Help!...... Start-up disk is full

Maybe delete some un-needed files?

Yeah...sounds like your hard drive is full. One thing that a lot of newer users do is keep the .dmg, .sit and .zip files after they've installed new programs. So double check that you've properly installed any new programs into your Applications folder and then trash those .dmg, .sit. and .zip files (if you have any).

Tell us more about your system, how big is the hard drive. Do you have a lot of Music, Photos or Movies files you've got on there. If you do, you need to start looking for an external storage option for some of those files.

FYI, you should keep a pretty good sized portion of your hard drive free for the system to use as virtual memory storage...if you don't, it will slow down your system.

Well, you are getting the "Startup Disk Is Full" message because... your startup disk is full. You have put enough data and programs on your machine's main hard drive that there is no room left. This gives your OS a problem, because it needs some hard drive space available to operate. If you doubleclick the icon of your hard drive on the desktop, at the bottom of the finder window it will say how many Gb or Mb are available. What is that number?

The solution is you need to delete some things from your hard drive

#1 is Empty your Trash.
#2 go to http://www.Versiontracker.com search for and download DeLocalizer. This will remove unneeded foreign language resources from your OSX, saving about 1 Gb of space.
#3 buy yourself an external Firewire hard drive that you can store your documents, music, movies, whatever it is you are filling the drive up with, and also backup your data to.
# Again at Versiontracker.com, look for a utility like CacheOutX that will delete caches and temporary files.

Couple of other things.
You *might* have a runaway process that is creating huge log files. At versiontracker.com look for a utility called WhatSize, which will list the largest files on your drive for you.

Caution: DO NOT start deleting or renaming files and folders from your hard drive unless you know they are items that YOU created. Apple's OS creates specific files and folders (including hidden folders) which MUST remain in the same place with the same name for the OS to run. Don't mess with them.

You *might* have a runaway process that is creating huge log files. At versiontracker.com look for a utility called WhatSize, which will list the largest files on your drive for you.

Click to expand...

That seems to have happened to me. An Apple tech suggested that a USB device may have been logging thousands of errors/second,and to unplug them. Have everything plugged in now and it seems stable, but the origin of the problem never was resolved.

Hey you guys...i just got the same message...saying my start -up disk is full...the funny thing is that it doesn't seem to be full...I have around 70GB free space...so maybe the problem is coming from something else...I have a MacBook Pro...appreciate it if u can help 10x

Have either of you guys tried emptying your cache and or restarting your computers?

Well i've downloaded the programs that were described above from versiontracker.com so yes i emptied my cache....as a matter of fact the message appeared only once on my comp and i immediately checked it up on the net and asked in the forum..... because i thought it was weird....haven't gotten it since..... hope it doesn't show anymore

I've got something you're gonna like:

http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/

Go here and download the trial of omni disk sweeper. Open the app, and just click on your system hard drive. It starts going through your hard drive ordering folders and items by size in a column view, so its easy to spot some big files that you may not need anymore. Like the above poster said, maybe you left a .DMG from an installer laying around somewhere or something.

I no cigar for this problem for me

I have this same problem (143 GB space left out of 243 total disk size)and still after emptying trash and deleting all but non essential files, I cant even load/mount the download utility the latest poster suggested with the link provided. I cant even receive mail with photos attached without the message of a full disk appearing and then the ap shuts down (Entourage). I am so stuck here and seems that there is some loop running that misinforms the OS that there is no space when in reality my disk is half empty (half full, see I am even becoming a pessimist). Any ideas?

@carternewton- In your case, I would recommend copying essential files (Music, Documents, Photos, etc.) to a external HDD, and then preforming a fresh install of OS X. When I say fresh install, I mean format the drive and then install OS X don't archive and install or anything like that. If you can't even download apps you have a major problem.

Don

Thanks Don

Don, thank you. I did get the deLocalizer program to unzip and run and cleared a lot of space. I still cant get the Omnisweep program to mount: says there is an error 39...not sure what that means.
About a year ago I took this mac to the apple store where I bought it, now unfortunately many miles away, and they restarted it into some sort of repair state and reset a bunch of start up routines. I have to OS disk with me and was hoping for some sort of thing like that:loading from a boot disk and running some repair aps. I am a PC guy till recently, maybe something like this is not an option.
Carter Newton

Your thinking of single user login, it's kinda like safe mode in windoze. I wouldn't recommend going into it unless you know what you know what your doing, I screwed my iMac to hell in single user mode, and had to do a full reinstall anyways.

@carternewton-
Like I said before, I would backup important data (not with time machine, it will copy everything including errors), just drag and drop important files. and do a full reinstall. It's not as painful as it sounds, when I had to reinstall my iMac it took around 40 minutes, plus setting up mail and my prefs. again.

Error -39 denotes a problem with the launcher utility, which is a crucial part of OS X, and Apple recomends booting from the disk, and looking in file directories and replacing files from the install disk. IMO it's just much easier to do a fresh install. Once you do a reinstall, just download those apps that CanadaRAM mentioned, and run them weekly, I also like to use onyX (http://www.titanium.free.fr/index_us.html).

Don

carternewton said:

Don, thank you. I did get the deLocalizer program to unzip and run and cleared a lot of space. I still cant get the Omnisweep program to mount: says there is an error 39...not sure what that means.
About a year ago I took this mac to the apple store where I bought it, now unfortunately many miles away, and they restarted it into some sort of repair state and reset a bunch of start up routines. I have to OS disk with me and was hoping for some sort of thing like that:loading from a boot disk and running some repair aps. I am a PC guy till recently, maybe something like this is not an option.
Carter Newton

Click to expand...

One thing that would be helpful for us to help diagnose what is going on is if we had more actual info regarding your drive.

Click it one time on the desktop to select it and then go to "File--->Get Info" (or press command+I) and tell us what it says under Capacity, Available and Used. That will keep us from sending you off on wild goose chases most likely!

HD specs, oddly they vary moment to moment.

Here it is:
Mac OS Extended
Capacity 232.57 GB
Available 148.04 GB
Used 84.52 GB on disk

Interestingly as I watched the dialogue box with this info to copy it all down, I noticed that the amount of available space changes and periodically says zero GB available, and then another number like 56 GB available for a while and then jumps back to saying 148 GB. THis has jumped back and forth about 10 times as I have been composing this note.

Does this indicate something helpful for this problem?

carternewton said:

Here it is:
Mac OS Extended
Capacity 232.57 GB
Available 148.04 GB
Used 84.52 GB on disk

Interestingly as I watched the dialogue box with this info to copy it all down, I noticed that the amount of available space changes and periodically says zero GB available, and then another number like 56 GB available for a while and then jumps back to saying 148 GB. THis has jumped back and forth about 10 times as I have been composing this note.

Does this indicate something helpful for this problem?

Click to expand...

Honestly that really baffles me. IMO somehong with OS X is corrupted. I have forgottn to ask, but have you tried repairing disk permissions? Go open disk utility which is located in the utilities folder? If you haven't tried this, it could be worth a shot.

Don

A solution maybe?

I just noticed that several weeks ago when I plugged in my computer in the town home we have moved into, I had joined a local wireless network without knowing it. My ethernet cable was plugged into a modem that was in fact not cable connected. I realized this when I saw a device I was connected to on the finder left panel bar that I did not recognize. I turned the airport off and went through the disk utility routines to repair the permissions, rebooted and I no longer get the variable disk space readouts in the hard disk info dialogue box. My computer must have in some way been trying to associate with another computer elsewhere on this wireless network that I just discovered. Does this make any sense to you nice people who have offered help? Oddly I have a second iMac running also on this wireless network that seems not to be conflicted. Maybe there is a file sharing setting set one way but not on the other?
Carter Newton

carternewton said:

I just noticed that several weeks ago when I plugged in my computer in the town home we have moved into, I had joined a local wireless network without knowing it. My ethernet cable was plugged into a modem that was in fact not cable connected. I realized this when I saw a device I was connected to on the finder left panel bar that I did not recognize. I turned the airport off and went through the disk utility routines to repair the permissions, rebooted and I no longer get the variable disk space readouts in the hard disk info dialogue box. My computer must have in some way been trying to associate with another computer elsewhere on this wireless network that I just discovered. Does this make any sense to you nice people who have offered help? Oddly I have a second iMac running also on this wireless network that seems not to be conflicted. Maybe there is a file sharing setting set one way but not on the other?
Carter Newton

Click to expand...

File sharing wouldn't cause the issues that your experiencing. I honestly think that a core part of OS X is screwed up, and therefor a reinstall is required. Like I said before, it isn't painful at all, and therefor that is what I would do if I were you.

Don

Ok

Thanks Don; that is what I will do. Just have to figure out how to save my email addresses and such and get ahold of Office to reinstall. I appreciate your help.
Carter

carternewton said:

Thanks Don; that is what I will do. Just have to figure out how to save my email addresses and such and get ahold of Office to reinstall. I appreciate your help.
Carter

Click to expand...

If you have an iPod, you can backup your contacts and such to it. I can't help you with office, unless you go "that other way" because you already have a valid key that you purchased.

Don

deleting .zip, .sit & .dmg files

OK - so I might just be the slowest one out here...but I'm fine with admitting it! I went into the "Finder" and typed .dmg into the search bar (then did the same for each of the other file types). The finder turned up a battery of these types of files, but when I went to drag it to my trash can, they didn't go. So then I "right clicked" (or whatever the mac term for this is) to select Delete, and Delete wasn't an option. How do I delete these types of files? Thanks for helping out the mac-impaired!

Startup disk full..error

I know that my disk is more than 70% empty. yet, My snow leopard/mac mini gives this message and doesn't go anywhere. Prior to that I used the disk utility and being new to mac, I used the "erase" command thinking I that I was erasing unwanted files.
I am in trouble as the computer wouldn't allow me to do anything. I am clean installing OS again (fortunately I haven't lost my files) as the mac is relatively new; but I don't want this happening again. The nuisance factor is that I need to configure network, bluetooth etc all over again.
Why does this happen? Any clue?

start disk fiull problem Solved

I had the same problem and calling Apple tech servicve didn't help. In fact, they wanted me to take the computer to the Apple stores.
Prior to getting the message "start disk full", I had, a) run disk utility and had used "erase" command to clean, b) increased my monitor resolution to the highest (i believe 2400xsomething), and c) installed neooffice and a couple of others. When I started getting the message, my computer eventually wouldn't boot up and I couldn't do a clean reinstall as there was no disk space!
I knew that I had hardly 20Gb full in a 120Gb disk although the disk info said that I had only a few MB available!

What I did:
1. started the mac in safe mode (held the shift key during booting)
2. Adjudted the resolution to lower level (1600x900)
3. Deleted the newly installe softwares.
4. Ran the disk permission/repair three times.
5. Restarted and reran the utility.
Disk info came to normal, the machine is working OK.

Start up Disk is Full

So, I've been trying to go through my larger files and delete them, but one such .dmg file (100 meg) says that the item is in use. But, outside of this browser window, I have nothing in use. Is there anyway I can check what program is using it and how I can stop it? I'd like to delete this file as the program it is for (slingbox) has been installed and working fine for 6 months now.

Is the dmg mounted? Is so you'll not be able to delete it