Drive Capacity

[IanW]

Hi all!!
I'm running Kubuntu 8.04 with a 230Gb HDD. My system has started to report "No free space" and "100% Disk usage" so I investigated. Looking under Root at all the sub-directories I total 216Gb (thats OK). The largest directory is the 'Home' directory at 212Gb!! BUT on checking the contents of the 'Home' directory I only fine 2.3Gb!! This is correct with what I have there.

Where is the missing 21Gb and how do I solve this problem please??

[slunsky]

Re: Drive Capacity

Hi, it can be something in hidden files. Send output from

df -h

[Troberg]

Re: Drive Capacity

Are you confusing OS gigabytes with hard disk manufacturer gigabytes?

Hard disk manufacturers like to use 1 kB=1000 bytes, unformatted capacity.

The OS, on the other hand, use 1kB=1024 bytes, formatted capacity. As formatting means a bit overhead, more space is lost compared to what the manufacturer specified. 21 GB seems like a reasonable difference on a 230 GB disk.

[dibl]

Re: Drive Capacity

Sounds like confusion between capacity and consumption. :P

Troberg has it right, regarding the drive capacity question -- a 230G hard drive, as sold by the drive manufacturer, is actually 230 billion bytes (if I got the decimals correct), but something like 224 Gigabytes, at 1024 megabytes per GB. The filesystem will use something on the order of 6% of the space, leaving 224 x 94% = 210 actually available for the OS files and data.

On the other hand, "100% disk usage" is a different problem.

Open a Konsole window and run

sudo du -h --max-depth=1

and let's see where all those GB are going.

[IanW]

Re: Drive Capacity

Thanks Guys - I appreciate the help.... BUT

I'm fully aware of the 1000/1024 difference with Hard Drives (Been in the business for over 25 years!!) but am new to Linux.
Secondly I see my sums were wrong - Under Root the Home directory is listed as 212.2Gb but in the Home Directory I find only 2.2Gb of files. That is a difference of 210Gb!! Far more than the 3% difference above.
Last of all I have tried both the two bits of code supplied and in both cases nothing happens. The Console window just closes!!! Where to now?

[Troberg]

Re: Drive Capacity

Just a wild guess: have you emptied the trash can?

[dibl]

Re: Drive Capacity

I have tried both the two bits of code supplied and in both cases nothing happens. The Console window just closes!!!

Uh-oh -- that's not supposed to happen! I think I'm more worried about that little phenomenon than the hard drive utilization!

So, does the console window allow you to execute ANY commands correctly? Or does it do its little disappearing act every time?

[Windy]

Re: Drive Capacity

If the drive is 100% full, I'd expect anything that needs (file) space to refuse to run (or to just close); you can try useing "sudo su" to get a root terminal, this should allow access to the 5% emergency drive space; just be carefull .

[CVPunk]

Re: Drive Capacity

if you can execute a command in Konsole (using sudo su) try running the command apt-get autoclean, then apt-get autoremove. This should find dependencies or packages no longer in use and remove them.
also, if you don't already have it... I would suggest getting Sweeper system cleaner. You can use it to clean out cache and temp files. To see if you already have it go to KMenu >Applications >Utilities, it would be a red trash can.

[Windy]

Re: Drive Capacity

Just a personal opinion...
If the drive is 100% (user space) full and the only way to run anything is by using the root "emergency" space, I wouldn't install anything before freeing-up some work space. If installing something uses-up the "emergency" space, your OS is bricked!

Log in as root, use things like "ls -a" (etc.) to see what can be deleted; it might also be worth running a live CD which contains testdisk (PartedMagic comes to mind) and see if there is any disk corruption.

Also, Do you have strigi installed and running? I have seen instances of strigi index files takeing a lot of drive space.

[Wenches_Master]

Re: Drive Capacity

Hi all!!
I'm running Kubuntu 8.04 with a 230Gb HDD. My system has started to report "No free space" and "100% Disk usage" so I investigated. Looking under Root at all the sub-directories I total 216Gb (thats OK). The largest directory is the 'Home' directory at 212Gb!! BUT on checking the contents of the 'Home' directory I only fine 2.3Gb!! This is correct with what I have there.

Where is the missing 21Gb and how do I solve this problem please??

Hi: Simple way to see if it might be junk files messen up your HD.

When you boot instead of going into the regular Kernal Boot.
Go into your recovery Boot for that Kernal, In that Menu should be the option of "TRY" to free up disk space ie: Junk Files.

I don't know if this will work but it's worth a shot.

[IanW]

Re: Drive Capacity

Thanks Guys for the help!!! Sorry about the delay. I messed about with all sorts of stuff but was getting no where. So I "gave up". I already had the new 8.10 CD so decided to go that way! Backed-up all my Data and did an upgrade to the new 8.10!! WONDERFUL!! System running like a "kitten" again - Home directory back to 3Gb and is not growing!!!!
Even managed to get my new Brother MFC-8860DN working but had to give up with getting the new OpenOffice 3 to work. Will wait for it to come through the normal channels!!

Thanks again - hope you all had a GREAT Xmas!!!