MacBook Pro Won't Boot, Hard Drive Full

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Level 1

6 points

MacBook Pro Won't Boot, Hard Drive Full

Ok so recently my Hard Drive became full and I thought that I would clear up some space eventually but I wasn't going to delete files just yet so I switched my laptop off.

Now when I go to turn my MacBook Pro (2012 model, 13-inch, 4gb ram, 500gb hard drive) on it gets stuck on 50% of the load bar and it simply will not budge from there. I have gone into recovery mode with cmd R and verified and repaired my Disk which wasn't even damaged in the first place. And I tried to reinstall Yosemite but couldn't because of the lack of free space needed.

I reset the nvram (pram) multiple times and it still wouldn't start.

Then I tried to boot into safe mode which still didn't allow the bot sequence to finish.

Finally I went into single user mode and run the code:

fsck -fy

and the hard drive was fine. So finally, I felt like I had to delete files using the single user mode, but I have no idea about the entire UNIX system so I am really stuck.

I used this blog to get started: http://www.curphey.com/blog/2012/10/24/mac-wont-boot-full-disk/

first of all I didn't get the log into your root account bit at the start because mine just went straight to the terminal like black page and so I mounted the disk so that it was writable with the sudo /sbin/mount -uw / code. However, now I am completely lost. How do I navigate to the downloads folder and actually delete the files

?? Could anyone please give me line by line code to do this? Or otherwise is there any other way I can start my Mac up again? I need it for Uni desperately.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Apr 3, 2015 6:30 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rick Blythin

Level 4

1,070 points

Apr 4, 2015 9:31 PM in response to ShubhBan

From single user mode:

cd /

cd /Users

ls <-- (a lower case L)

cd <youraccountname>

cd Downloads

ls

Then: delete <filename> , if it won't let you try: sudo delete <file>

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Answer 2

my ginger

Level 5

4,904 points

Apr 3, 2015 9:40 PM in response to ShubhBan

When in single user mode you have to mount the volume to delete anything. As just using it for a check or repair of the boot volume has only read privileges .http://www.curphey.com/blog/2012/10/24/mac-wont-boot-full-disk/

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Answer 3

ShubhBan Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 4, 2015 12:38 AM in response to Rick Blythin

Thanks a lot for this but unfortunately I do not remember my account name or at least I'm not typing it right because it says "syntax error near unexpected token 'newline'". I'm really sorry I am so bad at this 😕. How can I find my account name?

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Answer 4

ShubhBan Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 4, 2015 12:38 AM in response to my ginger

Yeah I know, at first i do mount it using /sbin/mount -uw /

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Answer 5

Apr 4, 2015 1:33 AM in response to ShubhBan

If you type: cd /Users <press return>

then LS <press return>

It will list the user accounts, where you should be able to recognize yours. Then follow from step 4 (cd accountname) onwards as previously listed.

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Answer 6

ShubhBan Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 4, 2015 9:31 PM in response to Rick Blythin

You are a God!!!! Thank you so much. Cleared 30 something gigs. Thanks a ton!!!

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Answer 7

Apr 4, 2015 9:53 PM in response to ShubhBan

That's good to hear, glad I could be of help.

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Answer 8

Reiska_1

Level 1

0 points

Aug 25, 2015 11:29 AM in response to Rick Blythin

HI Rick,

ive been been using this thread for the exact same problem. I have just one issue: the folder I wish to delete is a sub-folder within my desktop. I can view my desktop contents, and see the folder I wish to access. From here I cannot figure out how to look inside, and then subsequently delete the sub-folder.

Pretty sure you're the right person to ask.

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 9

Aug 26, 2015 2:04 AM in response to Reiska_1

Reiska,

You can navigate using "CD <foldername>" and list the content with the "LS". To delete a folder there are a few options:

rmdir <FolderName> - This will delete a folder tho only if empty first.

rm -R <FolderName> - This will delete ALL sub folders and files within the folder specified, *use with care*.

rm -iR <FolderName> - Similar to above but interactive. It will ask you to confirm each deletion.

Option one is the safest, to manually delete the content first then the folder itself. Option 3 would be quickest, if you are sure there's nothing in the folder you wish to keep.

Hope this helps, good luck.

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