"Erase Free Space"- DU Not Responding?!

     Started "Erase Free Space" in disk utility about 36 hours ago.  I had nearly 1TB of free space which I knew was more than the usual amount someone has when they perform this task but I was attempting to speed up game playing as after a year or so, excess of deleted saved games and game data has gradually slowed game performance down some.  I read that this might help so I ran it...
     It took 24 hours to do the initial run through up until the "creating temporary secondary file" notification.  It looked as though it was about to complete and I received the usual error message that apple says to ignore about no remaining free space or something to that effect.  However, out of nowhere the spin wheel started, the Disk Utility window went grey and everything seemed to have frozen.
     After reading several peoples experiences with things like this I was confident that it would resolve in a few minutes, maybe half an hour even and then most likely resolve itself.  It was late so I went to bed and when I got up it was still in the same place as I left it...greyed out and spin wheeled.
     So then I went to the Activity Monitor to check the Disk Usage as I knew that I could view the progress through that.  As far as I'm aware, after creating the temporary file, as it already did, it is supposed to start looking like free space is "disappearing" as it puts the recently overwritten free space into its newly created temp file and then eventually deletes the file.
     Problem is, the Activity Monitor shows the Disk Utility as "Not Responding" along with Safari and Mail having the same message, yet at the same time I see the free space on my HD SLOWLY (20-100kb/s) doing that "dissapearing" act.  So is the Disk Utility doing its job?  Is it hung up some how?  If it is working then why is it moving at such an incredibly slow rate?  Should I be concerned or take some sort of action or just wait while this resolves itself in who knows how long from now?
Advice on this would be very much appreciated as I am not a very experienced Mac user.

apple customer 1 billion wrote:
There aren't that many files to lose in the long run. It's more a matter of avoiding the risk out of convinience for not losing the few that I have. So correct, I have no back up since there isn't much to back up, hence the nearly 1TB of overwritting free space in the first place. Unfortunately, I realized just how long this process takes after I began it, and now it seems to late...
If I did restart, what would likely happen?
Possibilities I've come across:
1.won't be able to log in because theres no more free space
2.I'd have to search for the temp file and manually delete it (provided I had some extra space to do it)
3.might lose all data and have to reinstall everything
Could be any or all 3
Is there a safe way to either:
1.Restart with little to no complications listed above
2.Safely end this task without some sort of unfixable complication occuring
3.Boost its processing so that I can resonably wait it out
There may not be, but I might as well check around before I go straight to Restart is what I was thinking.
No, no and no unfortunately, patience or a leap of faith are the choices

Similar Messages

  • Erase free space  can't be selected or "erase" is not available

    Hi
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    Take a look at this link, https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3210131?start=0&tstart=0

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    ...but instead seeing a grayed out "Erase Free Space" in Disk Utility?
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  • 'erase free space' not secure - it doesn't seem to work?

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    Not good. 

    Thanks for your response, William.
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  • Disk Utility - Erase Free Space - Creating Temporary File Freezes

    BDAqua:  I tried responding to your reply to my original posting but I get an error message that I was not authorized to reply.  I logged out.  I can't find the original posting in my Activity so I approached from the link in my e-mail saying you had replied.  Now it says the area is restricted.  What's up with that?
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    Here's what I tried to say in my response that I wasn't authorize to make:
    I can't seem to reply to your response BD . . . says I'm not authorize . . . so I'll try to reply to my original post.
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  • Disk Utility Problems - Erase Free Space

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    However, does anyone have any advice on how to use the "Erase Free Space " Utility
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  • Erase Free Space vs Reformat Hard Drive

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    It would be simpler, not to mention much, much faster, to do an Erase and Install of OS X. If you've had problems with the hard drive in the past, then I suggest doing the following before installing:
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    Why reward points?(Quoted from Discussions Terms of Use.)
    The reward system helps to increase community participation. When a community member gives you (or another member) a reward for providing helpful advice or a solution to their question, your accumulated points will increase your status level within the community.
    Members may reward you with 5 points if they deem that your reply is helpful and 10 points if you post a solution to their issue. Likewise, when you mark a reply as Helpful or Solved in your own created topic, you will be awarding the respondent with the same point values.

  • Time Capsule full after a "Erase Free Space" using Disk Utility

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  • Erase free space function of Disk Utility

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    Open Disk Utility, Highlight your drive on the left, then on the right bottom you'll see Verify Disk & below that Repair Disk grayed out because you can't reopair the HD yo're booted from, if it does need Repair...
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  • Disk Utility Erase Free Space Option Nonexistant

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  • Errors upon erasing free space

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    <EDIT>I don't know if I made this clear enough in my original post: The computer works fine after the restart, and I am even posting from the computer in question right now. The problems with input lasted only between the time the free space wipe finished, and the time when I had to hard reset.</EDIT>
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    Sorry for the extra-long post, but I figure getting as much info out as possible could help to solve the problem.
    That animated image of a bug in your signature is amusing, by the way.
    Message was edited by: Your New Favorite

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    From: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
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    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.thexlab.com/105/ 00000849.html
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