HELP! zero'd out deleted space

[astivers]

I thought i was helping things by zeroing out deleted space but what i actually did was fill up my computer and now i have NO space left, can anyone help with how I revert my mistake?

 

[Egidio]

For my own education, if you don't mind it, what is "zeroing out deleted spaces"? What were the steps you took to do that? I'm familiar with zeroing all data, but I don't think that's what you did.

 

[astivers]

well basically i went to my disk utility, chose my hard drive then chose to erase free space. At that point it prompts you to, zero out deleted files, 7-pass erase of deleted files or 35-pass of deleted files. I really thought i was helping but what i did was occupy all of my free space with zeros. so not i don't have an ounce of free space on my hard drive. If you think you could help i would really appreciate it! I'm f-ing stupid i guess, i don't know why i did that!

 

[Walrus666]

well basically i went to my disk utility, chose my hard drive then chose to erase free space. At that point it prompts you to, zero out deleted files, 7-pass erase of deleted files or 35-pass of deleted files. I really thought i was helping but what i did was occupy all of my free space with zeros. so not i don't have an ounce of free space on my hard drive. If you think you could help i would really appreciate it! I'm f-ing stupid i guess, i don't know why i did that!

Don't worry partner. You didn't do anything wrong. According to the Disc Utility help file You will have the same amount of free space on your hard drive that you had prior to the operation when the operation is complete. So, my suggestion is to let it complete if you haven't already. See attachment (Highlighted in blue).

 

[astivers]

ok, i get what you are saying, but all of my space is gone! zero space left, can't even launch photoshop, please help me!!!!!

 

[astivers]

ok i think I got it to work! thanks for all the help!