
The first thing we must do is make a copy of the disk in question, followed by restoring that clone to the original volume (this process will be explained more below).
#How to free up space mac os x lion 10.7.5 mac
Examples of Terminal Commands For Deleting Mac User Accounts The reason I say this is because when an admin account is deleted, OS X deletes every item associated with every individual user account at once without having to search them out.
#How to free up space mac os x lion 10.7.5 free
On the other hand, if you have deleted all accounts off of a Mac and want to reclaim their disk space, then simply deleting an administrator account will immediately free up that space for OS X. However, instead of referencing each user account by name, you will have to specify certain digits or values unique to each one which we’ll get into in a moment.

If you are so inclined to make a clone of your hard drive and subsequently copy that clone back to the original volume, then there are several commands you can use from the terminal (the “console”) to delete user accounts.

Deleting A User Account From The Terminal So if you are deleting more than one user at once, then expect to wait longer than you would for just one single account. This process is delayed in much the same way as described above when dealing with single account deletion. As it does this, it will then try to remove the actual item from your hard drive and delete the soft link. Why? Because when we’re talking about destroying more than one username, OS X must also go through each Library folder and find references to every single file created by an individual user. If you are trying to delete multiple users accounts at the same time from System Preferences > Users & Groups, such as if you had a family member die and wanted to give away or sell their computer, then there’s a good chance that things could take quite a bit longer than expected. Unless you are deleting a system admin account, in which case OS X cannot do this for security reasons.ĭeleting Multiple Accounts On A Mac At Once On the other hand, if no soft links are available, then OS X just removes every item from your disk without delay! I’d say this is great news because that means you won’t have to wait at all to get rid of your account.

When this happens, you may notice a delay of several seconds per file depending on how many individual items were present inside of that user’s Library folder at the time of deletion. If OS X cannot find a soft link then it must physically remove the file from your hard drive in order to free up space for other things.

Then it will remove the actual file from the disk, but only if it can also find a reference within your Library folder to that file (this is called “soft linking”). Here’s why… When you go into System Preferences and choose Users & Groups (or just launch the “Delete User…” command via the Apple menu), OS X will take a look at your Library folder and all sub-folders within it (such as Desktop Pictures, Downloads, Movies, Music, Documents, etc.) and find all the files and folders you have created or copied to that user’s account. If you simply want to delete an individual user account on your Mac, then it could take anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes or more depending on how much stuff was in that user’s Library folder at the time of deletion.
