start up disk is full

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I just recently reformated my iMac because I was getting the wheel all the time. I have started to restore my document and Now, it is saying my start up disk is full, when I have less then 50GB used and 950GB available. What do you think is my problem and what can I do?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
Try a restart as a first option
 
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I have restarted several times. I have done the disk check up and restarted. I empty the trash and restarted. Deleted all the spam and trash in the e-mails.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
It would help if you can tell us which iMac you have, year, model? Also, which version of OS X it's running? If you're running Lion or Mountain Lion you can access the Recovery partition by booting and holding down Command + R.
 
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I bought the iMac in Jan 2010. I am using Mountain Lion version 10.8.3. Processor 3.06 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo. Memory 4GB. 1TB. I have done the recovery by doing the Command + R. That still didn't work, as I still just got the Wheel in just about everything I did. It would take forever to load. So, then I decided to do a clean install. I erased everything and then reinstalled Mountain Lion. I started to restore some of my files from Carbonite and that is when I got the start up disk has no more memory. I am only using about 50GB of the 999GB that I have. I can't figure out why this is coming up. I did the clean reinstall, because I thought something was hung up and causing my computer to work constantly. What else can I do?
 
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Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
To be honest think the best plan is backup to an external hard drive using cloning software and FW800 connections. Using SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner the external will be bootable.
 
C

chas_m

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I think the problem you are having is that the internal hard drive is going/has gone bad. From your posts about constantly spinning beachballs that would be my lead suspicion. Trying to put stuff back on a bad drive is like trying to put air in a tire that still has a hole in it.

Sadly necessary disclaimer: I am not saying that I *know* this to be the problem, I am speculating based on the description of your issue provided in your posts. I could be wrong about what the root problem is.
 

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