Wiping free space on Lion using Disk Utility Erase Free Space

I'm using Lion (OS X 10.7.3) on a late 2011 MacBook Pro.
FileVault is active.
I tried to erase free space on my HD using Disk Utility. It started by creating a temporary file and presented me with an indeterminate indicator-bar (one that looks like a barber pole). Activity Monitor showed an average CPU utilization of 2% by Disk Utility but disk activity was normal and usage stayed constant.
I left this process on for about twelve hours but Activity Monitor showed nothing new and the DU indicator-bar stayed indeterminate with Creating Temporary File.
I tried to skip this DU process and was presented with another indeterminate bar: Skipping. Again, AM showed nothing new so I force-quit DU and used sudo find / -type f -size +500M to see if any temporary files were created. I did not find any new files.
I rebooted and tried it from the terminal: sudo diskutil secureErase freespace 1 /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD. The result was the same: No progress.
BTW, if you run the above command, make sure you include the freespace portion. If you don't, diskutil will happily start securely erasing the entire disk.
Not being able to wipe free space using DU may have something to do with FileVault being active. Can someone confirm this?
What I love about working on a Mac is I have a Unix-based computer that I can tinker with. So I was able to wipe free space manually: dd if=/dev/urandom of=~/DELETEME followed by srm -s ~/DELETEME.
Hope this helps someone.

Bidit Mazumder wrote:
BTW, if you run the above command, make sure you include the freespace portion. If you don't, diskutil will happily start securely erasing the entire disk.
Why we don't mention such terminal commands around here.

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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."
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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!

I got 3.95GB available on my flash drive and need 4GB to reinstall lion osx how can i create space on usb using Disk Utility ??!

I got 3.95GB available on my flash drive and need 4GB to reinstall lion osx how can i create space on usb using Disk Utility ??!

What is the capacity of the flash drive?
You might also be able to reinstall Lion without a flash drive, by booting up the computer holding the Command + R keys, and choosing Reinstall OS X.

Disk Utility - Erase Free Space-what does it really do?

Hey Forum,
I am using mac os 10.6.4 on my macbook and i have a doubting question for quite sometimes, what does disk utility erase free space feature really do? Does it gives you more free space? or what? I know it prevents the recovery of deleted files but i want to know what more it does and do not do? Like, now my hdd free space kept increasing and decreasing, by a few 100 mbs or 50mbs etc, so do i erase free space so to solve this problem? Ok, i do not only want to know does it solve the previous problem, but also the questions stated in the whole long paragraph i have wrote. If you know anything related to disk utility's erase free space, feel free to tell me!
Pls help me, I need you guys' help!
Thank you.
Regards
Ala.

Erase free space simply writes zeros over the space occupied by deleted files to prevent data recovery. That's all it does. It does not give you extra disk space.
Your disk space goes up and down a bit because the system creates temporary files and logs which take up space, such as the Safari cache. You can clear these file using a utility like Onyx (which is free)

Disk Utility erase free space problem

I tried to clean my hard drive by overwriting the free space using Disk Utility to make deleted files unrecoverable. But I got the message: "Your startup disk is almost full. Make room by deleting files." But my hard disk is 250GB (Capacity 232.6 GB) of which 197.4 GB is available and 35.2 GB used. I also have a 40 GB Iomega external hard drive which I use for automatic daily backup (using Chronosync). If I try to overwrite the free space on that drive with zeros, I get the message "Secure Erase Free Space failed -- Could not create temp file." There is 17.5 GB available. The Volume format is "Mac OS Extended (journaled)."

This may help:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1010.html

After freeing space using disk utility, I can't return 80GB of inaccessible space back to normal.

I was planning on freeing some space suing disk utility from Macintosh HD so I can make the BOOTCAMP partition bigger. Obviously I haaven't put much preparation into it before I headed off recklessly into the unknown. After getting free space I moved to windows and I tried to create a new simple volume with the free space, which did not work. So I returned to Macintosh to try to return the 80 gigs back to normal, I can't do it anymore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfVqCstmyrM
Please help!

How I would approached this:
Backup #1
Shrink the user volume as much as possible.
Using ML Recovery is always a good idea
The ONLY way, and read the instructions before starting in Boot Camp Assistant, they are there, they avoid a lot of issues, and is the main method (outside of 3rd party) for setup and creating a BOOTCAMP partition. And you do not use Disk Utility.
Undo and redo. and read.
http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp has FAQ and the rest

Tip on How to Monitor Disk Utility Erase Free Space

When you use the Disk Utility Erase Free Space option, it can sometimes appear to hang and the progress bar isn't always a help.
By accident, I discovered that if you run the Activity Monitor and select Disk Usage, you can in fact monitor progress. The Space Free will gradually tick down, sometimes as slowly as 100K/sec, then when it hits zero, it will quicklt tick back up. If you observe this, just let Disk Utility complete to avoid any issues; Activity Monitor makes it easier to be patiet about this.
Hope this helps.

Great tip, thanks for the post!

How do I use Disk Utility to help install Mountain Lion after many failed attempts?

I tried to install Mountain Lion from an App onto my MacBook.
First it said that my disk was damaged to i tried to repair it.
Didn't work.
Then it said I didn't have enough room to install Mountain Lion.
Then I tried to restore Lion.
Didn't work.
Then someone suggested I reset my PRAM.
Tried that, and now I am stuck.
I can't restore any of my backups from timeline.
I can't reinstall OSX because my drive is now locked.
And I don't know how to use Disk Utility to solve this problem!
Any suggestions welcome... I'm in way deeper than I understand and feel like anything I do is making this worse!

I gather that your computer is in a less than satisfactory state, so the process below will basically start you from scratch, but you shouldn't lose anything.
Okay, can you inspect the Time Machine Backups with the Finder? About two or so folders down you should start seeing your system files. Assuming all your files are present.
Important^
You probably have an installation disk that came with your macBook. Boot from that CD and install from the CD.
Run the verify disk utilites and repair utilities if necessary.
You may want to erase your disk from the CD's disk utility. This will erase your Hard Drive (make sure you do not erase your backups, as that would be very bad).
Once the installation is complete, run all system updates. Either look through your backup and find the Mountain lion installation app, or download it from the app store again.
Run the ML installtion app.
Once everything is up and running, move all files and folders you want from your TM backups and you should be good to go.

Disk utility/erase and lost HD free space

HELP!
In an attempt to clear up space from deleted files I ran the disk utility>erase>erase free space>35-Pass erase deleted files programme. Then did verify disk permissions and repair disk permissions.
Iv now dropped from 7.8GB of free space to 1.8 of free space on the HD. So that things aren't working right. Plus, I can't download music that I bought on iTunes because there isn't enough space on the HD.
How do I get all that space back? What did I do wrong?
All I was doing was trying to free up space from deleted files that Iv been getting rid of. I know that when you delete from one portion of the HD it doesn't always delete it totally off the system only the portion where you're looking at it.
HELP

Do you by any chance have FileVault enabled?

After i bought mac os x lion from web then download , after that to install but when they ask me to choose disk to install i can not choose, it say this disk does not use the GUID partiton table scheme. use disk utility to change the partition scheme. but

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after i bought mac os x lion from web then download , after that to install but when they ask me to choose disk to install i can not choose, it say this disk does not use the GUID partiton table scheme. use disk utility to change the partition scheme. but

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

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Sounds like your hard drive is badly corrupted, likely due to problems that were already there when you started trying to install Mountain Lion. The problem is, if you don't have any backups already, you may not be able to recover all your data from this state. Do you have backups of that data already?
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Hi, Ralph,
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Can I use Snow Leopord DVD to use Disk Utility on Lion.

OnyX suggests I repair my starting disc using disk utility on DVD. The latest version I have on a DVD is Snow Leopard.

As you have OS X Lion, you can use Recovery to repair the disk, so start your computer holding Command and R keys to start in Recovery. See > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274
In the OS X Utilities window, choose Disk Utility, select "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and verify the disk. If there's any problem, repair it

My mac mountain lion dont boot , and dont repair using disk utility what should i do i have so important data on it .my window partation work perfact

hi ,]
last n8
i partatioon hard disk and install windows 7 using bootr cam ,
nw wt heppen my mac HD partation dnt start jst gray screen with apple logo appear and then some loading bar heppen and then shurt down
i tried to repair partation using disk utility
bt
cant repaird ..
so wht should i deoo..
my all data are on mac ..i have to back up .
how can i

There is no option for "DVD and CD Sharing" on a 2011 Mini because it doesn't have an optical drive to share. That option is available only on computers with an optical drive to share.
That option is used, on the other "donor" computer with an optical drive that you want to use/share. On the other computer you turn on "DVD and CD Sharing", allowing its optical drive to be shared. Then on the Mini you connect to it with "remote disc".
I believe you're thinking about the "DVD and CD Sharing" System preference in reverse; you activate it on the computer whose optical drive you want to use/share, not on the Mini without an optical drive.
See the following which explains how to set up and use remote disc: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1777?viewlocale=en_US

Wiping free space on Lion using Disk Utility Erase Free Space

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