Low Memory

The hard drive (which is your storage space) isn't running low on memory - it could be running out of storage space.

So how large is your hard drive (total) and how much free space is left? You need to have an absolute minimum of 10 - 15 GB of empty space at all times for the OS to operate properly (more is better).

If your hard drive is nearly full, the best thing to do is to delete some items or move some space hogging items to an external drive permanently.

I would say go with an external drive, unless you want to deal with replacing your internal HD (BTW, the 8GB of RAM in your computer has no relation to your hard drive capacity).

Also, you might want to see if you qualify for this HD recall even though it looks like you aren't affected:

http://www.apple.com/support/imac-harddrive/

No harm in checking, anyway.

Your System Memory or RAM is maxed out at 8GB, however it sounds like your Hard Drive is full.

You can free up some space by moving either or both your iPhoto Library and iTunes Media Folder to an External HD.

see > iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location

and > iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

However if you move your Libraries and Media Folder to an External Hard Drive, it is always wise to have them backed up using a second External Hard Drive.

Make sure you have emptied your Trash in Finder. Just moving things to the Trash will not Delete them. Start up the system in

Safe Mode

This will empty some caches and gain a small amount of space.

Here are a few links to help you decide what and how to move your files.

Where did my Disk Space go?

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

OmniDiskSweeper is a good program to see what's taking up space: http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidisksweeper/

My hard drive capacity is 999.86 GB if I looked in the right place. The available capacity if 124.7 MB.

Yes, you do need to permanently get rid of at least 10 - 15 GB (as I said, more space is better). For instance, I do a fair amount of video editing/burning and I need as much free space for all the processes involved in that as my project files are; at the moment, having started a new project, my accumulation of files is already at 100 GB (doesn't take much with HD video), so I need to maintain at least 100 GB free space at the moment. Because of this, I don't fill up my hard drive more than 50%. Your OS simply works better when there is more space - while the hard drive spins, it does not have to go searching for space here and there to write something to.

lensbaby wrote:

My hard drive capacity is 999.86 GB if I looked in the right place. The available capacity if 124.7 MB.

It is a miracle your Mac is running at all!

Do as Babowa says! 🙂

Much better! 🙂

Is it running better now?

Your welcome!

I have 12,580 which only amounts to 27.7GB in iPhoto, but that's because a lot of the oldies are smaller file's.