'Disk full' message even though 14gb is shown as available by Finder

Question

'Disk full' message even though 14gb is shown as available by Finder

I've started to receive a 'Disk full' message when every indication shows that I still have over 10GB of hard drive space available. The bar at the bottom of the Finder window, the 'Get Info' screen, and Disk Inventory X all show that my space usage is about 10GB under the size of my available disk space.

The problem is not limited to an error message - web browsers will also sometimes refuse to download now because of 'disk full' issues. But if I try to copy files within Finder, it always works, up to the actual limit of the disk size. This suggests that something is going on with file management where both MacOS and my web browsers see that there is no space, but Finder is able to manage around it when I try to copy files. Is this a known issue? Are there large temporary files which are not reflected in the available disk space indicators?

I'm using an early 2011 MBP with 10.6.8, and the original 500gb hard drive. I did just upgrade to 8GB of RAM but it's not clear if this is related or a coincidence.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 7, 2012 2:35 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 7, 2012 2:38 AM in response to ZeroZeroZeroOne

10GB of free disk space is hardly enough and explains why you are having problems with Safari and the Finder.

Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon on your Desktop.

Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available.

Make sure there's a minimum of 15% free disk space.

Freeing Up Hard Disk Space - Mac GuidesFreeing Up Hard Disk Space - Mac Guides

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Answer 2

AnaMusic

Level 9

57,572 points

Jul 7, 2012 2:43 AM in response to ZeroZeroZeroOne

You are Confusing RAM = Memory.. with Disc Space = Hard Drive...

ZeroZeroZeroOne wrote:

I've started to receive a 'Disk full' message when every indication shows that I still have over 10GB of hard drive space available. ...

This is Not enough Free Space on your Hard Drive... You need at Least 10% or 25 GB (whichever is greater) for your Mac to Perform as expected...

Time to Clear Up some Space on your Hard Drive before it Freezes and becomes unusable...

See Here for starters...

http://macmost.com/what-to-do-when-your-hard-drive-is-full.html

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Answer 3

Jul 7, 2012 2:41 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks for the quick reply Carolyn.

I understand that this is common advice, but I've been using this computer for over a year with, generally, under 2gb of free space, and this has never caused a single problem. And now all of a sudden 5x that amount of available space still causes a problem.

It may be that freeing up more space 'fixes' the problem, but this is not really a fix because it doesn't address whatever the actual technical issue is. This is what I'm trying to figure out...

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Answer 4

Jul 7, 2012 2:44 AM in response to AnaMusic

Thanks for the reply as well.

I don't think I'm confusing RAM with hard drive space. (To be clear, I am a professional computer programmer and generally highly competent with computers, but not familiar with many technical issues related to MacOS X.)

As I said, all the indicators that I'm aware of which show the amount of used / available space on my hard drive agree that I have ~10 GB available. I mentioned the RAM upgrade because there seems to be a corrolation with the onset of this 'disk full' issue -- perhaps some kind of hidden temporary files which are calibrated to the size of RAM which would have gotten larger after the upgrade. This is what I'm trying to figure out...

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Answer 5

Jul 7, 2012 4:20 AM in response to AnaMusic

Just freed up 6 gigabytes (so 16 free now), and it was fine for about an hour but now it's happening again. 'Disk full' message, and as soon as it happens my web browser downloads (Firefox and Chrome) stop with an error message about a full disk. But in Finder I can still copy files as usual without any error messages.

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Answer 6

Jul 7, 2012 4:25 AM in response to ZeroZeroZeroOne

To follow up, it seems like all programs except for Finder think that the drive is full - ie, Terminal is giving me a warning message as well. So all of these programs are getting information from the OS about disk space, from some place other than the disk information that Finder has. (And note that, as I mentioned above, Disk Inventory X reports exactly the same storage usage details as Finder so I think it's correct.)

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Answer 7

Jul 7, 2012 4:26 AM in response to AnaMusic

Like I said above I don't think this is a valid solution. There's clearly a problem going on with the system, and fixing it by working around it isn't really fixing it. After a year of the system operating fine with 1-2gb free, for this to suddenly happen indicates a problem.

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Answer 8

Jul 7, 2012 4:34 AM in response to AnaMusic

This has nothing to do with 'beliefs'. The point I made is that it worked fine before, and now it doesn't, and this obviously indicates that a problem is occurring. What is incorrect about this line of reasoning?

The suggestion to free up lots of space implies, necessarily, that there are parts of the system which use up disk space without this usage being reflected in the disk space statistics in Finder. Is this correct or not? If so, how can I find out more about this usage and what's causing it?

I'm trying to solve this problem from a standpoint of technical understanding. Just randomly trying things (ie, free up lots of space) without any understanding of why it may work is not sufficient.

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