85GB free on Mac yet "not enough space to download"?

[Tripron]

I have 85GB free on my mac yet at the moment it's not even letting me download a single photo or anything. When I try it says "Safari can’t save the file". I have over 2GB free of memory. I don't get what the issue is? Sometimes when I restart the computer I can download a few things but then it doesn't let me download anymore.

Also, sometimes it comes up with that black message "You need to restart your computer" as soon as I log in.

And sometimes when I restart the computer the log in screen doesn't load. At times I have to restart it like 3 times before I can even get into the log in screen.

I've been having these problems the past few days. Should I start backing up everything on my mac while I can?

It's a Mac OSX 10.6.7 with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Please help!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

What exact Mac do you have?

To find out what Mac OS X version you run, click > About This Mac:

To find out, what exact Mac model you use, click > About This Mac > More Info > Hardware Overview:

To see a more elaborate image explaining the above steps, click here.
To see a more detailed video tutorial showing the above steps, click here (2 MB, 23s, .mp4).​

​

About "You need to restart your computer" (kernel panic) messages
Resolving Kernel Panics
Mac OS X: How to log a kernel panic

To find out, where you storage capacity is being used, you can use the following free applications:

• DiskInventory X
• OmniDiskSweeper
• JDisk Report
• GrandPerspective

Maybe try a combination of several, if you still can't find the "missing" capacity.

Can you make a screenshot of the Safari message and attach it to your next post?

 

[Tripron]

Thanks for your reply.

It's Version 10.6.7. The model is MacBookPro7,1

Here are photos of the message that pops up when I try to download the photos. The first one is when I try to save it to the downloads folder, the second to any other place, the third one is when I try to take a screenshot. I had to take photos on my iPhone and upload them because my mac won't even allow me to save screenshots.

I don't really understand because I can still do things like surf the net, watch YouTube videos and such.

I'll try and do some of the methods/links you gave me and see how it goes.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

It seems to be a permissions error.

Mac OS X - Setting Permissions

 

[Tripron]

Thanks for your help but it doesn't seem to be the answer. I looked at the link and it's enabled for me to "read and write" everything.

All the problems I listed in the first post started happening at the same time (Can't save any files, getting black screen telling me to restart, log in screen doesn't load sometimes after I've restarted, having to force Safari to quit constantly because I've "run out of disc space" even though I have plenty) so I think it's somehow related but I really have no idea how to fix it.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Can you post a crash report?

 

[Blackberryroid]

A camera shot. Because CMD+Shift+3 is too mainstream.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

A camera shot. Because CMD+Shift+3 is too mainstream.

Yep:

my mac won't even allow me to save screenshots

Btw, CMD+SHIFT+4 (> Spacebar > click window/element) is even better, but then again, the OP has the problem of not being able to save screenshots.

@ OP: Does it also happen in another, even temporarily created, user account?

 

[jackhdev]

Try shutting down your computer. Turn it on and hold Command + R right as it chimes and the screen turns on. When the computer starts up in Recovery Mode, select English, then select Terminal from the Utilities menu at the top. Type in resetpassword and hit enter. Select your hard drive, then your user, and click on the button at the bottom to reset your home folder's ACLs. When it's done, restart and see if that fixed it.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Try shutting down your computer. Turn it on and hold Command + R right as it chimes and the screen turns on. When the computer starts up in Recovery Mode, select English, then select Terminal from the Utilities menu at the top. Type in resetpassword and hit enter. Select your hard drive, then your user, and click on the button at the bottom to reset your home folder's ACLs. When it's done, restart and see if that fixed it.

One needs the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD for that, or the grey Restore DVDs with Macs not coming with Lion or 2010/2011 Mac not having Lion installed and their firmware updated.

 

[jackhdev]

One needs the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD for that, or the grey Restore DVDs with Macs not coming with Lion or 2010/2011 Mac not having Lion installed and their firmware updated.

Oh haha sorry, didn't realize they weren't running Lion.