Reclaim HD Space from Sparse Bundle Disk Image OS X

How To Reclaim Internal Hard Disk Space from Sparse Bundle Disk Image in Mac OS X.

Reclaim Valuable Internal Hard Disk Space When Files are Deleted from a Sparse Bundle Disk Image in OS X.


TRANSCRIPT:

In this episode, Reclaim Disk Space From Sparse Bundle Disk Image.

This episode will be of particular interest for those of you who have created a Sparse Bundle Disk Image as shown in the following episodes.

As I’ve recently discovered, when items are deleted from a Sparse Bundle Disk Image, it never shrinks or reclaims the deleted space from the main hard drive.

As shown, the current available disk space from the main hard drive is 12.72 GB and after deleting a 2 GB folder from the sparse bundle image folder, it still shows 12.72 GB.

This could be valuable disk space when needed.

Well, you’ll be glad to know, there’s a solution on reclaiming as much disk space from the main hard drive as possible with a simple Terminal command.

Demo time.

Soooooooo, Let's Get Started.

First, make sure to eject the sparse bundle image folder.

Next, open Terminal and enter the following one line command In the following format:

hdiutil compact path/to/Filename.sparsebundle

If “File name” of sparse bundle contains a space, precede the space with a backslash:

hdiutil compact path/to/File\ name.sparsebundle

In my case, the filename contains a space and therefore would enter the following:

hdiutil compact Desktop/Black\ Book.sparsebundle

After pressing the return key, you’ll be asked to enter the password of the sparse bundle disk, do so and press the return key.

As you’ll notice nearly 2 GB was reclaimed.

I would be interested how much space if any you were able to reclaim, please leave them in the comments below.

And that’s all there is to it.

Thanks for watching and thumbs-up, if you liked this video, and please, don't forget to click that Subscribe button, to be notified of the next episode.

Thanks and Peace.