startup disk is full

You can call Apple Customer Relations 800-767-2775 - give them the serial which you can find in the Menu bar under the  in About This Mac.

Then I get a message telling me my startup disk is full.

In order to install any software at this point will require freeing up space on the startup disk.

Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon. Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure you have a minimum of 15% free disk space.

Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305454
Mac OS X 10.4: FileVault - "There isn't enough space on your hard disk..." alert

but my memory is now up to 22.26 GB

It's not memory. It's your hard drive space that is up.

I have Omnisweeper set up on my computer but I'm not sure what files I should be able to delete and which ones should stay indefinitely. Would someone be able to elaborate on that for me?

Not unless we can come over to your house, peep over your shoulder to see what Omnisweeper is showing. 😉 Can you post a screen shot?

A few more tips:

Open up your application folder & go through all your apps. Trash all the apps you no longer want and/or use.

An easier way to do this is to open the Application folder in list view & press the Command+j keys.

In the the dialog that appears, click the "This Window Only" button & the "Calculate All Sizes" check box.

Wait a bit until your file & folder sizes have all been calculated, then click the "Size" column to sort your apps from the fattest to the most anorexic.

Get rid of all your photo files you don't want and/or need. Same goes for those pics off the websites you downloaded (gifs, jpegs, etc.). Or transfer/move them all to a photo/movie storage site like ImageShack and Photobucket, 2 of the most popular FREE storage sites.

Get rid of all your music files you no longer listen too. Especially, if you already have the actual CD/DVDs or you can later redownload from a website. Or transfer them all to a FREE music storage site.

Use Spotlight to make sure you got rid of everything. You can even trash directly from Spotlight!

Drag what you don't want and/or need to the trash. Better yet, download this neat little shareware app *demo* called AppZapper. It basically does all the work for you by not only trashing the apps but the apps preference files, caches & all its associated files.

Another software that does the above is AppDelete. Best of all this software is free!

Burn what you want and/or need onto CDs or DVDs. Not everyone has the luxury of purchasing an external HD and/or Mobile accounts to store their "stuff.”

You can check with your ISP to see if they offer *free* storage space. Most if not all do now-a-days. There are thousands if not millions of *free* storage facilities on the web also. Use your favorite search engine to search them out as they come in different storage sizes to fit your needs & wants.

Check for duplicate fonts.

Applications>Font Book

Select “All Fonts”

If you see any “black dots” next to any fonts this mean you have duplicates and/or multiple versions of these fonts.

To clean this up, select a “black dotted” font or the Apple + *click* to select multiple dotted fonts;

Edit>Resolve>Duplicates.

What the above does is turns off the duplicates & multiple version fonts. Not delete them.

More than likely the “extras” were installed by other programs and/or other users.

Clear out font caches

Use FontNuke. It does all the work for you. And, best of all it’s *FREE*.

Printer Drivers

Get rid of all the printer drivers you don’t need & use except the ones for your *current* printer(s)/scanner(s).

HD>Library>Printers Folder

If you accidently threw something out that you needed for your printer/scanner it can be easily obtained from the manufacturer’s website and/or from the CD that came w/the printer/scanner.

Garage Band

Has about 1GB of loops stored. Get rid of some some them. You surely don’t use, like and/or need them all.

HD>Library>Audio/Apple Loops>Apple>Apple Loops For GarageBand

Or just get rid of the Garage Band app altogether if you don’t use it.

Get rid of extra languages

Strip your computer down to your “native” tongue.

You can do this with a *FREE* utility called Monolingual. Another app that apparently does all the work for you. I’ve never used it. However, a lot of users here swear by & recommend it highly.

However, there is a warning for *native English speakers*. Make sure you keep BOTH English and English (United States).

Other Resources:

HD Space Checkers:

Disk Inventory X (FREE)

WhatSize (SHAREWARE)

OmniDiskSweeper (FREE)

GrandPerspective (FREE - donation)

Slimming your hard drive

Rule of thumb: You should never let your hard drive get to where you have only 10-15% of space left.

For a screen shot use Shift Command 4 The shot will be on your desktop labeled with the time you took it.