Startup disk is full and HD keeps filling up

I have not been installing or saving new material on my computer and the storage space on my HD keeps filling up. It was quite fulll so I took of 20 GB of files, and since then, that space I freed up is now gone. Is there a way to tell what is taking up this space?

First, reboot. That will temporarily free up some space. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB free for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data.
Use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space.
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 really see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now if you haven't already done so. No matter what happens, you should be able to restore your system to the state it was in at the time of that backup.
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.
☞ If you’re running OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.
After installing ODS in the Applications folder, drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
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 this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. When you're done with it, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Similar Messages

Getting messages "startup disk is full" and activity monitor is showing "syslog d" is using a lot of CPU. I'm planning on getting more memory for my late 2008 model Macbook but wondering if there's something that is causing problems that I can also fix.

I had closed out of all of my programs but heard the internal fans running so I checked the activity monitor. It shows syslog d as the top process using the CPU right now. I have no idea what that means.
I read a thread about the startup disk being full and how you can free up memory. I have an airport extreme so TimeCapsule is backing up everything. I do have a bunch of pictures on iPhoto on the laptop; could move those to another location but I'm a little gunshy. I know they are on the TimeCapsule but I would like to save them to a second place before deleting from laptop just to be sure. I went through several things yesterday and emptied trash, etc. I wasn't able to locate the hidden files that the thread about the startup disk being full was referencing --- they were talking about large emails that were causing processes to happen taking up the CPU.... I wasn't able to find out if that was the case for me.
Also I'm going to look into getting another 2MB of memory and installing it on the Macbook, so I can upgrade to the latest OS. Anyone have an idea if that is worth the $$$ over buying a new laptop? Or anyone have ideas as to where to buy memory, etc.
Any ideas - help!

Go step by step and test.
1. Start up in Safe Mode.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11212
2. Empty Trash.
   http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13806
3. Disk space / Time Machine ?/ Local Snapshots
Local backups
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878
4. 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
5. Re-index Macintosh HD.
    This will take a while. Wait until it is finished.
    System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

My mac book startup disk is full and when I start it, it give me a blank blue screen. I have tried the shift and I started in safe mode, and it gave me the stars screen. How can I delete files to fix the problem

My mac book startup disk is full and when I start it, it give me a blank blue screen. I have tried the shift upon start
and I started in safe mode, and it gave me the stars screen. How can I delete files to fix the problem

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. 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
5. Re-index Macintosh HD
   System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

I got a message saying that my startup disk is full and I need to delete files. What files and where can I find them?

I got a message saying that my startup disk is full and I need to delete files. I don't know where to fined the files I need to delete and don't understand how my disk can be full. Can someone help me with this?

To see how much disk space is available ...
Click your Apple menu  top left in your screen. From the drop down menu click About This Mac > More Info > Storage
Make sure there's at least 15% free disk space.
Photos, video, documents, etc. all require disk space.
OSX Tips Where did my Disk Space go?
5 Quick Tips to Free Up Disk Space in Mac OS X
Freeing Up Hard Disk Space - Mac Guides
Never remove any Apple pre installed apps or system files.

My startup disk is full and I can't get into my computer to delete files?

My startup disk is full and I can't get into my computer so I can delete some files???

.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive

Startup disk is full and the laptop can't operate. How I remove files for it to work?

Startup disk is full and the laptop can't operate. How I remove files for it to work?

Can you turn on the Macbook Pro?
If yes, can you see the hard drive icon?
Have you emptied the trash?

I can't login, keep geting "Your Startup Disk is Full" and asking me to delete file. if I cant login how can I delete files? Please help

I Keep getting "your startup disk is full" ..... "You need to make more space available on your startup disk by deleting file..." If I can't have an acess, how can I delete files. Please help..

That means the hard drive of your computer is full, and you don't have enough free space on your computer, to do what you are trying to do.
You need to clear up space on your computer.
If you hard drive is full, check the following places to ensure they are not holding unwanted data.
- your trash can in the dock
- if you use iPhoto, your trash in iPhoto - launch iPhoto, and select trash in the left hand column. iPhoto has it's own trash, and is often overlooked
- your download folder - finder / home user / downloads - every time you download something, it stores it here. This is often overlooked as well
- do you have more than one user on the computer? If you do, ensure they are needed. If not, delete them, and the contents of their home folders
If you hard drive is very full, you may want to consider the following:
- putting in a newer larger hard drive - (call you local apple store for prices on this)
- deleting data off your computer
- moving data to an external drive - (iPhoto Libraries, iTunes Libraries or iMovie events, as they are the biggest space hogs)

My MacBook Air keeps alerting that the startup disk is full and I've deleted applications, iTunes and MobileSync backups. What else??

I don't consider myself an advanced Mac user but I'm really trying to use my Macbook Air much more than I do... but the biggest hurdle for me is that it's been alerting me that the startup disk has been full for several months now no matter what I do. I'm on 10.9.1 OSX and can't even update to the newer version because I'm always out of space. I have 4GIGs of memory and a 60GB SSD of which 52GB are in use. Using OmniDisk Sweeper, I see I have 14.6 GB in Library of which 8.1 GB is Mail and 5GB is Application Support (and I have nearly 480 MB in Caches and 191 in Containers, 131MB in Messages). As for the rest, I've deleted my iTunes content multiple times but my iTunes library STILL says 1.7GBs in Music. I also have 672MB in Movies which I moved to an external drive and trashed so I'm not sure what still exists here. I only have 2 movie files and I deleted them both! I also have 16.9 MB in hob, whatever that is.
I have 32.8 MB in Logs, 19.8 in Safari, 7.9 MB in Calendars, 5.6MB in Google, 4.3MB in Preferences (!!), and 1.6MB in GameKit (not sure what this is), 1.1MB in KeyChains.
I'm just not sure what's going on. I have everything backed up via SuperDuper on a huge external drive and when I delete on my Mac, it doesn't seem to "take." Is is syncing that's the problem? Are my iTunes music files from my iPhone reinstalling back on the Mac as are all my photos and movies? I don't have that checked in iTunes so that shouldn't be happening either.
Again, I'm not an advanced user so maybe I'm not completing a final step to make sure it doesn't sync with my other devices (I also have an iPad mini). I like to get messages on my Macbook Air when I'm not near my phone but if it means I have 131MB in Messages that I can't pare down, I'd rather not. I see no way to reduce the Messages file so that it's not so large. I definitely want to get a handle on this before I even consider upgrading to a Macbook with more RAM and a bigger hard drive.
Final thoughts: Should I delete my mail accounts and just check mail on the web? Can I delete most of the files in Application Support or leave them alone? What's the difference between the MobileSync files and the MSYNC files?
Thanks in advance for help!

Go step by step and test.
1. Start up in Safe Mode.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11212
2. Empty Trash.
   http://support.apple.com/kb/PH13806
3. Disk space / Time Machine ?/ Local Snapshots
Local backups
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878
4. 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
5. Re-index Macintosh HD.
    This will take a while. Wait until it is finished.
    System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

My MacBook Pro Won't Start-The Startup disk is full and I get a white screen

When I turn it on the log in screen appears and also a message saying "Startup disk full,please delete some files" , so I log in and it just takes me to a white screen,I've tried going to the disk utility by doing Command+R when turing it on ,and I repaired Macintish HD and after that it said "Macintish HD volume is OK".Thanks for the help

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. 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
5. Re-index Macintosh HD
   System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

Help! Startup disk is full and I can't logon to iMac!

i noticed something eating my hard disk space a few weeks ago. Not sure if something to do with Lion. Now I get this message evrytime I start and I only see gray screen when I logon and I'm not able to continue. Appreciate any advise to solve this problem.

Thanks for the quick response. Additional information to my problem.
my iMac has a 500GB hard disk. It now shows 1.08GB remaining. I ran SupaView and OmniDIskSweeper and both reported disk usage of about 127GB. Where did 373GB go?! It seems that is not being used at all if I look at SupaView.. it stops scanning at 127GB... what's wrong? is my disk damaged?

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

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'm getting a message that says my startup disk is full

I'm getting a message that says my startup disk is full and I need to delete files. Which files and how do I delete them. My computer is becoming real slow and the color wheel comes on a lot of the time. HELP!!!

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.
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!

Startup disk is full when I already deleted everything?

For a while I've been getting pop ups saying my startup disk is full and so I deleted mostly everything. To this day I still get the pop ups when I swear there is literally nothing on my macbook. I checked how much space I actually have and I have just 1.17 gb/59.81 gb... I have no idea how this could possibly happen when I have deleted everything.
There is 0 pictures, 0 movies, 0 downloads and 0 music because I have literally deleted everything. How do I only have 1.17 gb left? My trash is also empty too. Apparently "Other" is taking up 41 gb on my macbook... What is this? I have no idea what is taking up all the space on my macbook when I don't have anything except the things I really need.
Someone help me... I need actual space on my laptop...

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the Storage display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.
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 restart the computer. 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—not the mythical 10%, 15%, or any other percentage. 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 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. 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. Ask for instructions in that case.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) 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. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.
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 or GP 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 the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding 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
sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective
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 by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. 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. Ignore any other messages that appear in the Terminal window.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything 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 the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

Startup disk is full and HD keeps filling up

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for