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HELP (low space problem)

S

shakey55

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 26, 2014
55
0
I am relatively new to macbooks (less than 12 months).

I bought it new and the last few days it has been really slow.

I did some checking and this is what I have come up with.

I was instructed to hold down command + R

When I do this I just get a clicking sound and nothing happens.

Any suggestions

f4f0f9040573d87fe39c337d91573b36.jpg
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Your out of drive space which isn't good for any machine. That is your issue
 
How do I fix this and what about the red writing that says disk needs to be repaired
 
Remove some stuff. The red error is a false error caused by the inability to run correctly. Once you've made some space re run the utility then click on repair and it'll solve any errors
 
shakey55 said:
How do I fix this and what about the red writing that says disk needs to be repaired
Click to expand...


You can't fix the disk until you make some space on it (you should always try to leave 10-20% free anyway just for best performance) You will have to delete some stuff, try and back it up first to an external drive if you can.
 
shakey55 said:
How do I fix this and what about the red writing that says disk needs to be repaired
Click to expand...
Back up your machine first, and then start removing files that you don't need or want any longer.

To find the large files, download and use OmniDiskSweeper. It will provide a sorted list of what's consuming your space.
 
I do reports with pictures added and invoices on word and excel. I also have video clips (many) that I edit and burn onto DVD. When I have completed I drag and drop them onto an external hard-drive. Then I delete from MacBook so why I have so much space used up is beyond me.
 
maflynn said:
Back up your machine first, and then start removing files that you don't need or want any longer.

To find the large files, download and use OmniDiskSweeper. It will provide a sorted list of what's consuming your space.
Click to expand...

Given that the OP only has 19MB disk space free, it will be difficult to download and install something like OmniDiskSweeper. Sort of a chicken and egg problem.
 
Taz Mangus said:
Given that the OP only has 19MB disk space free, it will be difficult to download and install something like OmniDiskSweeper. Sort of a chicken and egg problem.
Click to expand...
You're right, he's in a critically low situation, I thought it would have been good for him to identify the biggest files, but downloading/installing an app at this point is not feasible.
 
shakey55 said:
I do reports with pictures added and invoices on word and excel. I also have video clips (many) that I edit and burn onto DVD. When I have completed I drag and drop them onto an external hard-drive. Then I delete from MacBook so why I have so much space used up is beyond me.
Click to expand...

My suggestion is open your hard drive and go through all your user folders (not system folders or files) and press CMD-I. This will popup a window that will calculate the size of the folder or file. This could help identify where the space is being taken up.

EDIT: Another suggestion to try. If you are using Time Machine to do backups, open System Preferences->Time Machine, turn off and then back on Time Machine. See if this frees up any space. Sometimes there are local Time Machine backups stored locally on the internal hard drive. And turning off and on would free that space up.
 
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shakey55 said:
I do reports with pictures added and invoices on word and excel. I also have video clips (many) that I edit and burn onto DVD. When I have completed I drag and drop them onto an external hard-drive. Then I delete from MacBook so why I have so much space used up is beyond me.
Click to expand...
Restart and hold the shift key as it reboots to start in safe mode. That will run a fsck disk check as it starts and will also delete all cache files and hopefully free up some space.

If it starts in safe mode, turn Time Machine off then back on as Taz suggested.

Then look at how much space you have free. The cache delete should give you a little breathing room to try and find files to delete.

If you don't have enough room to download any utilities, you can run the command below in Terminal and it will show which folders are using your disk space.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

Show us the results of this command.

You can rerun the command in different folder to drill down to the problem by changing the last part. For example this command would show space used by your personal (users) Documents folder.

Code: 
sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/Documents
 
shakey55 said:
I do reports with pictures added and invoices on word and excel. I also have video clips (many) that I edit and burn onto DVD. When I have completed I drag and drop them onto an external hard-drive. Then I delete from MacBook so why I have so much space used up is beyond me.
Click to expand...
Have you emptied your bin? I know it's a stupid question but you've said your deleting stuff but it'll remain until you empty the trash
 
Good morning everyone. I have located and begun deleting a lot of pictures and video from the Mac. This is starting to free up space, at the moment up to 50gb. Feeling happier.

Is there a safe program that I can run through the Mac to identify hidden files etc that I can remove (if I want) that will keep the Mac healthier.

Suggestions please.

Thank you all for you help. Much appreciated
 
shakey55 said:
Good morning everyone. I have located and begun deleting a lot of pictures and video from the Mac. This is starting to free up space, at the moment up to 50gb. Feeling happier.

Is there a safe program that I can run through the Mac to identify hidden files etc that I can remove (if I want) that will keep the Mac healthier.

Suggestions please.

Thank you all for you help. Much appreciated
Click to expand...

Since you have free up some space now, you should go download OmniDiskSweeper. Identify the files you don't need or no longer need and back it up.

I would not recommend messing with hidden files because you don't know what it is and very likely to delete some core files. You will probably mess up with the OS too.
 
Well ladies and gents.

I down loaded omnidisksweeper, and it opened my eyes.

Three quick questions.

1. If I don't have any pics in iPhoto or trash, where are the pics/movies that this program has located ?

2. If I want to delete some or all of these, which column do I delete from ?

3. If they were something that I wanted to keep, can I just drag and drop into an external hard drive ?

Sorry to be a pain but this is all new and a little frightening to me.


3779489a26bce9cb977b81dc67c2030e.jpg
 
They are stored in the iPhoto's folder

Open finder and then your home folder. Pictures and it's in there.

If you control click the iPhoto file which is a package of sorts and then click show package contents you get more folders. Inside originals will be all what your looking for.
 
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I wouldn't going into iPhoto library and mess with it because you can easily mess up/corrupt it (I've tried that). Your biggest issue is your iPhoto library. Do you need all those photos into one library? If not then can you rebuild the one that you don't need it and put it in an external drive?

Have you every thought of using the new Photo app rather than iPhoto because Apple is phasing it out.

How about those movies? Do you need it in your internal drive? Can those be moved to external?
 
Thanks for all the help thus far. I used omnidisksweeper and removed lots and lots of movies and picture.

Now my MacBook is still slow and this is the latest snap shot of usage. Why is there so much space taken up by backup

bb2e1e9e040a7767df99d9bdd4db48cc.jpg
 
shakey55 said:
Thanks for all the help thus far. I used omnidisksweeper and removed lots and lots of movies and picture.

Now my MacBook is still slow and this is the latest snap shot of usage. Why is there so much space taken up by backup

bb2e1e9e040a7767df99d9bdd4db48cc.jpg
Click to expand...

I believe that the backup storage you are seeing is local Time Machine backups. Go into System Preferences->Time Machine, toggle Time Machine off and then back on. Now see if the storage used has been reduced.
 
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