Can't create room on startup disk

Does is schow still the 318.02 GB after restarting your computer?

Did you empty the Trash?

Have you installed something called "Disk Drill?"

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:

iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash

Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.

According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of the data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.

See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.

Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.

Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.

ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.

Back up all data now.

If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.

Install the app you downloaded in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.

Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

sudo /Applications/GrandPerspective.app/Contents/MacOS/GrandPerspective

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.

I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running the app as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.

When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem.

2. If you don't already have a current backup, back up all data before doing anything else. The backup is necessary on general principle, not because of anything in the test procedure. There are ways to back up a computer that isn't fully functional. Ask if you need guidance.

3. Below are instructions to run a UNIX shell script, a type of program. All it does is to collect information about the state of the computer. That information goes nowhere unless you choose to share it. However, you should be cautious about running any kind of program (not just a shell script) at the request of a stranger on a public message board. If you have doubts, search this site for other discussions in which this procedure has been followed without any report of ill effects. If you can't satisfy yourself that the instructions are safe, don't follow them. Ask for other options.

Here's a summary of what you need to do, if you choose to proceed: Copy a line of text from this web page into the window of another application. Wait for the script to run. It usually takes a few minutes. Then paste the results, which will have been copied automatically, back into a reply on this page. The sequence is: copy, paste, wait, paste again. Details follow.

4. You may have started the computer in "safe" mode. Preferably, these steps should be taken in “normal” mode. If the system is now in safe mode and works well enough in normal mode to run the test, restart as usual. If you can only test in safe mode, do that.

5. If you have more than one user, and the one affected by the problem is not an administrator, then please run the test twice: once while logged in as the affected user, and once as an administrator. The results may be different. The user that is created automatically on a new computer when you start it for the first time is an administrator. If you can't log in as an administrator, test as the affected user. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this section doesn’t apply.

6. The script is a single long line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, though you may not see all of it in the browser window, and you can then copy it. If you try to select the line by dragging across the part you can see, you won't get all of it.

Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin; clear; Fb='%s\n\t(%s)\n'; Fm='\n%s\n\n%s\n'; Fr='\nRAM details\n%s\n'; Fs='\n%s: %s\n'; Fu='user %s%%, system %s%%'; AC="com.autodesk.AutoCAD"; PB="/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c Print"; A () { [[ a -eq 0 ]]; }; M () { find -L "$d" -type f | while read f; do file -b "$f" | egrep -lq XML\|exec && echo $f; done; }; Pc () { o=`grep -v '^ *#' "$2"`; l=`wc -l <<< "$o"`; [[ l -gt 25 ]] && o=`head -n25 <<< "$o"`$'\n'"[$((l-25)) more line(s)]"; Pm "$1"; }; Pm () { [[ "$o" ]] && o=`sed -E '/^ *$/d; s/^ */ /; s/[-0-9A-Fa-f]{22,}/UUID/g' <<< "$o"` && printf "$Fm" "$1" "$o"; }; Pp () { o=`$PB "$2" | awk -F'= ' \/$3'/{print $2}'`; Pm "$1"; }; Ps () { o=`echo $o`; [[ ! "$o" =~ ^0?$ ]] && printf "$Fs" "$1" "$o"; }; R () { o=; [[ r -eq 0 ]]; }; SP () { system_profiler SP${1}DataType; }; id -G | grep -qw 80; a=$?; A && sudo true; r=$?; t=`date +%s`; clear; { A || echo $'No admin access\n'; A && ! R && echo $'No root access\n'; SP Software | sed '8!d;s/^ *//'; h=(`SP Hardware | awk '/ Id/{print $3}; /Mem/{print $2}'`); o=$h; Ps "Model"; o=$((h[1]<4?h[1]:0)); Ps "Total RAM (GB)"; o=`SP Memory | sed '1,5d;/[my].*:/d'`; [[ "$o" =~ s:\ [^O]|x([^08]||0[^2]8[^0]) ]] && printf "$Fr" "$o"; o=`SP Diagnostics | sed '5,6!d'`; [[ "$o" =~ Pass ]] || Pm "POST"; p=`SP Power`; o=`awk '/Cy/{print $NF}' <<< "$p"`; o=$((o>=300?o:0)); Ps "Battery cycles"; o=`sed -n '/Cond.*: [^N]/{s/^.*://p;}' <<< "$p"`; Ps "Battery condition"; for b in Thunderbolt USB; do o=`SP $b | sed -En '1d;/:$/{s/ *:$//;x;s/\n//p;};/^ *V.* [0N].* /{s/ 0x.... //;s/[()]//g;s/(.*: )(.*)/ \(\2\)/;H;};/Apple|Genesy|Intel|SMSC/{s/.//g;h;}'`; Pm $b; done; o=`pmset -g therm | sed 's/^.*C/C/'`; [[ "$o" =~ No\ th|pms ]] && o=; Pm "Thermal conditions"; o=`pmset -g sysload | grep -v :`; [[ "$o" =~ =\ [^GO] ]] || o=; Pm "System load advisory"; o=`nvram boot-args | awk '{$1=""; print}'`; Ps "boot-args"; a=(/ ""); A=(System User); for i in 0 1; do o=`cd ${a[$i]}L*/Lo*/Diag* || continue; for f in *.{cr,h,pa,s}*; do [[ -f "$f" ]] || continue; d=$(stat -f%Sc -t%F "$f"); [[ "$f" =~ h$ ]] && grep -lq "^Thread c" "$f" && f="$f *"; echo "$d ${f%%_2*} ${f##*.}"; done | sort | tail`; Pm "${A[$i]} diagnostics"; done; grep -q '*$' <<< "$o" && printf $'\n* Code injection\n'; o=`syslog -F bsd -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'GPU |hfs: Ru|I/O e|last value [1-9]|n Cause: -|NVDA\(|pagin|proc: t|SATA W|ssert|Thrott|timed? ?o' | tail -n25 | awk '/:/{$4=""; $5=""};1'`; Pm "Kernel messages"; o=`df -m / | awk 'NR==2 {print $4}'`; o=$((o<5120?o:0)); Ps "Free space (MiB)"; o=$(($(vm_stat | awk '/eo/{sub("\\.",""); print $2}')/256)); o=$((o>=1024?o:0)); Ps "Pageouts (MiB)"; s=( `sar -u 1 10 | sed '$!d'` ); [[ s[4] -lt 85 ]] && o=`printf "$Fu" ${s[1]} ${s[3]}` || o=; Ps "Total CPU usage" && { s=(`ps acrx -o comm,ruid,%cpu | sed '2!d'`); n=$((${#s[*]}-1)); c="${s[*]}"; o=${s[$n]}%; Ps "CPU usage by process \"${c% ${s[$((n-1))]}*}\" with UID ${s[$((n-1))]}"; }; s=(`top -R -l1 -n1 -o prt -stats command,uid,prt | sed '$!d'`); n=$((${#s[*]}-1)); s[$n]=${s[$n]%[+-]}; c="${s[*]}"; o=$((s[$n]>=25000?s[$n]:0)); Ps "Mach ports used by process \"${c% ${s[$((n-1))]}*}\" with UID ${s[$((n-1))]}"; o=`kextstat -kl | grep -v com\\.apple | cut -c53- | cut -d\< -f1`; Pm "Loaded extrinsic kernel extensions"; R && o=`sudo launchctl list | awk 'NR>1 && !/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix\.cron)|org\.(amav|apac|calendarse|cups|dove|isc|ntp|post[fg]|x)/{print $3}'`; Pm "Extrinsic daemons"; o=`launchctl list | awk 'NR>1 && !/0x|com\.apple|org\.(x|openbsd)|\.[0-9]+$/{print $3}'`; Pm "Extrinsic agents"; o=`for d in {/,}L*/Lau*; do M; done | grep -v com\.apple\.CSConfig | while read f; do ID=$($PB\ :Label "$f") || ID="No job label"; printf "$Fb" "$f" "$ID"; done`; Pm "launchd items"; o=`for d in /{S*/,}L*/Star*; do M; done`; Pm "Startup items"; o=`find -L /S*/L*/{C*/Sec*A,E}* {/,}L*/{A*d,Compon,Ex,In,iTu,Keyb,Mail/B,P*P,Qu*T,Scripti,Sec,Servi,Spo}* -type d -name Contents -prune | while read d; do ID=$($PB\ :CFBundleIdentifier "$d/Info.plist") || ID="No bundle ID"; [[ "$ID" =~ ^com\.apple\.[^x]|Accusys|ArcMSR|ATTO|HDPro|HighPoint|driver\.stex|hp-fax|\.hpio|JMicron|microsoft\.MDI|print|SoftRAID ]] || printf "$Fb" "${d%/Contents}" "$ID"; done`; Pm "Extrinsic loadable bundles"; LD="$(`find /S*/*/F* -type f -name lsregister | head -n1` -dump)"; o=`for ID in $AC; do [[ "$LD" =~ $ID ]] && echo $ID; done`; Pm "Application check"; o=`find -L /u*/{,*/}lib -type f | while read f; do file -b "$f" | grep -qw shared && ! codesign -v "$f" && echo $f; done`; Pm "Unsigned shared libraries"; o=`for e in INSERT_LIBRARIES LIBRARY_PATH; do launchctl getenv DYLD_$e; done`; Pm "Environment"; o=`find -L {,/u*/lo*}/e*/periodic -type f -mtime -10d`; Pm "Modified periodic scripts"; o=`scutil --proxy | grep Prox`; Pm "Proxies"; o=`scutil --dns | awk '/r\[0\] /{if ($NF !~ /^1(0|72\.(1[6-9]|2[0-9]|3[0-1])|92\.168)\./) print $NF; exit}'`; d=`ipconfig getoption $(route -n get default | awk '/e:/{print $2}') domain_name_server`; [[ "$d" != "$o" ]] && n="not " || n=; Ps "DNS (${n}from DHCP)"; R && o=`sudo profiles -P | grep : | wc -l`; Ps "Profiles"; f=auto_master; [[ `md5 -q /etc/$f` =~ ^b166 ]] || Pc $f /etc/$f; for f in fstab sysctl.conf crontab launchd.conf; do Pc $f /etc/$f; done; Pc "hosts" <(grep -v 'host *$' /etc/hosts); Pc "User launchd" ~/.launchd*; R && Pc "Root crontab" <(sudo crontab -l); Pc "User crontab" <(crontab -l | sed -E 's:/Users/[^/]+/:/Users/USER/:g'); R && o=`sudo defaults read com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook`; Pm "Login hook"; Pp "Global login items" /L*/P*/loginw* Path; Pp "User login items" L*/P*/*loginit* Name; Pp "Safari extensions" L*/Saf*/*/E*.plist Bundle | sed -E 's/(\..*$|-[1-9])//g'; o=`find ~ $TMPDIR.. \( -flags +sappnd,schg,uappnd,uchg -o ! -user $UID -o ! -perm -600 \) | wc -l`; Ps "Restricted user files"; cd; o=`SP Fonts | egrep "Valid: N|Duplicate: Y" | wc -l`; Ps "Font problems"; o=`find L*/{Con,Pref}* -type f ! -size 0 -name *.plist | while read f; do plutil -s "$f" >&- || echo $f; done`; Pm "Bad plists"; d=(Desktop L*/Keyc*); n=(20 7); for i in 0 1; do o=`find "${d[$i]}" -type f -maxdepth 1 | wc -l`; o=$((o<=n[$i]?0:o)); Ps "${d[$i]##*/} file count"; done; o=; [[ UID -eq 0 ]] && o=root; Ps "UID"; o=$((`date +%s`-t)); Ps "Elapsed time (s)"; } 2>/dev/null | pbcopy; exit 2>&-

exec bash

9. If you're logged in as an administrator, you'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You will not see the usual dots in place of typed characters. Make sure caps lock is off. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you make three failed attempts to enter the password, the test will run anyway, but it will produce less information. In most cases, the difference is not important. If you don't know the password, or if you prefer not to enter it, just press return three times at the password prompt.

If you're not logged in as an administrator, you won't be prompted for a password. The test will still run. It just won't do anything that requires administrator privileges.

10. The test will take a few minutes to run, depending on how many files you have and the speed of the computer. A computer that's abnormally slow may take longer to run the test. While it's running, there will be nothing in the Terminal window and no indication of progress. Wait for the line "[Process completed]" to appear. If you don't see it within half an hour or so, the test probably won't complete in a reasonable time. In that case, close the Terminal window and report the results. No harm will be done.

11. When the test is complete, quit Terminal. The results will have been copied to the Clipboard automatically. They are not shown in the Terminal window. Please don't copy anything from there. All you have to do is start a reply to this comment and then paste by pressing command-V again.

If any private information, such as your name or email address, appears in the results, anonymize it before posting. Usually that won't be necessary.

12. When you post the results, you might see the message, "You have included content in your post that is not permitted." It means that the forum software has misidentified something in the post as a violation of the rules. If that happens, please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

Note: This is a public forum, and others may give you advice based on the results of the test. They speak only for themselves, and I don't necessarily agree with them.

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What type of files did you trash?

Some application that you installed is creating files as fast as you delete them. I suspect the "Magican" crapware, which is at best worthless, but it might be something else. You may have to run ODS as root to locate the excessive files.