Help! iMac performing in erase free space for over 14 hours!

How long should 7-pass 'erase free space' of 69.9 GB take?
I'm giving my old iMac G4 to a young relative. After completing 'erase and install' of OS 10.4, to be sure data would not be easily accessible, I read a few threads in the Installation and Setup forum and decided to do a 7-pass erase of free space.
The message in the Disk Utility window counted down from 8 hours and then switched to "secure erasing file". The blue progress bar doesn't appear to be progressing but is stuck about 1/2 cm from the end.
It's now been going for 14 hours. This seems an extra-ordinarily long time, 'though, for all I know, zero-ing out could take 2 hours. Thinking back, I clicked on 7-pass twice, once via 'security options' then via 'erase free space'. Was that a major mistake?
Is 14 hours too long? And, if so, is it too late to click on 'skip'?

Well, I pressed 'skip' and little changed except that it reported "skipping", whatever that means. So I took courage in both hands, as it were: one to press 'quit' and the other to press 'continue' and ignore the warning that quitting could cause irreparable damage to the HD.
As far I can see, no problem but I'm going to run Drive 10 before I erase-and-install OS X again just so that I can command-Q setup assistant and leave my young relative to set it up for herself.
Many thanks for your help, both Toms too. I guess this question can be logged a 'solved'.
Anne

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"Erase Free Space" work-around for non-apple ssd

for those of you attempting to "Erase Free Space" per knowledge base article:
"OS X Lion v10.7.3: User account passwords appear in log files for Legacy FileVault, and/or network home directories"
quote:
"6. Open Disk Utility.
7. Select your OS X Lion volume on the left.
8. Click "Erase Free Space…".
9. Select the Erase Free Space Option you want and click "Erase Free Space". Enter admin name and password if prompted."
but instead seeing a grayed out "Erase Free Space" in Disk Utility?
you can perform an "Erase Free Space" by using WipeFS app by Jonathan Clark which can successfully perform a DoD (Department of Defense) wipe for digital media, apple's Disk Utility doesn't do this anymore with non-apple solid state drives (ssd)
references:
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS4272
http://itunes.apple.com/hr/app/wipefs/id484887048?mt=12

...but instead seeing a grayed out "Erase Free Space" in Disk Utility?
See,
Mac OS X: About Disk Utility's erase free space feature
which says,
Note: With OS X Lion and an SSD drive, Secure Erase and Erasing Free Space are not available in Disk Utility. These options are not needed for an SSD drive because a standard erase makes it difficult to recover data from an SSD. For more security, consider turning on FileVault 2 encryption when you start using the SSD drive.
Also google "erasing space on ssd".
Bottom line, it is not something you want to do to a ssd.

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I think that a file is created that is the size of the free space, and then written over several times and then deleted. There may be a very large file lurking somewhere on your hard drive. You might want to try using a free utility like Whatsize to look for a large mysterious file, and if you find one then just delete it. Good luck.

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If you need info on launchd, in Terminal, man launchd, man launchd.plist
For a GUI launcd editor, see Lingon 3
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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.
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I used the "erase free space " option in disk utility and now my imac says the disk is full and wont let me download songs. please help!

i used the "erase free space " option in disk utility and now my imac says the disk is full and wont let me download songs. please help!

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http://macosx.com/forums/mac-os-x-system-mac-software/317204-no-disk-space-after -failed-disk-utility-erase-free-space.html
When you get your SL disk it will not have the iLife applications, that would have been on the second install disk that should have been with the computer. I forget which version of iLife you will need for SL but I think it is this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-iLife-Single-User-Mac/dp/B003XKRZES/ref=sr_1_1?ie= UTF8&qid=1409607702&sr=8-1&keywords=apple+ilife+11
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Message was edited by Adrian: Oh, and Welcome to Discussions !!

Disk Utility's "Erase Free Space" screwed me over big time. Help Please.

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http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/quickie/recovering_from_a_failed_secure_erase_fre e_space
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MacintoshHD:~$ ls -ld / /usr/sbin/diskutil
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Help! iMac performing in erase free space for over 14 hours!

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