TS4040: OS X: If you see issues after using "Apply to enclosed items" on your Home folder

Learn about OS X: If you see issues after using "Apply to enclosed items" on your Home folder
agoldie
Level 1 (3 points)

Q: Start-up disk full????

I keep getting a warning that my start up disk is full and I need to delete files.  What is a start up disk and how do I delete files from it?

MacBook Air, iOS 6.1.4

Posted on Aug 23, 2013 7:46 AM

by Kurt Lang,Apple recommended
Kurt Lang Kurt Lang
Level 8 (37,815 points)
Mac OS X
A:

The startup disk is the hard drive your computer boots to. Can you see an icon for it on the desktop? If not, click on the desktop so the title next to the Apple icon at the upper left says Finder. Then choose Finder > Preferences. You should see this:

 

Screen Shot 2013-08-23 at 12.12.48 PM.png

 

If it's not checked, but a check next to Hard disks. All mounted drives will appear on the left side of the screen, assuming you don't already have your desktop cluttered with files and folders. If more than one drive icon appears, and you're not sure which is your boot drive, go back to the Apple at the top left and choose About This Mac.

 

You'll see a heading for Startup Disk, followed by the name of the drive which is currently the boot drive (startup disk). Close the "About This Mac" window. Now locate that same named drive icon and right click on it, then choose Get Info from the menu that appears. What does it say next to Available?

Posted on Aug 23, 2013 10:18 AM

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agoldie

Q: Start-up disk full????

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  • by agoldie,

    agoldie agoldie Aug 23, 2013 3:09 PM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Aug 23, 2013 3:09 PM in response to Kurt Lang

    I ran the app and here is what it said:

    System cleaner - 93

    Logs cleaner - 27

    App Potimizer - 1

    Unused langueages - 1416

     

    If I want to clean it - then it wants to charge me for the app.  Is there a way around this?

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Aug 23, 2013 3:20 PM in response to agoldie
    Level 8 (37,815 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 23, 2013 3:20 PM in response to agoldie

    I had heard of the app many times, but had never tried it until now to see how it works. It's kind of clumsy in that it shows folder sizes first. Then you have to keep drilling down by clicking on subfolder after subfolder to see what file is taking up the most space.

     

    I also wouldn't trust any utility to delete files for me. Far too often they remove things they shouldn't. Removing all foreign languages you don't need can clear up about a half gig of space. The free utility Monolingual can do that. I have a small web page written up on how to use it.

     

    It's much more important to find out what file, or files are taking up so much room. Going back to the hard drive, right click on it again for the Get Info dialogue. What is the total Capacity of the drive?

  • by agoldie,

    agoldie agoldie Aug 23, 2013 3:25 PM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Aug 23, 2013 3:25 PM in response to Kurt Lang

    Capacity is 120.47 GB now.  4.24 is available.  I will check out monolingual.

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Aug 23, 2013 4:10 PM in response to agoldie
    Level 7 (32,009 points)
    iPad
    Aug 23, 2013 4:10 PM in response to agoldie

    When I removed iphoto and imovies it only freed up about 3 more GB of space.

     

    Out of curiosity, what do you mean by having "removed" those two? Did you move their libraries?

     

    Did you check your Home Folder (little house icon) > Movies to see how much space that is taking up? Control click on the Movies folder and choose "get info" - it'll tell you how many GB are stored in there. Do the same with your Pictures folder.

  • by agoldie,

    agoldie agoldie Aug 23, 2013 6:36 PM in response to babowa
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Aug 23, 2013 6:36 PM in response to babowa

    By removing, I mean that I copied the app from the hard drive onto an external hard drive, then drug the app from the hard drive to the trash can.  I don't know about the library.  It all seems to be working the same way from the external hard drive.  The iMovies said it is taking up 1.47 GB and the iPhoto is taking up 1.58 GB. 

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Aug 23, 2013 6:53 PM in response to agoldie
    Level 8 (37,815 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 23, 2013 6:53 PM in response to agoldie

    A 120 GB drive is one heck of a small drive. Did you, or someone else partition a larger drive into smaller segments. By the time you get the OS on there and a fair number of third party apps, that doesn't leave a whole lot of free space to work with.

  • by agoldie,

    agoldie agoldie Aug 23, 2013 7:31 PM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Aug 23, 2013 7:31 PM in response to Kurt Lang

    No, not that I know of.  Maybe I should do some checking....

  • by babowa,Apple recommended

    babowa babowa Aug 23, 2013 8:05 PM in response to agoldie
    Level 7 (32,009 points)
    iPad
    Aug 23, 2013 8:05 PM in response to agoldie

    Removing the application itself does not save a lot of space. If you have quite a few movies stored on your hard drive (or pictures), that is what takes up a lot of space. And those are stored in the Libraries.

     

    Have you checked the sizes of the Movies and Pictures folder in my previous post?

     

    Here is info on how to move the Libraries:

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2302

  • by agoldie,

    agoldie agoldie Aug 26, 2013 12:16 PM in response to babowa
    Level 1 (3 points)
    Aug 26, 2013 12:16 PM in response to babowa

    You were right!  The iphoto library has 65 GB on it!  That is what was taking up so much memory.  On my way to get a new external hard drive now so I can keep iPhoto on it.  Thanks for your help.

  • by babowa,

    babowa babowa Aug 26, 2013 1:43 PM in response to agoldie
    Level 7 (32,009 points)
    iPad
    Aug 26, 2013 1:43 PM in response to agoldie

    You're welcome; FWIW, you should always maintain a minimum of 10 - 15 GB of empty space on your hard drive for the OS to perform properly (more is better).

  • by jrc7520support,

    jrc7520support jrc7520support Jun 17, 2014 8:07 PM in response to agoldie
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 17, 2014 8:07 PM in response to agoldie

    Hi Kurt Lang, Babowa: I have the same saving files problem and getting the no available space message. But my HD has 65 GB free (more than half). What can be going wrong?  Thanks for your help.

  • by Kurt Lang,

    Kurt Lang Kurt Lang Jun 19, 2014 6:33 AM in response to jrc7520support
    Level 8 (37,815 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 19, 2014 6:33 AM in response to jrc7520support

    A conflicting message like that indicates the drive's free space data is corrupt. It thinks the drive is full when it isn't.

     

    Before doing anything else, backup the entire drive to an external device, or other partition. Disk Utility can clone the drive, or you can use the shareware utilities SuperDuper!, or Carbon Copy Cloner. Make sure the drive you're cloning your startup drive to is correctly formatted for the Mac. That means it has a GUID partition table, and the drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended. You want to be able to boot to it. GUID is required for that.

     

    Once the drive has been backed up, restart and hold down the Option key. This is to make sure you can boot to the clone. Choose it from the list of bootable drives the Mac shows and startup to it. If the drive you cloned isn't a choice, it doesn't have a GUID partition table and you'll have to start over.

     

    If you did boot to the clone, the simplest fix really is to launch Disk Utility and erase the main drive. Then clone the cloned drive back. Erasing will clear all file table and free reported space errors.

  • by jrc7520support,

    jrc7520support jrc7520support Jun 19, 2014 10:31 AM in response to Kurt Lang
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Jun 19, 2014 10:31 AM in response to Kurt Lang

    Thanks Kurt. I'll give it a try.

  • by babybear88,

    babybear88 babybear88 Oct 18, 2014 7:50 AM in response to agoldie
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 18, 2014 7:50 AM in response to agoldie

    Just for as a FYI for other people. Instead of doing it manually by going through each folder, you can also use Disk Inventory X to find out where are the large unused files. You can read more on how to do this on Device Garage's blog:

     

    http://www.devicegarage.net/diy-repair-blog/apple-mac-start-up-disk-almost-full

  • by Nordlysmac,

    Nordlysmac Nordlysmac Jan 29, 2015 4:10 AM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 29, 2015 4:10 AM in response to Niel

    my HD says i have 338 GB available, but i appear to be cursed by the spinning beach ball and everything seems to take forever to load.  Do i have enough memory/space?

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