Mac Problem

Hey folks,

My eMac is telling me that "my startup disk is almost full" and everything is running super-slow (almost frozen). Any idea how I could fix this?

Thanks,

Sounds like one of your partitions is filled up. Time to clean up / delete some log files I guess. (not a mac-user, but this happens on other *IX systems sometimes).

yup - you have to delete some stuff.
this happens to me when I load video on to a teeney weak lil' laptop . . .

thanks, i will start deleting right away. but just to be clear: i should be deleting things like old word documents (i.e. college thesis, saved already on a CD) and not applications (like Civ II), correct?

you folks rock!

Old word documents wont make much of a difference unless you literally have 1000s of em.

Applications are much better to delete as they take up much more space than documents. SO if you can get rid of some that would help.

But your best bet is system log and swap files, they are the bane of all OS's if not properly cared for.
No clue where to find them on a mac though

Photos can take up a lot of space too, depending on the resolution. Awhile back I got a LaCie hard drive and I move things over to that if they're not something I use on a regular basis. Good to do in case your hard drive dies, and it'll keep your machine running smoothly with more free memory.

One easy thing to do is empty your trash regularly.

Also - check your iPhoto trash. Mine was hiding thousands of deleted files that were still taking up space. (yes, I take A LOT of photos).

Here's a great list of things you can do to optimize your Mac's performace:
http://lowendmac.com/eubanks/07/0312.html

iPhoto drives me crazy the way it creates its own copy of photos so they then appear twice on my hard drive.