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Posted By: Pendragon Erasing Free Space Fails - 07/24/12 01:23 PM
In preparation for Mt. Lion, I thought I would Erase Free Space. But I am unable to do so.

After launching Disk Utilities and initiating the requisite action, I am always advised that the erase could not be done because: “Some information was unavailable during an internal lookup.”

This happens on all internal and external volumes.

I thought that maybe some third-party app/plugin was at play, so I attempted same while in in Safe Boot. Again, no joy.

Now I don’t know what to do. Any suggestions?
Posted By: joemikeb Re: Erasing Free Space Fails - 07/24/12 03:17 PM
Google turned up this Apple Discussions thread suggesting it is a permissions issue.
Posted By: Pendragon Re: Erasing Free Space Fails - 07/24/12 04:19 PM
Many thanks, JoeMike.

But alas, I remain confused. My "System" is already Read & Write". Must I also change the "Wheel" and "Everyone"?
Posted By: joemikeb Re: Erasing Free Space Fails - 07/25/12 02:45 AM
The few answers found on the Apple Discussions seemed to focus on permission issues, but I didn't see any reported successes in response to suggestions to fix permissions — which may or may not mean anything one way or the other. With that as a starting point, I would try running Permission Repair as a first pass attempt at a fix. However the fact this is occurring on more than one volume would tend to eliminate that as a problem source. Still it cannot hurt.

If that fails, in an attempt to narrow the solution space, I would resort to the standard troubleshooting step of booting from a clean test account and see if Erase Free Space works from there.
Posted By: Pendragon Re: Erasing Free Space Fails - 07/25/12 10:53 AM
I thought your idea of logging in to the guest account and then attempting to erase the free space was a capital idea. But alas, no joy.

After booting back to my main account, I then repaired permissions and, without quitting DU, immediately attempted to erase the free space. Bingo! Voilà! Success!

Always, my thanks.
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