space by simply saving material to that volume instead of the startup disk. You can also partition the external drive to use part for Time Machine backups, and another partition for extended space. Or a third partition for a clone of the boot system made by Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper, both free downloads, so should the internal drive have problems you could always boot from the external partition.
All of that can be done from Disk Utility.
Keep in mind that Mac OS X gets very unhappy when there is less than 15% of the startup disk space free.

What can i do about a full startup disc?

what can i do about a full startup disc?

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion's Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

In attempting to install recommended software updates I get a message saying my startup disc is full. I have an Intel-based desktop with 1GB memory. What can I safely remove?

In attempting to install recommended software updates I get a message that my startup disc is full. I have an iMac (intel-based) with 1GB memory. I suspect my iTunes library is using up much of the space (I have no movies installed and have already copied most of my photos to a DVD to free up space). If I follow the instructions to move my iTunes library to an external HD (can I use a flash drive?) will I have enough working memory to plug it back in for use when I want to access the library?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Moving libraries off the boot disk while doable is not very viable. It creates many new problems in backing up your data, as now you have more than one source to backup. See my backup FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
My suggestion is to get at least two copies of all your essential data in one manner or another, and get a larger boot hard drive to replace what you currently use to be able to consolidate your libraries.
As for cleaning space, see my FAQ*:
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html

Startup Disc Full

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