googus
Level 1 (22 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Upgraded to OS X El Capitan with only 6 GB of free space.

Product: Late-2015 Macbook Pro 15" with 512 GB of Flash Storage, Quad Core i7 CPU, 16 GB of RAM and a Nvidia Graphics Card. The machine has been running OS X Mavericks ever since I purchased it.

 

The Problem: I tried to upgrade to El Capitan without enough free space to do so. I can't boot normally or into safe mode. I can only access single user, recovery and internet recovery modes. I have an external SSD that has 128 gigabytes of space which could be used if needed. Any suggestions are welcome =)

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Aug 4, 2016 4:03 PM

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googus

Q: Upgraded to OS X El Capitan with only 6 GB of free space.

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Kappy,Helpful

    Kappy Kappy Aug 4, 2016 7:33 PM in response to googus
    Level 10 (270,391 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 4, 2016 7:33 PM in response to googus

    As of now, your internal drive is unusable. You will have to erase it and reinstall OS X. See the following:

     

    Install Lion Through Mavericks Using Network Restore

     

            This requires a functioning Internet connection using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.

     

    1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears. Wait patiently - 5-15 minutes - until the Utility Menu appears.
    2. Select Disk Utility from the Utility Menu and click on the Continue button.
    3. After Disk Utility loads select the drive (usually, this is the out-dented entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the side list. Click on the Partition tab in Disk Utility’s main window.
    4. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions to one volume. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the Format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait for the process to finish. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
    5. Select Reinstall OS X from the Utility Menu and click on the Install button.

  • by googus,

    googus googus Aug 4, 2016 7:34 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (22 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 4, 2016 7:34 PM in response to Kappy

    Is it possible to backup the internal SSD before reinstalling OS X?

  • by Kappy,Helpful

    Kappy Kappy Aug 5, 2016 10:58 AM in response to googus
    Level 10 (270,391 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 5, 2016 10:58 AM in response to googus

    I doubt it. You no longer can boot the computer to gain access to it. You would need another computer that you could connect to it. Then you may be able to access the files using Target Disk Mode. But the other computer would need either Firewire or Thunderbolt ports. An adapter would be needed if the other computer only had Firewire ports.

     

    It may be possible to access the SSD if you could boot the computer from an external drive.