- How To Free Up Space On External Hard Drive Macbook Air
- How To Free Up Space On External Hard Drive Machine
If you purchase an external drive for your Mac, you might be doing so to free up space on your boot drive, or to provide a central and unrestricted area for all user accounts to access.
- A user's music and video collection can be one of the largest consumers of hard drive space on a Mac, and is typically overlooked in favor of other items when it comes time to free up drive space.
- I have the extract same issue. MacBook Pro with a 500gb internal drive. I have 17gb free space I spent the afternoon moving project and files to an external 1tb drive. My external show I have now used 200+gb of space and I only free up 6gb on my internal drive. Oh I am an IT tech I know the difference between move and copy.
- Drag your library to its new location on the external drive. If you see an error, select your external drive's icon in the Finder, then choose File Get Info. If the information under Sharing & Permissions isn't visible, click the triangle button, then make sure the 'Ignore ownership on this volume' checkbox is selected.
Most of us are keen to update to a new version of macOS as soon as it is available. macOS Big Sur has been out since November 12, still, many users couldn't update their Macs straight away. It’s very frustrating if you see a message telling you that you don’t have enough space to install the new macOS. Don’t worry, though. There are lots of things you can do to fix it. We’ll show you what they are in this article.
How much space do you need for Big Sur?
While the installer for Big Sur takes up less than 16GB of space, you should make sure that you have at least 20GB of free space on your startup disk before you try to download and install it. The more free space, the better. Your Mac uses disk space to store temporary files and provide storage for active apps and tasks (which is what RAM does), so you should never be running with almost no disk space left.
CleanMyMac X makes it very easy to free up disk space on your Mac by identifying junk files and allowing you to get rid of them with a click. It can also detect large and old files and show you the files taking up most space and uninstall applications.
How to free up space for macOS Big Sur?
Complete the following steps to ensure your Mac is ready to update to Big Sur.
1. Backup your Mac
Back up all files and data that are stored on your Mac. Preferably twice to different locations. While upgrading to Big Sur is safe, you never know when something might go wrong. If you use Time Machine or another backup tool, run a manual backup just before you upgrade. And, if you can, clone your startup disk to an external drive, too.
2. Free up disk space using CleanMyMac X
If you don’t already have CleanMyMac X installed, download it for free here. This tool will help you clear some space and delete large and old files quickly.
- Launch CleanMyMac X.
- Choose System Junk in the sidebar and press Scan.
- When it’s finished, press Clean to free up space, or Review Details to find out more.
3. Get rid of large and old files
Media files usually gobble up a large amount of disk space. And the worst thing is they are scattered around Mac’s folders, making it difficult to find and remove them. CleanMyMac X proves to be useful here:
- Choose Large & Old files in CleanMyMac X’s sidebar.
- Press Scan.
- When it’s finished, use the middle column to filter files by type.
- Check files that you want to delete.
- Press Remove.
4. Use Apple’s built-in storage management tool
Apple has provided a method for you to manage storage by showing you what is taking up disk space and making recommendations for deleting. It’s not as quick and easy as CleanMyMac X, but it can help you save disk space. Here’s how to use it.
- Click on the Apple menu and choose About this Mac.
- Select Storage and press Manage.
- In the Recommendations section, review each section in turn.
- Now go through each of the sections in the sidebar.
- Delete files or take further action, depending on what you choose.
5. Delete local Time Machine snapshots
There is one other thing you can try if you keep getting a message telling you that you do not have enough space to install Big Sur. You should only try it if you are sure there is enough space on your startup disk and that the message is wrong. And it will only work if you use Time Machine to back up your Mac.
Time Machine stores local snapshots on your Mac. Your Mac is supposed to count the space used by snapshots as free space, which is why it looks like you have enough space for the installation.
However, it seems that the installer may not realize the space is free. The solution is to delete the snapshots. This won’t remove backups on your backup disk, just snapshots on your Mac.
Open Time Machine from System Preferences. Uncheck Back Up Automatically and wait some time till Time Machine deletes snapshots. Then you can turn Time Machine back on.
If you’re familiar with Terminal, you can try deleting local snapshots manually.
- Go to Applications > Utilities and launch Terminal.
- Type:
tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
- You will see a list of snapshots that look like this:
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-10–09-002010.local
- To delete a snapshot, type:
sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots
- Then type the date part of the snapshot name. For example:
sudo tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2020-10–09-002010
- Type Return and repeat for each snapshot you want to delete.
Hopefully, this helped you free up some space and update your Mac to the latest OS. If you're just preparing your Mac for the upgrade, don't forget to back up your data before you start clearing space. So you won't be afraid of losing anything important.
The transition from hard drives to solid state storage on both portable and desktop Macs has meant a significant reduction in storage space for most of us. That in turn has meant that many of us now have at least one external hard drive, SSD, or USB stick on which to store files. But those drives too quickly fill up and so it’s useful to know how to clean up an external hard drive.
How you go about cleaning up depends on what you use the external drive for, so here’s our guide on how to format an external hard drive on Mac.
How to format an external hard drive on Mac
Let's figure out how to format the following types of volumes:
- USB drive or flash stick
- External hard drive
- Internal hard drive
How to format a hard drive for Mac using Disk Utility
If your Mac runs a newer operating system, like macOS Big Sur or macOS Catalina, you need to launch the built-in Disk Utility tool. But before that, you'll have to decide: are you erasing just a volume on your drive or your mainstartupdrive? The latter contains your macOS and if you erase it without a prior backup, you'll be in trouble.
Okay. Suppose, you'd like to format a hard drive that is your startup drive. Then, you'll need to start your Mac in a Recovery Mode.
Okay. Suppose, you'd like to format a hard drive that is your startup drive. Then, you'll need to start your Mac in a Recovery Mode.
- Shut down your Mac and turn it back on.
- Upon the startup, press and hold Command (⌘) and R keys.
- Release the keys when Apple logo appears.
You are now in macOS Utilities. To format a hard drive for Mac, choose Disk Utility in the list and click Continue.
But if you only need to format a volume (or a partition), you can access Disk Utility without entering a Recovery Mode.
Open the Launchpad in the Dock.
Type in 'Disk Utility' in the search field.
Here it is, Disk Utility where you can easily format external hard drive for Mac or any connected drive.
Open the Launchpad in the Dock.
Type in 'Disk Utility' in the search field.
Here it is, Disk Utility where you can easily format external hard drive for Mac or any connected drive.
Select the drive you would like to format and click 'Erase' at the top of the pane. The same works for any type of drive be it a USB stick or external storage. Please, be extra careful and pay attention to what is actually selected.
How to clear space on a Time Machine hard drive
If you use an external hard drive for Time Machine and find that it’s running out of space, you may need to delete older backups. Time Machine will normally warn you when free space is low and offer to delete backups automatically.
If it doesn’t, you can do it yourself from within Time Machine, using Terminal, or by again using an app like CleanMyMac X which has a module designed specifically for slimming down old Time Machine backups. Follow our guide on how to thin Time Machine snapshots.
Better ms paint.
Better ms paint.
How To Free Up Space On External Hard Drive Macbook Air
Tip:
To slim down your Time Machine backups, click on the Maintenance tab in CleanMyMac X.
To slim down your Time Machine backups, click on the Maintenance tab in CleanMyMac X.
How to reformat an external hard drive safely
If you're looking to format or reformat an external hard drive on your Mac, there are a couple of safety precautions.
1. Make sure you've got a backup option
1. Make sure you've got a backup option
Your Mac's hard drive may contain a number of partitions, including a separate partition for the macOS itself. If you accidentally format a part that contains your operating system, you'll have problems. But if that's what you aimed to do, proceed with caution. To prepare the backup, plug in an external drive with enough free space on it. Then, run Time Machine from your Launchpad.
2. Pick an appropriate file format
2. Pick an appropriate file format
How To Free Up Space On External Hard Drive Machine
Disk Utility will make you choose between APFS and Mac OS Extended. Here are a few more considerations:
- APFS is a preferred format for newer macOS versions.
- ExFat format can be read both by Mac and PC — a good option for data exchange.
- If your external drive will be used with older Mac that runs High Sierra or older system, again, choose Mac OS Extended.
If you want to securely erase the volume, select Security Options and choose them. If your Mac is a new one with an SSD drive, the Security Options may not be available.
3. What if you can't reformat an external hard drive on your Mac?
In some cases Disk Utility will not show your external drive. You can try one of the following:
- Use a different cable
- Shut down your Mac and unplug all peripherals.
- Try to format Mac external hard drive again.
Free up space on all your drives at once
When your drive is in use, and you constantly move files on and off, some micro files are left as a residue. These junk files may cause errors and prevent data from copying. By deleting them, you’ll quickly free up lots of space.
How much does imovie cost on mac.
How much does imovie cost on mac.
Tip: If you are copying a bunch of files onto a USB drive, zip them up beforehand. This way they will be copied faster.
You can identify the largest files on a drive manually by setting the Finder to list view and sorting files by size (click on the top of the Size column). However, you need to do that for every folder on the drive. Old files are another good candidate for deleting, or at least moving somewhere else. If you haven’t opened a file in six months or more, the chances are you won’t need it very often. You can use the same method to identify old files by sorting on Date Modified. Again, you’ll have to do it for every folder, so it could be time consuming. A much quicker way to identify and delete large and old files from your external hard drive or USB flash drive is to use a dedicated app like CleanMyMac X.
Below are two ways of removing files from your drives: the easy way and the manual one. Choose the one you like!
Remove files with CleanMyMac X
CleanMyMac has a utility designed specifically to identify files that are occupying lots of space and those that haven’t been opened for a while.
- Download the free version of CleanMyMac and launch the app.
- Choose Large & Old files tab.
- Choose the disk and press Scan.
- You can go through files one at a time or click on the categories to the left of the list to filter them.
- When you find a file you want to delete, check the circle next to it.
- Click Remove.
A nice way to discover some surprise items on your drive!
There are lots of options for freeing up space on an external hard drive, depending on what you use it for. If it’s a Time Machine backup or iTunes Library, you should do it from within those applications. Otherwise, one of the quickest ways to do it is to use CleanMyMac X to remove large and old files. That way you can reclaim the maximum amount of space for the minimum effort.
There are lots of options for freeing up space on an external hard drive, depending on what you use it for. If it’s a Time Machine backup or iTunes Library, you should do it from within those applications. Otherwise, one of the quickest ways to do it is to use CleanMyMac X to remove large and old files. That way you can reclaim the maximum amount of space for the minimum effort.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!