sparseimage takes too much space

M

micheltournay

Registered
Hello!

I'm new to computers, I have a macbook pro with a 120Gb hard drive.
I try to delete some stuff from the trash and I don't see the space being free up after emptying the trash.
(Is there a empty trash "bug" ?)

I tried closing it, doesn't work.
I got a message from a filevault for my hard drive space, tried it instead of skipping it, and after opening again, my free space was there...but I got something called a sparseimage that now takes 60Gb!!!
What is that, How do I get my memory back?
I saw on your site how to deactivate it but when I tried, it ask me to free up 45Gb to be able to deactivate filevault...I don't have 45Gb left !

So how do I empty trash without closing the computer?

And how do I get my memory back?

thanks for your help

Michel
 
Hi Michel,

To disable filevault, you will need to clean at least as much space free as that filevault image (home folder) is taking space in total.
You can move e.g. some of your music to /Users/Shared folder and create a folder there, or move your file anywhere so that the home folder is smaller. Empty the trash, reboot the Mac, and now it should take less space to disable filevault.
If you disable that, you will have some space back. By default the home folder filevault images are of sparseimage folder, and growing in space, never shrinking.
If there are any particular files you need protected, I would recommend individual file or folder copy protection or encryption instead of filevault (as in... probably not worth to encrypt every mp3 in your home folder).
 
Hi there!

Thank you for your help!

When I try to open the sparse image with disk utility, it says the "DISK WRITE STATUS IS NOT MOUNTED"

when I try opening it with diskImageMounter, it says : the following disk image failed to mount and in the box under it says under REASON, "ressource busy"

Is there another way to get in sparseimage with another appl. so I could delete some files?

Thank you!

Michel
 
When you are logged in as that user of which you are trying to mount the home folder / sparseimage, it will not work - the file is used by Mac OS X while you are logged in.

You can delete those files by logging in as that user, deleting files as that user while inside, deleting the deleted items in trash, and restarting it. This will gradually shrink the size of the home folder and shrink the size of this sparseimage a bit by bit (so if needed you can do another set of deletions after).
 
Hi giaguara,

In the finder, I see 2 sparseimage: one is the little house with a dial of a safe on it

and another one as a blue folder with a .michel on it

both have 60 + gb

I was trying to get in the one with the blue folder

am i supposed to empty the other one?

thank you!

michel
 
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