After deleting files, I still have no disk space

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After deleting files, I still have no disk space

I had completely clogged my Mac HD with video files, so it was no wonder I had 0kb disc space left. But after I moved them to an external drive, finder is still saying there is no disc space. I have tried the following:

1. first moved around 11 GB of video files/iMovie and Premiere project files from the Movies folder to my external hard drive
2. restarted and shut down the computer several times. I expected to get a message having to do with File Vault so I could free up space that way, but no such message appeared and the computer just restarted or turned itself off each time.
3. Emptied the trash, which seems to have freed 440MB.
4. Ran the periodic daily, weekly, monthly system routines in terminal
5. In Disk Utility, Erased free space
6. In Disk Utility, verified disk
7. In Disk Utility, verified file permissions.

I don't know what else to do! I expected moving the video files to free up the disk space and Finder still says I have none. Help?

macbook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jun 19, 2008 9:47 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Jun 19, 2008 10:04 PM in response to euphoriafish

Even 480 MB of RAM is dangerous territory for OSX.

Sounds like the Video files were just copied, not Mved!?

Use Disk Inventory X to see what's taking up space...

http://www.derlien.com/

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Answer 2

euphoriafish Author

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Jun 19, 2008 10:25 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for the fast response 🙂

Yeah, it's acting like the files were only copied and not deleted. But I used the apple+delete shortcut to delete the files from their original location after moving them to the external drive. And in Finder, it says there is nothing in the Movies directory where the files originally were.

Running Disk Image X, the biggest block is a 30 GB sparse image. What is a sparse image anyway? And how much do I need it?

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Answer 3

Jun 19, 2008 10:35 PM in response to euphoriafish

Hi Euphoria,

When you emptied the Trash, it freed 440MB. That's less than 1GB. And File Vault, it sounds to me that when you moved files to the eternal drive, File Vault reclaimed the drive space you freed up. It will do that.

*** This from Apple Help Menu on File Vault:
If you do not have enough free space on your hard disk, reduce the size of your home directory by copying some of it's contents to another location and then deleting it from your home. Then log out and log in again, for FileVault to reclaim the unused space. *

I agree with BDAqua, I think you inadvertently copied the video files over to the external drive. Just moving them from one drive to the other doesn't erase them from the first drive. Rule of thumb... you need 15% free drive space just to boot a Mac and if you use File Vault, twice that.

Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

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Answer 4

Jun 19, 2008 10:47 PM in response to euphoriafish

Hello,

A Sparse image is a type of disk image file that can be created under Mac OS X using Disk Utility. Encrypted sparse image files are used to secure a user's home directory by Mac OS X's FileVault feature. So if you use File Vault, you need that file.

Also, if you know the names of the video files, do a Search in Spotlight to see if there are any on the drive that Disk X might now have found. If you aren't sure of the file names, you could try .mov
It depends on the software you used to create those video files with to start with.

The light just went on over my head. If you used the apple+delete shortcut to delete the files from their original location after moving them to the external drive, that doesn't send them to the Trash in software such as iMovie. Launch iMovie. Go to File/Empty Trash. Anytime you delete files using iMovie, you have to delete them while using that application within that application. When you delete files in iMovie, it doesn't send those files to the Trash in the Dock, but in it's own app... just a temp memory cache if you will.

Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

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Answer 5

Jun 19, 2008 10:41 PM in response to euphoriafish

What is the size of your hard drive?

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 6

euphoriafish Author

Level 1

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Jun 20, 2008 7:06 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks. That was definitely a part of the problem.

And then I deleted around 10 picture files that I didn't think were very big but maybe there were more of them than I thought. And then when I rebooted File Vault popped up the message saying it was using more space than necessary again, so I was able to gain some more space.

Out of an 80GB drive, I now have 20GB free space. So I have something to work with. I also turned off File Vault. Could I safely delete the sparse image file, or would it affect other things I'm not aware of?

This is my first Mac, by the way. I'm used to deleting things in Windows and just having them be gone. I don't put anything in the Trash unless I'm ready to never see it again. The difficulty of deleting things is the only thing I haven't enjoyed about my Macbook since I got it, along with the different file system that I haven't gotten the hang of yet. I know there are bits of programs I tried to get rid of that are probably still hanging around too, in parts of my computer that aren't the home directory.

Thanks for the help and advice!

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Answer 7

Jun 20, 2008 9:28 PM in response to euphoriafish

Apple key+delete doesn't delete the selected item. Apple key+delete moves the item to the trash. You have to empty the trash to delete. This will free up disc space.

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Answer 8

euphoriafish Author

Level 1

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Jun 21, 2008 6:00 PM in response to euphoriafish

I was able to free up some disk space, which solved my immediate problem. However, I already knew to empty the Trash after using the keyboard shortcut to delete files. That was not the problem. The problem was actually that even after emptying Trash containing more than 1GB of data, Finder still said all of my disk space was in use. I am still not sure exactly what I did that made File Vault prompt me and erase more deleted data. I would like to have a better understanding of how to delete things permanently, and I still haven't gained that understanding.

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Jun 21, 2008 6:17 PM in response to euphoriafish

The problem was actually that even after emptying Trash containing more than 1GB of data, Finder still said all of my disk space was in use.

Perhaps, since you were in such dire need of free HD space, the OS instantly took up the newly freed space for VM for it's needs, which allow FV to run right.

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