Low space on filesystem

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salhab
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Low space on filesystem

Post by salhab »

Hey, just created an account in the forum to (hopefully) get this problem solved. I know this has been asked many times before, but I don't wanna risk messing with partitions without some help. I'm currently using Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon version 4.6.7. I have a dual-boot with Windows 10 on my SSD if this is relevant.

I installed Mint a few years ago in my HDD, but I had no idea about partitions and used the default settings when setting it up. Now, I only have 18GB for file system, currently with around 800MB left. I tried cleaning it, followed some tutorials about safe cleaning, but it didn't help too much, and I think I'll have to resize the partition to like 30-40GB. However, I'm not sure how to do this properly, without risking my OS.

This is the result of a sudo parted -l:

Code: Select all

Model: ATA TOSHIBA MQ02ABD1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Warning: failed to translate partition name
Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  525MB   524MB   fat32           EFI system partition          boot, esp
 2      525MB   660MB   134MB                   Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      660MB   932GB   932GB   ntfs            Basic data partition          msftdata
 7      932GB   953GB   20,4GB  ext4
 8      953GB   957GB   4000MB  linux-swap(v1)                                swap
 9      957GB   985GB   28,0GB  ext4
 4      985GB   985GB   509MB   ntfs                                          hidden, diag
 5      985GB   999GB   13,7GB  ntfs                                          hidden, diag
 6      999GB   1000GB  1184MB  ntfs                                          hidden, diag


Model: Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250GB (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  17,8MB  16,8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 2      1168MB  250GB   248GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 3      250GB   250GB   548MB   ntfs                                       hidden, diag
Please let me know if there's any more info needed. Thanks in advance!
Last edited by LockBot on Mon Jul 31, 2023 10:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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coffee412
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by coffee412 »

How about a larger hard drive to start? Is that a possibility?

Reason I say this is because if your going to do this might as well give linux plenty of room.

I see two ways of doing this. I can give a general outline of what to do but I am not responsible for your data. So, Backups are important.

1. If you do not care about windows recovery blah,blah stuff you can blow away the hidden,diag partitions and that will give you an extra 14 gigs. If you boot into windows and shrink the windows partition you can gain some extra room there too.

2. You can clone the whole drive to a larger one and then move the partitions on the larger drive to expand the partitions for linux using gparted. There are a lot of examples of its use on the net. I recommend going this way if you can afford a bigger drive.

It always seems that we say "I just need 30 gigs more room" and in the end we end up wanting/needing more.

Above anything else before you do this I recommend you backup your important stuff.
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by mikeflan »

but I had no idea about partitions and used the default settings when setting it up. Now, I only have 18GB for file system
My thinking is the default install settings are to place everything (home, root, boot, etc) on one partition. That partition should be at least 100GB. 500GB is good too and is what I use. If it is 40 - 50% full, that is good.
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by coffee412 »

I dont know why I didnt think of this before;

If the computer will take another hard drive then just move your /home partition to the other drive. This might be easier than fooling around with partitions and cloning.
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salhab
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by salhab »

coffee412 wrote: Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:36 pm How about a larger hard drive to start? Is that a possibility?

Reason I say this is because if your going to do this might as well give linux plenty of room.

I see two ways of doing this. I can give a general outline of what to do but I am not responsible for your data. So, Backups are important.

1. If you do not care about windows recovery blah,blah stuff you can blow away the hidden,diag partitions and that will give you an extra 14 gigs. If you boot into windows and shrink the windows partition you can gain some extra room there too.

2. You can clone the whole drive to a larger one and then move the partitions on the larger drive to expand the partitions for linux using gparted. There are a lot of examples of its use on the net. I recommend going this way if you can afford a bigger drive.

It always seems that we say "I just need 30 gigs more room" and in the end we end up wanting/needing more.

Above anything else before you do this I recommend you backup your important stuff.
I have a 250GB SSD which I'm using for Windows and a 1TB HD for LInux/storage stuff. This seems enough for me. The problem is that the file system space is not enough, and I can't find an easy way to increase it. From what I understood, my file system is in a small partition in the HDD, so I can't just move the home folder.
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by coffee412 »

Boot up linux and go to accessories/Disks.

Click on the linux hard drive in the left column and then take a screen shot and post it. That way we can see how that 1tb drive is setup.
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salhab
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by salhab »

coffee412 wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:50 pm Boot up linux and go to accessories/Disks.

Click on the linux hard drive in the left column and then take a screen shot and post it. That way we can see how that 1tb drive is setup.
Alright, here you go:
Image
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by coffee412 »

Wow ;)
Thats a lot of partitions....ok.

So it looks to be that windows and Linux are sharing the drive. The windows partition looks to be 932 GB. Here is what I would do. I would shrink the windows partition down. Then boot your linux Mint stick and fire up gparted. In gparted you can move the whole linux partition as far left as you can. Then extend the right side all the way to the next partition.

You might have to install gparted while running the live usbstick of Mint.

Code: Select all

sudo apt install gparted
Before you do all that you should boot windows and defrag. Then shrink the windows partition. After that is complete you can boot from your linux usb stick and use/install gparted to move the linux partition and expand it. As long as the partitions do not change their order on the disk you should be fine.

Defragging windows will allow you to shrink the most possible on that partition. You cannot shrink past a used sector on windows. Thats why we defrag first.

I recommend this program to defrag:
https://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/
Choose to do the full defrag (it takes longer) in the drop down menu. Your virus software might complain about it but just turn that off before you do. Its an excellent program.

Read thru this and see how gparted works. It would be quicker than me explaining it to you - and it has pretty pictures ;)
https://raspberrytips.com/resize-partition-ubuntu/


Edit: What is on the other drive??
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salhab
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by salhab »

coffee412 wrote: Wed Feb 01, 2023 3:57 pm Wow ;)
Thats a lot of partitions....ok.

So it looks to be that windows and Linux are sharing the drive. The windows partition looks to be 932 GB. Here is what I would do. I would shrink the windows partition down. Then boot your linux Mint stick and fire up gparted. In gparted you can move the whole linux partition as far left as you can. Then extend the right side all the way to the next partition.

You might have to install gparted while running the live usbstick of Mint.

Code: Select all

sudo apt install gparted
Before you do all that you should boot windows and defrag. Then shrink the windows partition. After that is complete you can boot from your linux usb stick and use/install gparted to move the linux partition and expand it. As long as the partitions do not change their order on the disk you should be fine.

Defragging windows will allow you to shrink the most possible on that partition. You cannot shrink past a used sector on windows. Thats why we defrag first.

I recommend this program to defrag:
https://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/
Choose to do the full defrag (it takes longer) in the drop down menu. Your virus software might complain about it but just turn that off before you do. Its an excellent program.

Read thru this and see how gparted works. It would be quicker than me explaining it to you - and it has pretty pictures ;)
https://raspberrytips.com/resize-partition-ubuntu/


Edit: What is on the other drive??
Windows is actually installed on the SSD, the 250GB drive. The 1TB drive contains the Mint installation and free space for storage. Here is a gparted screenshots that shows it better:
Image

I have around 215GB free on the HDD, and wanted to use some part of it for the Linux system. Is this possible with the method you described? I think I don't need to mess with the Windows installation, right?
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coffee412
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Re: Low space on filesystem

Post by coffee412 »

Sure is possible. Just use what I posted. So the 932 GB ntfs partition is just for storage on windows? Then just go defrag it in windows and then shrink it. Then boot up your Mint stick and run gparted on it.

Im not sure if gparted is installed by default. You might have to install it. After you fire up gparted click on the linux partition and then just move your mouse to the left side of it. You mouse will change shape I do believe and click and drag the left edge of the linux partition to the end of the windows partition. That should really about do it. When it all gets done you can do a shutdown /reboot into linux and see if you have more room :)
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