Erase Free Space Erased MY Hard Drive!!

Ok, I ran Erase Free Space at 35 times overwrite. I have a 500GB hard drive. It was taking so long (days) that I canceled it. But now, my Hard Drive only reports having 66 MB of free space left! What can I do to resolve this? Thanks!

Rerun the utility. Use 1-pass if you don't want to wait that long. I've never used it but on a non-mac HD it took three hours for forty GB. Happy erasing. I recommend three passes although if you must, use seven. IMHO thirty five is way too much and the added time is a problem for me.

erase free space creates a hidden file, large one, that it created, and then securely deleted. its space is written over with 0's. to fix this, use an application such as disk inventory x to find this file, and then select the delete option from within the app.

I believe the problem can be overcome by rerunning the utility because of the sudden cancelation of the utility. Am I correct in thinking this? It would be nice if he didn't have to install an additional program.

well, he doesn't technically have to install a program, he could find the file himself, i was just thinking of the most user friendly way. I don't beleive that the rerunning the utility will work, just bc it only works with the free space, however i haven't done it so you could very well be correct.

If he could view hidden files somehow he could use spotlight.

What is the name of the file I would be looking for?

i'm unsure, however it will start with a ., sorry but i'm unsure of the location.

Open Terminal and try this, only use the 'rm' command on the file you want to remove. If its your first time in the Terminal its NOT gonna give you that delete confirmation. The 'rm' command is final it like emptying the trash.

Ok I reran it just to see, and it is fixed. Thanks so much to everyone!!

Glad to be of service. A couple follow-up questions, how much free space did you have, how many passes did you do and how long did it take?