Startup disk almost full but cannot log on to delete items

when I start up my MacBook air it said "start up disk almost full" but I cannot even log on my act to get to my home screen to attempt to delete stuff... what do I do?

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.

Similar Messages

"Startup Disk Almost Full" But 190gb Free?

So I recently downloaded a program (MCMap Live) to make an image of my Minecraft world.
I ran it the first time and it took up all my RAM like expected, but gave me issues.
So I try to run it again without any other programs besides Finder running and my Mac started puking out this error that my startup disk was almost full and I had to kill some apps or delete files.
I open Finder and it tells me I have over 190gb of free space...
I ignored the warning and after the program was finished and I restarted, my airport card stopped working. So I restart again.
The airport card turns back on, but now I can't run any intensive programs because that error about my startup disk keeps coming back and shutting them down.
Does anyone know what is going on and how to fix it?
MacBook Pro Late 2008
2.53GHz
4G Ram
320 Gb Hard Drive
Snow Leopard 10.6.8
Thanks in advance.

So I recently downloaded a program (MCMap Live) to make an image of my Minecraft world.
I ran it the first time and it took up all my RAM like expected, but gave me issues.
So I try to run it again without any other programs besides Finder running and my Mac started puking out this error that my startup disk was almost full and I had to kill some apps or delete files.
I open Finder and it tells me I have over 190gb of free space...
I ignored the warning and after the program was finished and I restarted, my airport card stopped working. So I restart again.
The airport card turns back on, but now I can't run any intensive programs because that error about my startup disk keeps coming back and shutting them down.
Does anyone know what is going on and how to fix it?
MacBook Pro Late 2008
2.53GHz
4G Ram
320 Gb Hard Drive
Snow Leopard 10.6.8
Thanks in advance.

Startup Disk Almost Full (but it isn't!)

Hello all,
I've had a problem recently with my iBook G4 where I get a warning that my 'start up disk is almost full' every hour or so. The thing is, when I look at the Finder (or the Activity Monitor) it shows I have almost 8 gigs of hard drive free (and usually 200 plus megs of memory.)
I recently was advised that I needed more RAM, as the person thought maybe system resources were taking up my extra memory, so I put in 512. This seemed to make the problem less frequent, but has not stopped it (it was happening multiple times an hour prior to the memory upgrade.) Incidentally, I do keep my firmware updated.
Also, for what it's worth, I try to keep as few applications open as possible--this will happen when I am only running iTunes and Safari.
I suppose it's not the end of the world to have the warning pop up all the time, but it is pretty irritating.
All suggestions welcome.
Thanks,
Ben

Hey Ben!
What size hard drive is inside your iBook?
It's recommended to have 10% free space at minimum and 25% for "optimal" performance.

Startup disk almost full, what are my option

"startup disk almost full"
What are my options for additional space on my startup disk??????
Previously I have copied my photos and documents onto disks to make more space.
I do have lots of program on my computer which I guess is taking up most of the space.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1030/3476
Hi deeswaz,
I would download and run WhatSize or OmniDiskSweeper, separately from each User Account, to make sure about some files that may exist somewhere, grown enormously with no reason to keep them on your hard drive.
Also:
Does your periodic maintenance (aka "cron scripts") run regularly enough? If it never ran, your log files too can take a huge space in some cases.
Caches:
You can delete Users caches folders to gain space. Use WhatSize or Finder's Find (⌘F) to locate them and drag them to the Trash.
They will rebuild themselves automatically (experiencing some small, harmless slowdowns sometimes), with nothing but the caches your applications actually use, not the old stuff that you don't use since months.
Other:
Of course the obvious:
Uninstall all that is useless. Did you Custom-Install Mac OS X, with only the printer drivers you need, with not all languages installed etc (keep BSDSubsystem though).
Good luck!
Axl

"startup disk almost full" message - NOT TRUE! I have about 900 GB of free space. What can I do about this?

I have been getting repeated messages "startup disk almost full". I am on a very new iMac running Lion with the most up to date OS. This is a 1 TB iMac. When I first got the message, I cleaned almost everything but the applications off the disk. I now have more than 900 GB of space but again I am getting the message. I found someone reporting the same problem and he said Apple Care reported a but in the mail system. He found a Fix but it is not working for me. (He clicked the option key and opened finder, then went to Library/mail/mailbox/recovered messages and deleted the recovered messages. But I do not have any folder called "recovered messages" so can't pursue that fix. Any ideas?

I'm don't know about the new systems, but I remember that I set the % full to warn me. Your % might be set to 20% or something rather than 10% which is a preferable safety margin for many uses. I solved this start up disk problem by installing a 2 Tb internal drive and keeping my data files on external, raided, drives. A real show-stopper is when your 45 Tb external drive warns you that you're too close to OUT for comfort. And, Yes, I do keep it trash free.

Startup Disk Almost Full

I went to use my iMac last night and noticed that sometime between the time I last used it that morning to the time I used it in the evening I lost about 50GB and got a "Startup Disk Almost Full" error message. When I did a "Get Info" on the iMac's HD it said zero space available. I rebooted and did everything I could think of to see if it was just a glitch, but it still said zero space available. I ended up using the Leopard Install Disk to restore from a Time Machine Backup that was done about the time I had last used the iMac and somehow came out with 119GB of free space. At the time the back was made my HD had only about 50GB of free space so I am not sure where all the extra space came from. The good news is that it looks like Time Machine did a great job of restoring the Mac and I haven't discovered anything missing, at least so far. The bad news is that I continue to have a lot of problems with Leopard; this being only one minor one. Just wanted to see if anyone else has had this "Disk Almost Full" error and were able to diagnose it.

Thanks. I had already used Time Machine to restore to a previous backup and fixed the problem that way. Next time this happens I will try to figure out what files are consuming all the space and see if that helps me determine the cause of massive memory loss.

HT3680 My 3 year old iMac is freezing and I get a message "startup disk almost full for running applications. delete files..." Where do I find the startup disk and what should I delete?

My 3 year old Mac is having trouble and freezes up from time to time lately. I get a message saying "startup disk almost full, delete files ..." something about having enough room for applications to function. I know my startup disk is the Macintosh HD, but what kind of files do I need to delete and how much space do I need to free up? In my "about this mac" area, it says I have 4.89gb free out of 319.21 So I am confused why I need to do this.

You're less than 2% free and should always have at least 15% (my SWAG). Best is to get an ext FWHD and move stuff from the startup disk to it and delete it from that. Best things to move are movies, music, and photos, using the apps that manage those things.

Its saying startup disk almost full. have no music or photos on computer. how do i clear it up and free up the HD

its saying startup disk almost full. have no music or photos on computer. how do i clear it up and free up the HD

There are some items to the right of these reply boxes,
of them a few are likely to be of help to some extent...
Without knowing which OS X version, advice will be not specific
and to answer three different ways when one of them is correct
is a waste of time.
Is your OS X newer than Lion 10.7.5? IF so different rules apply
to finding out what is free space, where it is, & how to tell if it is.
For systems older than Lion (Snow Leopard, Leopard, Tiger, Panther)
the rules are a little different, since there would not be an Other item
on the hard disk drive which could contain items necessary to the OS
yet not detailed to the user.
And Lion 10.7 has a few hidden files that are hard to locate, and one
of them may have some bearing on the missing space of a HDD.
The items here, mostly for 10.7:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/24954432#24954432
start up disk full, other options:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11808734#11808734
There are Support articles, you could use Help viewer in the
system, on your computer, to look for results; or use google.
However, avoid the temptation to use a badware such as cleanmymac,
mackeeper, and others that are sources of known trouble to the Mac.
Good luck & happy computing!

It shows startup disk is full but i use just only 350gb of my hd disk from 500gb.

my macbook shows its startup disk is full but i use just 350gb of my 500gb hd.

That pretty clearly shows the drive is full. So first a question: Why do you believe there's an error? How do you know there's only 350 GB in use? Second is to do the following:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions - Lion
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Again, check your drive usage for any changes.

IMovie: "startup disk almost full..."

but I currently have 221GB free on my hard drive. I realise there are other threads regarding this error, but they all seem to involve people whose disks are actually full. Mine, as indicated in Disk Utility, has 221GB available. This error only occurs when using iMovie. I am not working with HD video or doing anything really intense. I am running the MacBook Pro Retina (2012). This error has been occurring from the beginning and I've finally grown tired of it and decided to seek some answers. There's no reasonable explanation that using a stock native piece of software on Apple's premier notebook should be an issue. I don't know what I could do differently. I don't have any other applications running while iMovie is open.
Thanks!

Well, I am back in hopes that SOMEONE has respnded to this. I guess it's just me. I see literally hundreds of threads on here about the startup disk being full and everyone just assumes that they guy posting is a complete idiot. This message is appearing in ERROR. As I stated, I recently wiped, formatted, and installed a fresh OSX on my 2012 Retina. Upon starting iMovie for the first time, I got the same message I had always seen, "Startup Disk is Almost Full". I double checked my hard drive usage and confirmed that I still had 221GB free. 221GB free.
221GB of unused space on the disk.
221GB of unused space on the disk.
There are 221GB of free space on my startup disk.
My startup disk is NOT almost full, as more than half of it is empty, leaving 221GB unused. To put it another way, my hard drive currently has 221GB of unused space. As it stands today, 221GB of my startup disk are available for new data. When I start iMovie, an error comes up telling me that my startup disk is almost full but there is 221GB of open space on the disk.
In case I failed to clearly state the problem, my hard drive is more than half empty - 221GB free - and iMovie tells me its almost full.

I keep getting a message "Your startup disk is full" but it isn't

I keep getting a message "Your startup disk is full" and my space on the HD fluctuates every second. I have 113 Gbs of free space, but it disappears within seconds and reappears again and repeats.

Yes you should back it up.
Do you have the OS 10.6 disk? You will need it. If you don't have it, you can get one here:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard
The repair disk procedure does not erase anything on the drive. But before you go any further you should back it up.

My computer says startup disk is full but it isn't. Is there a fix?

I'm getting a message saying my startup disk is full, and I need to delete files. However, I'm only using about 15% of my hard drive (macbook is less than a year old). Any suggestions what might be going on?

How do you know you're only using 15% of the hard drive?
There could be a number of things going on. In the first instance, I'd run Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and use it to run Verify Disk.
Bob

Error message says startup disk is full but I have 611 GB available on HD?

Keep getting message that the startup disk is full. Checked and have 611GB available on the HD. Help!

"...When I look at the get info screen it says 24mb left..."
What did you do a get info on?

Erroneous Warning Startup Disk Almost Full

Infrequently I get these erroneous warnings "Your startup disk is almost full" when I know this is very false with the 250G hard drive only a third full. It happens on a PowerMac G5 dual 2.7GHz 2.25G 250G and a PowerBook G4 1.7GHz 1G 80G, both running OS 10.4.11. But in my long searches on the web including Apple Support and Forums I see it also happens to many running OS 10.5.
In this condition, the machine is all but frozen. Applications remain running but won't accept any entry which would involve hard drive use, and if they require hard drive use to quit, they won't quit. Force Quit may or may not work, sometimes requiring hard shutdown. I can't save any open document to the HD or even to my iDisk which also then erroneously shows "Disk Full" (actually 90% empty) (but I can save it to a flash drive). Info on startup disk during this condition shows full with a small number of megabytes free.
I don't download music or image files which could fill the hard drive. My applications are from highly dependable companies and are not going to suddenly fill the HD with hundreds of gigs of temp files.
I am certain that the hard drive is not full. I am certain that the OS's seeing and reporting that the hard drive is full is in error. Some crazy app filling it with temp files could not possibly also do the same to an iDisk.
Simple Restart always solves the problem, info on the HD reports again correctly that the hard drive is a third full and 2/3rds empty. And it runs fine until the next time it happens. Usually I simply resume the app I was using, which has never yet caused the problem to recur.
All the hundreds of expert replies to this topic I've ever found in Apple and elsewhere on the web say the HD is actually full, either that they've actually filled it w/ music or images, or some app suddenly has generated 200GB of temp files. For some questioners those are the answer. But for many of us they're not the answer at all, the experts are not reading & understanding our questions. We're getting the warning when our HD's cannot possibly be anywhere near full.
Again- we're getting this erroneous warning, all but hanging our machines, when the hard drive cannot possibly be full. I KNOW the report that the hard drive is full is WRONG. The report that the HD is full has to be an OS X error.
Possible clues: One time, the G5 gave the warning within a few minutes after every repeated restart; I Repaired Permissions, and it quit the repeated warnings-- whether repairing permissions fixed it I don't know. Both of these machines must have Classic running almost all the time: the G5 Classic is running only Pagemaker, and the PowerBook Classic is running only Dynodex.
Would someone please address this real problem?
Thanks!!

Hi Packwood,
There must be a solution to your problem.
Are you using FileVault perchance?
Tough to recommend anything when I'm certain you've tried many things so far, and are frustrated without a cure.
Have you tried making a new User to test?
At this point I think you should get Applejack...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 5 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.
First reboot will be slower, sometimes 2 or 3 restarts will be required for full benefit... my guess is files relying upon other files relying upon other files!
Disconnect the USB cable from any UPS so the system doesn't shut down in the middle of the process.

Why is my Macbook pro with OS lion prompting me my startup disk almost full when i have deleted many files, photos and videos? Even thrashing them doesn't help. There seems to be an automatic space usage in the background

I have deleted many unwanted files and apps and yet the available space keeps depleting every time i am using my Macbook Pro. I believe under the OS 10.7.4 one of the features is it backups or has backgrounding features which uses memory. Sometimes even when i hv 8GB space after using my Macbook Pro for say 2hrs surfing internet and using Pages which has a "Save Version" feature suddenly my 8GB goes down to 300+MB only and it starts prompting me "My Startup Disk is almost full" once it reaches 1GB space left. How can i get more space.... Please someone can help me? Do i need to re-format my hardisk??!! Any help out there is greatly appreciated.
My original HD is 320GB. And i don't hv too many Apps installed. I do have abt 50-70apps. I do have many photos and videos stored in iPhoto's Library though.

One thing I've noticed is that a shared tab pops up when I open the finder under "favorites" with a random connection. It's called hp68b... None of my friends that I live with have this and we all use the same internet. Two days ago when I would click it and click get info, it said it was a pc. When I checked it today it said it is a "sharepoint" and looks like a harddrive.
I took it too the store after i spilt water on it but when I got it back it ran perfectly fine. I don't know a lot about computer so if somebody could help me. It says I'm connected to it and I can't disconnect or delete it. I don't know if the guy at the computer store put something in my computer and is sharing all my files.

Startup disk almost full but cannot log on to delete items

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