Disk space refuses to free up after uninstallations

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21

I appreciate the advice, I’ll keep all that in mind for the future! The thing with btrfs is it’s partly on me: I did do some research on it before using it, but I think I misunderstood some things. In the future, I’ll definitely be using ext4 for any future Linux installs on this PC, with btrfs used on systems with more specialized long-term data storage.

Also, as for the data drives, those still contain my Windows installation and all the software/games I had installed before switching. I plan to keep the OS installation drive a Windows drive, since I’m going to need to set up a dual boot at some point in the future (wish I didn’t have to but I do, some games just don’t run properly even with tweaks), but the others I plan to format and add to my storage, as I consistently run out of storage once I get games installed, no matter what OS or file system I use haha

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If it is a swap partition then there is no problem. If it is a swap file, then best is to disable it first with swapoff, and then delete it, run the balance operation, recreate the swap file — with the proper attributes, and with the correct line in /etc/fstab — after the balance has completed, and re-enable swap.

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23

I used to do think the same way. Especially when using ZFS and many another advanced file systems for so many years. (For at work in the data-center, or for play at home!)

I think btrfs is great on a desktop. Perfectly suited for it really, with the options: default.

But I take “long-term data storage”, as one of two things. Archival, or “tier 2/3” storage, whatever name you want to call it. Just cost more effective storage, more space often sacrificing performance.

Depending on your use case, I don’t think it’s amazing at either. As btrfs sadly does not support parity RAID yet, (RAID 4-6).

Btrfs just by using it, has ongoing data validation. It has caught bad cache on my CPU, mid-failing HDDs, and more. This is stuff I want on my desktop!

Having used btrfs for a few years now, I actually do the opposite. Everything goes on btrfs unless it has a specific need to go on something else.

For me I have different folders under /var/lib/libvirt/images/, one of them on ext4. This is for my VMs, but it could easily be your steamapps folder, if you care about shaving (milli?)seconds off your loading times. (But as mentioned, I just would exclude it from snapshots, and still have all the other functionality.)


I actually do the same. Windows gets a whole 2TB drive on my system. (More than they deserve!)

You do lose the flexibility of so much when you settle on ext4.

Just for a silly example.

I use could use gparted to reclaim some of that space M$ stole. Add it to my btrfs file system, which grows both my root and home. In just two very simple commands. Not suggesting to do this, but it’s nice to have that option, plus so many more features you have access to, that you didn’t have before.

The great thing is they are all included in btrfs-tools. So it just comes with it.

Great thing about Linux is you can do want you want. Myself though, would hate to go back to the old clunky ext[2-4] way! :smirking_face:

(And rsync is so sloooooooooow, and much more prone to error! Okay, I’ll shut up now.)

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Gotcha, this is really good advice! I’ll definitely do that if/when I switch back to btrfs backups, thanks a million!

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Well, the thing is, I fill up my storage reasonably quickly after I install games, because my internet speeds aren’t amazing, thus I keep a lot of games installed at one time. That means that setting up RAID wouldn’t exactly work. That said, maybe I’ll set up the mechanical hard drive as btrfs, since I used to store my documents and music collection on there when I was using Windows. At the very least, I’ll set up ~half of its storage as an ext4 volume, as I also use it to install older games that don’t really need an SSD.

I do really like the concept behind btrfs, that’s for sure. I guess I’ll just play it by ear as I re-implement those other drives into my Manjaro installation haha. Thanks for the detailed info on this and the ideas, it’s much appreciated!

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I get it, 0.5 TB titles are now common! The one line in fstab makes it so it doesn’t take up more space, and your space does get reclaimed when you delete or move them. And other ways too!

I wasn’t suggesting RAID, I even agreed saying:


You are probably already doing this, but just to make sure.. Steam out of box supports multiple libraries. So you can just add the place you mounted your HDDs or else-wise in Steam/Settings/Libraries.

Still that means you will be moving games from and to different devices. And if you use the Steam backup/restore feature. It is horribly slow! You have also probably experienced this. For me, even from and to an SSD, it’s quicker to re-download them. You have stated this is not the case for you, so..

I’m not sure if you know this.. Doesn’t matter if you have, btrfs, ext4, ntfs.. The simplest and quickest way to move a Steam game (from within libraries) in move the ACF file, and the associated installdir. I even used to have a pretty basic script that did it for me. So this is how I move them, and also backup/restore individually.

There are some pretty cheeky ways I could do this with btrfs, but that is getting way ahead of myself. :slightly_smiling_face: