The Mac drive with the OS on it is the startup disk while the other drive is just used for storage of files.

And since you only have one disk, this is your startup disk: all 500GB.Ī Mac with two disks will have the storage divided between them.

The disk has an operating system (macOS Monterey), and user data (apps, etc).

It has one 'disk' on it, so all 500GB of storage is on that disk.

Let’s look at an example of a Mac with only one hard disk: Most Mac users have just one disk but power users may have two or more. Each disk (or partition) has your Mac data on it, which consists of your operating system, applications, etc. Your Mac hard drive consists of disks (or partitions). Understanding What “Your Disk is Almost Full” Means What is a startup disk?Ī startup disk, as taken from Apple Support article, is a volume or partition of a drive that contains a usable operating system. Still confused? Let’s break it down for you. Now, with all that said, let’s get into what exactly “Your disk is almost full” means.

So we still recommend getting CleanMyMac and actually dealing with extra files rather than simply moving them. Note: if you’re running a newer version of macOS, it has a built-in option of Optimized Storage that is supposed to solve the problem of the full hard drive by moving files into the cloud.īy clicking 'Manage' you can open the menu and see what Optimized storage offers. However, it moves junk and useless files to the cloud together with your files, and eventually, you end up paying for iCloud storage to store junk. It'll help you clean up gigabytes of disk space in just minutes (you can download it here). Or, even better, if you’re looking how to clear space on Mac, we’d highly recommend a utility called CleanMyMac X. So, if you’re not really interested in what it is and why it happens, just skip the next two sections and head to “ How to Clean Your Startup Disk”.

However, we also understand that some people are short on time and just want to fix startup disk full. How to prevent 'Your disk is almost full' problem?.What's causing 'Your disk is almost full' alert?.However, on newer macOS versions this message has been changed to “Your disk is almost full.”īut luckily, it’s a problem that has many solutions. But to help you do it all by yourself, we’ve gathered our best ideas and solutions below.įeatures described in this article refer to the MacPaw site version of CleanMyMac X.Ī full startup disk is something that every Mac user will experience. This problem used to be known as “Startup disk full” notification. So here's a tip for you: Download CleanMyMac to quickly solve some of the issues mentioned in this article.

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