MacBook Air crashes after harddisk remained full, even after removing several GB.

[tingtongkoenie]

Hi,

Today my MacBook said the hard disk was getting full. This happend more in the past, typically after downloading podcasts and bringing pictures from camera to laptop.
I always cleared space in the past by putting items to external hd.
I know of course the bin must be emptied.
Today, when I deleted items, a message came they would be removed permanenty immediately. I thought because the memory was too full.

Even after removing 6 Gb, the system showed only 8 mb was free.
I switched off wifi and removed more files, but still no free disc space was created.

I tried restarting, but the laptop won't.

Now I get following message:

This appears for a few seconds, then he seems to start for a few seconds, before above screen re-appears.
After several tries, I get this, and the laptop shuts off:

It seemed like external party took over the laptop and memory ?

Hope for some help, as I am traveling with it now.

Thanks in advance

 

[Juicy Box]

It looks like a crashed boot drive, can you boot in recovery mode?

 

[tingtongkoenie]

Yes, that worked.

But I cannot reinstal MacOs as the laptop still claims there is no free disk space (which wasn't created after removing data. It remained full).

Any tips how to go forward from here ?
Thanks so much already.

 

[Juicy Box]

Before trying to reinstall the OS, try repairing the disk.

Let us know what happens.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Any tips how to go forward from here ?"

Yup. Easy to get running again.

1. Get an EXTERNAL USB3 drive. Even a USB3 flash drive will work, if it's 32gb or larger.

2. Boot to recovery, so you get the screen in post 3 above.

3. Insert the external drive (or flash drive) into a USB port.

4. Open Disk Utility.

5. Use Disk Utility to ERASE the external drive to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled", GUID partition format.

6. Quit Disk Utility and open the OS installer.

7. Choose to install the OS, BUT DO NOT INSTALL ONTO THE INTERNAL DRIVE.
Instead, install onto the USB external drive.

8. The OS install will take a while, and the Mac may reboot one or more times.

9. When done, you will set the initial setup screen (for the OS on the external drive). Set it up with a basic account with a username and password you can easily remember.

10. Once setup is done, you should be "in the finder", booted from the external drive.

11. Go to finder preferences/general. Choose to show hard disks and external disks on the desktop. Now you should see both the external drive and the internal drive.

What you need to do now is open the internal drive and start throwing things away. DELETE THEM.
Get rid of 20gb of junk.
Perhaps you can move some to the external drive.
Then, empty the trash.

Now power down. ALL THE WAY OFF.
Disconnect the external drive and try booting from the internal drive.
Can you get to the finder?

If you can, it's time to start learning about "the wheat and the chaff".
Keep the wheat,
but
Throw the chaff away!