No Disk Space After Failed Disk Utility Erase Free Space

Hello All,

I'm having a pretty serious problem. I attempted to erase the free space on my HD, as I do from time to time, except this time it appeared to hang/freeze at the end, when it gets to the part where it creates a temporary file. I waited for several minutes and it didn't move. I tried clicking the skip button, but that did nothing either, so I force quit Disk Utility.

The problem is, it left the disk at "Zero KB" of free space, effectively making my computer inoperable. I was in the process of studying for a huge exam tomorrow, and am currently flipping out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If it matters, I'm on a Macbook Pro 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo, running 10.4.

I really don't want to have to reinstall the OS and import the old files, but my real fear is that I will have to do a fresh install of the OS.

Thanks in advance,

steiney

Thank you very much for your reply! I tried entering the command in terminal and it didn't seem to do anything. I double checked to make sure I typed in exactly what you said. Am I supposed to substitute something in place of the asterisk? I'm not the most terminal-savvy person.

Also, would it be possible to show the hidden files, then go in and manually remove the file you are talking about?

Blackburn: I'm running 10.4.11. Sorry about the asterisk question. I figured it was a stupid question, but I really don't know what I'm doing in terminal. It's a shame because I'm pretty knowledgeable outside of terminal.

Also, I don't know if you saw my edit to my last post, but would it be possible to show the hidden files, then go in and delete the file you are talking about manually?

nippyjun: I'm not sure I follow you. I have an external HD, but are you talking about removing the internal HD?

Well I generally use IceClean to clean out my caches, and it has a "show hidden files" option built in.

If I show the hidden files, do I just follow the path you gave me in the teminal command to delete the temporary file?

I just tried cleaning the root cache and user cache with IceClean, but it says that they have already been cleaned. (I clean both of them just before running Disk Utility to erase the free disk space.)

Also, entering the command into terminal to show hidden files didn't work. It said "Could not write domain com.apple.finder; exiting".

IceClean isn't able to make the "show hidden files" command work either, probably due to the same reason that it wouldn't work by entering the command into terminal.

Do you have any other idea of how to get the hidden files to show?

Would booting from the install disk and doing some sort or repair be of any help?

How would I download it or install it? My external HD is Mac formatted, so I can't plug it into my Windows computer to install Onyx onto it, and I don't think I will be able to run an internet browser on my Mac even if I download Onyx straight to the external HD.

Oh man, that's such a good idea! I can't believe I didn't think of that.

I'm moving 2.2 GB's to my external HD right now. After the transfer is done, I will retry all the options you had me try, starting with the terminal command to erase the temp file.

I'll post back in a few minutes and let you know what happened.

Okay, the command to erase the file didn't work, but I was able to use the command to show all files.

I went into /var, but when I try to get into the "root" folder, it says "The folder "root" could not be opened because you do not have sufficient access privileges."

I tried cleaning the caches again, and it's giving me the "already cleaned cache" message.

I'm reading on support.apple.com right now about how to enable root access. If I can get it to work, then I think I will be able to get into the root folder and delete the file.

I'll let you know what happens, or if I have any more questions.

Thank you very much for all you help so far! I really appreciate it.

Okay, well I'm going to try booting from the Install Disk and run the disk utility from there.

I enabled root access and got into the root folder, but the file wasn't in at the path you gave me, or anywhere in the hidden files. I looked through everything. Also, I ran WhatSize to see if that could locate it (sorting files by their size since the file should be almost 20 GB's), but that didn't find it, and also told me that the disk is only 91 GB's, whereas it should be 111 GB's.

It's seems that the computer has lost track of those 20 GB's of space which the Disk Utility temp file was occupying. I wonder if it's gone permanently.

I'm gonna try booting from the install disk, and I will let you know what happens.

Well I thought maybe I should reboot the computer normally before booting to the install disc. When I rebooted, my free space was back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the computer just lost track of that section of the HD for whatever reason, and the reboot help it remember.

Anyway, problem solved. Thank you again soooooooo much for your help.