Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Macbook says "Startup Disk is full" but it isn't full

For the past couple of days, I've been getting the message that I'm unable to save/download something because the startup disk is full. It says I have about 81 MB left (I believe that's the number, last time I checked) but the bar is completely filled with yellow. Which is strange because I used to have an awful lot of photos/videos up until I deleted them earlier because of this issue... the bar also says I have 0kb for every other category.

After, I downloaded a virus scanner off of the app store to check if it's caused by a virus, but it hasn't had any results. Am I doing something wrong, or is my computer really infected?

I'm pretty much desperate for help at this point, so any links/tips would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not the best with computers either (I'm fourteen) so please break it down for me [I do have prior knowledge of computers, I'm slowly learning more about the Macbook, as I've had it since September 2011]

Here's information about my Mac:

Mac OS X

Version 10.7.4 (It won't let me update due to the full disk)

Memory 4 GB

24.5 MB free out of 319.21 GB

http://tinypic.com/r/116o178/6 <--- View that for a better look on my storage

MacBook Pro

Posted on Oct 11, 2012 4:57 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 11, 2012 11:33 PM

24.5 MB is not much. On your drive most here say you should have at least 31 GB free so OSX works correctly.

Read things in RAM and Hard drive space.

Here's Freeing up Disk Space.

DALE

48 replies

Dec 10, 2015 10:50 AM in response to Bronie88

I have a brand new Mac Pro, which I restored my Time Machine back-up to, at startup. I never saw how full the boot disk (250 GB Flash storage), but the sucker was 90% full when my backup was restored ! YIKES !!!


I immediately moved the entire contents of my Documents folder to an external hard disk. But, that only got me down to 87% full !

It's a new system, I don't even have any Adobe software loaded, yet. It's 2 days old !


I'm seriously thinking about returning it for a Mac Pro with a larger boot disk. This seems crazy to me!

Macbook says "Startup Disk is full" but it isn't full

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.