start up disk full - alert

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How do I clean up this start up disk? the mini mac is new and I don't know how to get to that file?
 

Ric

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Hi there and welcome,

first thing to do...Restart.

This will free up a little space for now.

Next, can you single click on your Hard Disk icon and then do command + i (the command key has the Apple sign on it).

Then post what it says in the info box, ie how much used, how much free...

regards

Ric
 

Ric

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Hi there,

first get OnyX, and run all the items in the maintenance tab...then restart and see if that has gained a little space.

Next download Disk Inventory X. This is a great way to 'visually see' what is taking up space on your drive...

Make sure that anything valuable to you is backed up before throwing stuff away.

I can't really advise on what to throw away, without seeing your hard drive.

Have a look at the screen that Disk Inventory X produces and see if that helps.

Make sure you empty the trash after you have put stuff into it.

regards

Ric
 
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I keep getting that 'disk full' window too and I don't know what I'm doing!! First of all, my trash barrel is filled and I can't get any info on how to empty it. Secondly, from what I read recently over and over again in Mac Help, it says to back up everything first, blah blah blah. I'm lost. I don't know a file from an application!! I came into the computer world somewhere in the middle and never learned basic understanding of terms. Now I feel completely overwhelmed and drowning here! That's the first big problem I have. The next issue is I have a new MacBook and I'm having much trouble transferring files. But first things first. Please .......... somebody COMMUNICATE with me like I'm 4 years old.
 

Ric

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Hi there EiBaby and welcome !

move the 'pointer' over the trash icon...then click and hold down till the menu pops up...then 'empty trash'

regards

Ric
 
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Hey thanks Ric, for getting back to me so quickly!!! And ........ it worked! Now my question is this: will it result in more room on the start up disc now that the trash has been emptied?? Or does that have nothing to do with it? I don't understand what I'm doing that might be taking up more space as the window intermittently still shows up. I downloaded the "disc inventory" as you(?) might have suggested some where and now I don't know what to do with it. There's no red circle to click on to get rid of it. The 'select folder' means nothing to me nor does the 'open volume' (that doesn't highlight!) ring any bells. LOL! You just gotta, y'know? Any more instructions on how to proceed with making more room on startup disc? It isn't really a physical 'disc', is it. Thanks for any help. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........................
 
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yes throwing away your trash does have an effect on your availble space
yes it is a physical disc in side your mac mini no you cant take it out or replace it with a bigger one wel you can but its nothing you'd would want to do anyway

what exactly have you been doing with the machine ?
how long do you have had it for ?
do you have any movie files ( either in documents or movie folder) or music files
they eat a lot of space
 
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I thought emptying the trash helped alot and then I got the window alert again.
I've had it for two years. I have used it mostly for personal use. I have alot of music in my itunes library. Can I burn a disc (or several) to save them? They're all on my ipod. I also have lots of photos & maybe a couple short videos. Thanks for any help.......
 
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yes you can burn your mp3's to a disc
i dont think you have toast do you ?
in your right click on the music folder and click this info maybe you can tell us how big your mp3 collection is for comparison my mp3 collection takes up 20 gig

pictures generally dont tak eup much space unless you have thousands of them
 
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I just started getting this same problem on my 15" PowerBook G4. I have 52GB available! I noticed when I tried to download an episode of CSI it wouldn't let me download it, saying that it couldn't read from or write to the disk. Any suggesetions??
 
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Hi, I'm having a similar problem that I can't seem to find an end to!

My HD (OS Panther) has a 37.14 GB capacity, but less than 1 GB of free space- 899.6 MB, exactly.

I've restarted, securely emptied the trash, archived old files, uninstalled unneeded languages through MONOLINGUAL and have run MACJANITOR and ONYX to clean up maintenance scripts.

I don't know what I could possibly be doing to my poor computer,
please help!

P.S. Is it safe to uninstall .dmg files after a download (especially by simply dragging them to the trash, and emptying)??
 
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.dmg files are safe to remove, they serve no purpose after you have installed the program. You could burn then to a DVD or CD in case you wish to reinstall the program at a later date without having to download it again (though, the program will probably have been updated by then, so it's often better to download it again anyway).
 
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.dmg files are safe to remove, they serve no purpose after you have installed the program. You could burn then to a DVD or CD in case you wish to reinstall the program at a later date without having to download it again (though, the program will probably have been updated by then, so it's often better to download it again anyway).

Thanks so much, unfortunantly, that freed up little space. Do you have any foolproof tips for that?

Thanks!
 
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Unfortunately not, I found myself having little space free for some time and not knowing what to remove even though I'm decently computer-savvy, no matter the system really (then the hard disk crashed, but that's most surely pretty unrelated, I'm getting a 120GB drive now to replace the 40GB I had).
 
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I think I finally got it cleared up. Apparently I had some problems with the HD catalog and I had to run Disk Utility from my OSX disk.
 

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