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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Getting Prompts about Startup Disk

buffy - Jun 22, 2008 - 5:45 pm

I am getting prompts that my "startup disk" is nearly full and that I need to delete files before I can proceed with other tasks. I do not know where my start up disk is to clean it up. Where/how do I find it? Thanks.

DeltaMac - Jun 22, 2008 - 6:06 pm

Your startup disk is your hard drive. If you only have one hard drive in your Power Mac, then that's your startup drive - which has your operating system, and your Mac starts up, or boots from that drive. Hence the name 'startup disk'.
Double click on your hard drive, and look at the part on the window which shows 'space available'. the 'nearly full' message will come up when your space available - or free space - is less than 250 MB. If you have an 80 GB hard drive, that means your drive is approximately 99.7% full. Most 'experts' think you should have AT LEAST 10-15% of space free. Using that example of an 80GB hard drive, you would want to keep space available ABOVE 8 GB, and probably 15 GB is even better. Less than 1 GB of free space is very hazardous, and you can permanently corrupt the directories on your hard drive if you choose to ignore the warning, and it will be too late to fix.
You should look through your hard drive for old files that you no longer need. You could back up files to an external hard drive, and there's other choices for that. You can download a utility that will show you where your space is being used. Here's one that works well - http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/31981

Let me know if I can help you with more...
- Dale

buffy - Jun 22, 2008 - 7:08 pm

I cleared out everything I can and all that is left, as far as I know, is what has been on the HD all along. It's telling me I have 220.5MB left and I don't know what else to do. I did not restart after I deleted the files. Will that make a difference?

buffy - Jun 22, 2008 - 7:34 pm

I deleted very large files from my desktop and then shut down and restarted. I now have 4.5GB available on the HD. Thank you for your response and your help.

All the best.

DeltaMac - Jun 22, 2008 - 8:01 pm

You should also boot to your install/restore DVD, and run Disk Utility from the menus. Choose your disk, and click the Repair Disk button (different from Repair Disk Permissions.) Let that complete, and if you see any items that are repaired, then run again, until no repairs are needed.
This is to assure that you don't have any problems in your disk directory.
Good luck!
- Dale