Why do i get a startup disk almost full message?

I am getting a message that my startup disk is almost full. My HDD is roughly 500GB and 327GB are free. Doesn't make much sense to me. Any ideas? Something strange in one of the latest updates? Is there some setting I need to change in order to open up more memory for system files? Something else?
Thanks!
Joe S.

See this, perhaps it can help
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
 Cheat sheet to help diagnose and fix your Mac
 Most commonly used backup methods explained
 Data recovery efforts explained
Drives, partitions, formatting w/Mac's + PC's

Similar Messages

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

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

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

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

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

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

Startup Disk Almost Full

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

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

I'm trying to up grade the os but I keep getting the startup disk is full I ordered more memory I was told this will not help. What do I do?

I'm trying to up grade the os but I keep getting the startup disk is full I ordered more memory I was told this will not help. What do I do?

I think as drive capacities increase, the old 10-15% becomes less accurate. The amount of free space you need doesn't really have anything to do with the drive size. So, increasing your drive size shouldn't mean that you need to have more free GB (which using a % of drive space would mean). You need free space to accommodate page outs (the amount of which would depend on how much RAM you have installed and how memory intensive the applications are), sleep images (again, this would max out at your total amount of RAM), and a bit to minimize fragmentation.
With desktop drives commonly in the 2TB range today, it is certainly not necessary to have 200GB+ free in order to maintain proper operation. I generally find about 30GB to be the minimum I'm comfortable with. Mind you, I pretty much always have way more than that available. But, if I'm working on a system and the amount of free space is at least 30GB, I would generally not site drive space as the cause of any performance issues. I'd say that 30GB is a minimum for a stable system (with 8GB or RAM installed). Of course at that amount, you would still need to free up space if you were to want to install or download any significant amount of data.
With servers being more likely to run into the 16GB of RAM range, more storage would be necessary. Most servers should be well stocked with storage, but the actual needs would vary greatly depending on what's being "served".
The 10-15% thing came about when we used to talk about drive capacities in hundreds of MBs and RAM in terms of KB (not MB and certainly not GB). More drive space is always a good thing, but as drive capacities continue to sky rocket, we don't need to dedicate larger amounts of storage on systems with the same specifications. A set amount of space is required for proper operation regardless of the capacity of the drive installed.

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

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

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

Startup disk almost full, what are my option

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

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

Startup disk almost full but cannot log on to delete items

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

Step 1
The first step in dealing with a startup failure is to secure the data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since the last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to start. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Start up from the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.” The article refers to starting up from a DVD, but the procedure in Recovery mode is the same. You don't need a DVD if you're running OS X 10.7 or later.
b. If Step 1a fails because of disk errors, and no other Mac is available, then you may be able to salvage some of your files by copying them in the Finder. If you already have an external drive with OS X installed, start up from it. Otherwise, if you have Internet access, follow the instructions on this page to prepare the external drive and install OS X on it. You'll use the Recovery installer, rather than downloading it from the App Store.
c. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, start the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
d. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.

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.

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

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

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

Startup Disk Almost Full, what can i do??

When I'm adding things to my iTunes, or even just start up my laptop, i keep getting a message that says my startup disk is almost full and i need to delete stuff off of it. Where is the startup disk that i can look at a list of files so i can delete them or is there something else i can do like buy an external hard drive? Or do i just need to update my macbook software?

It's almost certainly your stuff (music, video, etc) that's filling up the disk.
On a laptop, your startup disk is typically the only disk.
It's also the disk where your home directory and desktop are located.
Start by looking at your home directory, desktop, downloads and such; select the detailed view in Finder, and look for big files, or stuff you don't need any more.
Empty your trash, too.
Get yourself an external disk, connect it, and relocate some of your stuff there.
If you can delete enough stuff to load this, have a look at the [GrandPerspective|http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net> tool.
This forum is the Mac OS X Server forum, and you're almost certainly not running the Server version of the software here. Here are the client forums for the recent client versions: [Tiger client 10.4|http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=177],
[Leopard client 10.5|http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235], and [Snow Leopard client 10.6|http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=263]. The Mac OS X client software is far more commonly used on a Mac laptop than is the Server software.

Erroneous Warning Startup Disk Almost Full

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

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

2009 macbook "startup disk almost full"

I have an early 2009 macbook and have been getting a message saying "startup disk is almost full" I purchased a 500GB external hard drive and have 350GB available, however, I continue to get this message on my mac. Help?!

What did you move onto the external disk? After you copied the files to the external did you drag the originals to the trash and empty?

Startup Disk almost full. - Huge Yellow Other bar

I am beginning to lose all hope that I am actually going to get this problem fixed. I have had this problem for months now. Basically I keep getting a message pop up saying my startup disk is almost full. However all i have on my laptop is pictures! I don't understand. is 3,217 a lot of pictures? My Macbook has 4gb memory... is this just too small??? Do I need to buy an external hardrive? But what I really don't understand is, the 'other' bar is huge! It is 59.38GB. What is it!? How can I fix this?? Please don't say empty the recycle bin becasue I have lost count of the number of times I have done this. The main question I have is, is it a virus??? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The 4GB of memory is the RAM not the storage on your hard drive. There is nothing there that would show up in where you are refering to.
First have you emptied the iPhoto trash? iPhoto has it's own trash, in the left side bar. You can open that then use COMMAND + A to select all that is there, then SHIFT + COMMAND + DELETE to send it to the regular trash then delete that. Also you can delete any downloads in your download folder, get rid of any movies you don't need any longer.
See the following links to help you clean up some space, and some explainations as well, some may mention different OS X's, but the info will hold true pretty much across the board.
http://www.macworld.com/article/1165698/seven_ways_to_free_up_drive_space.html
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10677?viewlocale=en_US
http://www.macworld.com/article/1052495/slimharddrive.html
http://www.macmaps.com/diskfull.html
http://pondini.org/OSX/LionStorage.html
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html
http://thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
You can also download OmniDiskSweeper to help with this.
http://www.omnigroup.com/more
Hope this helps you out.

Startup disk almost full on brand new laptop - Impossible - Help!

I bought my MacBook Air about a month ago. I have not dowloaded any movies, music, or apps. I have a couple thousand photos stored on the laptop and microsoft office- that is ALL. I am receiving an error message saying my startup disk is almost full. There is absolutely NO WAY this is possible. It is practically a brand new and unused laptop. However, I did initially use "Mail" as my inbox for several email accounts. I took all my accounts offline as "Mail" moved all my emails on all my accounts into the archives folders. Now even when I log into gmail from a web browser, all my inbox and sent messages are located in the archives folders.
My question is:
1- How do I make more room on my startup disk space, as this is clearly an error.
2- How do I recover my emails from my archive folders?
Please help. Any advise would be appreciated.

About “Other”:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6047
Try these tips.
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/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. Repair Disk
    Steps 1 through 7
    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5836
5. Disk space / Time Machine ?/ Local Snapshots
Local backups
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4878
6. Delete old iOS Devices Backup, if any.
    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
7. Re-index Macintosh HD.
   System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy
   http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409

Why do i get a startup disk almost full message?

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