Ubuntu is fibbing about not enough space on storage device

[lindsey]

Error creating directory: No space left on device

Nonsense - there is more than enough space.

Am backing up my home folder's files onto my SAMSUNG ext HDD (NTFS format) which has 182G left. My home folder is much smaller than that. What could be the problem?

[elija]

A couple of questions for you:

How are you doing the backup?
Can you post the output of the following command (with the Samsung plugged in)

sudo /sbin/fdisk -l

[lindsey]

A couple of questions for you:

How are you doing the backup?
Can you post the output of the following command (with the Samsung plugged in)

sudo /sbin/fdisk -l

Manually - just by copying directories of importance and their contents onto my ext HDD.

peter@peter-ubuntu:/media$ sudo /sbin/fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd21cd21c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       66046   530508440+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2           66046      121602   446253057    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           66046       94882   231630865   83  Linux
/dev/sda6          120781      121602     6589440   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7   *       94883      119960   201434112   83  Linux
/dev/sda8          119960      120780     6589440   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb19cf899

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       60801   488384000+   7  HPFS/NTFS

See what I mean: plenty of space!

peter@peter-ubuntu:/media$ sudo df -h
Filesystem            Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5             218G   27G  180G  14% /
none                  2.0G  376K  2.0G   1% /dev
none                  2.0G  736K  2.0G   1% /dev/shm
none                  2.0G  296K  2.0G   1% /var/run
none                  2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /var/lock
none                  2.0G     0  2.0G   0% /lib/init/rw
/dev/sdb1             466G  285G  182G  61% /media/SAMSUNG
/dev/sr0              643M  643M     0 100% /media/Debian 6.0.0 i386 1

[zenwalker]

Suggest placing Linux on the 500 gigger (sdb) and using the 1TB hard drive only for Windows NT File System
Do a low-level format on sdb, first eliminating NTFS from it (i.e. don't contaminate a GNU/Linux installation with a foreign file system, especially NTFS!) -- use ext2 and format the entire drive as a single partition first.
Then, eliminate the extended partiton off the 1TB drive
Next, partition sdb with gparted, doing root (/) and /home as ext4 (make sure to check the "Boot" flag on root then refresh, later) first -- there will be no lack of suggestions from others here if you don't know how!
Et cetera

Also suggest not crossing the drives on your Linux install until you are sure of what is being done.

I'm done here -- sorry to jump in, elija, but couldn't help myself (lol!).

[elija]

No worries but if I'm not mistaken, sdb is being used as a backup drive

Anyway, I've been having a Google and have found this thread from the Ubuntu forums. It's quite(!) old but may still be relevant, in particular the last post. I've no idea if it will help in this situation as I have no ntfs drives

[rcgreen]

It does seem odd. Maybe (I'm not familiar with the structure
of NTFS) it's not space that's lacking but some other
resource. Do you already have a very great number of
small files on this drive?

Is your system dual boot? Boot into Windows and see if it
also reports the same problem with the drive.

[lindsey]

It does seem odd. Maybe (I'm not familiar with the structure
of NTFS) it's not space that's lacking but some other
resource. Do you already have a very great number of
small files on this drive?

Is your system dual boot? Boot into Windows and see if it
also reports the same problem with the drive.

Yes, there are many files.

Yes it is dual boot. But because I am backing up Linux files, I will not have access to them while in Windows, will I...?

No worries but if I'm not mistaken, sdb is being used as a backup drive

Anyway, I've been having a Google and have found this thread from the Ubuntu forums. It's quite(!) old but may still be relevant, in particular the last post. I've no idea if it will help in this situation as I have no ntfs drives

Yes, the Samsung ext HDD listed.

I had a related issue once. After reformatting FAT32 to become NTFS, there was no upper limit on file size for copying purposes. But my backup destination, the Samsung HDD is obviously in NTFS format now, so that's not the issue this time.

I have to have a closer look at that old thread but I'm afraid a superficial lookover isn't immediately revelational...

Suggest placing Linux on the 500 gigger (sdb) and using the 1TB hard drive only for Windows NT File System
Do a low-level format on sdb, first eliminating NTFS from it (i.e. don't contaminate a GNU/Linux installation with a foreign file system, especially NTFS!) -- use ext2 and format the entire drive as a single partition first.
Then, eliminate the extended partiton off the 1TB drive
Next, partition sdb with gparted, doing root (/) and /home as ext4 (make sure to check the "Boot" flag on root then refresh, later) first -- there will be no lack of suggestions from others here if you don't know how!
Et cetera

Also suggest not crossing the drives on your Linux install until you are sure of what is being done.

I'm done here -- sorry to jump in, elija, but couldn't help myself (lol!).

I can't format anything until I've backed up my files first - catch 22!

[zenwalker]

Think I'd backup using Clonezilla and place image (xxxxx-xxx-img) on at least a 2GB USB stick and proceed with getting rid of ntfs.

[afterthought: also, MEPIS has a ntfs partition tool of some sort that may help]

Best wishes!

[rcgreen]

Yes it is dual boot. But because I am backing up Linux files, I will not have access to them while in Windows, will I...?

It shouldn't matter what type of files you have stored there.
Since NTFS is the native file system for Windows, it should
be able to examine the drive. You should be able to run chkdsk
on it to check the condition of the file system.