emptying trash not freeing up space

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Level 1

55 points

emptying trash not freeing up space

we got rid of over 20 gigs of music to free up space. after emptying the trash, and restarting, it still shows a very very low 582 mb of space. which that low space has led to many problems. why would it not show the new space? what can be done? thanks.

Ibook 1.42, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Feb 5, 2009 5:06 PM

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Answer 1

S.U.

Level 6

9,595 points

Feb 5, 2009 7:53 PM in response to Geoff Moore1

One thing to do is to see what is taking up the space. Here is a utility that will help you to do that:

Disk Inventory X

http://www.derlien.com/

I'm not sure why emptying the trash did not free up the expected space. Did the trash seem to empty normally?

Good luck!

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Answer 2

Geoff Moore1 Author

Level 1

55 points

Feb 6, 2009 8:35 AM in response to S.U.

on another restart it finally emptied the trash, giving my 33 gigs. but it did need like an hour to go thru something called FileVault, which I had never seen. Anyone know what FileVault is and why it was called up by the computer?

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Answer 3

S.U.

Level 6

9,595 points

Feb 6, 2009 3:28 PM in response to Geoff Moore1

AHA! Go to System Preferences>Security>FileVault and you can read about it.

This may be something that got turned on at some point. It is a way of encrypting your home folder using AES-128 encryption so that no one can access it without the password.

Generally, unless there is some specific reason to use File Vault, it is better to just leave it turned off. If you have something particularly sensitive to protect, an encrypted disk image will likely be a better choice.

Good luck!

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