Score:0

Free Hard Disk Space not usable

cn flag

My Hard Disk seems to be at capacity, if I take a look at it in Files.

Screenshot Files

If I open it in Disks, I get another impression...

Screenshot Disks

It seems that 5% of the disk space cannot be used, and I have the same issue with another partition, too.

Any help is highly appreciated.

Score:3
cn flag

On a file system formatted in ext4, by default 5% space is reserved, i.e. can only be used by root. That is to reduce file fragmentation, and, in case of system disks, to leave some disk space for root processes anytime.

You can decrease that reserved space to e.g. 1% with tune2fs:

sudo tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sde1 
vanadium avatar
cn flag
@mook765 Thank you for the edit! I forgot the `sudo` indeed.
cn flag
Perfect! Could there be any issues, if I decrease the reserved space to 0%?
vanadium avatar
cn flag
On big volumes, 5% is a lot of space and that can safely be reduced. I would never reduce to 0 on a system partition. On a data disk, eliminating that reserved space will allow to fit more data, but with more file fragmentation once the disk is quite full.
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