Again running smartctl after all is said and done:
smartctl --all /dev/sda
ddrescue-smartctl-after-rescue.png ddrescue-smartctl-2.png
Yet an old drive in itself, I run the wheels off of them, and monitor regularly as anyone should.
Do not just delete all the log files!!!
There are systems which require files to be present.
cd /var/log
for CLEAN in $(find /var/log/ -type f)
do
cp /dev/null $CLEAN
done
Logs will be deleted permanently, files will be left behind.
This method does not solve the problem, it simply removes the comments within the log files.