Very confused...

[knightmare3481]

This is my first mac, so be gentle
I'm running OS X Leopard v10.5

I recently bought a iMac with 250 GB disk drive, but only after a week I was getting alerts about no disk space. I downloaded Disk Inventory X to see what could be taking up all the space, and one file, MacintoshHD/Library/Logs/Console/501/console.log.3, is taking 222.3 GB of space. It makes no sense. I would love any help!

-Thanks

 

[Egidio]

I would recommend you install one of the several Mac tune-up applications. Here are some examples:

MainMenu,
Cocktail,
MacJanitor
OnyX

These applications have several scripts. I run MainMenu daily. Once a month I also run other scripts to clear logs, caches and other maintenance things.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

This is my first mac, so be gentle
I'm running OS X Leopard v10.5

I recently bought a iMac with 250 GB disk drive, but only after a week I was getting alerts about no disk space. I downloaded Disk Inventory X to see what could be taking up all the space, and one file, MacintoshHD/Library/Logs/Console/501/console.log.3, is taking 222.3 GB of space. It makes no sense. I would love any help!

-Thanks

It's safe to delete this humungous log file ... If the log is created again and grows to huge proportions it could point to a conflict that needs dealing with, so just keep an eye on things.

 

[echan]

go read the contents of that file and see what your system is complaining about.

it's probably something that needs to be addressed if it's writing a log file that big so fast.

the suggestion to simply delete the file won't fix your problem in the long run if the log file keeps getting re-written with whatever error that needs to be addressed

p.s. it won't be that filename tomorrow as system maintenance will rename it each night as it rotates through the number of logs the system keeps.

 

[Spawn_Dooley]

the suggestion to simply delete the file won't fix your problem in the long run if the log file keeps getting re-written with whatever error that needs to be addressed.

There is no long run if the OP is receiving System Alerts, that there's not enough Disc space .... so deleting the file is necessary now and is perfectly safe.

If there's a conflict another log file will be created, and the name of the log matters not ... but at least the OP can deal with it before it starts to hog the HD space.

There is also a chance there won't be any further problems. Log files are the place to look to when you are experiencing issues with software etc, but if there are no issues jumping up and down for attention then I don't recommend wading through long log files looking for problems.

This is the OP's first Mac and IMHO, I have given the "gentle" advice asked for.




.

 

[knightmare3481]

Hey,
Thanks for the advice. Someone from another forum had the exact same problem and gave me the same suggestion. I don't understand why it happened...from what I can tell the file was created on the day I bought the computer, and had finished growing (date last modified) eight days later. It had reached capacity on my disk drive (222 GB) as one file. I deleted the file and so far so good. If anybody has had this happen, please let me know your experience.

BTW: The "professional" help I received from apple was poor at best. Thanks again!
-Knightmare