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Deleted Large File - All Disk Space Not Recovered

I had about 50GB free on my internal hard drive. I copied my 330GB Aperture Library (.aplibrary) to an external drive. I pointed Aperture to the library on the external drive and it seems to work just fine. I returned to the internal hard drive and deleted the original copy of the 330GB file using the Shredder in CleanMyMac 3. Now I have about 150GB free on the internal hard drive. I have run a CleanMyMac 3 scan and only recovered about 1GB. I also securely emptied trash, and I have rebooted.


Used Disk Utility to Verify Disk, Verify Disk Permissions, and Repair Disk Permissions.


Why am I not seeing a gain of the entire 330GB? What can I do to recover the full 330GB previously occupied by the deleted file?


Thanks,


George

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), External Hard Drives

Posted on May 12, 2015 3:10 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on May 12, 2015 5:27 PM

A

"CleanMyMac" is a scam and a common cause of instability and poor performance. Depending on what version you have, the developer's instructions may not completely remove it. Follow those instructions, then do as below.

Back up all data before proceeding.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder may open with an item selected. If it does, move the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.

Repeat with this line:

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent

Restart the computer and empty the Trash.

You may also have to remove these items in the same way:

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.helperTool.plist

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.volumeWatcher.plist

Never again install "CleanMyMac" or anything like it.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

B

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:

iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash

In Photos:

File Show Recently Deleted Delete All

Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.

See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.

Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.

Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.

ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.

Back up all data now.

Install the app in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.

Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

For ODS:

security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

For GP:

security execute-with-privileges /A*/GrandPerspective.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.

The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.

I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.

When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

4 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 12, 2015 5:27 PM in response to gestone

A

"CleanMyMac" is a scam and a common cause of instability and poor performance. Depending on what version you have, the developer's instructions may not completely remove it. Follow those instructions, then do as below.

Back up all data before proceeding.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist

Right-click or control-click the highlighted line and select

Services Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder may open with an item selected. If it does, move the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password.

Repeat with this line:

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent

Restart the computer and empty the Trash.

You may also have to remove these items in the same way:

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.helperTool.plist

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.volumeWatcher.plist

Never again install "CleanMyMac" or anything like it.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

B

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article. If the display seems to be inaccurate, try rebuilding the Spotlight index.

Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:

iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash

In Photos:

File Show Recently Deleted Delete All

Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then restart the computer. That will temporarily free up some space.

See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.

You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) or GrandPerspective (GP) to explore the volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one. Note that ODS only works with OS X 10.8 or later. If you're running an older OS version, use GP.

Deleting files inside a photo or iTunes library will corrupt the library. Changes to such a library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.

Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.

ODS or GP can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.

Back up all data now.

Install the app in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.

Triple-click anywhere in the corresponding line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

For ODS:

security execute-with-privileges /A*/OmniDiskSweeper.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

For GP:

security execute-with-privileges /A*/GrandPerspective.app/*/M*/* 2>&-

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. You'll be prompted for your login password.

The application window will open behind other open windows. When you scan a volume, the window will eventually show all files in all folders, sorted by size. It may take a few minutes for the app to finish scanning.

I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.

When you're done with the app, quit it and also quit Terminal.

May 13, 2015 7:39 AM in response to Linc Davis

I appreciate all the information and insight you provided. I have deployed ODS and am analyzing the results now.


About a month ago I setup Photos by migrating my Aperture Library. While Photos may be a reasonable solution in some cases, it is a decision I regret, and I am attempting to recover from that. I see that approximately 250GB of disk space is now occupied by files associated with the Photos application. I need to properly discontinue the use of Photos and recover that space before migrating from Aperture to Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop.

Deleted Large File - All Disk Space Not Recovered

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