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Erase Free Space Mistake! Ate all my HD space! Help!

P

Phill-art

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 29, 2013
18
2
I have a MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2010) Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with 4 GB of ram.

I pressed the Erase Free Space button in Disk Utility thinking it would be good for my mac.... Instead I realized too late that it was eating up ALL my HD space. I panicked when it was down to the last 2 GB and force quit Disk Utility (which from what I understand isn't good to do in that process) After I freed up some space by deleting files and now my HD is up to about 20 GB. My computer is actually running very smoothly right now despite how much space I have left on it.

I did some googling and I've tried using the terminal to find and delete the files Disk Utility created. I put in the command

sudo rm -f /var/root/Library/Cashes/TemporaryItems/*

Then the terminal wanted me to put in my admin password, I tried too type it in, but the curser wasn't moving. I pressed the keys of my password anyway and pressed enter. I'm not sure if it did anything. I quit terminal and brought it up again. The curser was all the way to left with no other text. I tried entering in the same command and pressing enter and the curser just when to the next line, and nothing seemed to happen. What is the safest way I can fix this????
 
This might not be the most sophisticated advise, but:

backing up to time machine --> repair disk permissions --> boot into recovery --> reinstall OSX

This is always a last resort that will fix things.
 
I really rather not go that approach, but thanks for the suggestion. I don't have time machine either.

Is there anyone that knows how to use terminal well?
 
Phill-art said:
I really rather not go that approach, but thanks for the suggestion. I don't have time machine either.
Is there anyone that knows how to use terminal well?
Click to expand...
consider this: reinstalling the OS is not a big deal and doesnt take long.
Every mac has time machine built in you just need a backup disc.

Trying to fix this might take longer and might not work completely.

I might be wrong, but I think my solution will be the most straight forward.
 
I already have a 60GB partition, but I don't think that will fit all the data I want to save. And I don't want to go through the trouble of making another Partition. And I don't have a usb external that can fit all of my data.

Sorry for being difficult, I just want to know if there is some simple terminal commands that can fix this.....
 
Phill-art said:
Then the terminal wanted me to put in my admin password, I tried too type it in, but the curser wasn't moving. I pressed the keys of my password anyway and pressed enter. I'm not sure if it did anything.
Click to expand...

Did it give you the normal "ComputerName:~ username$" (in which case it had done what you asked) or nothing at all (in which case it was still processing)?

The second time it wouldn't have asked for your password because it remembers it for a few minutes.
 
Nermal said:
Did it give you the normal "ComputerName:~ username$" (in which case it had done what you asked) or nothing at all (in which case it was still processing)?

The second time it wouldn't have asked for your password because it remembers it for a few minutes.
Click to expand...

It might have been processing, and I quit it before it finished. I went back to terminal and now it's not responding when I enter in any commands (even though I quit terminal a few times now, could it still be processing?) there's no "ComputerName:~ username$". AND I just noticed my disk utility is crossed out with that circle and slash symbol. When I click on it it says 'You can't use this version of the application Disk Utility with version of Mac OS X You have Mac OS X 10.6.8. The application requires Mac OS X 10.7 or later.'

Did I really mess my computer up? : (
 
Phill-art said:
Did I really mess my computer up? : (
Click to expand...

yes, you shouldnt have messed with what you didnt understand. when you erase free space the disk is filled with 1/0's until the disk is full then it is erased, this is normal behaviour, you stopped this from completing, you then ran a terminal command, and by the sounds of it you quit that before it finished as well. you are impatient and this is your fault.

the best thing you can do it as the others have posted, back up your data to an external disk, dvd discs, usb thumbdrives, floppy diskettes, whatever. then reinstall your OS because its likely borked.

then run migration assistant from the new installation.

Next time leave things be.
 
Lucas Godfrey said:
yes, you shouldnt have messed with what you didnt understand. when you erase free space the disk is filled with 1/0's until the disk is full then it is erased, this is normal behaviour, you stopped this from completing, you then ran a terminal command, and by the sounds of it you quit that before it finished as well. you are impatient and this is your fault.

the best thing you can do it as the others have posted, back up your data to an external disk, dvd discs, usb thumbdrives, floppy diskettes, whatever. then reinstall your OS because its likely borked.

then run migration assistant from the new installation.

Next time leave things be.
Click to expand...

Thank you for explaining this and you're absolutely right it's my fault! It's true I am impatient, but more so that I didn't understand how these processes should of behaved. This was actually the first time I did something with my computer before throughly researching it first.

I just ordered a flash drive that will fit all my data... I'm keeping my computer on until I get all my data off, then I'll shut it down.
 
Last edited:
As far as reinstalling the OS, do I have to delete my partition as well?
 
Phill-art said:
As far as reinstalling the OS, do I have to delete my partition as well?
Click to expand...

It's probably a good idea; that'll wipe out any damage that the incomplete erase has caused.

Just be sure not to cancel the OS install halfway through too :p
 
Nermal said:
It's probably a good idea; that'll wipe out any damage that the incomplete erase has caused.

Just be sure not to cancel the OS install halfway through too :p
Click to expand...

Haha, will do. Will there be an option to simply erase both, or is there more to it?

leman said:
No need to reinstall anything, you just have to delete the temporary files created by Disk Utility. Please read through this page for more information: https://discussions.apple.com/message/12396696

P.S. You can also use a tool like the OmiDiskSweeper to locate the offending files.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help, but I think the damage is done. Terminal isn't working and I can't access disk utility...
 
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