Erase free space in Disk Utilities grayed out for SSD

Is it normal that this function (erase free space) does not work for a SSD? It is grayed out on my iMac for SSD not for the 1 TB HDD.
Now that I installed Lion and Trim is working (on original Apple SSD) in my iMac I would like to erase free space. I read somewhere that you should do this if you did not have the Trim option before and you do have it now. Or is this BS?
peterwillem

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

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Clicked erase free space in disk utility, now I have no SPACE!

I ran erase free space in disk utility in hopes of freeing up more room on my hard drive, and had 34 GB free, but now it says zero kb available. I have never done this before. It still has twelve hours to go, and I was wondering if this was normal.
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7) White 2 Ghz.
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7) White 2 Ghz.

Doing so does not free up any hard drive space.
Copied from this link.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1010.html
You might see a message saying that you are running out of disk space, but you can ignore that warning. When this operation is complete, you will have the same amount of free space as you did when it started.
For suggestions to free up hard drive space, check this link.
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html

Erased free space in Disk Utility, and after it finished it kept a DMG there.

I erased free space in Disk Utility, and after it finished it kept a DMG there called "DeveloperDiskImage.dmg", why is it left behind? can it be deleted? how? if erasing free space is supposed to help get memory and remove all the files truly, it shouldnt be creating anything, it created a DMG at the start, but it went away, after a hour and a half it made the DeveloperDiskImage, i went to eat dinner and when i came back it was done but that was left.

Delete it. Erasing the free space isn't supposed to free up any space; it's there in case someone deleted a file insecurely when they meant to securely delete it.
(65417)

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

Hello,
I am facing some issues related to my Time Capsule.
Reviewing my past, I had a lot of backups on this, using Time Machine and it always worked pretty well. But after deleting some backups manually to reclaim disk space, this was not exactly freeing it.
Searching in the forum here, I saw that I could mount the backup sparsebundle image and map it into the Disk Utility. This always worked greatly too both for disk checking and reclaiming the space back.
The problem starts on the last Friday when I performed the operation again, but it started using the whole free space that I had and did not give it back.
Studying the case I found that it creates a temporary folder to store the file it creates to write the byte 0 on the disk. This file actually resides in the sparsebundle image and therefore I can see the file with 200GB, for example, in the Finder, this is a split in bands (8MB) just like the backup is. After the disk gets full, the Disk Utility should delete the file properly and give me back the space safely.
Right now my Time Capsule has 0 byte free and I can't do anything on it beyond redo the the Erase Free Space operation. When I do it, it starts writing the temporary file again and the problem repeats itself.
I know that if I backup the data and really erase the disk, I'll get it back, but this is not an option for me because I want a smart solution for this.
The only thing that changed between when it worked and now is the 10.5.6 update that I made and I'd like that it's not the root of the issue.
Is there any suggestion or general stuff I could do to fix it?
Did anybody already face the same issue?
If anyone needs more details to help me out of this, just let me know.
Thanks and regards,
Eduardo

Just another thing to add, I'd like a good solution for this as the redo operation from Disk Utility takes around 2 days and then it just "dies".

"Erase Free Space" in disk utility, writes a large file?

While poking around in disk utility I came upon the 'Erase Free Space" function so I decided to try it out and see how it worked. I chose the medium security setting and let it run. After a while I stopped it because it was going quite slowly. Afterwards I noticed that about 25gb of previously free space was gone from my HD. Did it write a backup file?
I tried looking for a file but "find" in finder coldn't seem to locate any files written during that time period.
any direction to recoup the space is greatly appreciated.

OK, thanks guys.
Sometimes the simplest things...
Now if I were at the office working on something on a windoze machine a restart would be the first thing I would try, you have to restart twice a day even if the machine is working properly!
I however, rarely shut down my Mac. Unless there is a thunderstorm or I am going away, or I've performed an update, the machine stays on/sleeps.
Apparently as an "erase free space " is being performed the space is being used as zeroes are written. When I allowed it to complete the space returned. However; the space that was consumed during the aborted try was still not availible.
Only after a restart did the space become shown as being free.
This has been great since I now know of 2 more helper apps. Tinker Tool allows me to see hidden files and change other prefs not availible natively. OmniDiskSweep quickly check file on the HD.
Thanks for your help, and if there were votes still, I'd use them all!
-T

Erasing free space using disk utility

Disk utility does not always work when trying to erase free space... I have 50 gigs of free space that I can not retrieve... I do not want to have erase my entire SSD like I did a month ago to clean up deleted files...

In Dec I did a complete re-install of Lion, because I was running out of SSD storage...
The other day, the Mac Air was acting strange, so I checked the SSD drive and found there was only 25 free gigs left... 60 gigs had disappeared in 5 weeks...
Here is where the 60 gigs went...
1. Added 9 gigs for new pictures
2. IPOD/iPhone Photo Cache added 13 gigs (It was emptied during the Lion re-install)
3. Time Machine, kept making hourly back-ups on the SSD, added 38 gigs (Turn off Time Machine & 38 gigs returned as free space)
Thanks to those who suggested I use Omni Desk Sweeper, which shows you what your files sizes are by each file & to turn off the Time Machine...

Start up and shut down is slow after erasing free space using disk utility?

I went to Disk Utility, clicked Erase, and then "Erase Free Space." When I saw that it was going to take 1 hour and 30 minutes, I tried closing disk utility. It wouldn't let me exit, so instead I pressed "Skip." But when you hover over the "Skip" button it says, "Erase all data and reformat the disk."
I'm wondering if the fact that I pressed the skip button has anything to do with my computer shutting down/starting up A LOT slower now. If so, what can I do to fix it?
Thanks!

Just wanted to give an update. I called Apple and apparently, you shouldn't empty the free space using disk utility while you're logged in. I had to insert the Installations CD and press the "C" button while my computer restarted, and used Disk Utility from there. My start up and shut down speed still isn't exactly the way it was before, but this definitely made a difference.
Thank you to those who replied to my question!

Erase Free Space then Disk Full

help. I ran erase free space in DU, worked fine but then created some temp file/s which then filled my HD up. Where are these file/s so I can delete it. Before I had over 400G free, now nothing.
Is this normal when you run secure delete..?
Slee

Hi Glynn... So I gather. However, I didn't know at the time and may have screwed up. It ran fine for an hour, then said writing temporary files. After a few min's I got the error message start-up disk full, which it was. Not knowing what was happening, I hit skip. It them seem to hang, so I forced a quit.
Before I has 450G+ free on my disk, now less than a 100 meg. Oh dear. It seems by forcing a quit of DU these temp files have still to be deleted. Where are they..?
Help
Steve

System Won't Reboot Proper After Running "Erase Free Space" in Disk Utility

Thought I'd run it to see what happened.
On an 80gb HD with 35gb free, I was told I was running out of free space partway through the erase, program then quit. Kept system going for about two days without problems, then shut it down for a day. When I rebooted a few hours ago, it seemed to take forever to do so, followed by a dim perpetual blue screen which I couldn't brighten via the keyboard. Waited 20 minutes for screen to resolve into my desktop; alas, no such luck. Rebooted a few times, no change.
17 pB @ 1.33ghz & 1.5gb RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7)

One of the first things I tried: no effect.
Booted on the MacOS X CD and ran disk utility and it found errors, fixed them, rebooted from the hard drive and now I get a perpetual grey screen with the li'l rotater. Zapping doesn't do anything this time either.

I thought I was creating free space by erasing free space using disk utility but what I really did was literally ERASE MY FREE SPACE on my Macbook Pro 10.8.4 and all I want to know is what to do to recover my free space?

When I click on ABOUT THIS MAC and then on STORAGE it shows that I have like 700 gb of "OTHER" in yellow and all I want is for the yellow to disappear and have all my free space again! please someone help me
<Edited by Host>

Your free space hasn't gone anywhere. This is simply the initial result of the process. However, your free space should be there once you need to use it.
What is "Other" and What Can I Do About It?- Apple Support Communities

Disk Utility Erase Free Space Option Nonexistant

Have an iMAC 1 GHZ PowerPC G4 256 MB DDR SDRAM OS 10.3.9. According to various google results I should be able to call up Disk Utilities>Partition>Erase>Erase Free Space. Its not there. (Its exactly where it should be on a nearby G5 running 10.5.8.).
It will allow me to erase the entire disk or either of two partitions but the Erase Free Space isn't just grayed out, it is completely missing.
1) The hard drive was partitioned at some point in the past I think to get around some admin thing. One partition has 51 out of 60 GB filled, the other has 12.4 of 16.3 GB filled.
2) Don't ask about the admins, my Entourage has been broken for 9 months - I am not joking.
3) My computer knowledge is spotty - you've been warned.
Help!

Try starting the iMac in Target Disk Mode while attached to one of your newer computers with a firewire cable. This basically makes the iMac an external hard drive. I've not tried this but you should then be able to use a newer version of Disk Utility on that drive.
[How to use FireWire target disk mode|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661] includes description of hardware and software requirements.
[What to do if your Mac doesn't enter FireWire Target Disk Mode|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75414], also read about [Open Firmware Password Protection|http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/openfirmwarepassword.html] which can disable Target Disk Mode.
I'm not a technician but I don't think it "misses" areas, it's just more a matter of covering up what was written there before. Think of it as you write something on a piece of paper, then erase it and write something down in the same space. If you look closely you can see what was written there before. Now erase that again and write something else. It'll be pretty difficult to make out what was written there the very first time. Do that 7 times and it will be very, very, very difficult. Do that 32 times and it will be impossible. However, all that erasing and writing will take its toll on the paper and take a long time. I'd say anything more than a erase once would really have to be justified by very sensitive data. Anybody wanting to recover the data would have to use pretty specialized equipment.

7-pass, or zero out-Disk Utility Erase Free Space

Hey Forum,
I want to clear my erase free space on disk utility. And I am confused, whether to use 7-pass or zero-out? Any suggestions which one to use. Is zero out enough, or is 7-pass too much, any suggestions of whether to use either of them is appreciated, thank you.
Ala.
P.S. What are zero-out, 7-pass, and the 35 thing for and their differences?

There is no need to post the same question twice, especially in the same forum.
Regarding what you can find with Google, an overly simplified or out of date treatment of the topic may lead you to the wrong conclusions. For example, the DoD 5220-22M standard is obsolete (& never recommended a 7 pass erase to begin with) & the 35 pass erase was intended for old, pre-2001 drives.
For modern ATA drives like you will find in any Mac capable of running Snow Leopard, one or at most a few zero data passes will do all any software-based secure erase method can do.
If you need verification of that, refer to the Epilogue section of Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory, the seminal paper on the subject by the author of the 35 pass method.

OS X Lion Disk Utility - "Erase Free Space" option greyed out

After installing OS X Lion on my iMac, the option to Erase Free Space from Disk Utility is greyed out and can't be selected. Is anyone else experiencing this problem, and if so, does anyone know of a possible solution?

I'd not noticed that, and am not on Lion at the moment.
But it's not a good idea to do that on the volume you're running from. OSX collects all the empty space into a huge folder (so the free space on the disk goes to zero), then writes zeros to it, and releases it as it does so. That will take a very long time (241 GBs, in your case). If something goes wrong, or you cancel it, it can be rather difficult to get it to release the space.
It does not gain you any space; all it does is prevent the leftover data from files you've deleted and emptied the trash from being recovered.
If you really need to do it, use the Recovery HD. See Using the Recovery HD.

Disk Utility - Erase Free Space - Creating Temporary File Freeze

I used "Erase Free Space" with Disk Utility after trashing several files I no longer wanted on the hard drive or recovered. I used "Zero Out Deleted Files" option. It took over 12 hours before an error message appeared "Your start up disk is almost full. You need to make more space available on your start up disk by deleting files." I thought that was what I was doing. Disk Utility continued but got stuck on "Creating Temporary File." I force quit Disk Utility after several more hours. I had to manually shut down the computer because the restart command wouldn't work. It rebooted and appears to be OK. Evidently, this temporary file consumes significant amounts of disk space. This is an older iMac with 10.4.11 (18 GHz PowerPC G5) - I know, pretty old but I still have OS 9 on it and several files I need to extract before I trash it.
1. Should I do nothing? The iMac seems to be working fine.
2. How do I know if this Temporary File exists and consuming space? Spotlight doesn't find it. Where is it?
3. Is my start up disk in fact almost full? How would I know that?
Thanks!

Then I would not do any secure erasing. It's exceptionally time consuming and unnecessary. Before you take it in for recycling boot it from your OS X installer DVD. Do this:
Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
A one-pass Zero Data option is all that is required to prevent access to your erased files.

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?
Rod
Here's the original post:
I used "Erase Free Space" with Disk Utility after trashing several files I no longer wanted on the hard drive or recovered. I used "Zero Out Deleted Files" option. It took over 12 hours before an error message appeared "Your start up disk is almost full. You need to make more space available on your start up disk by deleting files." I thought that was what I was doing. Disk Utility continued but got stuck on "Creating Temporary File." I force quit Disk Utility after several more hours. I had to manually shut down the computer because the restart command wouldn't work. It rebooted and appears to be OK. Evidently, this temporary file consumes significant amounts of disk space. This is an older iMac with 10.4.11 (18 GHz PowerPC G5) - I know, pretty old but I still have OS 9 on it and several files I need to extract before I trash it.
1. Should I do nothing? The iMac seems to be working fine.
2. How do I know if this Temporary File exists and consuming space? Spotlight doesn't find it. Where is it?
3. Is my start up disk in fact almost full? How would I know that?

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.
Thanks BD for your reply. Here's the info on the drive: 1.3 TB capacity with 1,017 GB available. Eventually I will recycle the computer at Best Buy who guarantees the hard drive will be erased. I just want to get all my files off first. I'll just do another Erase Free Space and see, as you suggest, if there are any files to be zeroed out. Maybe there aren't any. I've extracted most of what I want but am debating how to move the entire iPhoto library to an external drive so I can access it from my Mavericks machine. Can I just drag and drop the iPhoto Library, or do I need to export it somehow?

Erase free space in Disk Utilities grayed out for SSD

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