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TICKET ARCHIVE -> freeing space on startup disk

benponte - May 11, 2008 - 11:37 pm

I keep getting messages to free space on my startup disk and would like to know the best way to this? I have a emac hard disk running mac os x 10.4 10

nhmac - May 12, 2008 - 6:10 am

It is good practice to keep at least 10% of your disk free. So if your drive is 40G, there should be at least 4G available at any given time. Failure to do this can result in the disk becoming not able to boot up.

Do you have an external backup drive? This is a good thing to have, and if it's got firewire, you can clone your system to it and boot from that in case of a problem.

What I'd recommend is to back up your files, and then delete things you don't need to keep on your hard drive until you have at least 10% free space. You can find out how big any given folder is by using the Get Info command.

--Beverly

benponte - May 12, 2008 - 7:53 am

Thankyou- I dont have an external drive as yet. Do you mean backing up files on an external drive?
I have an 80GB hard drive. With the get info tab you mentioned I noticed that my files (music, documents, photos) add up to about 45GB, applications about 8GB, and the rest is used by the library and systems folder (which I would be unsure whether or not it would be safe to delete.)
This leaves only 3GB remaining space- in this case is an external drive the only option?

nhmac - May 12, 2008 - 8:54 am

If you don't have an external drive I'd recommend that you get one, as running without a backup is never advisable. Meantime, to free up space, the easiest place to start would be this: install Applejack on your Mac (free download from versiontracker.com) and restart in single user mode (hold down command-s at startup); let it run all its tasks as it guides you. This will check your disk directories and catalogs to make sure everything is properly configured on that level, and may help some as it cleans up some unused caches and virtual memory that can invisibly take up space on your drive.

Beyond that you may want to investigate the Caches folder in your user Library folder. That's a whole lot of space in your Library, and while you never want to delete your Library folder, sometimes there are caches within it that can take up a lot of space. (One Mac I worked on had an owner who downloaded lots of video from the internet. I think it was his Quicktime cache that was over 2G.) Also check your Mail folder in that library folder (if you use Mail) - how much space is your Mail taking up? If a lot, do you have it full of attachments you no longer need?

It can take a bit of searching to find out where all the space is really going. Let me know what you find, and certainly don't delete anything you are not sure about needing, especially as you have no backup.

--Beverly

benponte - May 12, 2008 - 9:08 pm

thanks so much...getting there...
I downloaded applejack but it keeps looping after installation and going through the installation process again thus I am unable to run the application. Am I doing something wrong when I try to open it?
However I have successfully downloaded Yasu and Whatsize which have both been helpful. I have cleared system, local, user and download caches and reset system and home permissions. Would running applejack still be worthwhile?
Whatsize enabled me to see clearly which applications were the largest then I was able to delete some which were unused.
Thus I now almost have the 10GB free which you recommend. Once I delete some photos I should be there.
With regard to harddrives do you have any recommendations with regard to brands or sizes? Are they easy to install? Thanks again.

nhmac - May 12, 2008 - 9:55 pm

Applejack only runs in single user mode; don't try to run it when booted into your regular OS, that won't work. If you boot into single user mode you will see a lot of white text on a black screen, and after a bit of that it will say: For troubleshooting help type 'applejack' at the prompt. So then you type 'applejack' (without the quotes) and hit Return and it will walk you through everything from there. Might be worth it to run it just to have it check your filesystem. I install it on every Mac I care for because it will run when the system won't boot which is great.

OK, re hard drives, if you have an eMac, that is not so easy to replace the hard drive in. As long as your drive is checking out fine, you could just get an external. I have seen too many LaCie drives fail so I don't recommend those. Seagates have a good warranty. Firewire will make it able to be bootable which can be useful. Check dealmac.com. Personally I buy firewire cases and put Seagate hard drives in them (check Other World Computing or newegg.com).

--Beverly

benponte - May 14, 2008 - 9:19 pm

thanks again for your advice.
I have now successfully run applejack and the harddrive seems fine- I now have 12 GB free. However I just noticed that in the iphoto library folder there is a seperate folder ipod cache which is about 5 GB- can empty this cache manually by deleted the files from it- would that interfere with the running of my ipod or iphoto? This might sound stupid but what is a cache anyway?

markh999 - May 17, 2008 - 3:27 pm

Hey Ben,

I'm Mark, and I'll be helping you with this second problem. Thanks for returning to MacOSX.com! Next time, you can get a more prompt response for questions like this by opening a second ticket. This is because our technicians would see your new ticket at the top of the list, rather than the bottom.

Regarding the iPod Cache, in iTunes, you can tick a box saying 'Resize Photos for iPod'. The iPod Cache is a store of all of these resized photos, ready to transfer back to your iPod when you sync. Therefore, it would be ill-advised to delete this cache, as it could damage the sync process between your Mac and iPod.

I'd definitely second Beverly's advice to check out external hard drives from sites such as http://www.newegg.com in the US. I'd highly recommend the Western Digital MyBook range. One thing to be careful of when buying a hard drive is that you get the right 'interface' for your computer. For hard drives, this means USB or Firewire.

The 'eMac' range of Macs support both USB and Firewire. Firewire is slightly faster, so you should always try to get a 'Firewire 400' drive. Don't get a Firewire 800 drive, as your Mac doesn't support them.

Please let me know if this helps!

Thanks,

Mark

benponte - May 18, 2008 - 10:44 pm

thanks Mark. I actually emptied the ipod cache before I heard from you because I realised I realy didnt need the photos in my ipod - so this freed up another 5GB on my hard drive and obviously space on the ipod too- everything else seems to be syncing fine. thanks

TechSupport - May 21, 2008 - 10:50 pm

We apologize for not being able to resolve the issue you asked of us. It is the absolute worst case scenario for us to do this. In our review of why this happens, it generally is related to either the particular issue being addressed or frequently, incomplete or incorrect information provided. We hope by moving your request to the public forums that you will be able to get a solution without leaving you empty handed.

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http://macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=300654

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