Help with Erase Free Space URGENT
I'm desperate I'm having to ship my Dad's Macbook pro back to his work as his contract is finished an he asked me to delete all information from the laptop. I used the erase free space option 6 times option hit enter from the Laptop install disk and let it run, it had been running 24 hours when I pushed the skip button thinking it was taking too long it's been like that ever since so now about 18 hours. Please someone help me with this problem. If I was to pull the plug so to speak what would happen?
Cheers all help is hugely appreciated.
On my machine, Disk Utility offers, under the Security Options, a zero out data (one pass), a 7-pass, and a 35-pass option. What's a 6 times option? Or, do you mean you hit the erase free space option six times? If so, that wouldn't delete the information, it just writes to the free space, not the used space. AFAIK, you can pull the plug, boot the machine with the install disk, launch Disk Utility, and select one of the Security Options. Note, that it could take quite awhile. Just let it run until it finishes.
Similar Messages
-
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.
-
Kernel panic after "Erase Free Space" No end in sight
I did an "Erase Free Space" in disc utility. After seeing it through to about 90% complete, I went to bed. When I got up in the morning my fan was whirring away and I couldn't wake up the computer, so, using the power button, I shut it down, then turned it back on. Now I can't get into OS X (I see the message "You need to restart your computer..."), I can't boot from CD, and I can't boot in safe mode. All I can do is run the hardware test (after booting while holding "option" key), which tells me everything is fine. My only theory is that my hard disc was locked during the erase free space operation and since I have been unable to properly reboot the system, it can't be unlocked in order to boot from CD or open OX X. Any thoughts? I've been without my mac for a week now and am growing increasingly desperate. Thanks.
iMac G5 (with iSight) Power PC 2.1 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.8)..."When I erased free space, instead of writing zeros to the free space, it essentiall wrote ones [...] I can start up in single-user mode and am contemplating formatting the drive and reinstalling OS X, if I can't just erase induvidual files."...
How exactly did you figure this out - what exactly are you seeing with respect to "individual files"? I thought the procedure with erasing free space used by OS X was basically to fill the free space with a big file, and securely deleting that file, but things may have changed. Your reference to writing ones and individual files is giving me an impression of many small files instead of a single large one - i.e. something that is different from what I would have expected.
I would have suggested looking for a file called EFTFile1.sparseimage or EFTfile2, or something like that while booted in single-user mode. It would have been in your user's "~/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems" folder, or in "/private/var/root/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems" and been as large as the free space was before starting the procedure. It should have been deleted automatically if the process had succeeded but if the process was interrupted, it would have been left on the drive taking up all of the space. Normally, you should be able to 'rm' it manually after mounting the drive as writable (with the usual warnings about executing commands in single-user mode), but since the situation may be different in this case, I don't know if this suggestion applies... -
Need help with the "Erase Free Space" disk utility
When I use Disk Utilities to Erase Free Space (I use the single zero mode) I get a message telling me,
"Your Startup Disk is almost Full,
you need to make more space available
on your startup disk by deleting files."
This occurs about 90% of the way through the process (based on where the blue bar is at the time) during the "Creating Temporary File" portion of the process. I know from past experience that I will remain in this portion of the process forever unless I press the "Skip" button to complete the process.
My questions,
1. What is the startup disk and why is it full?
2. What should I do about the Your Startup Disk is Almost Full warning?
3. Is my computer actually talking about "regular" disk space (I currently have about 9GB of 80GB free but have seen this warning with 30GB available as well).
4. When I press "Skip" and the blue bar continues to complete the process, have I actually erased free space?
PBG4 15" 80GB HD 1GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4)The Disk Utility does the erase by creating large temporary files, writing to them, then deleting them. While doing this, OSX may notice the lack of free space on the disk. This is normal, but could cause problems if you are also running some applications that want some disk space. If you let if finish, it should delete the temporary files and free the disk space.
I prefer to run the Disk Utility from the Tiger install disk when doing a Verify, Repair, or Erase Free Space on my boot disk, so I know I won't be interfering with anything running. -
I made a dumb decision to 'Erase Free Space' on my drive. I now have no free space, I realize because it wrote 0's over all my free space. Is there a way to undo this??? Help please I can't save any documents now! Thanks in advance all, it is truly appreciated. how can find the hidden temporary files using the terminal what do i type in?
It's more likely a failed Erase Free Space, which creates a huge temporary file; that's why it looks like you have no more available drive space. You can recover from this. See these links
https://discussions.apple.com/message/10938738#10938738
http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/quickie/recovering_from_a_failed_secure_erase_fre e_space
Post back if you need any help with this. -
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! -
HELP! I attempted to erase free space and now I can't open any files!
Hi everyone! I hope you can help me with my problem.
Last night, I attempted to erase free space from my HD using disk utility. During the operation, the computer hung, so it wasn't able to complete 'creating temporary file' operation. So i had to stop the operation. And now, I can't open any files! Turns out my HD was full. But prior to my attempt to erase free space, I still had 25GB out of 55GB of free space. What happened? And how do I fix it? A lot of important files are in my HD and I don't want to lose any of it.
Hope somebody could help me. Thanks a lot!
allworkedup
iBook G4 14" Mac OS X (10.4.6)Hi, Scary isn't it? I did the self same thing. Check your trash, you should see one or more disk images there. Empty the trash. All will be OK thereafter.
If they're not there, restart and either the system will sort itself out or they will appear in the trash, so empty it.
See here for my thread on the same subject.
Good luck,
Adrian
Message was edited by Adrian: Oh, and Welcome to Discussions !! -
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 -
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!
You could try repairing permissions with disk utility, I don't think you will have the option to repair the drive but you could verify it.
This may help you delete the files that DU made but did not remove when erasing the free space.
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
A search of the forums will confirm or deny this.
As to whether a clean install will cure your problem, i.e. partition the HDD and install I would expect it to be yes, but there are no guarantees it is an old machine. -
Disk Utility's "Erase Free Space" screwed me over big time. Help Please.
Hey, I have a serious dillema. I free'd up disk space on my mac by transfering files to an external drive, and then used Disk Utility to erase unused disk space to do a thorough cleaning. Now it seems that out of thin air, Disk Utility said my Mac is out of disk space....it basically filled up my hard drive with 370GB's of god knows what.
Here's exactly what I did, step by step:
Basically, I wanted to clean up my hard drive a bit, as I was using about 500GB's out of my 750GB HD (on my MBP 10.6.8)
-Before I did this test, I did a verify + repair disk permissions, I also organized my computer's files... and just to be safe, I booted up from the D key so I could do an extended hardware test to see if everything was running smoothly. I then zapped the PRam. This was my pre-clean maintenence check.
-Then I transferred all of my files onto my external disk.
-After this was done, I dumped the files (that I used to transfer to my External) into the trash bin.
-I emptied the trash bin.
-Now I free'd up hundreds of GB's of space.
-It said that I had 376 GB's of free space in my hard drive. Yay.
Now here where it all went wrong:
-I heard that if you go into Disk Utility, and click on "Erase Free Space" that it goes over all the delted files (that aren't actually permanently deleted) and it permanently deletes them so that it frees up all the loose ends on your mac. I didn't want any ghost files, or any old installs or whatever...so I thought, yes.
Now...Disk Utility was doing this for me....and 2 hours later....it said that I was out of disk space. Disk Utility froze around the 90% completion-mark when it was "Creating Volume" (or something like that) and I had to quit Disk Utility.
Then, I exited....went onto my desk top and checked my Hard Drive.
It said that I had ZERO KB's available.
My hard disk was completely full. How is this even possible? I had 376 GB's of EMPTY space 2 hours earlier.
I tried to go into all of my files to see if there were any duplicates made..I checked terminal to see what went wrong, I checked console...I searched, and I searched...and nothing.
What. The. Heck.
Can someone please, please help me?Boot from your installation disc, erase the internal drive in Disk Utility, reinstall OS X, copy the files from your backup, and then run Software Update.
-
HT1199 Macbook 2007 - erase free space took all my free space! help!
My laptop has been having problems - track pad doesn't always work, runs slow, freezes. I replaced the hard drive on advice and that didn't help. I went to disk utility and verify and repaired disk permissions, that didn't help. I went to the erase tab and I clicked on "erase free space" thinking that would "defragment" free space, like a PC has. Now all my available memory is gone. Can I get it back? I thought I was freeing up space. Now my apps don't work correctly and I can't reinstall because I don't have enough disk space. HELP! I really appreciate any help or suggestions. I'm a teacher and can't teach without it!
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 at the top of the screen. (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), 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.) -
I filled up my computer's memory completely. Then I deleted a few GBs of files to make space for new files I need...but of course the computer doesn't recognize that files have been deleted. So I ran the Disk Utility "Erase Free Space"...but it immediately went into error: "Unable to create temp file".
So I don't even have the space to create the temp file to erase the free space. What do I do now?
Thank you for your help
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)When you deleted those files, did you use "secure empty trash"? There
may be other trashes in the system that also hold stuff you could remove.
By using a utility such as What Size, you can hunt down where items are
located in the hard drive, and carefully consider removing them. This can
do it. Of course, important OSX system files and application support
stuff should be left alone; and if you move/remove iTunes music files,
they need to be handled carefully. Plus duplicates may remain.
If you can't save your data to a DVD or CD-R media, you may have to get
and use an externally enclosed hard disk drive (preferrably a FireWire unit)
so you can move or copy/clone files from your computer's hard drive. There
are a few good disk clone utilities, super dooper is popular and carbon copy
cloner is good. An external FW HDD of larger capacity than your 'Book's
hard drive could be partitioned to hold several entire computer drive clones.
In order to erase free space, you may have to use a third party disk utility; and
some of these could result in loss of data, so to backup your stuff first is
the best advice and course of action before doing much else. If you make
and use a clone utility, be sure the copy/clone's files you want to keep are
accessible. If you seek to make your entire 'Book's HDD 'clone' over to a
second and external FW drive, be sure to run "repair disk permissions" on
the original drive & read the instructions thoroughly before using a clone utility.
By making a complete computer drive clone to an external FW hard drive
you can then plan on a total erase (zero-data using disk utility options)
and reformat the computer's drive; this will get rid of everything and leave
the drive unpartitioned and without fragmentation. Free space without any
fragmentation or artifacts, then either re-clone your 'Book's system and
all your stuff back over, or only move the important things back to it.
The hard drive's capacity is sometimes mistakenly called "memory" and
it is confused with RAM; but I know what you mean in the context given.
Sometimes, you can restart your computer after deleting stuff
and it may see the stuff as "gone" then. Also, you can see if using
"repair disk" from the booted disk utility and also repair disk
permissions, will help. Working on the root or base level of the
hard drive can damage important files, so hopefully you can get
that free space to show and work for you. -
Error message while burning DVD with Premiere Elements 13 with Mac Book Pro i7/7200t/mn with 60GO free space available on gard drive. message: "erreur logicielle interne: DVA/premiere/elements/pre12/pre-mediacoreCS7". can someone help burn my DVD (the file goes very well with chapters and scenes before burning). thanks very much, response appreciated, Alain
-
Help please - message after using the Erase Free Space function in Disk Ut
Please help. I've been using my Mac Mini for 6 months and decided I wanted to securely erase previously deleted files, and found the Erase Free Space facility in Disk Utilities. So I chose the option "7-pass Erase of deleted files", and left my Mac Mini to do its business.
At the end, I got the message that my startup disk is full, but ignored that message because I understand that's normal when free space has been deleted.
After doing a Restart, things seem to be running smoothly, but I have a Warning message which reads
Warning. The following disk images failed to mount:
Image: EFTFile1.sparseimage Reason: corrupt image.
What does this mean, please, and what do I have to do, if anything?
I'm completely new to this, so please explain clearly.
Thanks everyone!!Hi again, i've resolved the problem, thanks. It was my inexperience that was helping confuse the issue.
Sorry to have taken your time. Thanks again for your input. -
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
Maybe you are looking for
-
Acrobat X Pro PDF Portfolio does not display video correctly
Windows XP Acrobat X Pro SWF file, also SWF file converted to PDF I am trying to place an SWF file in a portfolio so that the first frame of the video will be visible as the user pages through the portfolio. All I see is a white screen. When I double
-
DOE KEYMAP_SERVICE_AV Unable to find parent record for record of node
I HAVE A DO OBJECT WITH 2 LEVELS (HEADER AND 1 CHILD) WHEN I DELETED THE HEADER AND SYNCRONIZE THE ERRO BELOW OCCURS BACKEND KEYMAP_SERVICE_AV Successful execution CL_ORDEM_INS~DELETE BACKEND KEYMAP_SERVICE_AV Successful execution DOE KEYMAP_SERVI
-
Does anyone know what the situation is for Israel? Does this mean that there is NO content whatsoever?
-
Is there anyone who knows how to regain the use of Safari?
-
How to get Android IMEI / UDID with Flash CS6?
Hi. I understand that a Native Extension is needed to get the IMEI or UDID of the Android device. I found one here: http://blog.snowflax.com/native-imei-action-script-extension-for-android/ I ran the compiled sample this site provided and it retrieve