Compressing a File Vault folder

I have my Home folder encrypted using File Vault. I have just deleted 9Gb of files from that folder. How do I now free up the disk space.

Start with http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303617

Similar Messages

  • How to compress my files and folders, How to compress my files and folders

    Good morning,
    My name is Jai Bhandari and I am from London, UK.
    I am sending this out to everyone that can help me to compress my files and folders, as I believe my macbook pro is starting to freeze and caused by having a slow machine, is there anyone that can suggest to me how and what do I use to compress these files into one folder.
    Thank you for reading this and hope to hear from you soon.
    Many regards
    Jai

    You can 'compress' files and folders from the Finder by selecting the items and choosing File>Compress "selected file or folder". This will create a zip archive and will save you some space. (I just tried it on a 16GB folder and it compressed it to an 11GB zip file). After you zip the file/folder the original can be deleted )until you need to access it again, then you can just double-click the zip file).
    If you're trying to free up disk space on your hard drive, this is not the best method... but you didn't ask about that...
    Clinton

  • How do you purge/compress/shrink the iPhoto11 folder/file size?

    How do you purge/compress/shrink the iPhoto11 folder/file size?
    I have been using iPhoto since iLife'05 and have always upgraded with each iteration of iLife. Without exception, I had just recently upgraded to iPhoto'11 when iLife'11 came out. Because I have used iPhoto to store all my photos and videos taken over the last 5 years or so, my iPhoto folder/file has become bigger and bigger over time and so I moved it to an external hard-drive. My main iPhoto'11 folder/file has 14,367 photos, 995 videos and is indicated to be 83 GB by iPhoto'11. But "Get Info" in Finder reports a whopping 130 GB.
    I started to think that this is getting a little crazy and I had wanted to better manage my photo collection, so I decided to "divide and conquer" this gigantic iPhoto'11 folder/file into several smaller, more manageable sized ones. So I made a duplicate copy of this gigantic iPhoto'11 folder/file onto another external hard-drive, fire-up iPhoto'11 again to delete away almost 80% of the photos and 90% of the videos. Now, my "slimmed-down" iPhoto folder/file has 3,000 photos, 75 videos and is indicated to be 6.8 GB by iPhoto'11. But despite the new "slimmed-down" status, the "Get Info" in Finder reports a still very huge 44 GB. Where did all those bulk come from? I have emptied both the iPhoto'11 Trash Can and Mac OS X Trash Can and these steps did not seemed to change anything at all.
    Therefore, I wanted to see what the "Get Info" in Finder will report if I were to delete 99.99% of the photos and video to leave just one (1) photo in iPhoto'11? Guess what is the result? My "One Photo experimental" iPhoto folder/file has 1 photo, 0 videos and is indicated to be 2 MB by iPhoto'11 yet the "Get Info" in Finder reports a mysterious 36.3 GB. There must be something hiding inside!
    Help! What can I do?

    I went on to try trashing away some of the folders and files inside and found that I could actually do it quite neatly if I go by the year which the photos are taken. After a lot of trial and error working on duplicate copy of my iPhoto '11 library, I am able to do away with all the clutter within the library and still open it normally.
    Now my 44GB obese iPhoto'11 library has been slimmed down to just a little over 7 GB (5 GB as reported by iPhoto'11) and I am just comfortable dealing with 2 GB of "don't-know-what-info" of clutter within the library.
    Remember my "One Photo Experimental" iPhoto'11 library that was 36.3 GB? I managed to bring it down to the realistic 22 MB size. This size is still double that of a brand new iPhoto'11 library I created to import 1 photo. However, it sure beat having 36.3 GB of clutter.
    So, now what I am gonna do is to "divide and conquer" the duplicate copies of my iPhoto'11 library into smaller sized ones according to their year. But I think I'll still keep the original bloated, gigantic 130 GB intact and continue to feed it with photos and videos until maybe it becomes 1 TB! Yikes!
    Anyway, million thanks for your tip and I really appreciate it! Have a Happy holidays!

  • Problem: securely erasing home folder after enabling file vault

    I enabled file vault. It took 4 days (125 GB) to "securely erase home folder", then when it finally reached 100% I got an error message that it could not be erased after all. I also now got an icon on the desktop (protected house) showing my home folder. Anybody experience with this? What do I do to securely erase? What can I do to speed it up? I have 4GB RAM and a HD of 500GB

    open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
    At the prompt type:
    diskutil secureErase freespace 0 /
    (press return)
    This will secure erase free space on your boot volume.
    Level "0" (zero) is a Single-pass zero-fill erase. Levels 0 through 4 are supported.
    Here is a full description of the different erase levels: 0 - Single-pass zero-fill erase.
    A. 1 - Single-pass random-fill erase.
    B. 2 - US DoD 7-pass secure erase.
    C. 3 - Gutmann algorithm 35-pass secure erase.
    D. 4 - US DoE algorithm 3-pass secure erase.
    for more info (in Terminal) type:
    man diskutil
    (press return)
    This should take considerably less time than 4 days. On my Mac Pro with 162GB boot volume,
    130GB free (I keep my data on a different volume) it takes about 10 minutes using level "0".
    Disk Free Space Warnings are normal during operation and can be ignored.
    more info about it from apple support:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24002
    You can invoke the erase procedure from Disk Utility GUI interface, but it usually is quicker
    when run from terminal.
    Kj ♘

  • Is it possible to recover a folder ropped into 'File Vault' user?

    Hello all,
    I dropped a folder directly from one user folder into another user folder that is 'file-vaulted'. Yes, I did get a warning that it might not work, but no I didn't listen. The folder seems to have disappeared completely. It doesn't show up in Finder searches. My question: is there any way I might be able to recover it?
    Thanks!
    js
    Watch me on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYR0DRxZRWo

    The length of time with no reply tells me the answer must be "no".

  • Is hard drive file and folder compression lossy - Windows XP

    If I archive my projects from an uncompressed drive to one that has a NTFS format with File and Folder Compression enabled, will the compression process reduce the quality of the video? Obviously, I'd like to utilize the space on the archive hard drive as much as possible, but I do not want to lose any quality of my projects.

    <[email protected]> wrote in message<br />news:[email protected]<br /><br />> If I archive my projects from an uncompressed drive to<br />> one that has a NTFS format with File and Folder<br />> Compression enabled, will the compression process reduce<br />> the quality of the video?<br /><br />Nom, but it won't reduce the size of files significantly, either.<br /><br />> Obviously, I'd like to utilize<br />> the space on the archive hard drive as much as possible,<br />> but I do not want to lose any quality of my projects.<br /><br />NTFS compression is lossless compression. That means that writing and <br />reading via it will be bit-perfect. Look at it this way, if even one bit of <br />an executable  program's .EXE file gets changed, the whole program can fail.<br /><br />NTFS file compression trades CPU cycles for disk space.  If the file being <br />written is essentially uncompressible, then you lose the CPU cycles and get <br />no space back in return. IOW, you lost all those CPU cycles for nothing.<br /><br />Video files tend to be rather uncompressible because they are already <br />compressed. Even DV-AVI files are compressed pretty signficantly.<br /><br />I made a compressed folder and then copied 3 files to it.  I checked their <br />individual file properties made sure that their compressed flag was on in <br />advanced properties. The AVI and MPG files were only a tiny bit smaller, but <br />the text file shrunk by about 60%.<br /><br />The AVI file was 14.8 MB (15,613,870 bytes) uncompressed, and 14.6 MB <br />(15,376,384 bytes) compressed. That's less than a 2% improvement.

  • Can not log in due to file vault-protected home folder error

    I´m posting this for a friend... apparently his kids were playing with the machine and now he can´t log in... this is what he gets:
    YOUR FILE VAULT - PROTECTED HOME FOLDER NEEDS TO BE REPAIRED. Options: Click OK to repair folder and continue logging in
    When he clicks OK he gets "Unable to log in"
    He is stuck at the log in screen and can´t continue.. please help.
    Thanks in advance for any help you may offer

    Hi Aaron, and a warm welcome to the forums!
    Could be many things, we should start with this...
    "Try Disk Utility
    1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
    2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
    *Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
    3. Click the First Aid tab.
    4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
    5. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
    Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), if it logs him in, run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
    (Safe boot may stay on the gray radian for a long time, let it go, it's trying to repair the Hard Drive.)
    If perchance you can't find your install Disc, at least try it from the Safe Boot part onward.

  • HT3275 How do I find/restore files from items in secure home folder? How do I find/restore files that crashed when in finder of secure (File Vault) home folder?

    How do I find/restore files from items in secure (File Vault) home folder? How do I find/restore files that crashed when in finder of secure (File Vault) home folder?  When I go into Time Machine, I see earlier dates but can't see files in my User File. I have File Vault turned on and see my home folder as a sparsebundle.  Do I neede to restore this in order to see files in my home folder.  When I click on it to restore it gives me an estimated time of over 2 hours.  Also tried to restore an Excel file I was working on when computer hung, so lost it without saving or naming it.  Does it exist anyplace and can I restore it?

    Thanks. I had pretty much figured out from other posts that I had better turn off File Vault for my home folder and use a disk utility sparse bundel for little information I wanted to secure. The information about File Vault 2 in Lion was new and useful though.

  • File Vault requires free space equal to size of Home Folder?

    Is it true that File Vault requires you maintain free disk space equal to the size of your home folder? Or is that only necessary in order to create the vault in the first place?

    I'm really sorry but I still am no clear if you gave me an answer to my original question, which was "Is it true that File Vault requires you maintain free disk space equal to the size of your home folder?"
    I understand I need to have free space equal to the size of my Home Folder for initial encryption.
    I understand I need to have free space equal to the size of my Home Folder should I decide to restore (or unencrypt) the encrypted folder. This is easy to do by simply moving files off to an external drive.
    I understand that having a full drive can result in degredation of system performance.
    What is still not clear to me, is whether I must maintain that space during day to day operation.
    Realistically, my Home Folder is about 90GB, after having removed graphics and music files. I would prefer not to have to maintain 90gb of free space during normal operation. If my drive has 30gb or more of free space, that should be more than enough to maintain reasonable system performance.

  • I have a Probook running 10.7.5 and have compressed the 60Gb MobileSync folder into a zip file that is... 60Gb, the original file is still there so I have just lost another 60Gb of space.  What's going on?

    I have a Probook running 10.7.5 and have compressed the 60Gb MobileSync folder into a zip file that is... 60Gb, the original file is still there so I have just lost another 60Gb of space.  What's going on?

    Habibullah Allah Yar.
    Kabul Afghanistan.
    Head of Green Shaheen Group of Company's.
    Website: www.gsls-c.com.
    <Personal Information Edited by Host>

  • Lion OSX File Vault and filesharing with unencrypted users/computers

    How does File Vault 2 work in the following Use-Case? 
    User A, has full disk encryption through File Vault enabled on a MacBook Air. 
    User A has an Microsoft Excel file that has been stored in his/her Documents Folder on their encrypted drive. 
    User A wants to share this file with User B so that User B can finish entering data and adding some calculations. 
    User B is a Windows 7 PC with no disk encryption. 
    User A drops this file on a WIndows file server that both User A and User B has access to. 
    This file server is not an encrypted system. 
    Will the act of User A dropping the file on the file server automatically unencrypt the file so the User B can open the Excel file and work with it?

    The files don't get passed as an encrypted object. They get passed as files. The encryption/decryption works at a level that is transparent to just about everything, includingthe file system.
    So, no, the file is not encrypted when you drop it onto a file server.

  • You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount "...

    I know there are various posts already out there on remedies for recovering your data stored on a FileVault account when you receive the following message at the login screen; *"You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount " at this time"*, but this genuinely worked for me despite AppleCare providing absolutely no assistance whatsoever. In fact, if I had followed their advise I'd be inconsolable right now having wiped my MacBook Pro and contemplating the prospect of rewriting my two essays due in 3 days time!
    I, in a moment of shear stupidity, decided to move the sparsebundle file in my one and only account to trash. Thinking nothing of my foolish actions I shut down for the evening without a care in the world. The next day I started up my computer as usual, and as usual I was prompted at the login screen for my password. I entered the correct password, but was alarmed to see the message above flash before my eyes. Without boring you all with what I did over the weekend waiting for AppleCare to open again on Monday morning. Anyway, this post is specifically for people who have put the sparsebundle of their FileVault-enabled account in the trash (NOT anything else!) without emptying it, of course! The other prerequisite is that you must REMEMBER YOUR FILEVAULT ACCOUNT PASSWORD!
    1. Firstly, you must insert *Disc 1 of the Mac OS X Install* discs.
    2. Restart your computer holding down the letter S (make sure you are holding this down BEFORE the start up noise sounds)
    3. Select the appropriate language and continue to the next screen (DO NOT go past the next screen, the WELCOME screen)
    4. At the grey bar at the top, under Utilities, select *Reset Password*
    5. Select the Administrator/Root account and proceed to change the password of this account to test
    6. Confirm the password by reentering it and click Save
    7. Restart your computer and at the login screen you should now be able to select an account named Other
    8. The username for this account is root and the password is test (the password you entered earlier)
    9. Using Finder, locate the Terminal utility, which can be found in *Applications --> Utilities*
    10. Enter the following, ignoring the bold of course (pay attention to lower cases AND spaces!): *defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE*
    11. Hit Enter
    12. On the next line, enter: *killall Finder*
    13. Hit Enter again
    14. Type: exit on the next line and close Terminal
    15. This has enabled the hidden files on your computer to be visible
    16. You then need to locate the sparsebundle file in the trash of your usual account folder (it could be 501, so search for that too) whilst logged in to the administrator account
    17. Once you have found it, click *Go to Folder* under Go in the grey bar and type /Users/
    18. Create a *new folder* at this location with a new username
    19. Move the sparsebundle from its present location to the folder you have just created
    20. Click Get Info on the new folder, and at the very bottom click *Apply to enclosed items*
    21. In *System Preferences --> Accounts*, create a new user with EXACTLY the same name as the folder you created (eg. Folder name = burtreynolds, new user = burtreynolds)
    22. A window should appear if you have done the above correctly stating *A folder in Users folder already has same name, would you like to use it?*
    22. Click OK
    23. Click *Show All* at the top of the Accounts window
    24. Restart your system and log in to the new account you have created
    25. The sparsebundle should now be visible
    26. Double-click on the sparsebundle, it will prompt you to enter a password
    27. Enter the password of your former account (if you have genuinely forgotten this password, I honestly can't help any further at this point)
    28. If the password is correct, the sparsebundle will automatically mount and you will have access to all the files
    29. NEVER EVER USE FILEVAULT AGAIN AND BACK UP ALL DATA YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE!!!
    The above worked for me, and to say I'm mildly annoyed with AppleCare is, well, putting it mildly really!

    I know there are various posts already out there on remedies for recovering your data stored on a FileVault account when you receive the following message at the login screen; *"You are unable to log in to the File Vault user account "myaccount " at this time"*, but this genuinely worked for me despite AppleCare providing absolutely no assistance whatsoever. In fact, if I had followed their advise I'd be inconsolable right now having wiped my MacBook Pro and contemplating the prospect of rewriting my two essays due in 3 days time!
    I, in a moment of shear stupidity, decided to move the sparsebundle file in my one and only account to trash. Thinking nothing of my foolish actions I shut down for the evening without a care in the world. The next day I started up my computer as usual, and as usual I was prompted at the login screen for my password. I entered the correct password, but was alarmed to see the message above flash before my eyes. Without boring you all with what I did over the weekend waiting for AppleCare to open again on Monday morning. Anyway, this post is specifically for people who have put the sparsebundle of their FileVault-enabled account in the trash (NOT anything else!) without emptying it, of course! The other prerequisite is that you must REMEMBER YOUR FILEVAULT ACCOUNT PASSWORD!
    1. Firstly, you must insert *Disc 1 of the Mac OS X Install* discs.
    2. Restart your computer holding down the letter S (make sure you are holding this down BEFORE the start up noise sounds)
    3. Select the appropriate language and continue to the next screen (DO NOT go past the next screen, the WELCOME screen)
    4. At the grey bar at the top, under Utilities, select *Reset Password*
    5. Select the Administrator/Root account and proceed to change the password of this account to test
    6. Confirm the password by reentering it and click Save
    7. Restart your computer and at the login screen you should now be able to select an account named Other
    8. The username for this account is root and the password is test (the password you entered earlier)
    9. Using Finder, locate the Terminal utility, which can be found in *Applications --> Utilities*
    10. Enter the following, ignoring the bold of course (pay attention to lower cases AND spaces!): *defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE*
    11. Hit Enter
    12. On the next line, enter: *killall Finder*
    13. Hit Enter again
    14. Type: exit on the next line and close Terminal
    15. This has enabled the hidden files on your computer to be visible
    16. You then need to locate the sparsebundle file in the trash of your usual account folder (it could be 501, so search for that too) whilst logged in to the administrator account
    17. Once you have found it, click *Go to Folder* under Go in the grey bar and type /Users/
    18. Create a *new folder* at this location with a new username
    19. Move the sparsebundle from its present location to the folder you have just created
    20. Click Get Info on the new folder, and at the very bottom click *Apply to enclosed items*
    21. In *System Preferences --> Accounts*, create a new user with EXACTLY the same name as the folder you created (eg. Folder name = burtreynolds, new user = burtreynolds)
    22. A window should appear if you have done the above correctly stating *A folder in Users folder already has same name, would you like to use it?*
    22. Click OK
    23. Click *Show All* at the top of the Accounts window
    24. Restart your system and log in to the new account you have created
    25. The sparsebundle should now be visible
    26. Double-click on the sparsebundle, it will prompt you to enter a password
    27. Enter the password of your former account (if you have genuinely forgotten this password, I honestly can't help any further at this point)
    28. If the password is correct, the sparsebundle will automatically mount and you will have access to all the files
    29. NEVER EVER USE FILEVAULT AGAIN AND BACK UP ALL DATA YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE!!!
    The above worked for me, and to say I'm mildly annoyed with AppleCare is, well, putting it mildly really!

  • How can I repair a File Vault sparsebundle?

    Apple has directions for repairing a File Vault sparseimage under 10.3-10.4 here:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2631
    I couldn't find anything more up-to-date, so I followed those directions but using the different permissions setup in 10.5. Everything seemed to work fine up until it came time to mount the sparsebundle. It wouldn't mount. I could drag the sparsebundle into Disk Utility, but when trying to "Repair" or "Verify" I get this error message:
    Unable to attach “testserver.sparsebundle”. (Operation not supported on socket)
    \[DUDiskController viewablePartitions\] expecting DUDisk, but got nil
    As I was typing this post, I figured out what to do. Being an Admin doesn't cut it; you have to be root. I did not find it listed online, so I'm jotting it here; do this instead of what Apple says:
    1. Disconnect from the network (turn off AirPort, unplug Ethernet) because we're about to temporarily log in as root, which could leave us exposed.
    2. To enable the root user, open Applications / Utilities / Directory Utility. Unlock the icon with your admin password, then choose "Edit menu > Enable Root User". If this is the first time, enter a password for the root user, or if you have forgotten your root password, choose "Edit menu > Change Root Password".
    3. Log in as root: Log out of the current account, then in the blank login screen, enter "root" as the username along with your root password. Or, if you have fast user switching enabled, make sure you are logged out of the FileVault in question, then pick "Login Window..." from the user menu. If you aren't allowed to type in a user name, open System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options, then disable "Automatic Login" and by "Display login window as" pick "Name and password".
    4. Mount the sparsebundle: From the Finder's "Go" menu, pick "Go to folder..." and enter "/Users/". Drill down to the sparsebundle inside your FileVault account, and double-click it to mount it. When asked for your keychain password, cancel. Then you will be asked for your FileVault account's password. For security, make sure the "Store this password in my keychain" checkbox is NOT checked. Enter your FileVault password. The sparsebundle should mount.
    5. Repair normally from Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility. The sparsebundle should appear as both a disk and a volume in the left pane of the Disk Utility. When done, quit, eject the sparsebundle and log out of the root account.
    6. IMPORTANT: Log back in to a normal administrator account, open Applications / Utilities / Directory Utility, unlock it if necessary, then pick "Edit menu > Disable Root User". Lock the utility and quit.
    7. If you disconnected from the network in step 1, it's okay to reconnect now.
    From a security standpoint, it's best to leave the root user disabled. Most of the time, an admin user can get temporary root privileges; this just happens to be an exception.

    Figured it out and shared solution.

  • Active Directory user passwords on mobile account with File Vault

    Hi all,
    I enabled file vault when I moved to my MacBook Pro. I joined the computer to the domain (after enabling file vault), and logged in with my domain account, creating a managed, mobile account so that I could use the computer when not connected to the domain.
    Active Directory has forced a change in my password for the domain account but I cannot get the password on the Mac to change the password and sync with the domain.
    My account (the one with the changed network password) on the Mac is a standard user account. When I open system preferences, go to Security & Preferences, General, click on the lock to unlock and allow change and then click Change Password  ..., I receive the following error message after going through the steps to change the password:
    The password for the account "user" was not changed. There was a problem with your password. It's possible your system administrator doesn't allow you to change your password. Contact your system administrator for help.
    For Old Password, I used the old network password, the one that I use to log into the Mac. For New Password, I used my new, current password.
    The same result happens when I attempt to change the password from the Users & Groups section of the System Preferences.
    I have logged out and logged in with the user account that is identified as the admin and get a similar (same ?) error when attempting to change the password.
    Any suggestions? How do I get the passwords to be one so that I can forget the old password?

    Thanks for your insights.
    The Tech Tool report happened after AppleJack, and never showed up before that. Restarting again just now, it showed up again.
    I had not emptied the trash, but did now, and the 'get info' on my hard drive still shows that I have used nearly all of my 160 GB.
    Re Disk Warrior: I do have it and just ran it. I emptied trash again and checked to see available disk space: I have 2.47 GB, so the problem still exists.
    Here is the disk warrior report for the first part of its tests:
    DiskWarrior has successfully built a new optimized directory for the disk named "Hildegarde." The new directory is
    ready to replace the original directory.
    There is not enough contiguous free space for a fail-safe replacement of the directory. It is highly recommended that
    you create 204 MB of contiguous free space before replacing the original directory.
    All file and folder data was easily located.
    Comparison of the original and replacement directories indicates that there will be changes to the number, the
    contents and/or the attributes of the files and folders. It is recommended that you preview the replacement
    directory and examine the items listed below. All files and folders were compared and a total of 14,627,488
    comparison tests were performed.
    • Errors, if any, in the directory structure such as tree depth, header node, map nodes, node size, node counts, node
    links, indexes and more have been repaired.
    • 1 folder had a directory entry with an incorrect custom icon flag that was repaired.
    Disk Information:
    Files: 552,652
    Folders: 131,014
    Free Space: 2.47 GB
    Format: Mac OS Extended
    Block Size: 4 K
    Disk Sectors: 321,410,736
    Media: HDT722516DLAT80
    Time: 11/28/08 6:54:19 PM
    DiskWarrior Version: 4.1

  • HELPDeleted user account with file vault on to free disk space, to no avail

    My saga is a long one. Quick telling: I am the administrator on my eMac, and was locked out of my desktop last spring when the disk became overly full. File vault was turned on, and I was told by my computer repair folks that since the desktop was encrypted, it could not be accessed. A sad situation, since I had not backed up the disk, and had years of family photos that were lost, not to mention iTunes, Quicken, and more.
    Since then I bought a back-up disk, and saved a copy of that desktop, just in case.
    My computer is overly full again, and today I decided to delete my old user account in order to free space. Of the 160G in this computer, 80% was associated with that user (that is, me). I deleted account via the System Preferences window and its Accounts window.
    I emptied the trash, and 'got info' on my hard drive, only to see that nothing had disappeared, memory-wise! I am still nearly full--only having 2G available, rather than the 130 or more that I had hoped to free up.m I restarted too.
    I went to Apple Support to find that one should turn off File Vault before deleting a user account. Unfortunately, this is impossible for me, since I can not/could not access the user account to turn it off.
    SO here is my question: is there a way to delete the files of a user account that had file vault turned on, but that is inaccessible? There is no deleted user file in my User folder, by the way.
    I am not suer what to do. Any help is appreciated.

    Thanks for your insights.
    The Tech Tool report happened after AppleJack, and never showed up before that. Restarting again just now, it showed up again.
    I had not emptied the trash, but did now, and the 'get info' on my hard drive still shows that I have used nearly all of my 160 GB.
    Re Disk Warrior: I do have it and just ran it. I emptied trash again and checked to see available disk space: I have 2.47 GB, so the problem still exists.
    Here is the disk warrior report for the first part of its tests:
    DiskWarrior has successfully built a new optimized directory for the disk named "Hildegarde." The new directory is
    ready to replace the original directory.
    There is not enough contiguous free space for a fail-safe replacement of the directory. It is highly recommended that
    you create 204 MB of contiguous free space before replacing the original directory.
    All file and folder data was easily located.
    Comparison of the original and replacement directories indicates that there will be changes to the number, the
    contents and/or the attributes of the files and folders. It is recommended that you preview the replacement
    directory and examine the items listed below. All files and folders were compared and a total of 14,627,488
    comparison tests were performed.
    • Errors, if any, in the directory structure such as tree depth, header node, map nodes, node size, node counts, node
    links, indexes and more have been repaired.
    • 1 folder had a directory entry with an incorrect custom icon flag that was repaired.
    Disk Information:
    Files: 552,652
    Folders: 131,014
    Free Space: 2.47 GB
    Format: Mac OS Extended
    Block Size: 4 K
    Disk Sectors: 321,410,736
    Media: HDT722516DLAT80
    Time: 11/28/08 6:54:19 PM
    DiskWarrior Version: 4.1

Maybe you are looking for