deleted files not clearing space on my hard drive

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deleted files not clearing space on my hard drive

I'm running iMovieHD v6.0.3 on an old PowerPC G5. Things have always run smoothly until now. When I started editing my most recent video, I had 191GB left on a 500GB hard drive. Whenever I deleted any clips, my trash file size went immediately to 6.73GB - 191GB Available. I edited this movie down from 45 minutes to 13 minutes and the same amount of space showed up in my trash (6.73GB) and hard drive (191GB left) as when the project began.

I thought I may just have a single corrupt/buggy session, but this is happening now in a newer iMovie session. Command+i on my hard drive still says it has 191GB of free space - after deleting almost one hour of video. All trash is empty and the deleted files seem to be gone. What is wrong?

BTW - I'm new here and not the biggest techie around, so please type slowly. Thanks.

Kevin

PowerPC G5, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Oct 25, 2010 11:23 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Bengt Wärleby

Level 6

19,458 points

Oct 25, 2010 11:34 AM in response to 5108audio

Hi

IIII''''lllll tttttrrrryyyy. (jokes aside)

a. There are a trash basket in iMovie - I NEVER use this as it so often are connected
to bug's in various versions of iMovie

b. This trash basket is not needed - THOUGH - iMovie as FinalCut are NON-Destructive video editors

This means that if You Capture/Import one hour of video it will need about 13.5Gb to be stored

If You then use 1 frame of this or a minute audio segment - then trash the rest
You will not gain anything - ALL is Kept ! That is NON-Destructive editing.

c. If You trashed parts eg photos or audio clips of no use and emptied the trash.
This is just moved to trash basket on DeskTop. Still not retrieved any space.
But if You now empty the Trashbasket in Finder then You might get some space back.

BUT MY Varmest recommendation is - PLEASE - Ignore the Trash-basket in iMovie !

Yours Bengt W

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Answer 2

5108audio Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 25, 2010 12:21 PM in response to Bengt Wärleby

Bengt - Thanks for letting me know about the buggy iMovie trash. I was aware of the non-destructive editing properties, so I always made sure to empty the main trash as well. I like not hanging on to bad footage, so in the future I will just drag unwanted files straight to the trash can on my desktop. Hopefully this will help solve my problem from now on. I'll keep you posted. Thanks.

Kevin

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Answer 3

Rich839

Level 8

47,244 points

Oct 25, 2010 1:37 PM in response to 5108audio

If any part of your edited clip remains in your iMovie project, then the discarded part also will remain, whether or not you empty the trash. As Bengt points out, this is non-destructive editing. If you discard the entire clip, so that no part of it remains in the project, then emptying the trash will free up space.

A workaround is to export to your desktop the retained portion of the edited clip to Quicktime movie, and then import the resulting Quicktime movie back into your iMovie project. That creates a new clip. You can then delete the retained portion of the old clip, and when you empty the trash it will be deleted along with the edited parts that you previously removed, and space will be freed up. You also can wait until your iMovie project is completed, then send the whole project to Quicktime and import back in. Then when you empty the trash you will free up space. Further editing will be somewhat limited, however.

Note: Whenever you permanently delete a clip, be sure that you have a back up copy somewhere on your drive if you think you might want to re-edit it or reference it in some way.

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