I had the problem of having my startup disk full after trying to erase free space in DU. Despite having somewhere over 12 GB of free space. It seems to create a temporary file which, ironically, eats up the extra free space.. and making it slow and acting weird..
After looking at various forums, I found no real solution: deleting extra files just got swallowed up, still resulting in the same zero space left. (where did all this extra space go??)
so I force quit the DU (after first trying "skip", which was hanging forever. And still eating away Gb's...).
Then I backed up some files, and deleted them from the hard drive to make sure I had some space (10 Gb) to start it up again. (fell into this one before: trying to start up with no space. didnt work, ended up restarting through somebodies macbook via firewire. so this time made sure I was able to startup again...)
after startup I noticed that the free space that was available was the same as the space I just freed up. (same 10 Gb)
So the question was: where was all the previous space that was available, and freed up before this, gone to?
seems like more people had this problem. Dont like 3rd party cleaners, Mac should be able to do without outside help: these programs do more harm then good in my opinion..
I did read somewhere that "Secure empty thrash" more or less does the same as free up empty space in DU. Still had some stuff in my trashcan, so I decided to delete it this way.
There were 5 items in the trash, and it seemed to take a long time before it deleted the first item (30+min...) but decided to wait. When it got to the point of "4 items to delete", I noticed that my HDD space jumped from 11 to 19 GB. somehow it seemed to free up the space lost through the "DU erase"
took about 2-3 hours to completely empty the trashcan (not sure exactly: went to lunch..) but when it finally completed, my HDD space went up to 50 GB of free space!!!
now its all working like a dream again: fast, no tweaks, happy bunny!
Also, I am not trying to free up any space through DU anymore: all it does is overwrite the space with 000, to make sure your old files cant be recovered. It doesnt actually make in difference in speed in my opinion. So unless you have files so important that it has to stay TOP SECRET for the rest of the world, dont bother: Mac will just overwrite the files with new stuff you get on you computer
If you have to, make sure you use the DU from you startup disc, to avoid these probs.
Patience pays off: mac users usually have no patience as it usually works fast. but when it comes down to self repair, just wait a few hours and see if the mac can sort itself out (I know, its hard... but it pays off...)
hope this helps somebody..
After looking at various forums, I found no real solution: deleting extra files just got swallowed up, still resulting in the same zero space left. (where did all this extra space go??)
so I force quit the DU (after first trying "skip", which was hanging forever. And still eating away Gb's...).
Then I backed up some files, and deleted them from the hard drive to make sure I had some space (10 Gb) to start it up again. (fell into this one before: trying to start up with no space. didnt work, ended up restarting through somebodies macbook via firewire. so this time made sure I was able to startup again...)
after startup I noticed that the free space that was available was the same as the space I just freed up. (same 10 Gb)
So the question was: where was all the previous space that was available, and freed up before this, gone to?
seems like more people had this problem. Dont like 3rd party cleaners, Mac should be able to do without outside help: these programs do more harm then good in my opinion..
I did read somewhere that "Secure empty thrash" more or less does the same as free up empty space in DU. Still had some stuff in my trashcan, so I decided to delete it this way.
There were 5 items in the trash, and it seemed to take a long time before it deleted the first item (30+min...) but decided to wait. When it got to the point of "4 items to delete", I noticed that my HDD space jumped from 11 to 19 GB. somehow it seemed to free up the space lost through the "DU erase"
took about 2-3 hours to completely empty the trashcan (not sure exactly: went to lunch..) but when it finally completed, my HDD space went up to 50 GB of free space!!!
now its all working like a dream again: fast, no tweaks, happy bunny!
Also, I am not trying to free up any space through DU anymore: all it does is overwrite the space with 000, to make sure your old files cant be recovered. It doesnt actually make in difference in speed in my opinion. So unless you have files so important that it has to stay TOP SECRET for the rest of the world, dont bother: Mac will just overwrite the files with new stuff you get on you computer
If you have to, make sure you use the DU from you startup disc, to avoid these probs.
Patience pays off: mac users usually have no patience as it usually works fast. but when it comes down to self repair, just wait a few hours and see if the mac can sort itself out (I know, its hard... but it pays off...)
hope this helps somebody..