Mac OS X 10.3 Panther® and later include a built-in function for creating compressed archives of files or folders. If you have not done so already, this is an excellent time to consider implementing a comprehensive backup and recovery solution.
Archive old filesĪrchive move, copy and delete, or backup and remove files you do not use regularly to CD or another backup medium. E mptying the applications Trash may delete its contents immediately or move its contents to your personal Trash, which you can then empty as noted above. Some applications, such as iPhoto® and Mail, have their own Trash, spearate from the Trash seen in the Dock. In Finder, select Finder > Empty Trash or, under Mac OS X 10.3 or later, you can also select Finder > Secure Empty Trash.ĭo not use the Trash as a temporary storage area: only put an object in the Trash if you are sure it is no longer needed. Empty the TrashĪs obvious as it may sound, some folks regularly Trash files but neglect to periodically empty the Trash. You can employ any of the following tips to increase the free space available on your Mac OS X startup disk without altering your hardware. In the General pane, the Capacity, Available (free space), and space Used on your startup disk will be displayed, as seen in the following screen shot:
While you could replace your current hard drive with a larger model, or install a second internal hard drive if your Mac will support such, the following tips will help you to free some space without changing your hardware. This extract from a chapter of our book Troubleshooting Mac® OS X describes several ways to free-up space on your Mac OS X startup disk, also known as your Mac OS X boot volume. Then the system will launch from that device every time.Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk unless you keep the boot media in the USB port. That won’t be a problem, since the BIOS will move to the next device in the boot sequence. In the future, your computer will first check the USB port for boot media when starting up. If you do nothing, your computer will go to the next device in the boot sequence list, which will likely be your hard drive. Stay alert! Depending on your BIOS, you may be prompted with a message to Press any key to boot from external device and you will only have a few seconds to respond.The computer will restart using the new settings, booting from your USB drive.Save the change and then exit the BIOS Setup.Move USB device to the top of that hard drive list In that case, you’ll need to:Įxpand to show all hard drive device options NOTE: If you cannot find USB or Removable Devices among the device options, your BIOS may list it under Hard Drive Devices. Move USB to be first in the boot sequence.All of the available system devices will be displayed in order of their boot priority. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, select the BOOT tab.When you choose to enter BIOS Setup, the setup utility page will appear.(Depending on the company that created your version of BIOS, a menu may appear.) During the initial startup screen, press ESC, F1, F2, F8 or F10.Press the Power button for your computer.Start by plugging the thumb drive into a USB port. Otherwise the computer will load from the hard drive as normal. If you’re booting from USB media, you must change the BIOS boot order so the USB device is listed first.
The boot order tells the machine which devices to search for the software needed to launch the computer and the priority each device in that search. That’s because the BIOS settings include the boot sequence the machine follows when starting up.
Starting your PC using USB rescue media is not difficult, although it first requires an adjustment in the BIOS (Basic Input Output System).