40 gigabytes gone overnight

[believo]

My hard drive had 40 gigs left last night and when I woke up this morning, there were zero KB available and it was running really slow. I checked all the sizes of the folders I regularly use and they hadn't changed much. The only thing that might be odd is that my "library" folder on the main hard drive directory was at 50 GB, is that normal? Anyone have any suggestions?

I believe I've narrowed it down to a file called console.log.1 that is 40.9GB? Can I delete this file, anyone know what it does?

thanks

 

[AP_piano295]

My hard drive had 40 gigs left last night and when I woke up this morning, there were zero KB available and it was running really slow. I checked all the sizes of the folders I regularly use and they hadn't changed much. The only thing that might be odd is that my "library" folder on the main hard drive directory was at 50 GB, is that normal? Anyone have any suggestions?

I believe I've narrowed it down to a file called console.log.1 that is 40.9GB? Can I delete this file, anyone know what it does?

thanks

ummm.... magic

 

[Flying Llama]

WoW! I have never seen something like this... a log file at 40gb? Dang. I wouldn't open it unless you have 40gb of ram... but... sorry, can't help.
I don't know how this could happen. Has anything happened on that computer recently? Installations etc?

llama

 

[mad jew]

It was a pretty common Panther problem.

From memory it's absolutely fine to delete it. If you're uncertain, just put it in the trash and see if the system still runs, albeit slowly because of the lack of Virtual RAM.

 

[Flying Llama]

It was a pretty common Panther problem.

From memory it's absolutely fine to delete it. If you're uncertain, just put it in the trash and see if the system still runs, albeit slowly because of the lack of Virtual RAM.

But how could a log file with nothing but text just weigh 40gb??

llama

 

[mad jew]

Okay, this is really testing the memory, but I think it was just a system error so it thought there was a massive log file when it wasn't actually taking up that much space. It keeps growing until the hard drive is full.

I thought they fixed it though. believo, if you're running Panther, make sure it is 10.3.9.

 

[Flying Llama]

Okay, this is really testing the memory, but I think it was just a system error so it thought there was a massive log file when it wasn't actually taking up that much space. It keeps growing until the hard drive is full.

I thought they fixed it though. believo, if you're running Panther, make sure it is 10.3.9.

Thanks.

llama

 

[believo]

Okay, this is really testing the memory, but I think it was just a system error so it thought there was a massive log file when it wasn't actually taking up that much space. It keeps growing until the hard drive is full.

I thought they fixed it though. believo, if you're running Panther, make sure it is 10.3.9.

I'm running panther 10.3.9. I did trash the file and the computer still works but I'm a little hesitant to completly get rid of it yet. I was doing a giant poster last night that had a huge photoshop file involved. maybe its that that caused the log file to get so big?

 

[mad jew]

It could be Photoshop. I thought it was an actual system error though, not related to any tasks/apps. However, I also thought they fixed it in about 10.3.6 or so...

 

[Flying Llama]

I'm running panther 10.3.9. I did trash the file and the computer still works but I'm a little hesitant to completly get rid of it yet. I was doing a giant poster last night that had a huge photoshop file involved. maybe its that that caused the log file to get so big?

I would put the file back, repair permissions (you can do this in /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility), run the cron scripts, then restart. See if it fixes the problem, otherwise just get rid of the file.
It's only a log file, which only keeps a record of what you computer does. It's mostly for you, so deleting it should be perfectly safe.

llama