- How To Make Room On Your Mac Startup Disk Backup
- How To Make Room On Your Mac Startup Disk Drive
- How To Make Room On Your Mac Startup Disk Recovery
- How To Make Room On Your Mac Startup Disk Windows 10
'Your startup disk is almost full. To make more space available on your startup disk, delete some files.' Inevitably, a full startup disk warning as such comes up on your MacBook Pro/Air, iMac, Mac Mini at some point. It indicates that you are running out of storage of the startup disk, which should be taken seriously, because a (almost) full startup disk will slow down your Mac and in extreme cases, the Mac won't start when startup disc was full.
A startup disk is a partition of a drive or a volume that contains a usable operating system. Your startup disk doesn't have to contain macOS. For example, your Mac can boot directly into Windows if you're using Boot Camp. It can also boot into Ubuntu or any other operating system supported by your Mac's hardware. How do I clear startup disk on Mac? Following the below-mentioned steps will help you make your Mac fresh again. Empty Your Trash. You can consider the message a 911 call. While your Mac is reaching out for your help, the most convenient method to get rid of this digital obesity is to remove files and data eating up the disk space.
In this post, we will cover every question you may have about full startup disk on Mac, including:
What is Startup Disk on Mac?
Simply put, a startup disk on Mac is a disk with a operating system(such as macOS Mojave) on it. Usually there is only one startup disk on a Mac, but it is also possible that you have divided your hard drive into different disks and get multiple startup disks.
Just to be sure, make all disks show up on your desktop: click Finder on the Dock, select Preferences and check 'Hard disks'. Iphone browser mac. If there are multiple icons showing up on Mac, it means that you have multiple disks on your Mac. However, you only need to clean the startup disk that your Mac is currently running on, which is the one that have been selected on System Preferences > Startup Disk.
What Does It Mean When Your Startup Disk Is Full?
When you are seeing this 'your startup disk is almost full' messages, it means that your MacBook or iMac is running on low space and you should clear your startup disk as soon as possible. Or the Mac will be acting weirdly because there is no enough storage space, such as getting intolerably slow, apps crashing unexpectedly.
So find out what's taking up space on your startup disks and make room on startup disk immediately. If you don't have time to delete files from startup disks one by one, you can ignore the rest of the article and download FonePaw MacMaster, a disk cleanup tool which can shows what's taking up space on the disk and remove unneeded large files, duplicate files, system files all at once.
How to See What's Taking up Space on Mac Startup Disk?
Why is my startup disk getting almost full. You can find the culprits by visiting About this Mac.
Step 1 Click on the Apple icon and select About this Mac.
Step 2 Click Storage.
Step 3 It will show how many storage has been used in your startup disk by which kind of data, such as photos, documents, audios, backups, movies and other.
If you are running on macOS Sierra or higher, you can optimize storage on Mac to free up space on startup disk. Click Manage and you can have all the options to optimize storage. Basically, the solution is to move your photos and documents to iCloud, so make sure you have enough iCloud storage.
How to Clean Startup Disk on MacBook/iMac/Mac Mini?
As you have figured our what is taking up space on the startup disk, you can start to clean the startup disk. If you are looking for a convenient way to clear disk space on Mac, FonePaw MacMasteris recommended. It can find out all junk files on startup disk and clean them in one click.
For example, if you find that photos is taking up too much space of the startup disk, you can use Similar Image Finder and Photo Cache on MacMaster to clear the startup disk.
To clean system storage on startup disk, MacMaster can delete System Junk, including cache, logs and more.
And if it is apps that are occupying the most space of startup disk, MacMaster Uninstaller can completely remove unwanted apps and related app data to reduce system storage on Mac.
MacMaster can also find and delete large/old files, iOS backups, mail attachments, trash, extensions and many other junk files from startup disk. It can make the startup disk almost full gone right away.
Download the free trial version of FonePaw MacMaster to have a try right away. It works with macOS Mojave, macOS High Sierra, macOS Sierra, OS X El Capitan and more.
Also, you can clean startup disk step by step manually, which will take longer time and more patient. Read on.
Empty the Trash
How To Make Room On Your Mac Startup Disk Backup
This may sound silly, but when you drag a file to the Trash, it is still using your disk space until you empty the file from the Trash. So the first thing you should do when your Mac tells you the startup is almost full is to empty the Trash. Before you do so, you should really make sure that all files on the Trash are useless. Emptying Trash is simply and can free up space on your startup disk right away.
Step 1 Right click the Trash icon in the the Dock.
Step 2 Select 'Empty Trash.'
Clean up Caches on Mac
A cache file is a temporary file created by apps and programs to run more quickly. Caches that you don't need, for example, caches of the applications that you no longer use, can fill up the disk space. So follow the steps below to remove caches and some caches are needed, Mac will automatically recreate them in the next reboot.
Step 1 Open Finder and select Go.
Step 2 Click on 'Go to Folder…'
Step 3 Type in '~/Library/Caches' and hit Enter. Delete all cache files that are large in size or belong to the application that you no longer use.
Step 4 Again, type in '/Library/Caches' in Go to Folder window and hit Enter. And then remove the cache files.
Remember to empty trash to regain disk space. Best homepage for mac.
Delete Old iOS Backups and Updates
If you often use iTunes to back up or upgrade your iOS devices, there may be backups and iOS software updates that are taking up your startup disk space. Find the iOS backups and update files and get rid of them.
Step 1 To locate iOS backups, open 'Go to Folder…' and enter the this path: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/.
Step 2 To locate iOS software updates, open 'Go to Folder…' and enter the the path for iPhone: ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates or the path for iPad: ~/Library/iTunes/iPad Software Updates.
Step 3 Clean all the old backups and update files you have found.
If you are using FonePaw MacMaster, you can click its iTunes Junk option to easily get rid of all backups, updates, and other junks iTunes has created all altogether.
Remove Duplicate Music and Videos on Mac
You may have many duplicate music and videos on your Mac that taking up extra space on your startup disk, for example, the songs that you have download twice. iTunes can detect duplicate music and videos on its library.
Step 1 Open iTunes.
Step 2 Click the View in the Menu and select Show Duplicate Items.
Step 3 You can then examine the duplicate music and videos and remove those you don't need.
If you need to detect duplicate files of other kinds, such as documents, photos, use FonePaw MacMaster.
Remove Large Files
The most effective way to free up space on startup disk is to remove large items from it. You can use Finder to quickly filter larger files. Then you can directly delete them or move them to an external storage device to free up space. This should quickly fix the 'startup disk almost full' error.
Step 1 Open Finder and go to any folder you like.
Step 2 Click 'This Mac' and select 'File Size' as the filter.
Step 3 Enter a file size to find files that is greater than the size. For example, find files that are larger than 500 MB.
Step 4 After that, you can identify the files and remove those you don't need.
Restart Your Mac
After the above steps, you can now restart Mac to make the changes to take effect. You should regain a large amount of free space after all the deleting and stop seeing 'the startup disk is almost full.' But as you continue to use the Mac, the startup disk may get full again, so get FonePaw MacMaster on your Mac to clean up space from time to time.
Are you getting a disk full warning on your MacBook Pro? It says you need to make more space available on your startup disk and urges you to delete files or save space by optimizing storage.
Like this – 'Your disk is almost full' (for macOS Sierra or later).
Or this – 'Your startup disk is almost full' (for earlier macOS versions).
How can you actually 'optimize storage'? Apple has some hints on freeing up storage space, but let's be honest — the tips are fairly generic! For example, one of them is a recommendation to use iCloud, a subscription service that we're not really a fan of because it isn't cheap and the file sync process can be time-consuming.
That's why we decide to write this post, offering a number of better ways to reclaim more space when MacBook startup disk is full. The best part? We'll make it as detailed as possible so you won't feel lost.
Let's get started, but first…
What's Filling up My MacBook Startup Disk?
So what exactly is your startup disk? Well, your startup disk is the partition on which your Mac operating system runs. It has a set amount of space (say, 500GB) that you can use to store applications and files. You can't get rid of that disk because it's what your Mac uses to function. However, as time goes on the files and apps you add to the MacBook drive will begin to accumulate and limit the space remaining on that disk.
Note: most MacBook users have just one disk named 'Macintosh HD' by default, but power users may have two or more.
You'll get a message from Apple system when your disk is almost full, and if it fills all the way up you won't be able to download new files, open attachments, or install new programs. An overfilled startup disk will also cause your MacBook to run slower since it won't be able to use RAM as effectively. This means keeping your disk clean is extremely important for daily operations.
To check what's taking up space on your mac, you can choose 'Manage' on the startup disk warning notification. If you're ahead of the curve and trying to clean up your Mac before being warned, you can access the management screen by going to About This Mac from the Apple menu (top left of your screen), and then choosing Storage.
You can also use CleanMyMac (via the Quick Menu shown below) to get a quick overview of how much storage space are taken. By the way, the app does more than just that. You can easily use it to clean up gigabytes of system junk and unnecessary files in minutes. How much is microsoft office 2019 for mac.
Regardless of which methods you use, these tools will help you see what's taking up the most space and guide you towards where to start trimming down.
How Do I Free up More Space on My MacBook?
Now that you know what's stealing your storage, how can you fix the problem? Aside from the obvious solutions like clearing the trash and downloads folder, there a few different methods you can use.
Tip: Before using any of these methods, backup important files! Time Machine is the built-in app you could use and it's free. You may also use advanced backup software Get Backup Pro, which offers more powerful and convenient backup options.
1. Erase Duplicate or Similar Files
These days we all are used to back up phone/camera photos to our computer, and believe it or not, identical or similar files can quickly add up and occupy lots of space. They can be duplicate documents, images taken twice (or more times), redundant backups, and several other formats. The tricky part is those files are usually not easy to be found.
Fortunately, you can use a handy app like Gemini to quickly locate them.
Using the app, you can choose folders to scan and find these unneeded duplicates. Gemini then separates exact duplicates from similar files so you know exactly what you're looking at, and you'll be prompted before deleting anything. It can help you reclaim a lot of valuable disk space in just a few minutes.
2. Offload Important but Infrequently Used Files
How often do you watch the movies you've downloaded to your computer? Do your old photos need to be within reach at all times or only upon occasion? If you're someone who keeps archives of documents, images, movies, programs, or other files but only occasionally reference them you might benefit from transferring them to an external drive.
Then start copying files from your MacBook to the external HDD. If you're copying projects such as unfinished movies or designs, make sure you copy all assets as well or the file will not be able to load properly.
3. Beware of Mac System Files
Depending on the macOS you're using, you might notice that 'System Storage' or 'Other Storage' keeps increasing and as a result, taking too much disk space. The worst part? You can't analyze what's stored inside as this option is greyed out by macOS by default.
Thankfully, you can use CleanMyMac X to get an 'insider' look and clean those unneeded system files. Just download the app and install it on your Mac. Open it, click on Space Lens, run quick scan of your Macintosh HD, then under 'System' folder, you'll be able to see all the details.
4. Sign up for a Better Cloud Storage Program
You may have noticed that Mac's storage manage panel prompts you to consider iCloud as a way to clear space (see the screenshot below). While we aren't a huge fan of Apple's subscription cloud storage program, there are plenty of alternatives available.
Two of the most popular are Google Drive and Dropbox.
Google drive will give you 15GB of free storage space, and the companion program Google Photos offers unlimited image and video storage at 16MP or 1080p and less. If you still don't have enough space, you can upgrade your Google Drive to 100GB for just $2/month or a terabyte for $9.99/month.
Dropbox offers a basic account for free with 2GB of space, but upgrading to Dropbox Plus will get you a terabyte of uploads for $9.99/month. According to 9to5mac, Dropbox stands out for its file-sync speed and reliability as he put:
'For me, the crucial benefit of Dropbox is speed and reliability. I've tried all the main services over the years, and Dropbox has always been 100% reliable and has consistently synced within seconds.'
Both programs offer an automatic import function as well to help cut down on your work.
How To Make Room On Your Mac Startup Disk Drive
5. Deep Clean Your MacBook Drive
If storage space seems to be a recurring problem, you will benefit from cleaning out system junk and useless files to stay on top of any storage issues. Again, CleanMyMac is the best solution to handle this. It's an app that provides you insightful information on what's taking away your storage.
You can use the app to scan unnecessary files such as temporary documents, attachments, and iTunes/iMovie junk that usually require extensive searching to find buried in your Mac's library. After the scan, it then offers a number of suggested actions you can take to reclaim more space.
How To Make Room On Your Mac Startup Disk Recovery
6. Manually Delete Old Large Files & Apps
If you're looking for a quick and short-term fix, manually clearing out those old large files will help you get a few extra gigabytes of space without sacrificing a great deal of time.
First, open Finder and navigate to 'All My Files' from the sidebar. Make sure your files are in list view (the icon that looks like 4 stacked lines should be dark grey) and then choose 'Size' from the header.
If you're on an older macOS, you'll need to click the settings gear in Finder and select ARRANGE BY > SIZE. This will produce a slightly different layout which groups your files by category (100MB – 10GB, 1MB – 100 MB, etc). You can find the size of each file by right-clicking and choosing 'Get Info'.
Once you know which files are largest, you can start removing those you no longer need and clearing space as efficiently as possible. Some common space hogs include videos, old DMGs, creative applications, and large audio files.
A quicker way to spot out old big files on your Mac is to run CleanMyMac X (again) and navigate through the Large & Old Files feature as it will sort all those items based on file size.
How To Make Room On Your Mac Startup Disk Windows 10
That's all we want to share with you in this article. Did you manage to address the disk almost full issue on your MacBook Pro? Which method(s) do you find most helpful? Or you have another awesome tip to reclaim more storage quickly? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
