Cannot recover hard disk space when deleting and huge sparseimage

hi there,
System Version: Mac OS X 10.4.3 (8F46)
Kernel Version: Darwin 8.3.0
my problem is that I found the mac was running slow and I noticed the harddisks were getting full:
[veronique:/Users/e] e# df -H
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/disk0s3 60G 59G 729M 99% /
devfs 102K 102K 0B 100% /dev
fdesc 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev
<volfs> 524K 524K 0B 100% /.vol
/dev/disk1s2 60G 59G 725M 99% /Users/e
automount -nsl [246] 0B 0B 0B 100% /Network
automount -fstab [250] 0B 0B 0B 100% /automount/Servers
automount -static [250] 0B 0B 0B 100% /automount/static
Im not sure why they became this full but.. I then looked for big files and found a sparseimage of 40GB. I can mount it and all so it s in good shape.
I needed to free up space and I delete a lot of music files, pictures, a virtual pc file of several gigs and so forth, but when I ran a new df -H things had nt changed.. So im guessing all the data, inclusive deleted data is in the sparseimage? is this so? I ve emptied the trash several times.
I ve now tried to turn filevault OFF but it asked me to free up 1.9Gb.. catch 22.. if I rid myself of files it wont see more freed up space...
is there something I can do? I could mount the sparseimage and browse it and delete files there or back up whatever I need and then get rid of it? should I re install?
any help needs to go to [email protected] i went into my settings but didnt find out how to change my email. thats not impressive i know
eric

Here's what I had to resort to to forcibly reclaim missing free space on my FileVault-encrypted PowerBook G4.
After several days and more restart/shutdown trials than I can count, I could not for the life of me get my PowerBook to give me the "Reclaim free space" option that usually pops up. Not sure why. But, I was missing nearly 12GB of free space and kind of needed it.
I was able to force a space reclaim... but the process isn't exactly point-and-click.
•I mounted the PowerBook via Firewire target disk mode on my desktop and copied over my PB account's .sparseimage file to my desktop (didn't want to work on the original file in case I screwed it up).
•Used the terminal command "hdiutil compact" on the .sparseimage file (type "hdiutil compact " (with a trailing space) then before hitting return, drag the icon of the .sparseimage file on to the terminal. That'll insert the path of the file. Hit return.)
•Let it run. Took about 15 minutes or so. On a 27GB .sparseimage, the procedure recovered 12.5GB!
•Deleted the original .sparseimage from my PowerBook, emptied the trash, and copied over the newly compacted one. Rebooted the PB, and voila!
Do keep in mind though that you'll need at least as much free space as your Home folder occupies itself if you want to turn FileVault off.
PowerMac Dual 2.5GHz G5   Mac OS X (10.4)  

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