What does "your start up disc is full" mean?

Getting the message, "your start up disc is full."  Can you help me know what to do?

Make sure you select your main hard disk & 'Get info' on it (in the file menu).
Look at the Available: xxGB figure, in the 'General' section.
If that is less than 10GB you really need to look at removing some more files, otherwise the message will keep appearing. The worst thing that can happen is that you loose the ability to save any open work.
Tools like www.whatsizemac.com and www.derlien.com can show where big files reside, but take care before you delete anything.

Similar Messages

  • What does "your start up disc mac os is full"

    What does it mean when my computer says "your start up disc mac os is full"?

    Probably exactly what it says. Die to pending TimeMachine backups. Scratch used and not deleted frpm some graphics progrsms.
    Disk usage in DU or use Omnidisksweeper but off load files and backup. A good rrason to have a bootable clone backup.
    More help in Macbook Pro forum users

  • Error message "Your start up disc is full please remove files to clear"which I have done but no joy?

    Error message "Your start up disc is full please remove files to clear"which I have done but no joy?

    Thanks for the advice and yes I did empty trash,clear excess files deleted old e-mails the works!!! Eventually traced to a faulty e-mail file which was giving a false reading that was using 930GB,s out of 999GB,s and thus the reading I was getting!! the answer involved advice from Apple over the phone I had to trash a huge e-mail file so my reading is now 929GB,s free out of 999GB,s  Thanks again. wheelspanner

  • Help! My mac turns grey and i cannot sign in. It said "your start up disc is full".

    My child incidently put her itumes to my macbook air. It seems it the macbook is very full. When we turn it on, it stated " your start up disc is full". We cannot delete files / programs to make more spaces because i cannot even sign in. The monitor turns grey and freeze after I click "sign in". Help me, please.... Thank you very much for your kind attention and help.

    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.

  • Mac book pro start up disc is full

    my mac book pro came up with a box sayin   - your start up disc is full-  then went to a blue screen, I am unable to do anything at all - any suggestions ?

    OSX disks need space to work.  Some say 10-15% free, others lock the number at 30GB minimum (because disks vary in size).  I would stick to 30 GB if I were you.
    But ... immmediate problem ...
    Your system does not like to operate because you likely have about 500 MB free of several 10s or 100s of GBs.
    If this system is pre-Lion, you have install disks.  You can buy an external drive (make it self-powered, from the wall), and install OSX on that drive using the C key at boot to re-direct to the install disks in the optical drive.
    If you system is Lion ... I do not know Lion well enough to install "cold" on a blank disk.
    When that system is installed, your internal drive is now "just a disk" and the amount of free space means less.  You can start moving files from the internal drive to the external drive until you have enough free space for it to operate as an OSX system disk.
    There are other longer-term strategies you need to address, such as "do I need a bigger system disk?", but first get your system running.

  • Am getting message from MacPro that my start up disc is full - but I can't find it and can't figure out what to do to help situation. I've been making a number of imovies, which generates junk files. help?

    I am getting message from MacPro that my start up disc is full - but I can't find this "start up disc" and can't figure out what to do to help situation. I've been making a number of imovies, which generates junk files and material that I should toss in the trash, but it is not clear to me  what items I can toss and which items I can't toss. Can you help? Using the imovie "help" support the system showed me under the menu item "go" where the "start up disc" should be - but that wasn't actually available on my menu!  Thanks for your help!

    Disk Utility 
    Get Info on the icon on Desktop
    Try to move this to the MacBook Pro forum
    Your boot drive should be 30% free to really perform properly. 10% minimum
    Backup, clone, use TimeMachine, use another drive for your projects and movies, replace and upgrade the internal drive even.

  • My mac air start up disc is full. What do I do now

    My Mac Book air start up disc is full.  What to do now?

    Do you have an external drive you can copy files to before you delete them? If you have apps you no longer use look in the app or it's download dmg to see if there is an uninstall. In itunes at the top menu there is a click on to find duplicates. You will have to scroll thru to find it. You can use this for videos and music. In your browsers clean out the cache and history files. Delete any music videos or picture you no longer use or need. Or store them to a back up drive. You need to have at the least 10% free disk space. Read this link.http://www.computerworld.com/article/2476645/mac-os-x/liberation-10-os-x-steps-t o-free-mac-disk-space.html

  • My Spotlight is not working.  I get the message that my start up disc is full and to start deleting files.  What kind of files?

    I am getting a pop up message that my start up disc is full and my spotlight is not working.  The message tells me that I need to delete files.  My question is what files do I need to delete? And why is my Spotlight not working?

    You may find this link of interest and value...
    http://macmost.com/what-to-do-when-your-hard-drive-is-full.html

  • Ikeep getting a message that my start up disc is full and i don't know how to free up space..  also when i o to download some files i am told there is no space left to download     i bought this macbook pro used an receiver no discs..  what can i do??   t

    ikeep getting a message that my start up disc is full and i don't know how to free up space..  also when i o to download some files i am told there is no space left to download     i bought this macbook pro used an receiver no discs..  what can i do??  

    You need to purchase an external drive and start moving some files to it or you can try trashing some files that you no longer need.
    Download OmniDiskSweeper and see where your larger files are... you can move them to an external drive or trash them: it's up to you.
    I would also begin, since it's obviously don't have backups, a backup scheme or two. See Most commonly used backup methods.
    Good luck,
    Clinton

  • My start up disc is full, I emptied the trash now what should I do?

    I keep getting a message "start up disc is full" . I've emptied the trash, now what should I do?

    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.

  • My start up disc is full i have a macbook air, i back everuthing up with time capsule and  have movies all my music libraries and photos onto that too so as i have free space, but my max still says my startup disc is full with "other"

    my start up disc is full i have a macbook air, i back everuthing up with time capsule and  have movies all my music libraries and photos onto that too so as i have free space, but my max still says my startup disc is full with "other"

    First, empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
    According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB 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 available 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 as described here. That method may not find large folders that contain a lot of small files.
    You can also use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
    Proceed further only if the problem hasn't been solved.
    ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
    Back up all data now.
    Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual.
    Triple-click the line of text below to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard (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.
    I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means.
    When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

  • ON START UP IT TELLS ME THAT MY start up disc IS FULL - HOW DO I EITHER DELETE ITEMS - FFRAG ROM WHERE ?! - OR DE

    Hi
    On start up it tells me that my start up disc is full - how can i either find where to delete items from it - or can you defrag as you could in windows ? Help !

    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
    Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space. Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature.
    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.

  • My mac is locked up, start up disc is full!!!!

    I can turn on my mac book pro but it will only go to a blue screen and give me a dumb message stating that my start up disc is full and I need to delet some files.  But it wont let me go any further than that so I cant delet anything.  This is really ******* me off!!!  Does any one know what to do that wont cost me sending off this darn thing to some lab?
    -Stupid nam

    Well, it depends how you backed up - if you just copied files over, then no, you can't use it to boot from. If you want to have a bootable clone copy, you have to use either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to create the clone. If you used Time Machine, you could restore from it but must be running Lion (10.7) I believe in order to boot from it. However, I don't use Time Machine, so I may be wrong there.
    If you have your Snow Leopard install disk, you should be able to boot from it (insert disk and then hold down C key while restarting or Option key while booting up. If you use Option, press it until you get a screen showing you the available disks to boot from - choose your install disk). Once booted, you should have access to your internal hard drive. You can try to attach an external and move things over or, if you already have things backed up, just delete some files. Empty trash in between so it doesn't get too full. Keep doing that until you have at least 10 - 15 GB empty on your hard drive.

  • I'm being told my start up disc is full on my 2010 macbook. Memory is 2GB 1067 MHz; and Finder tells me I have 1.05 GB still available.  Do I need a bigger hard drive?

    I'm getting error message that my start up disc is full on my 2010 macbook.  Started with 2GB 1067 MHz; and, according to Finder, still have 1.05 GB available.  Any idea what's up?  I had MacKeeper dump all junk files.  Do I need a new hard drive?

    First of all I would suggest you get rid of MacKeeper, which is well known in the Mac community to be useless or in some cases to be as bad as malware. Read this user tip by Klaus1.
    The startup disk (your hard drive) is not the same as the system memory (the 2GB of RAM you describe.) You may very well need a larger hard drive, but the first thing I would try would be looking through your downloads folder for old installer disk images, deleting any that you do not need any more (usually all of them) and emptying your trash. Many users put files in their trash and forget to empty it.
    If that doesn't gain you sufficient space, you may want to replace your hard drive with a larger model. You don't mention what size drive you have, but it is possible to do it yourself. See page 37 of this user manual.
    Another option would be to put files that are taking up a large amount of space (often iTunes and iPhoto Libraries fall into this category) on an external hard drive. This works best if you do not need portability.
    Best of luck.

  • How do I fix "start up disc is full"?

    How to i fix "start up disc is full"?

    Freeing Up Disc Space
    what-to-do-when-your-hard-drive-is-full.html
    If necessary... also see...
    1)  The Storage Display
    2)  Where did my Disk Space go?

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