OS X V10.6 Snow Leopard :: How To Make Space On Start Up Disk For Software Updates
Apr 16, 2012
I am trying to install software updates but cannot as It says that I do not have enough space on my start up disk and I need to clear files from the HD. How I do this, and if I delete them into trash will I loose this information.
Info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
I am most certain that this is the case: foolishly, I didnt leave much free space and now the disk doesnt want to mount. I tried the single user mode, I also booted from DVD, they appear but the disk utility shows the disk but I cannot repair the disk, because it is unmounted. I tried the basic commands in single user mode, no effect either. I still cant get over the blue screen with the apple logo and a circle running. I need to free up some spasce. Unforetunately, important files were not backedup, so I really cant delete the whole disk. I need to delete specific files.  I dont know where are my big files located - so, how do I orientate myself among the folders? Lets say I would delete my itunes libary, which I would later on renew thanks to the back/up, how would I delete them?Â
I bought Snow Leopard recently and attempted to install it yesterday. Mid-way through installation it cancelled due to "Unchangeable Disk Space." It gave me the option to restart and re-install, which I attempted, to the same error. I tried once more to no avail. At this point I attempted to restart using the old operating system (Leopard). When I did so the computer restarted. It stayed on the initial grey boot up screen (with the mac logo and the spinning circle thing underneath) for about 3 minutes before shutting down. This occurs every time I boot the computer back up.I am using a Macbook purchased November 2008 which was running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8.Â
I'm using a MacBook Pro (March 2011) running 10.6.8.Â
I just deleted (technically backed up to an external raid and then deleted from the system disk) about 8gb worth of files.Â
However, in Finder and in Disk Utility, it shows 1.96GB available. That number is up a little and for awhile at least, was growing.Â
I'm also experiencing this same problem on an external USB drive. I deleted about 3 gb worth of files, but the available disk space hasn't increased. Â
I'm coming from the PC world, where, if you delete a bunch of stuff, the free disk space magically increases to show the correct amount.Â
I often add very large files to my system before compressing them, sending them to clients, and then deleting them. This process leaves me constantly thinking about how much disk space I have free. Disk Utility, and an Apple approved app called DaisyDisk (space visualization) typically help me accompish this. Sadly, as of this week I seem to have a problem. When I went and looked the other day Disk U was telling me that 250gb of my 320gb drive is in use. This seemed high to me, but to be safe I thought I'd delete some files I didn't need. After deleting a bunch of videos, and a backup of my Main Identity (19gb) from my system, I'd assumed I had freed up about 24gb, but when I went back into Disk U it was still showing the same 250gb in use. Yes I rebooted my system, and made sure the trash was empty.
As I investigated further I did a get info on all 6 folders on the MacHD and they added up to about 170gb. That seemed more realistic, so I did a get info on my MacHD and again it showed the same thing 170 in use and 148.something available. Note: I have no partitions on this drive. But yet, still when I go to Disk U it seemed to be stuck at only 64gb free. Today when I went and looked again I am still seeing the same amount in use and free on the MacHD get info, but on Disk U now I am seeing 108 free and 211 in use. Why the difference? I would think Get Info was pulling from the same place as the mac disk utility.
I had some bad experiences in the past with my first MacBook Air (version 2.1) in which external drives kept getting erased without any good reason. I think it's due to the fact that I had to connect a USB cord to another computer when I had an external drive plugged into the MBA because the MBA could not power it on its own. Â I thought it was due to a bad external drive and I took it to Samsung service center and complained that their drive was malfunctioning. I got a refund. But later on, I found that the same thing happened to another external drive and to a USB flash drive, so I realized that it had nothing to do with the external disks and something to do with the computer. I used the same drives that got erased on a newer MacBook Air (version 3.2) and I never had the sudden erasure problem. Â
Anyhow that's the background to why I want to make a clone of the external disks in my possession. If for some reason, the external disk gets suddenly erased, I would like a copy somewhere in safekeeping so that I do not lose all my movies. Â
How do I make a clone of an external disk? Â
I will be using a MacBook Air (3.2) for this task. It has two USB ports. Can I use Carbon Copy Cloner to do this? Just choose a source disk (external disk I want to clone) and a destination disk (the external disk where I want it to be cloned to)?
Info: MBA v 3.2, 256GB SSD, 2.13GHz, 4GB, Other OS, 10.6.8
Whenever I boot up the SL install disk (either plugged in via USB drive or remote disc from my iMac), I select English as my language, "Continue" on the welcome screen, and when I get to the portion where I have to choose a disk to install onto, my MBA's hard drive has a yellow triangle on it and a caption underneath that says "Mac OS X Cannot Start Up From This Disk".
I've used Disk Utility to Verify and Repair, but still get the same result.
My MacBook Air is a 2nd generation machine, 120G hard drive (45G free), and MS Office 2008 installed. Other than that (and all my music and files), it's exactly as it came from Apple when I ordered it.
this isn't an isolated issue - there are threads about this over at Apple and InsanelyMac: I'm unable to install Snow Leopard. When I run the installer, it'll tell me that "Mac OS X cannot be installed on "Macintosh HD", because this disk cannot be used to start up your computer" (Macintosh HD being my OS X volume, obviously). I'm seeing this issue on a relatively new 1.8ghz Macbook Air with a 128gb SSD - however, as far as I can tell from the other threads, the problem also affects iMacs and Macbooks.
Some people apparently attributed the issue to a PGP installation they had on their harddrive. Others found a file called backup.backupdb in their root - deleting it fixed the problem. However, most people don't have any of that installed on their computers and the upgrade still won't work. - if anyone has found a solution to the issue, please let me know :-( I'm stuck here. I don't have an external drive for the MBA and booting from a network drive has never worked on this particular machine - so I can't do a clean install, either.
I am trying to back up my i-phone to my Mac OS-X 10.6.8 but it is saying my Start Up Disk is too full and won't back up. How do I delete some files from my start up disk?
My laptop keeps running slowly and the little ball spins and spins....now i am getting a warning that says that I need to make space on my start up disc....
why i am getting notification box statin "your Mac OS X startup disk has no more space available for app memory" only shows safari and finder open. how do i stop the pop up and fix the issue..
My Harddisk space on Mac book pro has run out. When I checked the system info, I can see 80GB are "other", for which I have no idea what they are. Can anyone tell me how to find them & delete to free up more space?
Your startup disk is almost full. You need to make more space available on your startup disk by deleting files. How can I delete duplicate files??? Don't want to delete files by files... folders by folders...
Getting a warning message says no available memory space in MAC OS X start up disk.Delete photos and email?Add memory? Both? It is affecting "Applications"  Â
Info: MacBook (13-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.4)
When I check for software updates only itunes and random other updates show up but not security updates or safari update. When i check installed updates I realized my last security update was 2011-004 and I still have safari 5.0.6.
My air is saying my start up disk is full. How do I delete files from it? Is there a specific location I'm supposed to delete from, or is it just general files from everywhere--email, etc.
whenever I run Time Machine on my PowerBook G4 (1.5 Ghz / 1Gb RAM / OSX 10.5.8) it will eat up GB's of hard disk space while 'preparing the backup'. After that it finishes the backup, but I don't get the space back. I'm talking about the internal HD, not the external target disk of course. Does Time Machine use the space to generate some temporary files? Any ideas how I can get my disk space back
I'm having a pretty serious problem. I attempted to erase the free space on my HD, as I do from time to time, except this time it appeared to hang/freeze at the end, when it gets to the part where it creates a temporary file. I waited for several minutes and it didn't move. I tried clicking the skip button, but that did nothing either, so I force quit Disk Utility.
The problem is, it left the disk at "Zero KB" of free space, effectively making my computer inoperable. I was in the process of studying for a huge exam tomorrow, and am currently flipping out.
If it matters, I'm on a Macbook Pro 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo, running 10.4.
I really don't want to have to reinstall the OS and import the old files, but my real fear is that I will have to do a fresh install of the OS.