20GB of HD used after computer froze

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20GB of HD used after computer froze

I was trying to post to another Apple forum when my MacBook froze. It wouldn't respond to anything so I had to close the system down by powering off. When it rebooted I noticed that the available HD had been reduced by 20+GB. Not sure if it is related to the system crash but I need to find where the HD space has disappeared to.

Is there a system log that I can access and maybe post to this forum that will help find the cause of the loss of HD space?

MacBook 13"unibody, Mac OS X (10.5.6), iPhone 3G

Posted on Jul 14, 2009 7:59 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 14, 2009 8:07 PM in response to andmac

HI,

Boot from your install disk and check the hard drive for errors.

Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger and later) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel. It should say: Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
When you are finished with DU, from the Menu Bar, select Utilities/Startup Manager.
Select your start up disk and click Restart

If you cannot boot from your install disk, try booting in Safe Mode

If you can access a crash log and copy/paste it here that might help.

How to locate a crash log:
1. Open Finder.
2. Click "Go" in the menu, then select "Go to Folder".
3. Copy and paste this path into the Finder dialog: ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/
4. Click the Go button.
5. Finder opens the folder containing the crash log. Look for a the crash file with a date field that looks like the most recent.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

andmac Author

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Jul 14, 2009 8:36 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks Carolyn
I'll try the steps you outlined later this evening but in the meantime here is the crash log:

Process: syslogd [13]
Path: /usr/sbin/syslogd
Identifier: syslogd
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [1]

Date/Time: 2009-07-12 20:01:22.891 +0800
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.7 (9J61)
Report Version: 6
Anonymous UUID: A12F2C88-BBD6-4EA0-BC11-99F9758FD9C1

Exception Type: EXC BADACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN INVALIDADDRESS at 0x00000000d2ad007f
Crashed Thread: 1

Thread 0:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93afbc7e write$UNIX2003 + 10
1 syslogd 0x000086f1 0x1000 + 30449
2 syslogd 0x000087a1 0x1000 + 30625
3 syslogd 0x00009640 0x1000 + 34368
4 syslogd 0x0000f539 0x1000 + 58681
5 syslogd 0x000017f2 0x1000 + 2034

Thread 1 Crashed:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b34987 nc_tablefind + 67
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93bf86b1 notify_libpost + 57
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b05b20 notify_post + 158
3 syslogd 0x0000aa7d 0x1000 + 39549
4 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b04155 pthreadstart + 321
5 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b04012 thread_start + 34

Thread 2:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93ada46e _semwaitsignal + 10
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b04dcd pthread condwait$UNIX2003 + 73
2 syslogd 0x0000a29f 0x1000 + 37535
3 syslogd 0x0000a53a 0x1000 + 38202
4 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b04155 pthreadstart + 321
5 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b04012 thread_start + 34

Thread 3:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93ad3286 mach msgtrap + 10
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93adaa7c mach_msg + 72
2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93bfcafb vproc mig_logdrain + 97
3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93bfb9ce vprocmgr_logdrain + 75
4 syslogd 0x00009580 0x1000 + 34176
5 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b04155 pthreadstart + 321
6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93b04012 thread_start + 34

Thread 1 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x00020000 ebx: 0x93b05a9b ecx: 0x0159b84f edx: 0x0000184f
edi: 0x00102020 esi: 0xd2ad007f ebp: 0xb0080e48 esp: 0xb0080e20
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010282 eip: 0x93b34987 cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x0000001f gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0xd2ad007f

Binary Images:
0x1000 - 0x10ffe +syslogd ??? (???) <00418acf3a66596602af05f8a9f4e1a2> /usr/sbin/syslogd
0x8fe00000 - 0x8fe2db43 dyld 97.1 (???) <100d362e03410f181a34e04e94189ae5> /usr/lib/dyld
0x93ad2000 - 0x93c39ff3 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) <b47c8e6e45aef620730710a732bf1930> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
0x94eea000 - 0x94eeefff libmathCommon.A.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib
0x95bb8000 - 0x95bbffe9 libgcc_s.1.dylib ??? (???) <e280ddf3f5fb3049e674edcb109f389a> /usr/lib/libgcc_s.1.dylib
0xffff0000 - 0xffff1780 libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

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Answer 3

Jul 14, 2009 8:52 PM in response to andmac

HI,

I am asking colleagues with more experience with this particular process that caused the crash. I'll post back when I can offer help.

🙂

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Answer 4

Jul 14, 2009 10:46 PM in response to andmac

HI,

*"Process: syslogd 13"*

Looks like a swap file issue which can affect hard disk space.

"Having a swap file allows your computer's operating system to pretend that you have more RAM than you actually do. The least recently used files in RAM can be "swapped out" to your hard disk until they are needed later so that new files can be "swapped in" to RAM."

Free up disk space

Keep an eye on available disk space. Right or control click the MacintoshHD icon. Click Get Info. In the Get Info window you will see Capacity and Available. Make sure you always have a minimum of 10% to 15% free disk space at all times.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 5

andmac Author

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Jul 15, 2009 12:07 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks

Had a look through the link you sent but couldn't find anything about removing or deleting away swap files.

I'll have a read through the info on system maintenance scripts, maybe running those scripts is the answer.

Surprised that Mac doesn't have it's own system maintenance programs.

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Answer 6

dechamp

Level 4

3,495 points

Jul 15, 2009 1:00 AM in response to andmac

I'll have a read through the info on system maintenance scripts, maybe running those scripts is the answer.

Surprised that Mac doesn't have it's own system maintenance programs.

Caught me by surprise. You mentioned that you are aware of the system maintenance scripts but you are surprised that Mac (I guess you mean Apple Computer) doesn't have it's own maintenance programs.

The scripts are just instructions to the built in programs that run automatically between 3 and 5 am. What other programs are you thinking of?

Apple does also provide Disk Utility for Repairing Permissions and Verifying/Formatting Drives, and there are several other programs in the Applications/Utilities folder for troubleshooting your machine.

There are 3rd party programs with GUI interfaces that work well with Leopard. One of the best is Onyx.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/onyx.html

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Answer 7

Jul 15, 2009 1:41 AM in response to andmac

You can use a utility such as daisydiskto see what is using your disk space.

As well as looking at log files in your Library you should also see if anything was reported in /System/Library/Logs, particularly the crash and hang reporter folders.

AK

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Answer 8

andmac Author

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Jul 15, 2009 1:47 AM in response to dechamp

I read about the scripts from Carolyns note.

I am not aware of the automatic system maintenance programs to run on a Mac. I typically turn my machine off at night so I assume any automated routine would then kick off when I turn my machine on in the morning?

I'm a recent convert to the Mac world so still finding out how things work.

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Answer 9

andmac Author

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Jul 15, 2009 2:20 AM in response to Austin Kinsella1

Thanks Austin

I just ran daisydisk and it show that 119GB of my HD is used which should leave 41GB free from my 160 GB HD, however Finder show only 28GB. Wonder where the remaining 13 GB is?

Also it shows that the largest chunk, 37GB, is used by documents and when I drill down on documents it shows virtual machines occupying 33GB. I certainly don't have that much info in documents either in the virtual machines or the main Mac machine. I suspect that the virtual machines may be the cause of my lost HD space. I'll need to investigate further.

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Answer 10

Jul 15, 2009 4:46 AM in response to andmac

*"Surprised that Mac doesn't have it's own system maintenance programs."*

It does. Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities)

*"ll have a read through the info on system maintenance scripts, maybe running those scripts is the answer."*

If you leave your Mac on overnight (not in Sleep mode) it will run maintenance tasks for you between 3:15 and 5:30 am in your time zone. Read here. Mac OS X: How to force background maintenance tasks (logs and temporary items)

Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

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Answer 11

andmac Author

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Jul 15, 2009 4:57 PM in response to andmac

After running Daisydisk I have found the following file
private/var/log/system.log.0

This log is apparently 20.4GB.

Is it safe to delete this file and is there a reason why such a large log file would be produced?

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Answer 12

andmac Author

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Jul 15, 2009 9:07 PM in response to andmac

Thank folks

Looks like the routine system maintenance programs have not been running as my machine is always off at the scheduled times. Just ran the maintenance program and I've got my 20GB back and the system log is down to just mbs.

Andrew

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Answer 13

Jul 15, 2009 9:21 PM in response to andmac

Andrew... amen for maintenance and thanks for the starS ...

Carolyn 🙂

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