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Startup Disk Almost Full

I have a 2008 MBP with 250 GB hard drive. I've been getting messages sporadically that my startup disk was almost full, and have been backing up (Time Machine), copying files to an EHD, deleting unnecessary apps and files, etc. Just happened again and I have just over 1 GB free.

What am I missing? I've moved and deleted thousands of photos, emptied iPhoto trash and emptied the Trash. Deleted apps that were old versions and have since been updated. Am I really that full, or am I missing something else that I should be doing when trying to free up space? I am using the 'secure empty trash' function, if that is important to know.

As always - thanks in advance from a Mac-loving user who understands little about how they work!

MBP, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 8, 2011 1:53 PM

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6 replies

Mar 8, 2011 2:31 PM in response to Ssabrina Kapp

Be sure you have emptied your Trash. Putting files in the Trash does not delete the space they use until you Empty the Trash.

Secure Empty Trash may cause the OS to report the space still in use. This is not correct and should be fixed by restarting the computer. There is no need to use Secure Empty Trash unless you are removing sensitive information.

You should think about a larger HDD for your computer. It's wise to allow at least 10% of the HDD's capacity or 10 GBs, whichever is greater, for free space. OS X needs to have sufficient free space during normal use.

Mar 14, 2011 1:42 PM in response to Pondini

Guys, I'm getting the same message, disk almost full, I've been deleting files like crazy and managed to free up about 20GB, but then within a couple of hours it fills up again, it feels like a virus but no anti-virus indicates that there's a virus.. As well, I've initially thought it's the hard drive, so I went to disk utility and repaired it, there was something wrong with it but now it says it's fine... please someone help me here, I'm completely clueless...

Startup Disk Almost Full

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