Mac advice please

MatyMoo

Hi, I am a bit of a technophobe but usually don't have any problems with my Mac.

Recently I have been getting a message saying start up disc is full and I need to close apps to free up space - I have only had email and safari open at the time :mad:

I have used the search to find start up disc and it doesn't come up Any idea what I need to do?

SidP

You'll be far better off asking this question on the dedicated Apple forums: https://discussions.apple.com/. You can log in with your Apple ID.

If you can, have the exact error message to hand.

Handsome90

I'm not absolutely sure but I think that error means that your hard drive in your mac is running out of space. Try emptying trash, deleting files in download folder etc.

almillar

Don't worry SidP I think we can help here!
As Handsome90 says, it's hard disk space you're low on.
To find out how much you have, right-click (or cmd-click) on the Macintosh HD on your desktop or in Finder. Click properties. It'll tell you the size of the drive and how much is used or free. Can you tell us?
If you know there's nothing in it you may need again, do go ahead and empty deleted items - right click on the bin in the dock, and click Empty Trash. If you've never done that before, that could fix the problem!
What kind of Mac is it? I'd want to have at least 10GB free on my drive at all times...

Mr_Toad

You can check the state of your Mac using Activity Monitor. The easiest way to start it is to use Spotlight, the search facility.

Either click on the magnifying glass icon on the right side of the bar at the top of the screen or press the cmd key and the spacebar to open Spotlight and type activity monitor, it comes up on mine after typing ac.

Once activity monitor opens up there are several buttons CPU, System Memory, Disk Activity, Disk Usage and Network.

Click Disk Usage and it will tell you all you need to know, the size of the disk, the space used and the space free.

Have a look and get back to us and I can then take you through some options.


Edit:

Or what almillar says, it gives you the same info.

MatyMoo

I love you guys

The first thing I did was empty trash - only 2000+ items in there

Then checked Activity Monitor (who knew that was there )

All processes, Macintosh HD
Space utilized 138.07Gb
Space free 361.16Gb

Anything else I should check?

I don't feel comfortable on the Mac Forums, they all seem to expect a certain level of technical expertise that I just don't have :eek::o

Mr_Toad

MatyMoo wrote: »

I love you guys

The first thing I did was empty trash - only 2000+ items in there

Then checked Activity Monitor (who knew that was there )

All processes, Macintosh HD
Space utilized 138.07Gb
Space free 361.16Gb

Anything else I should check?

Not really, I think you've sorted your problem.

I don't feel comfortable on the Mac Forums, they all seem to expect a certain level of technical expertise that I just don't have :eek::o

Don't be intimidated or over impressed.

There are a lot of people on those forums who only know a little more than you but like to make out they're experts. They usually Google the problem then pass off other people's wisdom as their own and can be sarcastic with it.

The real experts are the ones who help and don't make a fuss or point out how clever they or how daft they think you might be.

Remember, there are no stupid questions only stupid answers.