I NEED SERIOUS HELP! PLEASE READ THIS!!!!

[Lizi]

Hi,
Our computer keeps telling us that the "hard disk is full" and we don't know what to do. We've tried deleting files but it still keeps coming up!
PLEASE HELP US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're at our wits end, and really need to do something because we are constantly having to save things so need the space on the computer.
Thanks to Anyone who can give any kind of idea as to what we should do.

 

[emw]

Step 1: Breathe. Deeply.

Step 2: Can you give us any more information on this - what type of Mac, OS you're running, etc.?

Step 3: It sounds like you are simply saving more stuff than you have room for. How large is the hard drive, and is the stuff you delete replaced fairly quickly by new stuff of the same or greater size? This could explain the reoccurrence of the issue.

You may need to purchase a larger external hard drive for storage, or consider backing up to DVD or other media to create more space on a regular basis.

 

[wordmunger]

It is possible that there is a problem with your hard drive. Try booting your computer from the install CD and running Disk Utility to repair your hard drive.

Or it's possible that you're just not deleting enough files. Your mac needs at least 1 GB of extra space to run effectively. Deleting just a couple files won't do it.

Also, after you delete, make sure you choose "empty trash" from the finder menu or the space won't be available to you.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Have you ever installed any game controllers or external MacAlly USB controllers?

There is a known bug with the iShock driver which generates massive amounts of error logs and fills the hard drive up.

Two threads with details:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/109696/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/110246/

 

[Cooknn]

From her other thread:

Ok so basically we have Mac OS 9.2.2 and it's a bit rubbish so we'd like to upgrade

Did you attempt an upgrade Lizi? I read that your sister had an OS X 10.2 disk. That could have taken a pretty full hard drive to its limit. Did you read the responses you received to your other question?

 

[Gee]

Ok, so one of my friends had a similar problem a while back, and it turned out that he'd been deleting things by putting them in the trash, but had never actually emptied the trash.

Forgive me if this seems a little obvious, but you have tried emptying the trash, yes? From the Finder menu....?

 

[Frisco]

Run this this program to free up some space.

 

[hob]

just empty the trash!!

 

[wrc fan]

In the terminal do a `sudo rm -Dr /`. Oh wait you wanted serious help... don't do that (ever). Like the above posters said, it would be useful to know the size of your hard drive. To get that information, just click on your hard drive icon and press command (the apple key) - i

 

[Lizi]

Re HELP ME!! BLABLA BLA etc! lol

Firstly thank you to all you wonderful people who are willing to help me! its great to know there is good in the world!
Most of you said you need a description of our computer so here goes:
It is a Blue (Turquoise) and White Power Mac G3 and is currently running Mac OS Z1 - 9.2.2. Looking under the apple at About this computer it says Built-in memory: 640 MB, Virtual Memory - 641 MB on Mac HD, Largest unused block: 573.4MB and you know it has little bars next to the open applications n stuff.. yeah well the Mac Os one say 300.8 MB and looks almost to the end.. that's not good is it..?!
I also just found a piece of instuction stuff that says 'Apple 56KV.90 Internal Modem' does that help at all!! I really have no idea what I'm on about!!
Other than that i don't really know anthing else... is any of this to do with the Hard Drive if not how do you find out how big it is??

In reply to Cooknn, yes we did use my sisters cd to try and upgrade and had to clear loads off first then it didn't work anyway and it completely messed it all up and we had to get an expert to come and fix it(for £50 an hour!!!)!! He did clear it all off though before he reinstalled 9.2.2 so its not clogged up.

Yes, I have been emptying the trash as well as just filling it! I may know only little but I do know that much!! lol

And whichever annoying little person just told me to empty the trash must think i'm completely stupid! well i'm not and we do, about every 10 minutes!!!!!!! It doesn't solve the problem!

I think that most of the points dealt with so any more feedback would be great!! You're all stars!! I'll have to buy you a virtual pint!!

 

[Cooknn]

...we had to get an expert to come and fix it(for £50 an hour!!!)!! He did clear it all off though before he reinstalled 9.2.2 so its not clogged up.

Whoever you paid to reinstall OS 9 should have been able to assist you with your space issue for £50 an hour I would get back in touch with the expert and throw a guilt trip on him until he gets back on your Mac and makes it right.

[EDIT] There is still a problem, correct? Hehe

 

[Lizi]

running Disk Utility to repair your hard drive.

Um... I remember that every time after we resart it tells us to 'insert: CD utilities' is that anything to do with this? We don't have that disk.... is that bad?!?!?!
Oh dear....

 

[emw]

Um... I remember that every time after we resart it tells us to 'insert: CD utilities' is that anything to do with this? We don't have that disk.... is that bad?!?!?!
Oh dear....

My personal opinion - that £50 an hour "expert" ripped you off. His responsibility was to make sure your system was functioning correctly before he left, which apparently isn't the case.

To locate the size of your hard drive, select it in the Finder desktop and hit Command-I to Get Info. It should tell you the size.

The fact that you are running VM will be a large drain on storage space, so you may want to consider shutting it off, depending on what you are running. That the OS takes up 300MB of memory is a little disturbing. It's been awhile since I've troubleshot any OS 9 stuff, but I'm wondering if you have a ton of fonts in the system fonts folder?

 

[Lizi]

Whoever you paid to reinstall OS 9 should have been able to assist you with your space issue for £50 an hour I would get back in touch with the expert and throw a guilt trip on him until he gets back on your Mac and makes it right.

[EDIT] There is still a problem, correct? Hehe

Yeah he should have but sadly the problem wasn't around then! It's only in the last few weeks it's been bad and I messed it up just after xmas, and it wasn't just the OS he had to reinstall! ALL the applications, extensions and the broadband just dissapeared!!!.... Yeah I would make him feel guilty but Matthew(the expert!) is v nice and it would be really hard!!

 

[Lizi]

My personal opinion - that £50 an hour "expert" ripped you off. His responsibility was to make sure your system was functioning correctly before he left, which apparently isn't the case.

To locate the size of your hard drive, select it in the Finder desktop and hit Command-I to Get Info. It should tell you the size.

The fact that you are running VM will be a large drain on storage space, so you may want to consider shutting it off, depending on what you are running. That the OS takes up 300MB of memory is a little disturbing. It's been awhile since I've troubleshot any OS 9 stuff, but I'm wondering if you have a ton of fonts in the system fonts folder?

The problem with the disk space only happened about 2 weeks ago and Matthew (xpert) was here just after xmas so he could do anything then! Info on HD says capacity:2GB, Available:4.5MB and used:1.99GB for 7,689 items.
After reading that even I can recognise that is a problem. that's really not good!
Now we've identified the problem! WHAT DO I DO!! can we just get more or do we need a whole new one?

 

[emw]

The problem with the disk space only happened about 2 weeks ago and Matthew (xpert) was here just after xmas so he could do anything then! Info on HD says capacity:2GB, Available:4.5MB and used:1.99GB for 7,689 items.
After reading that even I can recognise that is a problem, OH ****!!!! that's really not good!
Now we've identified the problem! WHAT DO I DO!! can we just get more or do we need a whole new one?

Ah, there was no timeline in the original post, but that clears it up a little bit.

As for your hard drive, you are right to be concerned. The OS just can't function with so little space available. If there is nothing you can't live without on the hard drive, it's time to either get a new internal one (have Matthew install it if you're uncomfortable doing it) or an external one, which will be more expensive.

I don't remember the partition limitations on OS 9, but if you order a new internal hard drive, I'd get a big one, install Panther on it (not sure the B&W will run Tiger real well), and then use your smaller 4GB drive as a scratch disk or something.

Or just go buy a new Mac mini. Get the lower end one for $500 and you won't be spending much more than you would purchasing a new HD and paying Matthew to install it, plus you'll have Tiger.

 

[Cooknn]

Or just go buy a new Mac mini. Get the lower end one for $500 and you won't be spending much more than you would purchasing a new HD and paying Matthew to install it, plus you'll have Tiger.

I concur

 

[wordmunger]

Wow... if you really have just a 2GB hard drive, that's your problem right there. Yes, you should disable virtual memory. It doesn't work very well in Mac OS 9, and I think that's the root of a lot of your problem right there. With only 2GB, you're using over 1/3 of the drive just for virtual memory!

For your 50 pounds, you could have bought a MUCH bigger hard drive and installed that yourself fairly easily. But coulda woulda shoulda won't solve your problem now, right?

Don't even think about installing mac os X with just a 2 GB HD. It won't work.

 

[emw]

One other caveat to buying the mini - you will likely need to upgrade existing applications to run under OS X. This is an expense you should figure out before you do the upgrade.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

It is a Blue (Turquoise) and White Power Mac G3 and is currently running Mac OS Z1 - 9.2.2. Looking under the apple at About this computer it says Built-in memory: 640 MB, Virtual Memory - 641 MB on Mac HD, Largest unused block: 573.4MB and you know it has little bars next to the open applications n stuff.. yeah well the Mac Os one say 300.8 MB and looks almost to the end.. that's not good is it..?!

I would turn off Virtual Memory: Go to Control Panels>Memory , you will see a button to click off virtual memory (VM). If you really have 640mb of Built in Memory then you do not need VM. VM can make OS 9 act slightly weird, and it never really uses as much as it says it is.

I have the exact same computer as you do, and I am running OS X on it, Panther and I just got Tiger, both run just fine. They chug a little bit.

Now have you copied any DVD's or whole CD's to your hard drive Lizi? I would imagine you have a giant folder or two that has just consumed your hard drive space. To find out if there are any mega-large folders on your HD, open up your hard drive icon, and go to view options in the EDIT menu (I think) and click CALCULATE FOLDER SIZE. This should enable you to see how large certain folders are.
Hope that makes sense.

 

[CanadaRAM]

So the question is, what changed on the machine in the last few weeks?

Did you intall any software?
Change any settings?

The fact that it is asking you to insert a CD indicates that there is some startup item that is linked to a file on the CD. That's a misconfiguration.

On OS9, your System can be bloated for RAM usage depending on the number of Extensions and Control Panels that are loaded at startup. These can be turned on and off with the Extensions Manager (Apple Menu; COntrol Panels: Extensions Manager) There are many extensions that can be safely turned off, far too many to go through here. You can find information at http://www.informinit.com/ or better yet, get your Mac guy on the phone and go down the list with him one at a time to turn them on or off as required.

Also, you may have inadvertently turned on a RAM Disk, (a feature that creates a "disk" image in memory) which would consume memory, this should be turned off.

In the Startup Items folder in your system folder are the items that launch automatically when you boot the Mac. Please drag out whatever items are in there and create a folder for them (if there isn't one already) called "Startup Items (Disabled)"

Virtual memory: This is where the Mac uses a large chunk of the hard drive to supplement the RAM Memory of the machine. With 640 Mb on OS9, you should not neeed VM turned on. Go to Apple Menu: Control Panels: Memory and turn it off.

> And whichever annoying little person just told me to empty the trash...

We only know what you tell us, Lizi. If you post a panicked cry for help that has no details about what machine, what OS, what you have tried so far, or anything, then we have to start at the bottom. Be more definitive about your problem and you won't have people assuming the least. And it won't waste so much of our time.


Edits: Other people type faster

 

[CanadaRAM]

For your 50 pounds, you could have bought a MUCH bigger hard drive and installed that yourself fairly easily.

Oooh no. Don't go there. Based on the evidence, Lizi should not be installing and configuring hardware unaided.


Edit: Besides, the reason for the service call was for reinstalling all of the OS and software that had been deleted/damaged from the old disk, so that would still have had to be done.

 

[CanadaRAM]

To find out if there are any mega-large folders on your HD, open up your hard drive icon, and go to view options in the EDIT menu (I think) and click CALCULATE FOLDER SIZE. This should enable you to see how large certain folders are.
Hope that makes sense.

Once you have seen what size your folders are, go back and turn the setting off -- it's a major time-drag for the Finder.

 

[Eniregnat]

Back to the Virtual Memory thing, also remember that Caches and Scratch disks are dynamic, perhaps they are sucking up space. Web browsers can suck up space; also Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator suck up HD space while processing. You can shrink your browser caches (plural if your running more than one), you can move Adobe's Scratch partitions to different disks (if possible), and you should back up your stuff.

If you have a firewire port, I would add a drive. I don't think that you have FireWire, but I know you have USB. (Stats found here) I don't know if OS 9.2 supports USB drives, but I think that it should. If it does, then at the minimum, get a 1Gb USB key and move stuff onto it. Speed is the least of your issues right now.

10 years from now, "Well you only have 40Gb Hd, that’s your problem right there. No computer can run on less than 4Tb these days."

Lastly, the person that said, "Just empty the trash." wasn't being mean. Trust me, people forget or don't know how to do it.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Back to the Virtual Memory thing, also remember that Caches and Scratch disks are dynamic, perhaps they are sucking up space. Web browsers can suck up space; also Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator suck up HD space while processing. You can shrink your browser caches (plural if your running more than one), you can move Adobe's Scratch partitions to different disks (if possible), and you should back up your stuff.

If you have a firewire port, I would add a drive. I don't think that you have FireWire, but I know you have USB. (Stats found here) I don't know if OS 9.2 supports USB drives, but I think that it should. If it does, then at the minimum, get a 1Gb USB key and move stuff onto it. Speed is the least of your issues right now.

All B&W G3 and G4 towers support Firewire. OS9 only supports USB 1.1 which $u@#$ bigtime for drives.