Lost GBs

[Telp]

My computer went from GBs to MBs without me doing anything. Is this a virus? How do i fix this?

[vanmacguy]

Can you give us some more information please?

[Telp]

What more do you need? I had like 15GB and then all of a sudden i had a couple MBs left. I didnt do anything to lose these GBs.

[WildCowboy]

Could be a runaway log file...it's probably the most common culprit.

Use WhatSize (http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/index.php), OmniDiskSweeper (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/) or Disk Inventory X (http://www.derlien.com/) to look for a large file or files.

[angelwatt]

What more do you need? I had like 15GB and then all of a sudden i had a couple MBs left. I didnt do anything to lose these GBs.

Go find your missing GBs,

http://www.applelinks.com/index.php/more/grandperspective_096_graphic_disk_usage_monitor_mini_review_os_x_odyssey_82/
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22694
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=mac+program+disk+usage&btnG=Google+Search

[Telp]

Could be a runaway log file...it's probably the most common culprit.

Use WhatSize (http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/index.php), OmniDiskSweeper (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/) or Disk Inventory X (http://www.derlien.com/) to look for a large file or files.

Can you explain what a runaway log file is?

[Dimwhit]

Can you explain what a runaway log file is?

A log file that starts growing like crazy. I had a log file once related to a keyboard error that grew to over 30GBs.

[plinden]

I've seen this being reported in Macrumors quite often, but it's never happened to me - if it did, I would be curious to see what's causing the logging, but every time I've asked anyone this has happened to, they've already deleted the problem file.

Anyway, if you open Terminal, you can type "cd /var/log", then "ls -la". Is there a huge file there? If so, what is it, and what's being logged?

You can usually delete any huge log file without any problems.

[WildCowboy]

Can you explain what a runaway log file is?

Messages about what's going on with your system are constantly being generated and sent to log files. You can see many of them using the Console app in your Utilities folder. Sometimes something gets screwed up and stuck in an infinite loop, generating GBs worth of entries in your log file.

It's generally safe to simply restart your computer and delete the huge log file. Frequently the issue never re-occurs and it's not worth tracking down the cause...these things are pretty rare. But if it happens again, then it's time to figure out what's going on.

[Telp]

It seems that the problem comes from a folder inside the library folder called mirrors. Sound familiar to anyone?

[angelwatt]

It seems that the problem comes from a folder inside the library folder called mirrors. Sound familiar to anyone?

Check these discussions to see if they applies to you,
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1084601&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1078165&tstart=15