Disk space useage has a mind of its own. What is going on? [SOLVED-ish]

[Sanettei]

I feel like my time with Linux Mint is coming to and end.

I've been having issues with disk space for probably a couple months now. Where does it all go? I notice it randomly disappear but no timeshift snapshots were being made (as i know those take up most space).

I recently had issues with my ethernet after updating stuff from the Update Manager. I decided to roll back to a snapshot from a month ago to try and fix this but the computer booted up to 0 disk space. I moved 10GB worth of files to an external drive and deleted a most recent timeshift snapshot, rebooted computer but still loads with 0 disk space (which in turn causes problems and doesnt load all devices and applets properly).

Even if i do manage to make space it will most likely disappear after some time without doing much (ie not installing updates or downloading files or making snapshots).

Am i just dumb and missing out on something, or is my computer effed up at this point? Honestly, i'm so close to going back to windows just for the simplicity of it but i hate Microsoft so much lol

[Pjotr]

Do a safe but thorough cleaning job (and tame your logs etc. in the process):
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... -mint.html

[Sanettei]

Ok thanks, I'll go through this once i have it booted up properly (i managed to make 26GB free space so im restoring the timeshift again just in case the last time i did it didnt install fully properly)

[Sanettei]

Just wanted to update and say before that last timeshift restore i had 26GB free space. After restoring the snapshot it loads to desktop with 0 free disk space again. Im going to try that link now but omg this is so frustrating. I just wanna be able to restore the timeshift snapshot and load to my desktop without and problems

[Pjotr]

Im going to try that link now

Wise.

[Sanettei]

Half the stuff in that link i cant do because the desktop doesnt fully load properly on boot. I cant empty the trash can, i cant access certain commands in the terminal, i cant open Update Manager, etc etc. The only thing i can do is move large files to an external hard drive but i'm running out of files. Plus whatever space i make just ends up getting eaten up some how and im back to 0 disk space upon boot which doesnt fully load the desktop properly. Its a vicious annoying cycle and i'm losing my mind.

[Sanettei]

Ok so i just transfered about 25GB worth of files from the laptop to an external drive. It still tells me i have 0 free space. I went into Disks from the menu and it says i have 42GB free space. Folders say otherwise.

I rebooted the computer and got all those error messages while loading the desktop saying i have 0 disk space and certain apples wont load properly. I tried attaching photos of the screen but my photos are too big. Im losing my mind here!

[motoryzen]

Sanettei

I could help but notice something missing here...your system info.

* points upwards to the almost impossible to miss pink section... Forum rules, how to get help, step 5, 2nd dot aka bulletin point explains how . Might help if we had a clue what we're working with here

also in a separate post...please post the results of the following command. So you can highlight the command below, copy, open terminal window, paste, press enter, highlight the results, copy, come back here., click the </> ( aka Code Display aka code tags button . .fifth from the left just above where you paste your responses here ), then hold ctrl and press v to paste so you're not having to play mouse aim game to enclose your results to make them easier to read.
sudo du -xhd1 / | sort -hr

gdu is another good disk space viewing tool

sudo apt install gdu -y, then you can launch it with the following command below

gnome-terminal -e "bash -c './gdu -d; echo Press enter to close ; '" that allows you to navigate each directory path using keyboard key presses.

Given your story here, perhaps you should consider doing a System Image backup or Full Drive Clone using Foxclone to a separate ssd ( AndyMH the main dev is an active forum member here and can provide much help if needed ) ..ONCE..you are able to get this problem resolved again.

Worst case if it reappears you can do a System image restoration or clone the backup of the drive clone back to the Mint installed drive and at least guaranteed get back to where you were and maybe can retrace what caused it to begin with.

[Sanettei]

Sorry, still a bit of a noob here. Figured you'd ask what specifics you'd need from me.

I can run some commands. Unfortunately i cant copy and paste anything because i cant open my browser on the laptop. Having 0 disk space really limits what i can actually do. Im currently posting using my phone but navigating links and other possibly helpful websites is a nuisance using a phone, and my hand cramps up easily.

Im on the verge of a nervous breakdown if you couldn't tell already

[Sanettei]

Output of first command: https://ibb.co/qmtS926


I cant install that program u suggested because i dont have any disk space...

[motoryzen]

Ok that's a start.

du -sh /home/yourusername

du -sh /home/yourusername/Documents

Also run the following ones below in separate code tags .. starting with du -sh /home/

Pictures
Videos
...namely every folder you can think of that you think may have a lot of stuff in it and/or may take up many gigabytes of room

Once you find one that has easily 25GBs or more... run ls -al to see the contents of such folder(s) and then perhaps you can see some stuff that you can make room of by deleting or possibly mv ( aka cut n paste command ) to another drive.

cd will take you back to either your /home/username folder , pwd will tell you where you are, cd .. will take you back one directory aka folder

I know this seems very tedious and it sucks...but unless you want to take more drastic measures...this is one safe way to slowly narrow down what is taking up the vast majority of space and for you to see IF it or these things are worth keeping..

Regardless you really should consider targetting a separate physical drive for your timeshift snapshots from now on for partially this reason. You have over 150GBs consumed just in timeshift snapshots alone.. I have 10 snapshots and they don't even take up 125GBs yet on a separate 1TB ssd.

*** possibly leading in to guessing your next thought involving " can I just move aka cut n paste or copy n paste my time shift snapshots from /timeshift to another drive? Not really last I recall piece of other convos from other forum members. Those such as smg, rene, AndyMH, sleeper12, xenopeek and many more have far more room to talk and explain than I do to elaborate why moving timeshift snapshots from one drive to another will probably not work out in the end. ****

<<<<<< As far as being able to make use of a browser here to paste command from here....boot into a Linux Mint installation thumb drive... This will still allow you to work.....gui wise...with your folders and more quickly see what should be nuked. >>>>>>

[Pjotr]

In the Grub bootloader menu, select "Advanced options" and then a line that ends with "(recovery mode)". There might be multiple of those; it doesn't matter which one you select.

One of the options you get then, should be a "clean" option. Set it to work and hopefully this'll give you the leeway you need to reboot normally, and then apply the cleaning methods described in the link I gave you earlier.

If you never get to see the Grub menu, you can make the Grub menu visible when you turn on your computer, by hitting the Esc key just once, immediately after the BIOS screen disappears.

However, hitting the Esc key just once at the exact right moment can be difficult. In that case, hit the Esc key repeatedly, immediately after the BIOS screen disappears. That increases your chances of success, but it'll give you a Grub command prompt without the menu.

No worries, however: at the Grub prompt, type normal and hit Enter. Then immediately start tapping the Esc key again repeatedly, until the menu is displayed after all. This time, don't worry about hitting Esc too many times: tapping Esc more than once at this point, won't drop you to the Grub command prompt anymore.

[motoryzen]

If you can boot into a Linux Mint installation thumb drive.... do so..and you can install a program called filelight, via Software Manager..which has both a .deb version and flatpak version

This might be an easier way to narrow which folders and content are hogging so much space

[Sanettei]

Hey guys,
Thanks for your replies. I was able to move a ton more stuff over to an external hard drive which let me restore my Timeshift properly. (After it rebooted it didn't eat up any of that free space I had just made).

However what boggles my mind is that when I open a folder, at the bottom it says there's 96GB of free space. But when I open the "Disks" applet from the Menu, it shows that i have 146GB free space. Any idea why there's a huge difference in the number?

Also in reply to one of the posts here, about my Timeshift file being over like 150GB.... i have no idea why that is. I only have the one time shift that i made manually. And i too have only a 1TB SSD.

But in the end, I have enough space now to have my little baby back and running properly :p
Thanks for all your help!

[trinidad]

You say a 1T SSD. Do you know what kind of SSD drive it is... MLC,TLC, QLC, Pseudo SLC? In any case to avoid problems you should NOT fill an SSD more than 75%. Also CPUs can effect these drives and overload the write cache functions. Bad matches between modern CPUs and SSDs are very possible.

TC

[motoryzen]

Sanettei... I wonder if that's an accident. Visual miscommunication, meaning the lower space amount is for a individual partition. Oh that s s d

Beyond that I have no idea