Startup disk almost full. What do I do now?

Question

Level 1

16 points

Startup disk almost full. What do I do now?

Hi, and thanks for any help in advance!

I have received a message that my startup disk is almost full. It suggests deleting files. I have a MacHD and a LaCie HD. I am unsure of what to do, as I wish to keep my files.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Kcat

iMacG5, Mac OS X (10.4.9), Tiger

Posted on Jun 14, 2007 3:30 PM

Reply

Answer 1

A A P L

Level 7

21,746 points

Jun 14, 2007 4:11 PM in response to kcat

You can download the free CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) or better yet, purchase SuperDuper!
Both allow you to backup to your LaCie drive.

Goto: http://www.versiontracker.com to download either of them.

Scott

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 14, 2007 4:18 PM in response to kcat

If you have 1.9 MB more, and you do have room on that LaCie, I'd suggest downloading Carbon Copy Cloner (donationware). It'll make an exact copy of your HD over to your LaCie, so that you can delete items from your main Mac HD to make space.

Also, running the daily, weekly, and monthly Unix cleanups manually right now would be a good idea. Open your Terminal, and enter these three commands, one at a time--hit Return after each, and wait. When the command at hand is complete, you'll receive your Terminal prompt again, just like when you started the Terminal program:

1. periodic daily
2. periodic weekly
3. periodic monthly

Then simply quit Terminal. Rebooting is suggested, to help them finish--they'll remove some cruft, temporary items, etc.

You can also manually check your /tmp folder:
Finder > Go menu > Go to Folder. In the pop-up screen, type /tmp. I'll bet it's full of older temporary files you don't need any longer.

I hope this helps!

Reply

Answer 3

kcat Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 14, 2007 4:32 PM in response to A A P L

Thank you, Scott,

I happen to have SuperDuper downloaded, but it says it will erase everything on the LaCie if I copy my Mac HD over to my LaCie. Is it safe to do this? I've never done this before... I took your suggestion about Carbon Copy and downloaded this, too, but it says it will do the same thing. Is this okay?

Kcat

Reply

Answer 4

kcat Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 14, 2007 4:33 PM in response to Carla Hufstedler

Thank you, Carla,

Is it safe to let it erase everything on the LaCie in order to copy MacHD onto it?

Kcat

Reply

Answer 5

Jun 14, 2007 4:39 PM in response to kcat

Hello! Using CCC or Superduper WILL ERASE any files that you have on the external LaCie. Failure to address the "nearly full" message will crash your system bigtime. If you have a lot of your documents on the external (and you can't erase them because they are important) then you're option is to move more of them to the external (thus freeing up space on the MacHD) or obtaining a larger disk either internal or external. Tom

Reply

Answer 6

kcat Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 14, 2007 5:16 PM in response to Thomas Bryant

Okay Tom,

Scared now! Please help me to understand what you said!! Do you mean go ahead and erase everything on the LaCie (is that the external?) and then copy everything on the MacHD over to the LaCie, thereby keeping my files saved on the LaCie and thereby creating free space on MacHD?

Help!

Kcat

Reply

Answer 7

A A P L

Level 7

21,746 points

Jun 14, 2007 5:20 PM in response to kcat

Stop if you need the files on your LaCie

If they're already files that are on the Mac, then proceed.
If you BUY SuperDuper! - which I HIGHLY recommend, you can save your Mac's data to a Disk Image on the LaCie and keep the files that reside there now - ASSUMING there's enough space.
When multiple people try to work on a question like this, it gets all confused.
Let's start over and take it one step at a time.
Are the files on the LaCie already on the Mac? i.e., duplicates?
How big is the hard drive in your Mac? (select Macintosh HD, get info)
How big is the LaCie?
How much free space on it?

Report back,
Scott

Reply

Answer 8

Jun 14, 2007 5:40 PM in response to kcat

Kcat: I don't think anybody can help you until you answer Scott's 4 questions. Until then we're only guessing whether you should clone (duplicate) your main drive to the LaCie or really need more storage.

Reply

Answer 9

kcat Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 14, 2007 5:51 PM in response to A A P L

Thank you, Scott, reporting back now:

1. I do think they are duplicates, but I how can I check to be sure?

2. The hard drive capacity on my MacHD is 74.41GB, available is 20.5MB, meaning used is 74.39GB on disk. (This all just took place and I just got notice that my scheduled backup failed!)

3. The LaCie hard drive capacity is 148.93GB, available is 148.86GB, used is 64MB on disk.

4. Does this info above tell you how much space is on it? I'm sorry that I'm so new at this! Your help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Kcat

Reply

Answer 10

A A P L

Level 7

21,746 points

Jun 14, 2007 5:58 PM in response to kcat

It helps a lot.
There's no easy way to say if those files are dupe's.
But, you can backup your files from the LaCie to a CD - 64MB is almost nothing.
Then, you could clone your Mac Hard Drive to the LaCie using SuperDuper!

I'd go that route. It's good money spent.
I'd also see if you can possibly delete ANYTHING from your Mac that's not critical, or things like large applications/unused applications that you can re-install after the backup.

Scott

Reply

Answer 11

kcat Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 14, 2007 6:02 PM in response to A A P L

Okay, following through with your suggestion. It sounds like I must buy SuperDuper, not just use the free download, right? If so, I'm doing it now, and I'll report back to you on what happens... thank you for being there!

Kcat

Reply

Answer 12

A A P L

Level 7

21,746 points

Jun 14, 2007 6:08 PM in response to kcat

It's a good call.
I use it, I've bought it, I bought 12 copies for work, and recommended it to dozens of friends and family members.
Never had anyone less than thrilled with it.

Scott

Reply

Answer 13

kcat Author

Level 1

16 points

Jun 14, 2007 8:56 PM in response to A A P L

Thank you so much, Scott. I have successfully used SuperDuper (apparently the download was free, and once used, they asked me to buy it, which I promptly did!)

Now, I checked both MacHD and my LaCie, and while the LaCie seems to have used a matching amount of space now, it still lists the same amount of space used on the MacHD, so I guess I must now delete stuff from the MacHD, but how do I do that? At least I have copies of everything (I think!) on my LaCie.

Thanks again, and please advise about deletions to be made!

Kcat

Message was edited by: kcat

Reply

Answer 14

mreed

Level 3

602 points

Jun 15, 2007 6:38 AM in response to kcat

kcat- Using SuperDuper to copy everything from Mac HD to Lacie (external drive) does not 'create' space on Mac HD. It creates a copy so that if something were to happen, you won't lose any data.
The only way to free up space on the Mac HD is to find and trash those things you no longer want or use. (Don't forget to empty the trash.)
The neat part of using SuperDuper is when you next run the Smart update feature, it will copy new files and delete whatever you've trashed, making an updated copy.
When you compare the size of each they will be identical.
If your looking to save files and still remove them from HD, you can burn CD or DVD, then trash items. (Make Multiple copies.) Or - move those things you want to save to another external drive.
Hope some of this helps.

20" iMac (isight) 1.5gigs ram, B&W G3/xlr8G4/600 Mac OS X (10.4.8) B&W: 896 ram, Superdrive, ATI 9200

Reply

Answer 15

A A P L

Level 7

21,746 points

Jun 15, 2007 10:41 AM in response to kcat

You have to be careful here.
Depending on the method (options) you use in SuperDuper!, you can backup but still have heartbreak.

How? Well, if you backup your Mac to the LaCie, and then delete items on your Mac, the next backup potentially deletes those files from the backup as well - all depending on the options you choose.

I would look carefully at what you can truly lose on the Mac and only delete those items for now.
You then can maybe burn some things to CD/DVD that you want to keep, but don't need to have on your hard drive.

We'll talk more.

Reply