Error message when opening Audacity

[navynurse]

Hi everyone,
I am getting this error message when opening Audacity to start some new recordings: "there is very little free disk space on this volume. Please select another temporary directory in your preferences." What is this and how do i perform this function? I don't want to start new recordings and not be able to save any of them.

Thanks

navynurse

[kozikowski]

From the top bar on the desktop.

Go > Computer > Select your Hard Drive > File > Get Info.

My drive says Capacity 74GB and Available 28GB. What are your numbers?

Do you have any attached hard drives like USB or FireWire?

Koz

[navynurse]

Koz,
It says i have Capacity of 55.57GB; Available 16.1GB; used is 39.47GB on disk. I have a USB port extension but not an extra hard drive.
Paul

[kozikowski]

OK, now I'm scratching my head.... That should be enough unless you're recutting every conversation you ever had since you were born. In stereo.

Anyway. Launch Audacity.

Audacity > Preferences > Directories.

That should point you to a hidden folder like /tmp/koz....something. And it will give you a disk size. What does that say? Write everything down.

Koz

[navynurse]

Koz,
First thing, when I click on the Audacity icon I get this error message: Failed to get system statistics (error 2: no such file or directory). Then I clicked on Directories and got this: /tmp/audacity1.2-paulbuckholz Free space: 0 bytes

Paul

[kozikowski]

I think I know what the problem is in a fuzzy sense. What kind of Mac and which System?

Will it let you Export As WAV? You should do that if you have a show you're trying to save.

Did you have a system crash or an Audacity crash during a live capture?

Anyway. Close everything and restart your Mac.

Go > Utilities > Disk Utilities > Select your System Drive > Verify Disk.

Let it crank through that, and then...

... > Repair Permissions.

Did it make it through all that OK? Close the panel.

We're going to "reinstall" Audacity. We do that by destroying one file. Audacity 1.2 kept its preference file in a number of different places. Your job is to find it and trash it.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... =10#p34670

Like it says, a fresh Audacity will ask you "English?" when you launch it the first time.

Koz

[navynurse]

Okay Koz,
Went through the Disk cleaning. I now can open Audacity without any error messages. So, is there a way to put the recordings into another file. I noticed on the Recording Time Remaining, I only have 37 hours and 35 minutes. I know when i first started it was way over 40 hours. When this time starts counting down, what then happen, do I need to find another file for putting my recordings into? Let me answer your questions from the previous post.

I have a Mac Mini with OS X 10.4.11 version. When i export my recordings, I do it as a AIFF (mac compatibility). This way I can burn them to CD. I can't seem to burn WAV files. I haven't had Audacity crash during a recording session, i only get that distortion i posted about earlier. I then have to stop everything and start over again. I did the restart like you said, see comment above. Any other "tidbits" you have been very helpful with?

Paul

[kozikowski]

I was in the middle of a number of tidbits when my connection went down. [email protected]#%^}^

I'll pick this up later.

Koz

[kozikowski]

<<<When i export my recordings, I do it as a AIFF (mac compatibility).>>>

Windows WAV files are perfectly compatible with all three computing platforms. That's why it's the Audacity default.

<<<I can't seem to burn WAV files.>>>

Burn WAV files as produced by Audacity. Audacity wakes up from First Birthday with several unfortunate default values. 44100, 32-bit Floating and Mono. Open Audacity Preferences and change to 44100, 16-bit, Stereo. That's the technical standard for Music CD. Restart Audacity to make sure the settings "stick."

<<<I noticed on the Recording Time Remaining, I only have 37 hours and 35 minutes.>>>

Audacity always works in uncompressed music format. On average, that takes up about 700 MB per hour. People are always shocked when they discover that. You can't do serious production in a compressed format: MP3, M4A, AAC, etc.

<<<So, is there a way to put the recordings into another file. >>>

You can, but remember, you had a defect. Most people never have to mess with these files, and if you move them anywhere else, they stop being hidden. It could be very bad if you touched one of them by accident.

<<<i only get that distortion i posted about earlier.>>>

What distortion?

Koz

[navynurse]

When I am in the middle of a recording, all of a sudden the sound gets very distorted and I have to stop the recording. It's painful when you have a 20 minute mix your recording.