recovery for iMac after memory is too full

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ross33 Author

Level 1

4 points

recovery for iMac after memory is too full

What is next step for recovery? I have a new 5 TB external disk which I used to copy "Macintosh HD - Data" to.

991.5 GB out of 1 TB.

What is the next step?

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 21, 2021 11:39 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Old Toad

Level 10

210,925 points

Jan 21, 2021 12:11 PM in response to ross33

Please read the following user tip and restate your question/problem in detail:

Writing an Effective Apple Support Communities Question - Apple Community

Also:

What do you mean by recovery?

Is the 991.5 GB used space or free space?

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Answer 2

ross33 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2021 9:54 PM in response to ross33

Done. I permanently deleted from the old user name. It was on iCloud, so now I'm wondering if it did anything. I also found another user name I was experimenting with when watching Terrence McKenna videos, and I remember deleting that user last weekend, so, I looked at the 4.7 gb photos on that one, and thought about you said Paul, so after seeing what I had done, I copied the folder out of the trash, dragged it over to the ex disk, made a new file name automatically as the data began to load, right next to the last file that contains the 65 gb of visual data. I think I'm learning something new. I was so frustrated with the loss of the desktop and not knowing how to deal with it

update before posting: for some reason I can't leave the 65 gb on the ex disk without it going into the desktop, (perhaps related to the data auto selecting a new file and naming it?) so I got the original "time machine" 6Tb I bought a few years ago and transferred the data to it, external disk to external disk, then erased it all from the 5Tb ex disk. Now there is only one Macintosh HD on the 5Tb ex disk and it is less than 950 gb so I should be good to go. Reference to Old Toad, I have read more suggestions on this community forum in the last week, and am excited about upcoming transfers of huge amounts of work records to external disk and free mars - I mean free up space on the desk top.

Many thanks to Old Toad and Mr. Paul Conaway. You guys take care.

Ross from Los Angeles; It's kind of sad here since the whole charade started about a year ago...kind of sad

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Answer 3

Jan 22, 2021 10:01 AM in response to ross33

Ross, yes it is possible to use the data on your external drive and eventually get it moved back to your internal drive. I think a clone at this point would not be advisable. Maybe once you have your computer back in working order. Here is how I would proceed.

re-install any apps that you use regularly. Launch them and make sure they work.
Only copy items from the external disk so you have a backup copy of your data.
You mentioned photos - I think you can copy the directory on the external drive to the internal and then launch photos. I would do some searching here in the Community forums first. Then launch Photos
You can probably just copy your documents directory files and folders to the internal drive.

You are basically going to have to rebuild your setup again. You do have your data and that is great. In this sort of situation I don't try reinstalling everything at once because you may have software and files that you haven't used in years and don't really need that stuff anymore. Sort of a spring cleaning. You managed to take the long route to fixing your situation.

Let me know if you have further questions.

Paul

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Answer 4

Jan 31, 2021 7:06 PM in response to ross33

ross33, I think you are doing this correctly. Let me see if I understand correctly.

Internal drive - fresh install of Catalina and needs data restored back to it.

external backup 1TB "G-drive" - has your files on it

third disk???

If you have copied the folder(from the desktop) with 65GB of photos and movie files to the external drive and then plan on deleting those files. I think you are good. One thing I would check before dragging the file to the trash, select the folder and the from the file menu select Get info. I am including an example from my computer below. Make sure the drive that the folder is on is your internal drive. (In my image Macintosh HD is my internal drive). Also do the same thing on the folder you copied to your external drive and make sure the folder is on the external drive. If they show separate locations then you can delete the folder on the internal drive.

Old Toad, any concerns?

.

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Answer 5

Jan 21, 2021 12:10 PM in response to ross33

Ross33, Did you create a clone? or. just copy files or a timemachine backup to the 5TB drive? Let us know. I just re-read your post. You should probably create a clone. Just copying the data partition will copy your data but you need the ability to boot from another drive to offload some of your files.

Also, I recommend keep at least 100GB of free space. For your computer to run smoothly.

If it is a clone, go to system preferences and startup disk and select your external drive as the startup disk and reboot. Now you should be able to clear off files from your internal drive. Once you have more space available repeat and select the internal drive as the boot disk.

This will get you up and running again.

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Answer 6

ross33 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 22, 2021 9:34 AM in response to ross33

Restating my question: I have an iMac Retina 5k, 27 inch, 2017 with macOS Catalina version 10.15.7

I noticed Photos taking longer and longer time to gather incoming transfer of photos from my camera. I also noticed it taking longer and longer for duplicating an image from Photos when transferring it into Pictures. (I do this to make an image less quality so it can be transferred into a report without taking up too much memory in the document, making it easier to transmit via email.)

So, a few days ago I was trying to download a factory manual on ice makers from ManualsLib or some such website, and it would not work. I tried several times and a dialog box said it was unable to load, or something to that effect.

Taking a break I decided to put a movie in the external optical disc player, and it would not load or play - the play button was shaded on the iMac screen, which would not allow it to be "pushed" to play the disc.

I thought, well, I'll just shut off the computer and restart it. Big mistake. All I got was the blank screen with an Apple logo and a full progress bar. Everytime I restarted... same screen.

So I followed Apple service protocol and restarted iMac in recovery mode. After reading Paul's response this is the point at which I should have sought help in the Community. Unfortunately, I transferred the HD data onto an external disk instead of making a clone, and then erased the HD drive on the computer. Again, I was following Apple service suggested protocol.

So, now I have about 991 GB of data on an external disk, no data in the iMac, and a new Catalina OS uploaded from yesterday.

Since I did not make a clone, am I basically screwed? Is it possible to reload the data back onto the Mac, put it in recovery again, then make a clone?

I am reposting this after reading two responses from Paul and Old Guy.

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Answer 7

ross33 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2021 4:15 PM in response to Paul Conaway

Old Toad,

Yes, I followed Apple to the T and I am left with an empty hard drive on desktop, now with a new Catalina OS, and all 968GB of data on an external drive. So, again, I followed the instructions in that link and am left with ... Well to me it looks daunting. I have read Paul Conaway's post three times and am today getting ready to make another attempt to get this thing up and running. I don't really use any apps or such regularly except what Apple has in the desktop: pages, numbers, photos, pictures - not sure if these are apps or if they are part of Catalina OS...

Let me ask you a question sir: in reading Paul's post, especially number 3., can you see what he is talking about "copy the directory from external to internal and then launch photos" ? I see that as a viable attempt to try to get back into the desktop because I would only have to deal with a portion of the overall memory - just Photos. Anyways, I thought I would run it by you because you have made such good observations and suggestions and it seems like you have good ideas...Please let me know if you have more suggestions how to fix this? Thanks Toad!!

I'm going to the "communities" to see if there are more clues about Paul's suggestions...

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Answer 8

ross33 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2021 6:37 PM in response to Paul Conaway

Yes I see now. You guys are great. I really appreciate this. Please let me explain what I discovered tonight...but first I must explain a little. Back in 2017 I was using a 1 TB external back up called a "G-Drive" that I bought at Best Buy. It was the time machine for my MacBook Pro mid2012 intel, which is running only 500mb hard drive...

I bought the 1 TB desktop in 2017 and for some reason the 1 TB G-Drive would not upload into the new desktop so I was forced to create a new name/user id and start over. Finally I got the G-Drive to upload all files from laptop, but now I had two users in the new desktop. I'm not a computer guy, I'm just an inspector and a repair man, so it did not bother me too much as long as I was able to keep working.

Then the crash happened...

Long story short, tonight I was looking for the Photos folder as Paul suggested and BANG!, there was a folder sitting there under my old user name - this is on the desktop - with only 65 gb of data - 6700 photos and 270 some videos. (Also, when checking this post for errors it occurred to me: why is there still data on the desktop if I supposedly transferred and erased everything???)

So I followed Paul's advice and "copied" the 65 gb folder; I first opened Photos on the desktop - took a while to find it in the directory - opened the application for the first time since re-downloading the Catalina OS last weekend, and it is now transferring the data off the desktop and onTO the external disk. I made a new folder on the external disk name "transferred photos" and I plan on checking the files/folders to make sure they are not corrupted, then I will erase that "users" photo stash and empty the trash, and voila, hopefully I will have opened up about 65 gb of space on the back up external drive, enough to restore the disk. I needed an extra 32 gb to just clear it.

Any body see any holes in this? Nothing bothers me right now with a new rum and coke just poured...

quick update - wow, that was extremely fast - transfer is done and the photos look great - I'm wondering if I should now delete and empty the trash on desktop - but first please read this post and tell me if I'm going in the wrong direction or if I should give up and stand on the street corner with a cardboard sign.

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