TA22302 freeing up space on the startup disk on a macbook

How to free up space on the startup disk on a macbook?

By deleting files and then emptying trash.  To assist you, download from the Internet OnmiDiskSweeper (free) and open it.  It will show all of your files and the respective sizes.  Delete what you do not need or want
Also consider either transferring files to an external disk or installing a lager internal HDD.
Ciao.

Similar Messages

  • How do you free space on the startup disk

    how do you free space on the startup disk

    If your disk is 80% full that is normal.  Time Machine uses up to 80% of the disk space for local snapshots.  To get rid of these snapshots simply plug in your Time Machine backup drive and run a backup. 
    If you have less than 20% disk space then it is time to roll up your sleeves and search for what you can delete and what you can offload to another disk.
    If you have less than 10 GB you definitely need to delete or offload some files.  You may want to maintain at least 20 GB of free space so when your disk starts filling again it will have some room before it hits that 10 GB mark again.  More headroom is better.  If you let the space fall much below 9 GB you might not be able to boot your machine.
    Initial easy steps to gain disk space:
    - Delete all files in the Downloads folder.
    - Empty the trash.
    - Start iPhoto, empty its trash and restart the computer.
    Deleting files:
    Run a Time Machine (or other) backup since you are about to delete and move files and you may need to recover from any inadvertent mistakes or decisions.  You will need one external hard drive for your Time Machine (or other) backup and a second one onto which you will offload some files.
    Then use the free application OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more to explore your volume in descending order by size so you can attack the problem from the top down, deleting the largest unwanted files first.  Delete with caution and do not delete any system files.  Remember to empty the trash after trashing the files.
    Moving files:
    Consider moving some of the no-often-used large files or directories to an external disk.  Use ODS again to find them. 
    As noted above this will be at least your second hard drive.  Your first one(s) is/are for your Time Machine (or other) backup(s).  Do not offload files onto a Time Machine disk.
    Format the second drive as Mac OS Extended (journaled).  Using OWS to find large files/folders and copy them from the system drive to the external hard drive and delete them from your internal drive.
    Then  > System Preferences > Time Machine > Options… > Remove the offload HD name from the exclusions list.
    Now both your system disk and your external offload disk will be backed up onto your Time Machine disk.
    For more about backups:
    Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
    Most commonly used backup methods:
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
    Methodology to protect your data.  Backups vs. Archives.  Long-term data protection:
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031
    From: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
    To move your iTunes Music folder to another disk or partition:
    To change the location of your iTunes Music folder, carefully follow the instructions in the AppleCare® Knowledge Base document "iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Music folder."Additional information can be found in iTunes Help.
    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.thexlab.com/105/ 00000849.html
    Laptop users may want to consider having two iTunes libraries: a small library of current favorites on their computer, while their complete library resides on an external hard drive. Utilities like iTunes Library Manager enable you to easily have multiple iTunes libraries you can use with your account.  https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7689/itunes-library-manager
    To move your iPhoto Library folder to another disk or partition:
    To move the iPhoto Library folder to a new location, employ the instructions in the AppleCare Knowledge Base document from http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506 corresponding to the version of iPhoto you are using. Additional information can be found in iPhoto Help.
    Laptop users may want to consider having two iPhoto libraries: a small library of current, favorite photographs on their computer, while their complete library, or archives of older photos are saved on an external hard drive. Utilities such as iPhoto Buddy and iPhoto Library Managerenable you to have multiple iPhoto libraries that you can use with your account.
    https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12175/iphoto-buddy
    https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7158/iphoto-library-manager

  • Creating Space on the StartUp Disk?

    I am soooo frustrated as well with what I thought was a top of the line external Hard Drive.  I can't open hardly any important Illustrator files that I need for work, hence I'm given the message to delete files from the start up disk to create space.  I've deleted a lot that I didn't need anymore but still have apparently not created enough free disk space.  So I bought this "LACIE by S+ARCK" external hard drive from my local Apple Store & was reassured by the sales person that it was easy to use and I'd have no problems- just follow the set up instructions.  So I diligently tried to exactly follow the user manual instructions to no avail.  For whatever reasons, every time I try to open the LACIE DESKTOP MANAGER IT SAYS: "NO LACIE DESKTOP MANAGER COMPLIANT DEVICE FOUND."  I've reinstalled it - no change and I've downloaded the files from the LACIE website & again reinstalled it- still no change.  Same message keeps coming up when I go to open the LACIE DESKTOP MANAGER.  I am beyond annoyed & want this thing to work as it states it will.  I'm about to give up, I'll try Genius Bar next, if still no luck... I'd better get a refund from the Apple Store I bought it at.  Please post if anyone has further knowledge as to what the heck is going on here and is there something I'm missing in my attempts to open this file?
    Thanks.
    -T
    UPDATE: 
    So I have tried the 2 + 3 key hold down as computer starts & it did something but I'm not sure what to do now.  I partitioned the external hard drive by file type (i.e. pdf, jpg, doc, ai, psd, html, webarchive, xml, etc.).  However, I'm still lost and confused.  Do I have to manually go through all my files and sort them out into the ones I want on the external hard drive, and place each different file type into each of the partitions I've created???  This is going to take me a very long time to do as I have so many files I don't necessarily need on my internal hard drive.  Any one who can lend me a bit of guidance here - I'd be very appreciative!
    Thanks again.
    -T

    I am soooo frustrated as well with what I thought was a top of the line external Hard Drive.  I can't open hardly any important Illustrator files that I need for work, hence I'm given the message to delete files from the start up disk to create space.  I've deleted a lot that I didn't need anymore but still have apparently not created enough free disk space.  So I bought this "LACIE by S+ARCK" external hard drive from my local Apple Store & was reassured by the sales person that it was easy to use and I'd have no problems- just follow the set up instructions.  So I diligently tried to exactly follow the user manual instructions to no avail.  For whatever reasons, every time I try to open the LACIE DESKTOP MANAGER IT SAYS: "NO LACIE DESKTOP MANAGER COMPLIANT DEVICE FOUND."  I've reinstalled it - no change and I've downloaded the files from the LACIE website & again reinstalled it- still no change.  Same message keeps coming up when I go to open the LACIE DESKTOP MANAGER.  I am beyond annoyed & want this thing to work as it states it will.  I'm about to give up, I'll try Genius Bar next, if still no luck... I'd better get a refund from the Apple Store I bought it at.  Please post if anyone has further knowledge as to what the heck is going on here and is there something I'm missing in my attempts to open this file?
    Thanks.
    -T
    UPDATE: 
    So I have tried the 2 + 3 key hold down as computer starts & it did something but I'm not sure what to do now.  I partitioned the external hard drive by file type (i.e. pdf, jpg, doc, ai, psd, html, webarchive, xml, etc.).  However, I'm still lost and confused.  Do I have to manually go through all my files and sort them out into the ones I want on the external hard drive, and place each different file type into each of the partitions I've created???  This is going to take me a very long time to do as I have so many files I don't necessarily need on my internal hard drive.  Any one who can lend me a bit of guidance here - I'd be very appreciative!
    Thanks again.
    -T

  • HT201364 When I try to download this I get a message that says I haven't got sufficient space on my startup disk. I have checked my available space on the disc and I have only 3GB free out of 500. I have hardly anything on my mac - how can this be?

    When I try to download this I get a message that says I haven't got sufficient space on my startup disk. I have checked my available space on the disc and I have only 3GB free out of 500. I have hardly anything on my mac - how can this be?

    Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
      1. See Lion/Mountain 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.

  • TS1702 how do i delete from the startup disk? I am trying to get Mountain Lion from the App store and it says that the purchase was not complete because i need 4.06 GB space to download OS x 10.8. and to remove items from my startup disk to increase space

    how do i delete from the startup disk? I am trying to get Mountain Lion from the App store and it says that the purchase was not complete because i need 4.06 GB space to download OS x 10.8. and to remove items from my startup disk to increase space. How?
    Thanks

    You can use iCloud with 10.7.5. You do not need to upgrade to Yosemite. You should provide a minimum of 15 GBs of free space or 10% of the hard drive's capacity, whichever is greater.
    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 keep getting this message, I decided to delete whatever I can to free up some space. Then I get my few GBs I have left on the startup disk. Then after a day, I get the message again. I check the startup disk size and notice I have "zero kb" left. ??????

    I keep getting this message, I decided to delete whatever I can to free up some space. Then I get my few GBs I have left on the startup disk. Then after a day, I get the message again. I check the startup disk size and notice I have "zero kb" left. ??????

    Click your Apple menu icon 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.
    Restart your Mac after freeing up disk space then check Stoage again.
    Another way to view avialable space:
    Control click the MacintoshHD icon on your Desktop then click Get Info.
    In the Get Info panel you'll see:  Available & Capacity
    Again, make sure there's at least 15% free disk space.

  • My MacBook Pro is almost out of space on my startup disk?? The computer is only a month old!!

    I have a new MacBook Pro, and I also got the iphone 5 for Christmas.  I wanted to upload all the pics/videos off of the old iPhone onto my MacBook before restoring it and setting up the new iPhone.  Once I started the import process, halfway through, I got a notice saying I was getting close to running out of space of my startup disk.  This seems weird to me.  I am new to Mac systems, and am trying to find where I can see how much memory I am using, how much I have available.  Can someone help me?
    I feel very computer illiterate!!!

    Would you please post these two displays from your MBP:
    This is found >About This Mac>More Info...>Storage.  (the Apple icon  is in the left hand corner of your menu bar)
    Click on the HDD icon in the upper left hand corner of your desktop, COMMAND I (the letter i).  The icon will probably be labeled McIntosh HD.
    Ciao.

  • The iCloud Drive folder in Library/Mobile Documents is taking up way too much space on my startup disk.

    The iCloud Drive folder in Library/Mobile Documents is taking up way too much space on my startup disk
    I was hoping my files would stay in the cloud and not take up a ton of space on my machine (only a 128gb SSD).  But while performing an overnight time machine backup I came back to find a "Startup Disk Full" error message.  I only have about 20gb used locally but over 200gb in iCloud Drive at the moment.
    Is there a way to clear the cache so my files stay on iCloud and not hogging space on my SSD? Or a way to redirect this library to my 2nd hard drive?
    I'm using a 15" mid-2012 Macbook Pro with a 1TB hard drive and I've replaced the optical drive with a 128gb SSD for my OS (which is where my library is, hence the difficulty).
    Thank you!

    While puttering around after posting this I think I found my personal solution here: http://macs.about.com/od/diyguidesprojects/qt/Move-Your-Home-Folder-To-A-New-Loc ation.htm
    I'm just going to move my home folder to my 2nd internal 1TB hard drive to solve my problem.
    But my question remains, how can we minimize the amount of local space iCloud Drive ***** up?  I wanted to get the rumored new macbook air that might come out next year but this is a big turn off if iCloud drive is going to overwhelm the SSD in the AIr.

  • I'm getting this error with bootcamp "The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned"

    Here's the story...
    I had a dual boot configuration on my mac with Mac OS X Lion and Windows XP (made with bootcamp).
    I decided to reinstall windows.
    I deleted the windows partition using BootCamp.
    Tried to recreate the Windows partition with Boot Camp and got: "The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned  You must have at least 10 GB of free space available"
    After reading several posts on this forum I decided to defrag the hard drive and try again. 
    The defrag did not work and I'm still getting the error, I have 22 gb of free space on my drive.
    Any suggestions?
    Also, I tried repair disk and repair permissions
    Hmm, my external harddrive says on the box "OS X 10.5.8 or higher (32-bit kernel only)"  Could the 32-bit requirement be an issue? Is lion 64-bit?

    Boot Camp must be able to allocate a contiguous block of space on the drive. If it cannot find 10 GBs of contiguous space, then you cannot create the Windows partition.
    You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
    Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
    Boot from the external hard drive.
    Erase the internal hard drive.
    Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
    Clone the internal drive to the external drive
    Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
    Select the destination volume from the left side list.
    Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
    Check the box labeled Erase destination.
    Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
    Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
    Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears.  Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
    After startup do the following:
    Erase internal hard drive
    Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
    After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
    Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.  Do not quit Disk Utility.
    Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
    Select the destination volume from the left side list.
    Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
    Check the box labeled Erase destination.
    Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
    Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
    Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
    Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
    Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

  • "The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned?" WHY!??

    I"m trying to intall windows 7 on my Macbook air  OS X 10.6. When i enter bootCam i get this error "The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned" . It says I need 10GBs of free space, even though I have 500GBs of free space on my drive external hardriver.
    I did my research, and a lot of people are saying to use idefrag and defrag the hardrive, which i did. I also verifed disk permissions and repaired disk permission and all the other stuff.
    What should i do? Apple hass the shittiest service. I spend $1100 bucks for something and i don't even get support without paying? to me, that's BS. so if anyone could help i would greatly appreciate it.

    Thanks Bob.
    And now to close this thrilling episode we will sing the "Dragnet Theme Song". All together now.....
    “Dum De Dum Dum…”
    “Dum De Dum Dum Dum”

  • Hello, Trying to run Bootcamp on my 15" Macbook Pro (Maverick).60 gig available on my computer's hard drive and 250 gig on a separate hard drive that I have attached which is single partitioned. Keeps saying "The startup disk does not have enough space"

    Hello,
    I'm trying to run Bootcamp on my 15" Macbook Pro (Maverick). I have 60 gig available on my computer's hard drive and have 250 gig on a separate hard drive that I have attached, which is single partitioned (MS-DOS FAT). It keeps saying "The startup disk does not have enough space, you must have 28 gig of free space available" Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Any help would be much appreciated.

    Thanks for the advice Bob The Fisherman. I'm just reading what turbostar has kindly written and it appears that perhaps, if I take advice from you both, I need to free more space up on the computer's hard drive?
    With the external hard drive; would it be advisable to defragment? Know of any defrag freeware for Mac OSX?
    Many thanks to you both.

  • The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned

    I have a custom upgraded Mac Mini (from 1.6 Core Duo to 2.33 Core 2 Duo & 64GB SSD - a fast little machine!) Under Leopard 10.6.6 & could create a BootCamp partition. Now after a reformat & upgrade to 10.6.7, BootCamp reports, "The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned". BootCamp says it needs 10 GB free space. The Finder says there is 23.4 GB available.
    Has anyone else run across this?

    Backup. Format. Restore.
    Windows 7 needs 40GB+
    HFS needs 20GB/20% free space to function.
    64GB is fine -- but just one OS, not two. 
    you might squeeze OS X into 30GB if you move and trim a lot.
    Windows 7 SP1 32-bit - the updates take 9GB of space (temp) on top of 20-25GB plus you'll need to disable page, hibernation, not install programs, and leaves little for TRIM and Garbage Collection.
    When Windows gets too low, you can be blocked from login or runnng.

  • My startup disk is full?!?!  This has been happening for a while and I have dumped 4500 jepegs from iPhoto onto an external drive to try and free up space.  I am still recieving the "Startup disk full" message.  What more can I do?!?!

    My startup disk is full?!?!  This has been happening for a while and I have dumped 4500 jepegs from iPhoto onto an external drive to try and free up space.  I am still recieving the "Startup disk full" message.  What more can I do?!?!

    Did you empty the Trash?
    What size hard drive & how much free space. You should always have a minimum of 10-15% or more free space?
     Cheers, Tom

  • My MacPro says the startup disk is too full.  I have 4 internal hard drives that have 2T each so there is plenty of space, but all start up programs, libraries, iTunes and application folder are on the '1st' hard drive. Can I move any to 2nd drive?

    My MacPro says the startup disk is too full.  I have 4 internal hard drives that have 2T each so there is plenty of space, but all start up programs, libraries, iTunes and application folder are on the '1st' hard drive. Can I move any to 2nd drive?

    Your system will likely fit just fine on a small fast 250GB SSD
    What you have is lots of stuff that should not be on the boot drive, data and graphics or media files and libraries that should be moved to another drive.
    If you are getting a message like this, STOP, off load files, make room, and make sure to have 15% free or more.
    Do not try to move anything from system and its library and sub folders. Move your home user account and just leave the essential home library but move all the rest.
    A full drive can have trouble finding free space segments and writing out updates to files and to the directory. And loss of directory means loss of where files are located and their segments.

  • How do I get more space on my startup disk

    How do I get more space on my startup disk?

    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.

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