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.)

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need help MacBook 2007 won't start up all of the way it gets the loading circle thing then it just keeps going and a bar thing pops up to load but doesn't and about a few minutes and it shut off. I don't have a disk for the computer or another Mac so what do I do?

I don't have the disk and i tried the shift key and it didn't do anything, i have tried like everything but it won't work and i was givin this computer with a charger and that is all nothing came with it and i don't think that it had the lion thing on it either i never got to that it just won't turn on and i have another mac that was a family members but it won't turn on either at all it won't load anything the screen stays black. so i don't really know at all what to do is there anything else? i don't want to take it anywhere because i have no money for that, and i need this computer for school. Any sugestions?

Macbook 2.0 intel core duo ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS HELP PLS

This all started last week. In an effort to be more economical, I decided to keep my macbook and not get a new one. The battery was not doing well...so i bought a new one. I purchased Leopard and tried to install it...it installed but after it just stayed stuck on the gray apple screen. I tried troubleshooting. I reinstalled Tiger that came with it and it had the same problems. Anyways...a couple days ago I tried to reinstall Tiger again and it started working. I have been having problems with the rainbow wheel coming up all the time...so I figured maybe the ram is bad. I ordered new ram from crucial. I got it today and installed it and now the macbook will not even power up. I followed the troubleshoot guidelines and even installed the old ram again nothing.
So, I'm stuck. Is the logic board again? I had it replaced like 7 months after getting the macbook and now it is out of warranty. Please help. Thanks

Martin,
Since you say it worked to some degree but then not at all after installing new RAM and then after reinstalling the old RAM it would not even work as well as it had prior to the RAM installs, then it sounds like one possibility could be that the logic board is failing do to cracked circuit traces (caused by thermal cycling) and the removing and reinstalling the RAM exacerbated the problem.
The next thing I would try to do would be to cool down the computer to 50F or so and try it. Next try heating it up to 90F or so and try again. The temperature changes can affect a defective logic board. Not that this will solve your problem, but it can tend to validate the possibility of a defective board.

Macbook Pro Slow/Disk space help please

I have mad skills in other areas, but not computer management.    Help appreciated!
My older Macbook Pro is slowing down.   Websites are slow to load, switching from one app to another takes way too long. I looked up reasons and low disk space seems likely. I ran EtreSoft and got the into below.
My confusion: I can't figure out what is taking up 150 gig of space. I have tons of pics and videos, but still only 38 gig worth.
Any advice?   Thanks for your help!
Problem description:
Macbook Pro running slowly/hanging. Says I have 10 gig free but I don’t see what’s taking up the space
EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)
Report generated December 25, 2014 11:54:00 PM PST
Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.
Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009) (Verified)
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro5,5
1 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2-core
4 GB RAM
BANK 0/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
2 GB DDR3 1067 MHz ok
Bluetooth: Old - Handoff/Airdrop2 not supported
Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Video Information: ℹ️
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB
Color LCD 1280 x 800
spdisplays_display_connector
System Software: ℹ️
Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) - Uptime: 11 days 16:21:35
Disk Information: ℹ️
ST9160314ASG disk0 : (149.05 GB)
- (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 159.70 GB (10.08 GB free) (Low!)
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS23N
USB Information: ℹ️
Apple Inc. iPhone
Apple Inc. Built-in iSight
Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
Logitech USB Receiver
Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️
[not loaded] org.samba.winbindd.plist [Support]
Launch Agents: ℹ️
[running] com.barnesandnoble.nookconnect.plist [Support]
[loaded] com.hp.help.tocgenerator.plist [Support]
User Launch Agents: ℹ️
[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist [Support]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist [Support]
User Login Items: ℹ️
iTunesHelper UNKNOWNHidden (missing value)
Monitor UNKNOWNHidden (missing value)
Grab Application (/Applications/Utilities/Grab.app)
HP Scheduler Application (/Library/Application Support/Hewlett-Packard/Software Update/HP Scheduler.app)
HP Product Research Application (/Library/Application Support/Hewlett-Packard/Customer Participation/HP Product Research.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 [Support]
Loki: Version: 3.0 [Support]
Unity Web Player: Version: UnityPlayer version 3.4.2f3 - SDK 10.5 [Support]
Silverlight: Version: 3.0.40818.0 [Support]
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.6.6
CitrixICAClientPlugIn: Version: 11.1.0 [Support]
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0
AdobePDFViewer: Version: 9.5.5 [Support]
GarminGpsControl: Version: 2.8.2.0 Release [Support]
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 13.9.8 - SDK 10.6 Check version
User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
Move-Media-Player: Version: npmnqmp 071505000006 [Support]
Safari Extensions: ℹ️
AdBlock-1 [Installed]
Audio Plug-ins: ℹ️
iSightAudio: Version: 7.6.6
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
Citrix online plug-in [Support]
Flash Player [Support]
FUSE for OS X (OSXFUSE) [Support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
Time Machine information requires OS X 10.7 "Lion" or later.
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
      5% WebProcess
      3% WindowServer
      0% ps
      0% SystemUIServer
      0% configd
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
1.31 GB WebProcess
936 MB Safari
206 MB iPhoto
73 MB WindowServer
64 MB Finder
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
75 MB Free RAM
2.41 GB Active RAM
1.15 GB Inactive RAM
391 MB Wired RAM
1.05 GB Page-ins
421 MB Page-outs

You did a good job outlining the potential problems, but I still have some questions:
1. What's the size of your MB's monitor?
2. Have you backed up your data? If not, do so.
3. Aside from the problems you noted, have you observed any other issues?
4. Did you check the internal cables and connectors?
Post with your results!

Does Erase Free Space Degrade Hard Drive?

I've noticed with my macbook that erasing free space takes bloody ages, 2 hours for 1 pass, 18 for 7 pass, 3 days for 35 pass.
This seems like an awful long time to have your laptop sitting on and open let alone your disc spinning and writing. Does this process degrade, slow down or have any seriously harmful side-effects to your hard drive?

My question is simply, 3 days of nonstop writing to zero out free space from insecure trash empties (some people might have important goverment docs, I don't know) seems like long enough to burn out your drive in one single process, no?
No, not unless the drive is already perilously close to failure when you begin the process.
And with their awkward sleep with lid closed standard feature, you have to leave the laptop sitting open and running... 3 days, surely that'll cause some problems?
Are you concerned that running the computer with its display open is hazardous to its health? Nothing could be farther from the truth. It cools itself more efficiently with the display open than with the display closed. Apart from that, having the lid open or closed makes no difference at all.
Out of curiosity, what do you consider "awkward" about having the computer go to sleep when you close the display?
I agree with Michael that if one were to do a 35-pass erase of free space every week, or even every month, it would become a significant factor in the longevity of the drive. But doing it a small handful of times over the life of the drive — say perhaps once a year — would account for only an insignificant portion of the drive's total use/operation.

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 apprec

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.

We have a very big issue here, Patch Tuesday didn't work correctly yesterday, and the patches took all the free drive space away.

Hello
We have a very big issue here, Patch Tuesday didn't work correctly yesterday, and the patches took all the free drive space away.
Before we started with the Patches, we had one Gig of free space on our hard drive, now we are down to less than 10 Megs!!!
What happened is that the patches didn't work, we had to try them 7 times, and every time they created a 'temporary restore point' which we don't know where that point is.
The server has crashed twice since, we were able to place it back online but we're afraid it will crash again.
We have several customers on that server, we are very worried,
Can you please help us?
Thank you

Hi,
Hope the below article be helpful:
Clear space on your hard drive by deleting old Windows uninstall folders
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13880_3-9862223-68.html
Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.
And as far as I know, we could not use diskpart to extend C drive, 3rd party utilities may work, please go through the below thread:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/03068ecb-7edd-43d8-bc68-12bc466c583f/how-to-extend-the-windows-2003-c-drive?forum=winservergen
Regards,
Yan Li
Regards, Yan Li

Failed Erase Free Space NOW missing all free space

I just recently performed an Erase Free Space from the Disk Utilities application. It failed and now I am missing all my free space. Can someone please help me correct this problem.
I did post this same question in another Forum. I wanted to make sure I posted it in the correct place.
Thank you,
Shannon

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.

'erase free space' not secure - it doesn't seem to work?

Just wanted to point out that the erase free space option in Mountain Lion does not seem to work, at all.
A week ago I ran erase free space on my primary data drive then later, out of curiosity, I ran an inexpensive third party recovery program on the disk just to see what happened. Interestingly enough the recovery software was able to find and restore files that I had deleted over a year ago.
This has me thinking, so today I tried it again, only with a 7 pass erase this time. Nope, same thing. After a 7 pass erase (erase free space) this low end, less than $35 recovery software turns up tons of files, everything from stuff I just deleted a few days ago to stuff from over a year ago.
If I'm doing something wrong I would love for someone to point it out to me. Not that I'm toting state secrets or anything on my mac, but still - my privacy is important to me and I assume it is to others.
I'd encourage folks to try this out for themselves.
My set up is a 2011 macbook pro with an SSD as the boot drive, I've got a second harddrive installed in the optical bay and this is where my home folder lives. The secondary drive is the drive where I'm running erase free space.
The only thing that I can think of is that, even though the button is not greyed out, maybe I need to be booted to recovery in order to succesfully run erase free space on system drives?
Any input would be greatly appreciated, otherwise this seems like a pretty ugly security lapse on the part of Apple. Imagine if you're selling your machine and secure erasing before turnign it over to its new owner - and the new owner can run a $35 dollar recovery program and access everything on your machine.
Not good.

Thanks for your response, William.
I think that the issue may have to do with being booted to the system while trying to erase free space. I ran a 7 pass erase free space on a 1TB external Lacie drive this afternoon, the operation took a bit over 6 hours to complete and recovery sofatware is turning up nothing.
This is in contrast to the main drive, which my original post referenced, which is a 500gb 7200 rpm internal drive. A 7 pass secure erase took less than 5 minutes to complete - so, even though the drive is 1/2 the size, there's obviously something not right with the 7 minutes time to complete.
Tomorrow I'm going to try either booting to another account (which doesn't utilize this partcular disk) or booting to recovery and seeing what happens.
I have a feeling that this will solve the problem - I'll post back tomorrow evening.

SLOW MAC: Why does my mac run faster during the "erase free space" operation?

Hi community!
So I've been using my Macbook Pro Late 2012 edition for just over a year and a half now, and to no surprise, I find the spinning beachball whirling away more often than I'd care to see it. So I start a full mac clean-up including deleting login items, using Appzapper to clear up my apps, using Onyx to clear up some cache elements, deleting unused files and freeing up hard drive space.
I've successfully cleared over 60% of disk space, (200GB used, 300GB free), but I find a recurring problem persisting, despite my best efforts to get rid of it. You see, every few seconds, the spinning beach ball appears and freezes up my entire desktop no matter what I'm doing. Trying even the simplest things, like opening the apps in the dock or right clicking a file takes ages, movies freeze up all the time, regardless of what app plays them, finder is slow and it has nothing to do with my ram usage (I use the app FreeMemory to check in real-time how much I'm using) or my CPU usage (Activity monitor open at all times). It has to be the drive.
So then I tried running ClamXav, and found a windows trojan, which I deleted manually, but no change.
Now, during all these stages I was regularly running erase free space opeartions (Fast x1), and noticed something curious: during the operation, my problem disappears. I still get occasional loading beach balls, and ocassional jumps in movies, but other than that, I can use my mac normally again.
So now, I'm constantly running erase free space operations and it's painfully annoying to say the least.
I've tried defragging, to no avail.
I had the problem on Mountain Lion, and upgraded to Mavericks thinking that could change it (by the way it took 18 hours to install mavericks, don't know if that's related).
In other words, I need your help. Does anybody know if I've no choice but to buy an external hardrive, backup my data, and erase my entire homedrive? Can this situation still be salvaged?
Thanks!

EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)
Report generated 17 Jun 2014 08:24:26 GMT+2
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Verified)
          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2
          1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
          4 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: (null)
                    Color LCD 1280 x 800
System Software:
          OS X 10.9.3 (13D65) - Uptime: 1 day 0:37:38
Disk Information:
          APPLE HDD TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500,11 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209,7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499,25 GB (287,47 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
          OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5970H
USB Information:
          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
          Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver
          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Thunderbolt Information:
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Configuration files:
          /etc/hosts - Count: 15
Gatekeeper:
          Anywhere
Kernel Extensions:
          [loaded] com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.6.2 - SDK 10.6) Support
          [not loaded] com.anchorfree.tun (1.1.1 - SDK 10.8) Support
          [not loaded] com.iospirit.driver.RBTSRPlugin (1.18 - SDK 10.6) Support
          [loaded] com.iospirit.driver.rbiokithelper (1.21 - SDK 10.6) Support
          [loaded] com.manycamllc.driver.ManyCamDriver (0.0.9 - SDK 10.5) Support
          [not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.leopard (5.8 - SDK 10.4) Support
          [not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.master (5.8) Support
          [not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.panther (5.8 - SDK 10.3) Support
          [loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.snowleopard (5.8 - SDK 10.6) Support
          [not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.tiger (5.8 - SDK 10.4) Support
          [not loaded] com.roxio.BluRaySupport (1.1.6) Support
          [not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (2.0) Support
          [loaded] com.waves.driver.soundgrid (2.0.0) Support
          [loaded] net.osculator.driver.OSCulatorIOKit (2.0 - SDK 10.5) Support
          [loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.2.16) Support
          [not loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (4.2.16) Support
          [not loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (4.2.16) Support
          [loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.2.16) Support
Startup Items:
          PACESupport: Path: /Library/StartupItems/PACESupport
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
          [loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support
          [loaded] com.anchorfree.ajaxserver.plist Support
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support
          [loaded] com.iospirit.candelair.daemon.plist Support
          [loaded] com.iospirit.candelair.sync.plist Support
          [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support
          [running] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist Support
          [running] com.waves.daemon.SoundGridProtocolService.plist Support
          [loaded] net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper.plist Support
          [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist Support
          [loaded] PACESupport.plist Support
Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
          [loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist Support
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
          [running] net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist Support
          [loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist Support
          [running] org.tigris.scplugin.launch.plist Support
User Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist Support
          [not loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist Support
User Login Items:
          iTunesHelper
Internet Plug-ins:
          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.0.0.126   - SDK 10.8 Support
          FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Support
          Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
          Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.214 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update
          QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
          o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support
          zako: Version: zako 1.0.0.0 - SDK 10.8 Support
          SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.0.0 Support
          googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support
          Silverlight: Version: 5.1.10411.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
          JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 21 Check version
Safari Extensions:
          ChatZum: Version: 1.31
          AdBlock: Version: 2.6.0
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
          AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins:
          Kaleidostrobe: Version: 1.0.0 ©2002 Shehryar Lasi
          Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
User Internet Plug-ins:
          BlueStacks Install Detector: Version: Unknown
          Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          Flash Player Support
          Flip4Mac WMV Support
          Growl Support
Time Machine:
          Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU:
               3%          SGProtocolService
               2%          codesign
               2%          VLC
               1%          coreaudiod
               1%          CVMCompiler
Top Processes by Memory:
          131 MB          VLC
          131 MB          com.apple.IconServicesAgent
          127 MB          Google Chrome
          111 MB          mds_stores
          60 MB          WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information:
          1.23 GB          Free RAM
          1.15 GB          Active RAM
          913 MB          Inactive RAM
          661 MB          Wired RAM
          2.61 GB          Page-ins
          96 MB          Page-outs
Any clues?

Erase free space erased everything

On my MacBook with OS X 10.6.8, I tried to erase free space (zero out) on a pretty full 2TB external HDD using Disk Utility (still 100 GB free space).
I have done this lots of times before to free up a little more space. When I did it today, the progress message said "unmount volume", then "erasing volume"! The whole process took only 10 seconds. After that, there were 2TB of free space and all my files were missing.
Does it seem only the partition was erased since the erasing only took 10 secs? The external HDD only had one partition. Although there is a volume now just no data in it. What's the best way to recover these files? Should I use a Knoppix Live CD and disk duplication? (I'm just learning now how to do this)
I'm trying Prosoft's Data Rescue 3, and that does not work well I will try Photorec with a live cd. I'm trying to understand what happened with Disk Utility - normally it would take a while to erase 2tb of data even unsecurely not the 10 sec thing that happened to me

Tign wrote:
Thanks Lupunus
Looks like I erased the volume - so is your above suggestion still the best way to recover the data?
If there where no writing on the drive since the operation, you will get your data back.
A good tools is Testdisk -> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
If you are unsure of your own skills, you may alternatively send the disk to a recovery service like Kroll. But this will ease your wallet by around 1000$
Take a look in the discussions history here. There was a similar problem a week or two ago and the thread contains a lot of useful information.
I will look in my own history too. If I find the thread, I'll post the link here.
Cheers - Lupunus
Got it --> https://discussions.apple.com/message/16110105#16110105
Message was edited by: lupunus

No Hard Disk Detected after Erasing Free Space

Hi ,
First I will explain the problem, I will be grateful for your help to solve it as immediately as possible. Thanks in advance !
I have a MacBook Black since 2007, with system specification, 160 GB Hard Disk, 1GB RAM, 2.16 GHz Intel Processor. I had a OS X 10.4.11 Tiger version. I need to upgrade it to 10.6 Snow Leopard. I bought OS X 10.6 DVD Snow Leopard version from Apple Store.
Last night, I save my all the data on external HDD, and tried to install 10.6, and it is installed over 10.4.11 with everything on the internal 160 Hard Disk. I did not want like that. I again started the installation process, I went to Disk Utility, I did some thing with partition, i.e. I created again 160 GB partition. Then I wanted to format, Then I saw some Erase Free Space and only Erase also, I click on Erase only, it is finished in seconds. but I was not satisfied. I saw button Erase Free Space then I click there, then , it takes about 90 minutes, and at the end, I saw a failure message that it could not create the temporary file or something like that I forgot what was written, however, it was a failure message ( it is failed to create etc ) .. ,
Then I saw, that there was nothing in the disk utility tool except the installing 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD. I was shocked, what happened.
Does some body could help me in this regard. How can I get the internal HDD with installation DVD ? What should I do after to erase everthing from my internal HDD, I mean , there should be nothing on it ..,
A big THANKS to you to solve this problem.
Best Regards,
Imran Khan
Macbook Black
1 GB RAM
160 GB HDD
2.16 GHz Intel

Yes, I just played with Disk Utility, and in the end, I found nothing.
With the installer DVD, when I came upto Menu List, I click on Apple in the upper left corner, There are many menus but in grey, I can't click on them, e.g.
About This MAc
Software Update...
Mac OS X Software ...
Logout ...
I can't click them ,
Just for Info, In the Utilities Menu, the list is as below,
Startup Disk ..
Reset Password..
Firmware Password Utility
Disk Utility
Terminal
System Profiler
Network Utility
Restore System From Backup,
Here I click on the System Profiler Menu, After that, I go into deep, there are hardware list,
In ATA ... it shows only MATSHITADVD-R UJ-857E .. in detail it shows about the installer 10.6 DVD
and
In Serial-ATA .. it shows Intel ICH7-M AHCI ..
I did not find anything about internal HDD of 160 GB.

I need to erase free space on my hard drive. But when I am in disk utility the format and name are pale as is the erase free space button so I cannot erase free space.

My start up disk is full. I have been through my computer and erased a lot of music and video to free some space. I then went to disk utility to erase free space and find that the erase free space button is pale and therefore won't work. Nor can I select or deselect MacOS extended journaled.
Advice please?!

Recovering Disk Space
If you have less than 20% disk space then it is time to roll up your sleeves and search for what you can delete and what you can offload to another disk.
If you have less than 10 GB you definitely need to delete or offload some files or purchase a lager disk or SSD (see below). You may want to maintain at least 20 GB of free space so when your disk starts filling again it will have some room before it hits that 10 GB mark again. More headroom is better. If you let the space fall much below 9 GB you might not be able to boot your machine.
Initial easy steps to gain disk space:
- Delete all files in the Downloads folder.
Empty the Trash.
- Start iPhoto.
Empty its trash.
Restart.
- Restart in Safe Mode:
Restart the computer.
As soon as you hear the chime press and hold the right shift key.
Be patient. Hold it down until you see the Apple icon.
Empty the trash.
Restart in normal mode.
- Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
    Hold the option key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.
    Select "Library" from the drop down menu.
    Library > Mail > V2 > Mailboxes
    Delete "Recovered Messages", if any.
- Empty the Trash.
- Restart.
- Re-index your system disk (Macintosh HD):
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2409
Time Machine Snapshots:
If your disk is 80% full that is normal. Time Machine uses up to 80% of the disk space for local snapshots. To get rid of these snapshots simply plug in your Time Machine backup drive and run a backup. See About Time Machine's 'local snapshots' on Mac notebooks: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4878 and What are Local Snapshots? http://pondini.org/TM/30.html .
If you are concerned that the “Other” category of disk usage is taking too much space and for information on deleting files then look here: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-5142
Backup:
Run a Time Machine (or other) backup since you are about to delete and move files and you may need to recover from any inadvertent mistakes or decisions. You will need one external hard drive for your Time Machine (or other) backup and a second if you plan to offload some files. (See suggestions for where to purchase hard drives at the end of this message.)
For more about backups:
Time Machine Basics: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427
Most commonly used backup methods:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3045
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6031
Deleting files:
Then use the free application OmniDiskSweeper http://www.omnigroup.com/more to explore your volume in descending order by size so you can attack the problem from the top down, deleting the largest unwanted files first. Delete with caution and do not delete any system files. Remember to empty the trash after trashing the files.
Additional reference on freeing disk space:
http://pondini.org/OSX/DiskSpace.html
Offloading files:
Consider moving some of the no-often-used large files or directories to an external disk. Use ODS again to find them. As noted above this will be at least your second hard drive. Your first one(s) is/are for your Time Machine (or other) backup(s). Do not offload files onto a Time Machine disk.
Format the second drive as Mac OS Extended (journaled). Using OWS to find large files/folders and copy them from the system drive to the external hard drive and delete them from your internal drive.
Then  > System Preferences > Time Machine > Options… > Remove the offload HD name from the exclusions list.
Now both your system disk and your external offload disk will be backed up onto your Time Machine disk.
From: http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/freeingspace.html
To move your iTunes Music folder to another disk or partition:
To change the location of your iTunes Music folder, carefully follow the instructions in the AppleCare® Knowledge Base document "iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Music folder."Additional information can be found in iTunes Help.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.thexlab.com/105/ 00000849.html
Laptop users may want to consider having two iTunes libraries: a small library of current favorites on their computer, while their complete library resides on an external hard drive. Utilities like iTunes Library Manager enable you to easily have multiple iTunes libraries you can use with your account. https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7689/itunes-library-manager
To move your iPhoto Library folder to another disk or partition:
To move the iPhoto Library folder to a new location, employ the instructions in the AppleCare Knowledge Base document from http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506 corresponding to the version of iPhoto you are using. Additional information can be found in iPhoto Help.
Laptop users may want to consider having two iPhoto libraries: a small library of current, favorite photographs on their computer, while their complete library, or archives of older photos are saved on an external hard drive. Utilities such as iPhoto Buddy and iPhoto Library Manager enable you to have multiple iPhoto libraries that you can use with your account.
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12175/iphoto-buddy
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7158/iphoto-library-manager
Hardware — Bigger disk/SSD:
If your system has upgradeable storage then if you are still tight on disk space consider larger storage. If you have a disk consider replacing it with a one TB disk. Check out a one terabyte HGST 7K1000 7200 rpm, SATA III drive from OWC http://eshop.macsales.com ($100). If you have an SSD consider increasing its capacity to 240 or 480 GB. A standard 240 GB SSD would cost from $200 to $280. See OWC and Crucial: http://www.crucial.com/ for options. OWC sells 120, 240 and 480 GB SSD upgrades for MacBook Airs. A 240 GB upgrade costs $265.   http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/ . If your Mac is under warranty or AppleCare replacing the SSD will void the warranty.
PlotinusVeritas gives some great suggestions for purchasing external hard drives in this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5602141?tstart=0

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.

Disk utility taking forever to "Erase Free Space"!

i am trying to speed up my macbook so i read on http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-speed-up-your-mac-without-spending-any-cash/ that one way to speed up a mac is to "Erase Free Space" and when i did it, it was working fine but now its been "Creating Temperary File" for like 10 minutes and all of my HD is filled up now when i had like 50 GB open before i did this! i cant take a screen shot because when i do, it says it cant save it because there isn't and space open on my HD! help!!!!

guitar4542 wrote:
i am trying to speed up my macbook so i read on http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-speed-up-your-mac-without-spending-any-cash/ that one way to speed up a mac is to "Erase Free Space"
that advice is nonsense. there is absolutely no difference in speed when writing to a space written over by zeros as erase free space does.
and when i did it, it was working fine but now its been "Creating Temperary File" for like 10 minutes and all of my HD is filled up now when i had like 50 GB open before i did this! i cant take a screen shot because when i do, it says it cant save it because there isn't and space open on my HD! help!!!!
what you see is normal. erasing free space takes all of the free space on the drive, temporarily puts it into one huge file and writes it over with zeros. that file is then deleted. while the process takes place (and it can take a very long time). you can't use the computer because you have no free space on the hard drive.

HT1199 Macbook 2007 - erase free space took all my free space! help!

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