Help! MacBook Pro Will Not Boot Up.

[RudolfDieselV16]

Hi, I am hoping somebody can assist me with a very worrying problem with my MacBook Pro. I own a 3 year old MacBook Pro which has 500GB flash memory and not the usual HDD. It is running OSX Mountain Lion. The problem I have is that I have allowed the flash storage to fill up and now my Mac will not boot up. When I push the start button, the usual login page appears along with a warning screen saying "your startup disk is full" then it says I need to make space by deleting files. When I then enter my user and password, a white screen appears with the rotating egg timer (football) then after about 5 mins it returns to the login page. I would have thought that there is some sort of emergency boot up procedure with the Mac. All I need is access to my folders to delete some files but I cannot as it wont boot up! Please help, I am panicking a bit now!
Cheers
Andy

 

[pigoo3]

The problem I have is that I have allowed the flash storage to fill up and now my Mac will not boot up. When I push the start button, the usual login page appears along with a warning screen saying "your startup disk is full" then it says I need to make space by deleting files.

Yes...this will happen when you let the storage get full!

Actually...at some point you're supposed to get a warning that says..."Your Startup disk is almost full."..which must have been ignored or missed! It looks like this:

All I need is access to my folders to delete some files but I cannot as it wont boot up!

Sounds simple...right! Except what many folks don't realize is...the Mac OS needs storage space to operate (the Mac OS maintains a "swap file" on the storage..HD, SSD, or flash storage). And without any free space...this situation occurs.

Yes you could boot into the "Recovery Partition"...but I don't think that you can access your files to free up space this way.

What I would do is...boot the computer from a bootable external drive. Then delete some stuff from the computers internal drive (enough so you can boot the copmputer from the internal to do more deleting).

- Nick

 

[pm-r]

You just might be able to boot up and login to delete some stuff by using the Safe Boot Method.

To do so from a cold start, press the Start key and only and immediately you hear the startup chime, press and hold down the shift key.

Login if you can after selecting your admin user name and enter password.

Good luck, otherwise do as Nick suggested.

- Patrick

 

[pigoo3]

You just might be able to boot up and login to delete some stuff by using the Safe Boot Method.

Hopefully it works...since many folks don't always have easy access to an external bootable drive.

- Nick

p.s. I usually don't need to "explore" something like this. I usually don't let my HD's get full.

 

[pm-r]

Hopefully it works...since many folks don't always have easy access to an external bootable drive.

- Nick

p.s. I usually don't need to "explore" something like this. I usually don't let my HD's get full.

I'm sure you don't. And unfortunately many just don't have a bootable backup external drive if they even have that!!

I had a client a month ago who got herself into the same situation so I suggested she drop over with her later MBPro and I thought I could do a quick fix using Target Disk Mode.

Boy was I surprised to find it didn't even have a FW or even an Ethernet port and I didn't have a proper TB cable. Another stupid $40.00-$60.00 expense I was able to bypass and luckily I had a bootable external drive with Mavericks installed so I ended using the same method you suggested. It worked!!

Then I also ran Monolingual on her MBPro, but protected her MS Office and some Adobe apps from being "cleaned" and it removed over 4GB of just surplus languages. What a waste of space, especially on anyone's high estate priced SSD they might be using.

Anyway, just a another added suggestion.

 

[pigoo3]

I'm sure you don't. And unfortunately many just don't have a bootable backup external drive if they even have that!!

Of course we know they should. At least for backups!

I had a client a month ago who got herself into the same situation so I suggested she drop over with her later MBPro and I thought I could do a quick fix using Target Disk Mode.

Boy was I surprised to find it didn't even have a FW or even an Ethernet port and I didn't have a proper TB cable. Another stupid $40.00-$60.00 expense I was able to bypass and luckily I had a bootable external drive with Mavericks installed so I ended using the same method you suggested. It worked!!

Great to hear you got her straightened out! Maybe by keeping the costs down (by using your assets)...she will be a repeat customer (if she isn't already).

- Nick