"Startup Disk full" but isn't

[olipalli]

Hi I'm always getting a window on my mac telling me that my startup disk is full, but it ISN'T

"Capacity: 999.25 GB
available: 857.45 GB
used: 151,801 GB "
more then 50% is available so why is this window coming up

what could be the problem ?
I have delete files, empty trash, updated and restarted programs and computer

 

[simsaladimbamba]

What Mac OS X version do you use?
Is Disk Utility reporting the same usage?

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.

 

[olipalli]

I'm using version 10.7.3

is there some program that could find out where most of my storage is going.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

I'm using version 10.7.3

is there some program that could find out where most of my storage is going.

Yes, post #2 has listed four of them.

PS: What about Disk Utility and its reporting of available disk space, as asked earlier?

Two additional questions: And have you looked at > About this Mac > More Info > Storage? Do you use Time Machine? If so:
What is this "Other" in the storage tab? What is eating up my space? by theSeb

 

[olipalli]

how can i find out that my mac "Disk Utility reporting the same usage."
I don't have my mac with me now I'm thinking of fixing this tomorrow
sorry if my grammar is wrong I'm from iceland.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

how can i find out that my mac "Disk Utility reporting the same usage."
I don't have my mac with me now I'm thinking of fixing this tomorrow
sorry if my grammar is wrong I'm from iceland.

You probably used Finder and its GET INFO* window to get the numbers from your first post, when in Disk Utility, you select your Macintosh HD partition on the left and look at the bottom of the window to see the numbers**.

*

**

To learn more about Mac OS X: Helpful Information for Any Mac User by GGJstudios​

 

[olipalli]

it gives me the same information
Capacity: 999.25 GB
available: 857.45 GB
used: 151,801 GB

could it be that the message "your startup disk is almost full"
is giving me wrong information message

 

[Knoodles]

Used=151,801 GB? How can that be?

 

[WalterK]

Stumped too. Same message, but my limit isn't even close!


Capacity : 499.25 GB (499,248,103,424 Bytes)
Format : Mac OS Extended (Journaled) Available : 456.82 GB (456,822,169,600 Bytes)
Owners Enabled : Yes Used : 42.43 GB (42,425,933,824 Bytes)
Number of Folders : 137,125 Number of Files : 570,364

I used Time Machine once when I upgraded, but it is physically disconnected and turned OFF.

 

[The-Pro]

had this myself.
finder and disk utility said i har heaps of space left.
problem for me in the end was that time machine was backing uo my files but because I didnt have my HDD connected it backed them up locally. so i had 500gb of backups within days. Turned of Time Machine and it went away.
Dont know if this is your issue too but its worth checking out.

 

[WalterK]

Thank you so Much The-Pro.

"Turned of Time Machine and it went away.
Don't know if this is your issue too but its worth checking out."

I tried that already and it didn't work. Very frustrating. However, I will try it again
*********
Just tried. Did not work. Could you tell me specifically how you found the 500GB so I can try to look on my system? I don't know that I have the same issue...but getting very desperate as the computer is getting slower and slower, wheels turning round and round ;-), as I try to fix this. Every single measuring tool on my Mac Mini shows I have available 463 GB out of 499!

Regards,

WalterK
reagrds

Thank you

 

[WalterK]

Further...

Interestingly, the message seems to only come up when using Safari - not Firefox... Weird...

WalterK

 

[The-Pro]

shame it didnt work.
I believe I was using osx 10.8.x which has the colourful disk usage graph in about this mac. Despite everything saying it had heqps of storage free the Other bar in there was huge. I googled a bit and found this time machine thing.

Different thought. Is your harddrive degrading? go into disk utility and verify your HDD. It it needs to be repaired boot up into you recovery partition and repair it.
Unlickely as I have never heard of a degrading HDD causing that but who knows.

Also have a look at this thread that has a similar problem.https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1413246/
and this one
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1327640/

seems to be common that peoples HDD space is being eaten up by recovered mail. Quite some people me tion that in those threads

 

[WalterK]

Thank you again for offering help.

Well, here is where I stand now. I noticed the warning message was only appearing when I used Safari. So, why not try to clean the Safari cache? I did. Voila, the problem seems to have gone away. I couldn't find anything about this particular issue on the NET. But, perhaps someone else will be helped by this post in the future.

Thanks again.