Clean Cache,Scratch Disk, Startup Disk

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I am running OS 10.6.8 which I don't know if it is lion,snow leopard or what...recently when I wanna open some of my design programs it keeps on telling me:
your scratch disk is full or your startup disk is full. I don't know what to do about it. Any comments?
Shall I start my laptop on safe mode ( which I don't know how ) and go under library and empty the cache folders?
Can I delete the content of cache folders without starting in any specific mode? Just open and delete?

Tnx
 

pigoo3

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I am running OS 10.6.8 which I don't know if it is lion,snow leopard or what...recently when I wanna open some of my design programs it keeps on telling me:
your scratch disk is full or your startup disk is full. I don't know what to do about it. Any comments?

This probably means that your hard drive is full (which should be never allowed to happen). You need to boot your computer from either an external device with an OS installed on it (such as an external hard drive)...or boot the computer with an OS install disk.

You need to do this...so you can access your computers internal hard drive so you can either delete or remove some files from it creating some free space so the computer can operate/boot from its internal hard drive.

- Nick
 

pigoo3

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I still have about 2 GB left. Does this considered full?
When I re-start my computer, I can go on. Is this back up your theory?

Thanks

2gig is not much free space. We (as an approx. general rule) say that you should have 10-15% of the hard drive free to run best. This of course has some flexibility...since there is a big difference between an 80gig HD and a 1 terabyte HD (1000gigs).

To give you a bit more info...Mac OS X needs some free hard drive space to operate (the OS stores some info it needs to run on the hard drive). The more apps. you have open at the same time & the longer the Mac has been operating since it's last reboot...the potentially greater amount of hard drive space is needed.

When the computer is restarted/rebooted...the amount of free hard drive space that is needed for the OS to run properly is probably about as small as it can be...and once you start doing things on the computer (launch apps., send e-mails, surf the internet, etc. etc.)...this amount of hard drive space needed slowly increases.

So bottom line...with only 2gig of free hard drive space...restarting/rebooting the computer may (temporarily) help with the issue you have...but eventually even that last 2gig of free space will get used up by doing regular computing tasks (saving e-mails, downloading music, installing more apps...etc.etc.).

Since you are still able to restart/reboot your computer...AND have access to your computers internal HD...you need to ASAP (as I suggested above)...create additional free space on your HD. You can do this by:

- deleting/trashing anything that might be considered "junk"
- removing items (files or apps.) that are not being used frequently to an external storage device of some sort (then deleting them from the internal HD)

Do this until you have at least 10-15% free space (or more)...and keep an eye on things in the future to make sure the HD does not get too full.

Another solution would be to get a larger HD...but eventually you may fill up that HD as well. So it's really best to have some sort of "storage strategy"...where only frequently used items are stored on your computers internal HD. Less frequently used items are then stored on some sort of external device...or even an internet based storage account.

HTH,

- Nick
 
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As Nick advises more than full. Wonder the poor thing boots up at all. The 15% rule, if your hard drive is conservatively small, say 250GB, amounts to say 36GB minimum after formatting.
 
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Thank you Nick- I emptied about 30 GB and my Mac and I are super happy again.
 

pigoo3

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Thank you Nick- I emptied about 30 GB and my Mac and I are super happy again.

Good deal...glad to hear it!:)

Keep a VERY close "eye" on the amount of free space you have...otherwise you may/will end up in the same situation again. Depending what you do on your computer...30gig can be used up very easily.

- Nick
 

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