I have a problem to have enough space on my HD on my MacBook Air, Is it possible to format the HD and start fresh?
MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)
Yes. But that is hardly necessary. There are usually much easier way to do that on a Mac rather then to erase and reinstall.
Please download and install EtreCheck from http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
Run it and post the report here
You can try clearing data from the drive:
Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.
If you must you can erase the startup volume to start over:
Install or Reinstall OS X from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
the Security button and set the Zero Data option to one-pass. Click on
the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless.
This should install the version of OS X that you had installed.
You need not bother with EtreCheck because it does not relate to your posted problem.
Problem description:
Clean HDD
EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)
Report generated 27. mars 2015 18:21:46 CET
Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck
Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011) (Technical Specifications)
MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir4,2
1 1.7 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM Not upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Battery Health: Normal - Cycle count 51
Video Information: ℹ️
Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 384 MB
Color LCD 1440 x 900
System Software: ℹ️
OS X 10.9.5 (13F1066) - Time since boot: 0:16:53
Disk Information: ℹ️
APPLE SSD TS128C disk0 : (121,33 GB)
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 120.47 GB (6.96 GB free) (Low!)
Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Inc. FaceTime Camera (Built-in)
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
Mac App Store and identified developers
Startup Items: ℹ️
MissingSyncListener: Path: /Library/StartupItems/MissingSyncListener
Startup items are obsolete in OS X Yosemite
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Click for support]
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist [Click for support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Click for support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Click for support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
TomTom MySports Connect Program (/Applications/TomTom MySports Connect.app)
CNQL2405_ButtonManager Program Hidden (/Library/CFMSupport/CNQL2405_ButtonManager.app)
Missing Sync WM Monitor Program (/Library/Application Support/Missing Sync for Windows Mobile/Missing Sync WM Monitor.app)
AirPort-basestasjonsagent Program (/System/Library/CoreServices/AirPort Base Station Agent.app)
AdobeResourceSynchronizer UNKNOWN (missing value)
Skype UNKNOWN (missing value)
Microsoft Database Daemon Program (/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Office/Microsoft Database Daemon.app)
iTunesHelper Program Hidden (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector2 Program Hidden (/Library/Printers/Canon/IJScanner/Utilities/Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector2.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 5.2 [Click for support]
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.3.6.5 [Click for support]
OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.2.9 [Click for support]
RealPlayer Plugin: Version: Unknown [Click for support]
Silverlight: Version: 4.1.10329.0 [Click for support]
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.134 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.134 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.7
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
NP_2020Player_IKEA: Version: 5.0.94.1 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 9.5.5 [Click for support]
CANONiMAGEGATEWAYDL: Version: 2.1.0.1 [Click for support]
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.8 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
EPPEX Plugin: Version: 3.0.5.0 [Click for support]
CANONiMAGEGATEWAYLI: Version: 2.1.0.1 [Click for support]
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 71 Check version
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
RealPlayer Plugin: Version: Unknown [Click for support]
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Flash Player [Click for support]
Flip4Mac WMV [Click for support]
Java [Click for support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Skip System Files: NO
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Macintosh HD: Disk size: 120.47 GB Disk used: 113.51 GB
Destinations:
LaCie [Local]
Total size: 249.72 GB
Total number of backups: 13
Oldest backup: 2013-01-11 18:03:11 +0000
Last backup: 2015-03-01 17:15:02 +0000
Size of backup disk: Too small
Backup size 249.72 GB < (Disk used 113.51 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
7% WindowServer
1% Missing Sync WM Monitor
0% AppleSpell
0% TomTom MySports Connect
0% configd
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
206 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
112 MB Mail
107 MB ocspd
103 MB mds_stores
69 MB Safari
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
1.15 GB Free RAM
1.57 GB Active RAM
503 MB Inactive RAM
1.06 GB Wired RAM
428 MB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs
Diagnostics Information: ℹ️
Mar 27, 2015, 06:04:37 PM Self test - passed
The free disk space is extremely low. Under 7 GB is no where near enough for OS X to run properly. You are either going to have to start deleting your files or moving them to another disk drive for storage.
Another problem with disk drives is that the one you are currently using for your Time Machine backups is far too small. You need to get a large one to be sure that your backups are valid. I suggest you do that first so that you have a good backup before deleting or moving files to make space on your system drive.
I agree with Allan. You need a minimum of 20 GBs of free space at all times, and you have only 7 GBs. This will lead to fragmentation and even slower drive performance. If you drop down to 2 GBs or less you run the risk of catastrophic damage to the disk directory and loss of everything on the drive.
I am considering to erase the Microsoft Office. It takes a lot of space. Maybe a only use Pages and Number. I also no use OneDrive and iCloud for the future
Usually your files; such as music, video, movies and photos; take up far more space then applications. Besides it is always safer to delete or move you own files rather then files outside of home.
clean hard disk and start fresh
