Hello, So after fixing another issue with our mail server yesterday being slow, we found it was creating an excessive amount of log files (over 1000 a day). My first thought after browsing the net yesterday was our antivirus (we use symantec). However, after further discussion we decided if that were the case, that this issue should've started immediately after it was installed which it did not. So I took it upon myself to look at the log files. Which are ########.log however when I try accessing these it shows something similar to: ê 0‚ :êã~_èsš
4 ¯âõ ®âõ ^Z(
3i pê í,   Ö Through out the entire file. I've opened with notepad and wordpad and word and its always the same. So my question is, is there a way to read these files? What am I missing?

I always just copy the log files from the Exchange server to my workstation and open them with Excel and they are placed into columns and very readable (and easilly searched).

I still see the same random garble when I open it in excel. There were a few instances where there was some actual text, but not enough to tell me anything. Also I have tried opening the file in performance monitor and that didn't work either.

I still see the same random garble when I open it in excel. There were a few instances where there was some actual text, but not enough to tell me anything. Also I have tried opening the file in performance monitor and that didn't work either. Which directory are you grabbing these log files from exactly?

I've been pulling them from the exchange server itself directory is: \\<mail server name>\<drive$>\Mailbox Database XXXXXXXXX

Rather than pulling the file off the server, I logged into the server and tried to open it that way. It gave me a message saying something similar to "You do not have permissions to view this folder. Click 'Continue' to get them permanently'. So I clicked continue and got to the file that way, but it still is showing the same thing.

Hello, it looks like you try to open a transaction log. You can't open transaction logs to review. These transaction logs should only be deleted when you do a backup of your Information Store. Greetings, Toni

Hmm...lol..not the answer I was hoping to get, but I suppose that could be the problem. I'll make sure not to delete any of them.

Just found this: http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Transaction-Logs-Lifeblood-Exchange.html Explains a lot.