Start up disk is full

S

Sageburner


Joined
Jul 6, 2015
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hello,

My mac book air has been displaying a message stating my start up disk is almost full. Most of the storage is photos (2K) which I have moved to dropbox. Unfortunately there has been no change in the available storage. I have a Macbook pro of which I took the hard drive out of in order to use it as an external hard drive. Should I restart my Mac Air in target disk mode? Any suggestions would be helpful. There is a critical update which I need to dowload, however there isnt enough space. How do I empty the start up disk with out losing all my photos?
 
lclev

lclev


Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Messages
5,075
Reaction score
764
Points
113
Location
Ohio (USA)
Your Mac's Specs
2023-14" M3max MBPro, 64GB/1TB, iPhone 15 Pro, Watch Ultra
You don't say how big your startup drive is or what version of OS X you are running but I think you know you need to move stuff off your drive. Make sure you are actually moving them off the drive and then deleting them from the start up drive - not just copying them.

Also you should download Onyx and run it. It will clean out your caches and trash which will help.

Lisa
 
IndyBob

IndyBob


Joined
Oct 8, 2011
Messages
29
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Your Mac's Specs
iMac 27" Late 2012
Sageburner said:
Hello,

My mac book air has been displaying a message stating my start up disk is almost full. Most of the storage is photos (2K) which I have moved to dropbox. Unfortunately there has been no change in the available storage. I have a Macbook pro of which I took the hard drive out of in order to use it as an external hard drive. Should I restart my Mac Air in target disk mode? Any suggestions would be helpful. There is a critical update which I need to dowload, however there isnt enough space. How do I empty the start up disk with out losing all my photos?
Click to expand...

I may be mistaken but moving your photos to DropBox still keeps a copy on your hard drive.
I would copy the photos to a external drive, maybe 2 drives to be safe, and delete them from DropBox.
 
C

chas_m

Guest
By default, your Dropbox (et al, I prefer Copy) stores a copy of the files in a Dropbox folder in your Home folder. So of course you're not saving any space.

Do a search for instructions on how to make those files cloud-only in Dropbox (not difficult).
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top