Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

preslove · 11:49 PM

So I'm talking on the phone and I notice that my gb available in finder is steadily decreasing. I can't do anything to stop it, so I finally just restart my macbook. It comes back up and it is 20.40 gb available vs the 27 I had 30 minutes ago

Damn, I was really liking osx until now. This is unacceptable.

Any ideas?

hyteckit · Sep 22, 2006, 11:38 PM

Stop drinking on Friday nights.

preslove · Sep 22, 2006, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by hyteckit

Stop drinking on Friday nights.

Thanks

monkeybrain · Sep 22, 2006, 11:50 PM

You can do a Spotlight search for recently created files. In the Finder press command-F and then you can see some search options and then you can search for all files created in the last or whatever.

preslove · Sep 23, 2006, 12:10 AM

Originally Posted by monkeybrain

You can do a Spotlight search for recently created files. In the Finder press command-F and then you can see some search options and then you can search for all files created in the last or whatever.

Nothing shows up over a meg for today.

TETENAL · Sep 23, 2006, 12:50 AM

Spotlight doesn't search for "system files". If it was a log-file or temporary file (and most likely it was) then Spotlight will not show it. I would use OmniDiskSweeper to look for large files.

The Omni Group - Applications - OmniDiskSweeper

preslove · Sep 23, 2006, 01:04 AM

Originally Posted by TETENAL

Spotlight doesn't search for "system files". If it was a log-file or temporary file (and most likely it was) then Spotlight will not show it. I would use OmniDiskSweeper to look for large files.

The Omni Group - Applications - OmniDiskSweeper

Thanks! What is a windowserver_last.log? It's 15.6 gb big. Can I delete it?

Chuckit · Sep 23, 2006, 01:57 AM

Yes, it's safe to delete it. But if it's not too much trouble, could you do me a favor first? It might help to figure out why windowserver_last.log grows so freakishly big for some people if I could get a sample of it. Copy and paste the following command into the Terminal and hit enter:

Code:
tail -n 500 /var/log/windowserver_last.log > ~/Desktop/wslogfile.txt

Then mail the file "wslogfile.txt" on your desktop to chuck1@spambob.net.

If you don't mind, of course.

tooki · Sep 23, 2006, 10:16 AM

Originally Posted by preslove

So I'm talking on the phone and I notice that my gb available in finder is steadily decreasing. I can't do anything to stop it, so I finally just restart my macbook. It comes back up and it is 20.40 gb available vs the 27 I had 30 minutes ago

Damn, I was really liking osx until now. This is unacceptable.

Any ideas?

Please don't put inane noise into thread titles. Stick to the essentials.

tooki

kick52 · Sep 23, 2006, 02:42 PM

a while back, a guy left a powerbook on for a night, and his log file grew to 30gb. its probably best to delete the logs everynow and then with a maintenance app like onyx.

Chuckit · Sep 23, 2006, 02:50 PM

It's not normal for a log to grow that much. Until my battery committed suicide last night and I had to shut down my PowerBook for fear of a fire, I had an uninterrupted uptime of a couple of weeks. My windowserver_last.log is a few kilobytes.

Ganesha · Sep 24, 2006, 12:05 AM

I lost 20 gigs in 7 days with the Apple Diet.

jasong · Sep 24, 2006, 09:40 AM

I think you need more head bangers to solve the problem. Only having 5 in a post is unacceptable.

gooser · Sep 24, 2006, 11:14 PM

Originally Posted by hyteckit

Stop drinking on Friday nights.

there is nothing wrong with drinking on friday nights! or sunday nights.

TheoCryst · Sep 24, 2006, 11:55 PM

Originally Posted by gooser

there is nothing wrong with drinking on friday nights! or sunday nights.

Or in my apartment building, Monday nights. Or Tuesday nights. Or Wednesday... or any night, for that matter. It's fairly upsetting how much alcohol there is in my building, actually.

newtech · Sep 25, 2006, 12:15 AM

I'd say its just more of OS X's VM (ahem) goodness. For example a 6GB swap file on a machine with 2GB RAM with over 1.5GB free.

Todd Madson · Sep 29, 2006, 03:03 PM

Wouldn't something like Tiger Cache Cleaner remove this kind of thing too?

Sherman Homan · Sep 29, 2006, 03:31 PM

OnyX would probably have found and cured this evil. It is free but not as powerful and easy to use as Tiger Cache Cleaner. But for 10 American dollars TCC is essential!

JKT · Sep 29, 2006, 03:47 PM

Originally Posted by newtech

I'd say its just more of OS X's VM (ahem) goodness. For example a 6GB swap file on a machine with 2GB RAM with over 1.5GB free.

An ever expanding log file has nothing to do with the VM. There is obviously a bug in some software (either third party or the OS) that has caused the OP's windowserver log to grow to an abnormal and astronomical size. To prevent it from happening again, the OP should have viewed their log and identified what was being recorded so frequently to cause the file to grow so large.

alphasubzero949 · Oct 4, 2006, 05:14 AM

It would be helpful to post a snippet of the logfile contents.

wataru · Oct 4, 2006, 06:23 AM

Originally Posted by Ganesha

I lost 20 gigs in 7 days with the Apple Diet.

I lolled.