Startup disk full, unable to install updates

I keep getting notified that my startup disk is almost full even though updates I am trying to install are not exceeding disk space capacity. I have tried removing unused applications to free up disk space to no avail.

acerpalmatum:
If your drive is to full it is time to
1. relieve the congestion
2. get a new larger capacity drive.
You should maintain a minimum of 15% of the total capacity of your HDD as contiguous free space for swap files and to avoid directory corruption, data loss and possible HDD crash.
Begin by using some of the suggestions in Dr. Smoke's FAQ Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk. This should give you breathing space. However, since that space will not last forever I suggest that you upgrade to a larger capacity drive.
cornelius

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Mac Mini: Error-Disk Full-UNABLE TO BOOT-WHITE SCREEN at STARTUP

Please Help!
Last night a message popped up saying "STARTUP DISK FULL/almost full...Delete files to make disk space available"
Immediately after that message the system froze and I waited for a hour to see if it would unfreeze by itself
It didn't so I then pressed and held the power button until the system shut down
Now when I power up my mac mini, all I see is a white screen
Please advise...any and all help would be very much appreciated

Which model Mac mini is it? If it is quite an old one it might not in pre-boot stage know how to drive a brand new style keyboard. You can double check the keyboard itself is ok by plugging it in to your MacBook when it is already booted.
You could also test the DVD in your MacBook.
If you have not used the DVD drive in the Mac mini for a while it might have got dirty. Eject the disc if you can and carefully blow in to the disc opening to try and clear any dust.
Normally, methods of ejecting the disk would be -
Holding down the mouse button while you start the computer
Pressing the eject key on the keyboard
and various other methods that need the computer to be already up and running
Any Apple stores in your area?
It could possibly be still trying to boot from the hard disk - if your not able to get the keyboard recognised then obviously your not yet able to get it to accept a command to boot from a different drive. If your Mac mini is an older model and hence not in pre-boot mode able to recognise the new keyboard, do you have any friends with an old plastic Mac keyboard?
An older keyboard would be one that looks like this http://www.user-agent.org/stuff/images/mac_keyboard_02.jpg
You probably have a new one that looks like http://media.macworld.co.uk/cmsdata/products/10514/07kb_top.jpg
If you feel up to it, an option would be to take the Mac mini apart and remove the hard disk, then if you have the bits, put it in an external case and you can then connect it to the MacBook as an external drive. I have all those bits available to me but many ordinary users don't.

What do i need to do when i get a startup disk full error?

What do i need to do when i get a startup disk full error? I can't update software or use my MacAir at all.

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
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 your 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.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as "Backups." The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
To locate large files, you can use Spotlight. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your 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.
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 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 not to screw up. 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. It may take some minutes for ODS to list all the files.
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.

Windows 8.1 resets startup disk to itself after every update

Hello,
I'm on a late 2014 Macbook Pro 15" retina, running bootcamp with Yosemite on one partition and Windows 8.1 on the other. I prefer OSX as my default startup disk, but every time Windows updates it resets the default startup disk to Windows. Of course I can change it manually, but this gets tedious. Does anyone know a fix for this? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
John

You have screwed up your system and you're blaming the crashes on someone else. You need to stop thinking it's someone else's problem. Keeping your system healthy is your responsibility.
There is NO upgrade path from preview/evaluation copies to the released versions, anyway, so it really doesn't matter. You have to reinstall
something.
You could reinstall 8.0 and upgrade, or you could get an 8.1 disc and put that in as a fresh install (more expensive, but my recommendation), or you could see if maybe this can help you:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only
-Noel
Detailed how-to in my eBooks:
Configure The Windows 7 "To Work" Options
Configure The Windows 8 "To Work" Options

Acrobat 10 Pro: Unable to Install Updates After Virus Removed: Receive Error 1310 ?

Acrobat 10 Pro: Unable to Install Updates After Virus Removed: Receive Error 1310 ?
Attempted to re-install the original Adobe Acrobat 10 Pro from the disk provided with the purchase; and it has put me in a trial; and is requesting that I purchase the software I already paid for, two years ago.

You can try a repair (may need to go to Control Panel>Programs & Features). A reinstall is a last resort, but if you go there be sure to uninstall from the control panel, run http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatcleaner.html, and remove any part left of the Acrobat folder. Then reboot as the administrator and reinstall. Be sure to disable antivirus during the install.

Startup disk full error - boots normally but won't start finder

I'm having a problem in which my iMac when it boots gives me an error that the startup disk is full, but other than that it can boot normally and allow me to log in, but after that the startup stalls. I never get past the default "outer space" desktop image and finder never starts, so there's no icons, no dock, and nothing on the menu bar. What's weird is that Safari and Mail start and I can see them because I believe I have them starting automatically at boot. Safari works (I'm using it now to enter this discussion). Mail on the other hand starts but is hung checking for the servers for incoming mail.
I've tried to boot in safe mode (holding down Shift key at startup), but it doesn't work.
I've tried to boot in single user mode (holding down cmd-S at startup), but it doesn't work either.
I've tried to boot from Snow Leopard installation media (holding down C at startup), but it doesn't work as well.
Each time I try one of these alternate boot methods, it just takes me to the normal login screen with the startup disk full message. I click OK, login, and get stuck.
I'm just trying to get the finder started so that I can delete some files, but I just can't get that far. It's strange that the browser works perfectly and internet connection is fine, but nothing else works.
Thoughts? Thanks. - Mike

Hi Lina, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
Safe Mode might allow you to boot and free up some space.
If you have access to another Mac and a FireWire cable, another option would be to use FireWire Target Disk Mode to transfer data to the other Mac and delete it on your MBA.
If either way works, you want to open up somewhere around 15% free space. Once you do that, run Repair Disk: Boot from install disc (insert disc>restart>immediately hold down c key and keep holding it until you see “Preparing Installation”)>at first screen select the language and click Continue> click on the Utilities Menu in the menu bar>open Disk Utility>select your HD in the panel on the left side>click Repair Disk at bottom of main window. Run this at least twice, and keep running it until it says “appears ok” twice in a row. If that doesn’t happen, you may need a stronger utility such as DiskWarrior or if the directory is damaged beyond repair, you may need to reinstall the OS, or you may have a damaged HD (repair utilities can only repair the directory structure, not the HD itself).
Ultimately, though, it sounds like you need a larger HD . . . .

Adobe Photoshop Scratch Disk Full/Startup Disk Full error - PLEASE HELP

Dear ALL,
I have started to notice recently that when I run Photoshop CS on my Mac OSX Tiger, I am getting the Startup Disk Full error message. Never happended before.
Since my initial post I downloaded Macaroni (utility) and have run the daily/weekly/monthly backups, checked the /private/var/vm and /private/var/log and /Volumes. Nothing unusual there...
When I started getting this error I had 32GB left on a looked at my HD and I seem to have 32GB available on a 152GB drive. Now after deleting I have 76GB capacity left.
But when I tried to open a Photoshop PSD or TIFF file and do a crop I still get tge Startup Disk is Full error followed by the Adobe Photoshop error Scratch Disk is Full.
I am thinking of running the Disk Utility from the Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and doing a Verify Disk and Verify Disk Permissions followed by Repair Disk Permissions. I will be logged into the machine whilst doing this. Is there any danger in this as I have read elsewhere that I need to do this from a bootable volume. If that is the case how do I create a bootable disk/cd? If not then what is the cure to my Disk Full as surely there is now nearly 50% FREE!!!!!
Please help.
Max

PS will always use the boot disk for scratch to some extent even with an alternate primary scratch disk.
Be sure to turn off Spotlight as it causes problems.
4GB of RAM would be nice, I understand small files don't work well if there is more than 4GB RAM but large files will. OS X uses free RAM as cache and RAM disk before using disk drives.
How much RAM is allocated to PS? More RAM would help.
A dedicated lean boot drive helps. Install just what is needed for your work, use a separate drive for data, and yet another RAID volume for scratch.
When in doubt, backup with SuperDuper, and do an erase and then restore. Always backup before repairing; and never, ever, use an old version of Tiger CD/DVD - like 10.4.2 on 10.4.7/.8. Use "fsck" instead, or your emergency boot drive.
Also, give Applejack a shot and delete the cache folders and swap files from time to time to keep a system humming. CS/CS2 and Tiger benefit nicely from more RAM.

Unable to install update

Unable to install update, everyday time i chose update and shutdown it will run. The next day when i on my pc, it will show me unable to install update, undo changes. Please guide me how to solve this. Thanks

Hello @JoeyH,
Welcome to the HP Forums, I hope you enjoy your experience! To help you get the most out of the HP Forums I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More.
I understand that your desktop computer is not able to install a particular update, and I would be happy to help you!
Is the software update from HP or Windows? What does the full error message state as it appears on your computer's display?
In the meantime, I recommend following the steps in this document on "Failure configuring Windows updates. Reverting changes. Do not turn off your computer" error when y.... This should enable your system to successfully install Windows updates on your system.
Please re-post with the results of your troubleshooting, as well as the requested information above. I look forward to your reply!
Regards
MechPilot
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the right to say “Thanks” for helping!

ITunes, iPhone startup disk full messages

Since I got my iPhone 3G 2 weeks ago I have started getting "Startup Disk Full" messages. I then noticed that if iTunes is running, not downloading anything or searching for anything my remaining drive space starts to reduce until the messages. If I reboot this will give me back anywhere from 1 GB to 3 GB of drive space. I used to go for months without rebooting now I can't go a day. What would cause this? iTunes 8.0.2, OSX 10.5.5, iPhone OS2.2, Powerbook G4 1Ghz, 160GB drive, 1GB ram.

open up iTunes to see what is taking up the space.. is it applications/Media/Photos and delete appropriately. If not then you might have just hit a bug or installed some bad application.

I keep getting "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files/documents to an external hard disk

Dear all,
What should I do? I keep getting the "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files and documents to an external hard disk.
Thanks a heap.

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your 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.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
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 your 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 your files.
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.

Startup disk full on new Macbook Pro

I bought a Late 2013 13 inch 8 gb Macbook Pro to replace a mid 2010 that had hung up during an update and seized up. I migrated a backup of the 2010 to the 2013 and immediately began getting "startup disk full" notices. I mainly use it for pictures and music and very little document type stuff. I have emptied the trash and repaired permissions and emptied email and downloads etc. I can't figure out what is taking up my space. Storage looks like this, 16.94 free of 250.14. Other storage 166 gb, Apps 37 gb, Photos 14 gb, Movies 5 gb, Audio 10 gb. Any suggestions?

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. 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.

I started my update for ios 5.1for iPhone 4s and cancelled it have way through now it says it's downloaded but really it's not the update is still there and when I try to update it it says unable to install update : an error occurred installing iOS 5.1 ?

I started my update for ios 5.1for iPhone 4s and cancelled it have way through now it says it's downloaded but really it's not the update is still there and when I try to update it it says unable to install update : an error occurred installing iOS 5.1 ?

See Here... Unable to Update or Restore...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1808

Help: Premiere is making my startup disk full, but I set everything to go on an external hard drive.

The iMac I am using is for the sole purpose of editing and nothing else. I have no idea what is making my startup disk full, and I can not locate the files that are filling the startup disk except the fact that it is telling me I am running out of space. The startup disk is a 250GB SSD, the second internal drive is 1 TB HDD. All of my premiere and video files are loaded ton a 4TB G-RAID.

Do you have your projects set to use a drive other than startup?
My 3 hard drives to edit AVCHD are configured as...
1 - 320Gig Boot for Win7 64bit Pro and ALL program installs
2 - 320Gig data for Win7 paging swap file and video project files
When I create a project on #2 drive, the various work files follow,
so my boot drive is not used for the media cache folders and files
3 - 1Terabyte data for all video files... input & output files

HT4623 error installing IOS 6 in Iphone 4 "unable to install update"

i was able to download the iOS 6 update, then i go to Settings>general>software update>install now, but after i agree to terms it says: "verifying update" for a few seconds, then i get this error
Unable to install update
An error occurred installing iOS 6.
Please help!!

I don't understand what you did. There are 2 ways to update. Nothing to download. If you downloaded something you did it wrong.
1. On the phone go to Settings/General/Software Update. Follow instructions on the screen.
2. Connect the phone to iTunes and click the Update button on the summary screen in iTunes.
There are 2 situations where these won't work. 1. The phone is jailbroken. 2. You have the beta iOS 6 on your phone. For that you need to get the update from a developer.

HT4623 I recently downloaded ios 6.1.3 in my iphone s3 but could not install. The message on the phone is " unable to install update. An error occurred installing ios 6.1.3. I have tried several time but the same message keep appearing. what do i do.

I recently downloaded ios 6.1.3 in my iphone 3, but unable to install the download. This message keeps showing "unable to install update, an error occurred installing the ios 6.1.3 I have tried several times but the same message keeps coming. What is the solution?

There is no such thing as an iPhone 's3'. There is a 3G which can only be updated to iOS 4.2.1 and a 3GS which can be updated to iOS 6.1.3.
Which model iPhone is this?
Identifying iPhone models

Startup disk full, unable to install updates

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