March 2, 2005 12:52 AM PST

Mac OS X 10.3.8 Special Report: Disappearing hard drive space

by CNET staff

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For some users, an issue is more prevalent under Mac OS X 10.3.8 where available space on the startup volume rapidly declines autonomously.

In many cases, this issue is caused by problematic hardware device drivers or other software components that rapidly record error messages to system logs, causing them to swell and occupy previously free space.

MacAlly's iShock driver is notorious for this behavior under Mac OS X 10.3.8 and is a prime case example for this issue.

The iShockXDriver application has an apparent incompatibility with Mac OS X 10.3.8 that causes repeated error entries to the system.log file, causing the file to swell to sometimes enormous sizes (several gigabytes). MacAlly has since released an updated driver -- version 1.0.4 -- that resolves this issue.

Other devices can cause the disappearing drive space problem as well, however, and once they have generated the abnormally large log files, there are a few methods for deleting them and re-claiming lost space.

The easiest method is to use the Console application located in the Applications/Utilities folder on a normal Mac OS X installation. Once you have launched this application, click the "Logs" button in the top navigation bar, and select the offending (swollen) log file. Press the "Clear" button to delete its contents.

What if you're not sure which log file is swelling? Mac OS X log files are stored in the /var/log directory on a normal installation. This directory is invisible, however, so you will need to use Mac OS X's "Go to Folder" command (located in the "Go" menu in the Finder) in order to access it.

Once you're in this directory, look for any abnormally large files with the naming scheme "System.log.(a number).gz," i.e. "System.log.1.gz" and move them to the trash.

An alternative method is simply to use the Finder's "Find" command (located in the Finder's "File" menu) to search for any files over a given size -- usually 100 MB or so. It is important that you add a criterion (by clicking the " " button next to an existing criterion) to search for both visible and invisible files -- doing so will ensure the appropriate log files are found. Drag these files to the trash (you'll be asked to enter your administrator password) and delete them.

Some shareware utilities -- including Cocktail -- can also clear various log files.

After or before attempting any of the above procedures, try disconnecting any USB or FireWire devices and check for persistence of the log swelling.

Some typical reader reports (of which we've received several dozen) concerning the disappearing hard drive issue under Mac OS X 10.3.8, implicating specific devices and offering a few other data points:

Bruce writes: "Same problem here. My PowerBook 1.25 GHz started the week with 30 GB free on the drive and over the course of the week, dropped to 4 GB free. I moved 10 GB of stuff to another disk, which got me to 14GB of space, but the other 16G is still absent. I ran MacJanitor, but that didn't change anything. After restarting the computer, I suddenly had 22 GB free. Somehow the restart gained me 8 GB of space, but the other 8 GB is still missing. I've repeated this process twice over the past two weeks with the same result. A restart will result in several GB of disk space being freed up, and the longer the computer goes without a restart, the more is lost."

Michael Cappelletti writes "I too am having hard drive space problems after the latest system update. I have discovered that the console.log files are the problem on all accounts."

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