Check Disk Space Usage on Ubuntu

 Other Linux  Add comments
Jan 042007
 

    Computer disks have a finite capacity, and when they fill up it can lead to serious problems, including lost data and email. Actually it's slightly more complicated than that; disks are divided into partitions, and the problems ensue when an important partition such as one containing user files fills up.

    Here is the different types you can check your disk space in your ubuntu system

    Using Disk Usage Analyser

    The utility will give you both a text version of the space and a graphical representation of the data that is on your hard drive.

    If you want to open this go to Applications--->Accessories--->Disk Usage Analyser

    Once it opens you should see the following screen

    Using df command

    The df command displays information about total space and available space on a file system.

    Here is the example using df command


    If you want to know more available options check df man page

    Using Discus

    Discus is a GPL text-mode disk space usage program.Discus aims to make df prettier. Features include color, bar graphs, and smart formatting of numbers (automatically choosing the most suitable size from kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, or terabytes). Or choose your own size, along with specifying the number of decimal places.

    Install Discuss in Ubuntu

    sudo apt-get install discus

    and press enter this will complete installation after this if you want to use discus check the following example

    Discus Example

    A screenshot with the default settings

    If you want more available options check man page

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       Posted by at 10:06 pm
      • Barboza

        I am totally new to GNU/Linux. I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on a Pentium 4, 256MB/RAM currently running Windows-XP. But I found that when I installed Ubuntu, for some reason it did not ask me for System-Disk-Space. Now that I want to install some Ubuntu-Updates, it asks me to free disk space from “/”, but I do not know how to do this. Can you pleas help? Thanks in advance.

      • Ted Muralt

        Quote previous user comment: “I am totally new to GNU/Linux. I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on a Pentium 4, 256MB/RAM currently running Windows-XP. But I found that when I installed Ubuntu, for some reason it did not ask me for System-Disk-Space. Now that I want to install some Ubuntu-Updates, it asks me to free disk space from “/”, but I do not know how to do this. Can you pleas help? Thanks in advance.”

        9.04 has been a real problem starting with me upgrading from 8.10 to 9.04 with and ATI video card. Lost all 8.10 files (system bombed).
        Now, the same thing ( as above) happened to me on 2 machines, one xp desktop and one vista laptop. This disk space problem is an other unforgivable oversite. I am hoping that I can uninstall 9.04 on both machines and either go back to 8.10, or just give up on ubuntu.

      • http://www.raugaunep.com ravi

        Hardware :
        motherboard ASUS p5Q-E with 5 Hard disk
        HDD0 – 80GB – installed XP SP3
        HDD1 – 160GB – installed Vista SP2
        HDD2 – 160GB windows 7 RC
        HDD3 – want to install UBUNTU 9.04
        HDD4 – want to install Mac OS.

        i am totally new for linux and MAC, i have no idea about ubuntu and mac os.

        once i tried to install ubuntu 9.04 was successed after login
        when i try to update “it asks me to free disk space from “/” ” after that i format hdd for the partition to make some space, after that i tried to reboot but never comes up even XP, vista, windows7 nothing worked.

        now i installed Xp, Vista and windows7 from scratch.

        for install ubuntu and mac os, please help me.

        Thank you very much in advance.

      • Guru

        Guys, it looks like you are installing your Ubuntu on very small partitions. You should probably be careful when you do your installation configuring the disk space that will be available for Ubuntu. I think Ubuntu definitely deserves a little effort on your side — it will deliver rewards that you can’t imagine yet.

        Take a look at this document:
        https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoPartition

      • brijkishor

        fdisk -l | grep Disk

      • http://ubuntuvirtualbox.blogspot.com/ sally whitfield

        I’m loving the switch to Ubuntu and the community is GREAT … unfortunately I have a hard time remembering these handy commands. LOL

      • http://awik1212.wordpress.com awik1212

        thanks for sharing sir.
        i think there is more interesting to using a linux.
        say goodbye to the old friend. :) )

      • Reg

        I have done a Windoze dumb trick that seems to have gotten me in a lot of trouble.
        OK, so much for the excuses.

        I highlighted a directory in Nautilus and then pressed the delete key.
        It APPEARS to have deleted the container(directory) ONLY.
        I say this because it was a large(‘ish) directory and the amount of
        space freed should have been significant, but there is no change
        in the free space of that disk.
        Is there a way to delete all (of what were) the underlying directories
        and files ?
        I have run fsdk from a live CD, it didn’t seem to throw out any “un-owned”
        blocks, files or directories.

        There is nothing in Trash – maybe a way to get all the abandoned stuff to
        trash would be a good first step.

        Thanks in advance to anyone able to help (-:

      • Reg

        PS to last message;
        Typo alert; That should be “fsck”, NOT “fsdk”.

      • http://uouug.co.cc JonathanSeguin

        Reg : Is this on a portable device such as a usb stick? Try to go in the menu to “View > Show Hidden Files” (or type ctrl-h).

        Can you spot any .Trash folders? (Try to look in the root / top level of your device)

        If this fails try creating a file with a special name, deleting it, and then searching for it.

        Also, if you want to permanently remove something, simply shift-delete just like in windoze.

        Cheers!

      • Thinesh

        How to find the video driver is install.and i need the more command for Ubuntu

        Thank You

        Thinesh

      • mayank

        thanks alot. its so useful.

      • Thomas

        i am installing Diablo 3 with PlayOnLinux but when i get to the Diablo 3 launcher where you agree to the terms and conditions it says i dont have enough space on my harddrive but when i use the df command in terminal i get this:
        Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
        /dev/loop0 25G 9.2G 14G 41% /
        udev 961M 4.0K 961M 1% /dev
        tmpfs 388M 808K 387M 1% /run
        none 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock
        none 970M 88K 970M 1% /run/shm
        /dev/sda1 141G 86G 56G 61% /host

        Diablo 3 requires 12 gigabytes of memory. Does anyone know what is wrong?

      • Zhkzyth

        really love the Discuss…Thanks!

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