I keep getting that little window pop-up warning me my start up disk is full. The other night I sent a zillion duplicate photos to trash but I'm still getting that pop-up warning. Where can I find easy instructions as to how I should proceed? I haven't a clue how to clean out Startup Disk. I can't even find Startup Disk! Many thanks.
MacBook Pro 13", OS X 10.10
You are dangerously close to your Mac not functioning because of the lack of space on your hard drive.
Simply plug in a USB external hard drive, format it for Mac, and move over any space hogging files such as movies, photos, videos, etc. Once you have made sure that they are safe on the external, move the originals to the trash bin and empty.
Hi snailspace1,
Thanks for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. I understand you're seeing a message that the disk on your Mac is full and you'd like to know how to free up some storage space. I know how important it is to be able to free storage as needed; I'd like to help. I'd recommend starting with the steps and suggestions here: How to free up storage space on your Mac
You may also want to use these steps after you've removed files: How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac
Best Regards.
Your startup disk is your Macintosh HD icon on the desktop. It contains everything on your computer and is your hard drive. It is recommended that you maintain an absolute minimum of at least 10 to 15 GB empty space for the OS to do its job efficiently.
Well, I went to the link provided, clicked on "About This Mac from the Apple Menu", then clicked on "Storage". The next instruction was to click on "Manage". On the box that shows up on my screen, there is no "Manage" box to check. In the spot where it should say "Manage" my screen says "3.11 GB Free of 247.77 GB". How shall I proceed? Thank you for time in answering.
Oh! I see. Thank you. I am away on vacation (without my external hard drive) but ordered a new one, which will be delivered tomorrow. Will give it my best shot and report back to those who have been so kind as to advise me.
I'm baaaaack!
I have managed to remove 17+GB from my startup disk, so I am not feeling quite so nervous presently. I received my Toshiba Canvio Basic 1TB external hard drive. Here is a copy-paste of the Google Instructions I am in the middle of following:
"How to Format an External Drive in OS X
I am stuck here in Step #5: "... and leave the default settings: OS X Extended format and GUID partition map. ..."
MY screen does not say "OS X Extended format and GUID partition map"
MY screen says: "MS-DOS (FAT)".
So, I emailed Toshiba to ask for instructions to format this ext. hd. for a MacBook Pro OS X Yosemite 10.10.5. It's been a couple of days with no response. There are quite a few other choices when I click blue up-down arrow at the right. I hesitate to click that, figuring that might format for a Microsoft/Windows computer. Am I right? There are four choices pertaining to Mac OS. If I type out the four choices, could you tell me which one to click?
OK. I think I've got it. I just couldn't find that Scheme screen. It was under "Options" and I eventually stumbled upon it. I've got the HD divided into 3 partitions now and I clicked on GUID as you showed me. I think I'm good to go at last. Will give it a try and come back once more to either beg for more help or let you know I'm good.
Thanks to both who replied. I have printed instructions and, fingers crossed, will give it a try. Will be back to say how things turn out.
So good to know. Thank you very much.
That seems like the most expedient way of handling this. I'd rather use Jameson.h's way, but since the necessary command link is missing on my screen I am unable to do so. Thanks for your advice.
If you are running an older OS, that function was not yet available.
Good luck! Just in case you have a problem with formatting it, post back - it's important to do that first.
OK. Will do. TY
The Partition scheme must be set to GUID partition map in order to make it bootable (the other two are either for a Windows disk or the old Apple partition map for much older Mac OS versions.
YESSSSSS!!!!! Thank you Babowa! Where do I send the check? :-)
How to clean out Startup Disk?
