1 Topic by pott

  • pott
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Topic: created partition not empty

Hi there,

I'm using the lastest stable live cd iso (just download it).
I created a extend partition of 100go and i create two partitions into it.
One ext4 of 25go and another one ext4 of 75go.
The strange problem is that after creating/formating the 25go have 500mo used and the 75go 1.4go used hmm
How can it be possible ? Is something wrong with my harddrive ?
I dont want to risk to install my distrib, i'm so worried lol

Thanks for any help !

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: created partition not empty

Each file system requires some space to track the files and folders contained within.  This file system tracking metadata takes up some space within the file system.  Hence all newly created file systems will show some space used.

The larger the file system, the more space required to keep track of the potential files and folders.

This behaviour is normal.

Hope that helps to answer your question.

3 Reply by pott

  • pott
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Re: created partition not empty

I knew that a small amount was required but not that much oO
Anyway i trusted you tongue and all went well !
Thanks for the help big_smile

4 Reply by gedakc

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Re: created partition not empty

Thank you for reporting back with your results.

To help others searching for answers to similar questions you can edit the initial post and prefix "SOLVED" in front of the title.

5 Reply by class413

  • class413
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Re: created partition not empty

pott wrote:

I knew that a small amount was required but not that much oO

A few more details:
In the case of Linux filesystems like ext3 and (I think) ext4, this space is reserved just after the format.
I remember some older topics with "complaints" on this reserved space as result of GParted. It has nothing to do with GParted, it has to do simply with the filesystem design and specification. GParted follows the default options.
It is possible to modify this reserved % by manually formatting a partition, however this would offer some better performance in the case of very specific directory structure and file types (i.e. a filesystem with photo files only, or music files only, or multiGiB video only, etc). So, in the case of such a professional system, one could proceed to some fine tuning of the filesystem parameters, including the filesystem type it self.
So, be quite: GParted doesn't steal drive space, nor creates obscure hidden folders.
smile

In the case of the ntfs filesystem the space for the file tables appears initially almost free, but it is occupied as long as you add files to the hard drive, so you don't really save any disk space.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***