Errors upon erasing free space

I have been experiencing particularly bizarre errors since switching to Mac. Two of the strangest are related to erasing free space.
I wasn't aware that OS X could erase free space on its own, until I read the security guide, so I first purchased Shredit X. It worked the first time. The second time, it did not free up the space after the shred. I couldn't even close my programs without resorting to the command line, but I eventually got it to shut down without a hard reset. As I was logging off, the "Reclaiming disk space" process, or whatever it's called, ran as usual, and it appeared to work. My disk space was back to normal. A few days later, I tested it again, to see if it was a fluke, and it did the same thing. I have spoken with the company, and they're not sure what caused it. So I decided to go with Disk Utilities instead.
I started the process last night, and left it going overnight. This morning, I checked to see if it was finished. The login screen that appears after the computer has slept worked fine. However, it was a different story after I logged in. I could not hit any key on the keyboard, and they would trigger the beep that occurs when you hit an invalid key. I could not left-click. The only input that worked at all was a right-click, and it only worked on the application bar at the top of the screen. I was unable to shut down, because I could not close dialog boxes, so I had to hard reset.
It would be nice if there was some explanation for either of these...

<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>
The Knowledge Base article about Disk Utility to which you linked stated this: "When possible, disk permissions should be repaired while started up from a Mac OS X volume (hard disk) that contains updated Mac OS X software, instead of a Mac OS X installation disc." It also mentioned loss of software updates if it was not run from the startup disk. And so, I am a bit leery of running it from the install disk...
I had verified disk permissions a short while ago, so I didn't expect anything out of the ordinary. I was wrong, and there was quite a bit of weirdness with the permissions, almost all of it about not expecting ACL in "System/Library/User Template". I tried to repair disk permissions, and everything looked like it went okay. But when I verified again, it apparently didn't actually repair them.
Will running Disk Utilities from the install disk cause me to lose any data? I have no backups, as I don't own an external hard drive, so I really wouldn't want to lose anything. In particular, my collection of images of album covers, my music collection, my own recordings, and the metadata on the music are all things I'd rather not part with. Should I even be worrying about this?
I'm also not sure what the connection would be between my problem and disk permissions. Could you explain that a bit? I still have no idea why erasing the free space messed with my input devices.
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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Disk Utility Error - Secure Erase Free Space failure

I have encountered a problem which I can't solve: I've used the secure erase feature to wipe unused parts of the disk before without problem. Now I get the following error message each time I try to use Disk Utility to do so:
"Secure Erase Free Space failed
Secure Erase Free Space failed with the error:
Could not create temporary file"
I tried it with the hard disk on the computer, my external backup disk, and a USB thumb drive. Same error message in each case.
If anyone knows the solution I would appreciate the help. I've scoured these fora and the internet to no avail.
Thanks.

Tried booting from another hard drive and running Disk Utility Repair Disk? follow up with Disk Warrior after that.
I would just do a full volume clone, reinitialize, and restore.

My external hard drive accidentally switched off during Disk Utility's "erase free space" process. I restarted the external hard drive and Disk Utility, but now I get the "couldn't mount disk" error when trying to finish the erase. Please help!

My external Lacie Quadra hard drive accidentally switched off in the middle of "erase free space", and when I switched it back on Disk Utility was hanging. So I Force Quit Disk Utility and restarted it. Now when I try to erase I get
"Secure Disk Erase failed with the error: Couldn’t unmount disk."
But "erase free space" seems to work...
What can I do? I'm erasing as I'm giving the drive to someone else and I wanted to wipe it clean.
Also should I use "erase" or "erase free space" if I want to wipe the drive clean?
Please help!

Sorry I don't really understand.... there are no partitions on the drive. How do I repartition it?
And should I use "erasing free space" or "erase" for wiping clean my drive of everything? Erase seems to be faster last tiem I tried.
Thanks!

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: Disk Scrubbing ("Erase Free Space")

Hi,
I've logged in case 113969827 the following observation:
In a Macbook 10.5.6 using Disk Utility to Erase Free Space
(Disk Utility / Erase / Erase Free Space) with 7-Pass or 35-Pass
Erase on a / partition with 113GB free of 200GB of a 232GB drive
which is Boot Camp partitioned, the other 32GB going to a
flawlessly-running Windows XP, rarely used, the following
issue happens...
The free space (87gb) goes to 0gb.
Has anyone else seen this?
Thanks.
Message was edited by: cracraft

Hey,
Talked with Apple in Texas, Indiana and Silicon Valley on this one
as well Josh...
The bottom line executed so far is:
Shutdown Mac OS X
mount -uw
/usr/sbin/fsck -fy
shutdown -r now
Finder
Disk Utility
Erase / Erase Freespace
Select least secure option and run
Wait until Disk Utility is final (no timing messages)
The above completed okay and your advice to "wait it out"
was right on the ball.
Next, I need to do Erase / Erase Freespace 7-Pass overnight
and then a 35-Pass tomorrow.
The reason I want to do all this heavy "assurance" of deleting
is that if I am required to send this notebook back for the cpu
fan issue, then I certainly want privacy for my disk. But on second
thought, upon receipt, I could just go to the local Apple store and
swap out the disk from one and place it in the new frame and
bootup, retaining my data.
Anyway, thanks for your input today as well as Richard in Indiana,
Matt in Texas, Matt in Silicon Valley.
(There were no errors in the fsck btw though it did say the FS was
modified... odd.)
Stuart
P.S. One would want to do more than the drag-and-drop to the Trash
with Empty Trash btw. I don't think those are assured from undelete
by savvy wizards or other operatives... whereas, 35-pass certainly is
completely secure, assuming the implementation at Apple doesn't
have a backdoor of some kind...
I'll keep this thread updated after the 7-pass / 35-pass which I am
sure just requires extra patience, as you indicated. Thanks!

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?

Secure Erase Free Space

Secure Erase Free Space Failed
Secure Erase Free Space failed with the error:
Couldn't create temporary file.
Hello, I own a 15" Macbook Pro 2011 Late model but I recently replaced the hard drive with SSD and upgraded the memory to 16gb. It was working fine for about 4 months and now sometime it freezes while browsing or even opening an application. I had to restart the macbook and sometime I would get a white screen. I was able to get by the white screen by restarting constantly. I am afraid to shut this macbook down and end up with a white screen. While I got through the white screen, I was able to use the disk utility and got this message when I was cleaning up free space. My SSD has 431.82 GB free of 478.89 GB. Can anyone tell me where do I locate the temporary file or is there something else I need to fix? Please let me know. Thank you.
Vincent

I understands that.
But heres what Im talking about

Trouble with Disk Utility, Erase Free Space

Hello,
I have (had) a 120GB HD w/ about 53GB free. I had trashed some large files and thought I'd try the "Erase free space" option in Disk Utility.
I ran it per the help file: seleced Macintosh HD, Erase Free Space, using the "Zero Out Deleted Files" option. It got started, created a temp file, then told me it would take about 31 minutes. As it neared completion, I was presented w/ a Dialog: Out of Free space - or smthg to that effect.
Per the help file, which said I might be presented w/ such a warning but that I could ignore it, I clicked "OK".
Then the computer chugged along for another hour or so, never finishing. Finally I clicked the "Skip" button, and it chugged along for another 30 min. or so, never making any progress in "skippin" in the status bar. I finally just quit Disk Utility.
Now I'm showing a completely full HD. I've restared, but the same thing. I've tried to run Erase Free Space again, but it gives an error "Could not create temp file" - I'm assuming b/c it needs free space to do the task, and it thinks there is none. So...
...How do I get my free space back?
Thanks in advance...

There's probably a huge temp file somewhere, maybe in a folder in your Trash. Do a search for a huge (multi-GB?) file (it might be an image file) that looks suspicious.
The only reason to use erase is for security purposes, and doesn't do anything in the normal course of computer usage. Erase actually writes data to your remaining file space (as you have discovered with no space left) and then trashes that data (or not, in your case).
P.S. In future you should post this kind of topic as a question so people will know it is something that needs answering rather than being a comment.
Message was edited by: Limnos

Erase free space issues?

I am using fully updated Yosemite on two iMacs, one office, one home, and recently began having this problem: When I use Disk Utility to erase free space, the window first says it is creating a temporary file and then very quickly starts the erase process with the progress bar. This takes hours, so I usually "fire it and forget it" — let it run overnight or when I will be away from my desk. Occasionally I'll stay at my desk or return after a while and note that the erasing seems to be progressing normally. When I find that the process is finished, I see a message to the effect that the erasing couldn't be completed because the program could not create a temporary file.
Has anyone else encountered this contradiction? Is it an erroneous error message or has the free space really not been erased? Thank you.

Erasing Free Space Will Definitely Help Me and My Situation. Plus I've deleted or transferred files to an External HD, a ton of files(About 75%). And still the hard drive is reading FULL. The Erase Free Space Option just isn't working for some odd reason. So Erase Free Space Is Definitely What I'm Looking For. Any think you can think of, why it's not working properly?? And thanks for you speedy response also.

Erase free space fails

I am trying to erase the free space on my hard drive, but part way through I get an error message. I started up my MacBook from the OS-X cd and ran Disk Utility. Selected "Erase Free Space" (7-pass) and after it ran for a few hours, but before it was finished, it quit. This message was displayed: "Disk Utility internal error - Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility." I tried rebooting, and the same thing happened. I tried running Disk Repair and found no problems. Any suggestions?

Erasing Free Space Will Definitely Help Me and My Situation. Plus I've deleted or transferred files to an External HD, a ton of files(About 75%). And still the hard drive is reading FULL. The Erase Free Space Option just isn't working for some odd reason. So Erase Free Space Is Definitely What I'm Looking For. Any think you can think of, why it's not working properly?? And thanks for you speedy response also.

"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...
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     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.
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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

Killed Disk Utility Erase Free Space. Now 0 available

(I erroneously posted this earlier to the Safari forum; posting here again)
I ran Disk Utility "Erase free space" on my iMac G5 250GB boot drive (I had about 130GB free). It ran for about 50 minutes, and got to "creating temp file" and then seemed to hang (thermometer didn't move for 20 minutes). So I force killed it. It seems to have left that "temp file" that takes up all available space since Disk Utility now reports 0 bytes available (and MS Entourage says insufficient free space and exits). I ran Finder "Secure empty trash" to delete 57 files with no error. But Disk Utility still says 0 bytes available.
First Aid "Verify Disk" reports no problems. "Verify Permissions" reports no problems.
Is there a way to regain my available space?
Thanks,
Ken

Restart did it. Thanks very much.
Ken

"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

Help using "erase free space" feature in Disk Utility

If I try to "erase free space" on my hard drive, the task never completes, and a temporary file is created, which can be deleted upon restart. If I start up from the Tiger Install DVD to wipe the free hard drive space, will I still have this problem or will it work properly?
G5 Dual 2.3 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

So how much "free space" for a Temp file do you need to even use "Erase Free Space"? I have 111G available (120G drive), and I have 50G "free space", and it uses up all my space for a Temp File, then won't proceed unless I "clear more room on your startup drive". I need over HALF the drive empty to even use "Erase Free Space"? It would be nice if Apple told us before we started the long process.

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

Errors upon erasing free space

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