still missing Hd space

[loukingjr]

Hi

After running the uninstall script and removing the virtualbox folder in /Users/"username"/Library , Im still missing the hard drive space that I allocated for virtualbox.

what exactly did you mean by "the hard drive space that I allocated for virtualbox"? as far as I know there is no way to allocate space for virtualbox nor is it needed.

[olle]

The system recovery is on a separate partition, I can see that fine.

This all happened during a couple of hours yesterday ( installing VB creating a 100 GB .vdi and then uninstalling and removing the .vdi ), so I know for sure it´s because of some conflict between mac os 10.8 and virtual box.

unless you created a 100GB "fixed" disk in virtualbox the size of the .vdi would be less than 10GB even if you installed a guest into it. I have 15 guests currently installed and they take a total of less than 91.3GB. I currently have OSX 10.8.2 running with VB 4.2.6 and since there doesn't seem to be anyone else running into this problem I seriously doubt it's a OSX/VirtualBox conflict. Try running Repair Disk from Disk Utility on the drive.

I did create a "fixed" disk.
I also did try running Repair Disk, without any luck.
Well the problem is obviously not in running VB on mac os 10.8, but when removing VB from mac os 10.8.

[olle]

Hi

After running the uninstall script and removing the virtualbox folder in /Users/"username"/Library , Im still missing the hard drive space that I allocated for virtualbox.

what exactly did you mean by "the hard drive space that I allocated for virtualbox"? as far as I know there is no way to allocate space for virtualbox nor is it needed.

I mean the drive space allocated to a virtual disk image used by VB.

[olle]

and since there doesn't seem to be anyone else running into this problem I seriously doubt it's a OSX/VirtualBox conflict. Try running Repair Disk from Disk Utility on the drive.

There is at least one more thread about a similair if not identical problem ( im not allowed to post u r l´s but there is a link to it in an earlier post) so Im definitely not alone.

[loukingjr]

I've never created a fixed disk with VirtualBox so I can't say if there is some problem with creating or removing them. Perhaps if you do a file search for files over 50GB you can find the file and delete it. Make sure to include invisible files in the search.

[olle]

I've never created a fixed disk with VirtualBox so I can't say if there is some problem with creating or removing them. Perhaps if you do a file search for files over 50GB you can find the file and delete it. Make sure to include invisible files in the search.

I have already tried that with OmniDiskSweeper and GrandPerspective, but no files that large shows up.
The biggest folder is 53 GB but there is no single file larger then 5 GB to be found.

[loukingjr]

I've never created a fixed disk with VirtualBox so I can't say if there is some problem with creating or removing them. Perhaps if you do a file search for files over 50GB you can find the file and delete it. Make sure to include invisible files in the search.

I have already tried that with OmniDiskSweeper and GrandPerspective, but no files that large shows up.
The biggest folder is 53 GB but there is no single file larger then 5 GB to be found.

Perhaps VB tells OSX to reserve space for fixed disks and just uninstalling VB doesn't release the space. I suppose you could try reinstalling VB and see if the file shows up and release it. I'm guessing.

[olle]

I've never created a fixed disk with VirtualBox so I can't say if there is some problem with creating or removing them. Perhaps if you do a file search for files over 50GB you can find the file and delete it. Make sure to include invisible files in the search.

I have already tried that with OmniDiskSweeper and GrandPerspective, but no files that large shows up.
The biggest folder is 53 GB but there is no single file larger then 5 GB to be found.

Perhaps VB tells OSX to reserve space for fixed disks and just uninstalling VB doesn't release the space. I suppose you could try reinstalling VB and see if the file shows up and release it. I'm guessing.

I really appreciate the time your spending on this, I just re installed to see if anything showed up but sadly no.

[loukingjr]

not a problem. If I am right about "fixed" disks I'm guessing the .vdi file would have to be removed using VirtualBox before it was uninstalled to release the space. I suppose you could try submitting a bug report. perhaps one of the developers will see it and know how to release the space. it sounds like there is no file to delete but the OS still thinks the space should be reserved.

[mpack]

Speculation is all well and good, however a bit of rigor would be nice.

AFAIK the only way that VirtualBox can hog disk space on any host OS is with a file. That's the only place it stores information since the app has to be portable to other hosts. So, if VBox created a huge file then where is that file? If there is no file then it isn't VirtualBox. If there is a file then why can't you delete it?

[loukingjr]

Speculation is all well and good, however AFAIK the only way that VirtualBox can hog disk space on any host OS is with a file. So, where is that file? And if you can find it, why can't you delete it?

well that's the point. it can't be found. what I was thinking is unlike dynamic disks which have no reason to "reserve" a certain amount of space a fixed disk might before it's created. telling the OS I need this much space to create a 100GB file. it does seem logical.

[mpack]

When an application wants to reserve space for a file it either seeks to the desired length (seeking beyond current EOF is not supported on every OS) or it writes padding data out to the the required length. In any case the result is still an ordinary file, and not exempt from the normal rules of location, naming, sizing, visibility etc. In particular it can be deleted like any other file.

[loukingjr]

When an application wants to reserve space for a file it either seeks to the desired length or it writes padding data out to the the required length. In any case the result is still an ordinary file, and not exempt from the normal rules of location, naming, sizing, visibility etc. In particular it can be deleted like any other file.

all I can say is I know the programs that were used to try and find the file and if there was a 100GB file either/both would of found it and it could be deleted. it sounds like there is no file to delete the OS just thinks there is 100GB still being used for the file that used to exist.

[mpack]

it sounds like there is no file to delete the OS just thinks there is 100GB still being used for the file that used to exist.

That would imply a corrupted filesystem and warrant plenty of disk checking.

[loukingjr]

it sounds like there is no file to delete the OS just thinks there is 100GB still being used for the file that used to exist.

That would imply a corrupted filesystem and warrant plenty of disk checking.

as I suggested and he apparently did, he ran Disk Utility Repair Disk and had no errors. I still think VB must tell the OS to "reserve" x amount of space for fixed disks, and unless you release and remove a fixed disk in VirtualBox itself the space won't be recovered just by deleting the file or uninstalling VirtualBox. He also ran Onyx which is another very thorough utility.