Video footage takes up a lot of space on your hard drive; 5 mins of DV with sound will take up over a gigabyte of memory. You will also need space for renders and temporary files and should always leave 10% of the hard drive free for ‘working’.
making space on your hard drive
Sometimes your computer doesn't warn you early enough that your hard drive is full (this is not the same warning as insufficient or low memory). So keep an eye on this before (and as) you capture, because its much more difficult to delete things once you have started editing.
If you do get in this situation - firstly make a backup of where you are on your project (have other people been using this computer? - you might need to back up their files too, or check with them that they have really finished their project). Then you are going to have to start deleting old files - remember the main thing is to delete with loads of care and attention - only delete files that you know or understand.
One temptation is to delete some text files or a few still images, because you know these aren't tied to your project - but remember to gain the same amount of space as deleting a 4 minute video file you would have to delete about 1000 images or 10,000 documents. Maybe just deleting one long clip you know you don't need (and nobody else needs) will solve your problem.
When you ask someone if they have finished with a computer, they often answer 'yes'. However, value their project as highly as your own, check they have made proper back-ups
Hard drives are becoming so affordable now that it’s good practice to have separate drives for different projects or groups.
Hard disc space is relatively cheap: in 2010 a 1TB (1,000GB) drive can be bought for as little as £70. Hoorah!