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I have maybe a theoretical question about file systems or how gParted works.

After when I deleted some patritions and then format into some file systems(ntfs, fat32, ex4). I noticed that some spaces are still in used on a different file system. Please take a look:

gParted did formatation on disks

For example:

  • 30GB ext4 is showing at 653.94MB used up - without anything just to format
  • 50GB ntfs is showing 66.01MB
  • However 175GB ntfs is showing only 69.91MB

If you have explaining video or wiki page about this and its background or you know could you please describe it below - then I may adjust the title of the question to later if somebody is curious about this.

The answer can be found here - not duplicated - but this is the explanation of this: Possible clue of what gParted is doing

Linus Linux
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2 Answers2

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ext4 has overhead for newly created partitions. Answers here suggest reserved space (overhead) of 1.5% is great and it can be as high as 5%. In your case it appears to be 2.17% if my math-challenged mind has calculated it correctly.

The reasons for overhead are to address the infamous defrag hard disk problem in Windows which doesn't exist in Linux. Other reasons are to improve fsck.

WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • Gosh thank you!

    I found the another answer very good.

    I will re-edit the topic's title.

     – Linus Linux Jul 27 '19 at 20:25
  • @LinusLinux I'm not sure why your new answer with the same reference my answer has is necessary but remember you need to click the grey check mark next to the correct answer to mark the problem as solved. If you select someone else's answer you get 2 points and they get 15 points. If you accept your own answer no one gets any points. As a new user you may be unaware of this. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jul 27 '19 at 20:54
  • You are right! Thank you! So your answer is totally good! Ahw!

    I know it is off-topic but By the way where are you from ? Or are there any IRC chat or anything where I can find a community ? :) I am from Budapest.

     – Linus Linux Jul 27 '19 at 21:07
  • @LinusLinux I'm in Canada as my profile says. Most people chat here: https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/201/ask-ubuntu-general-room – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jul 27 '19 at 21:30
  • Yes, later I realized this tricky feature :) – Linus Linux Jul 27 '19 at 21:46
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The answer can be found in this thread:

New ext4 partition and used space

It gives a preventive solution for defragmentation and it can use up 5% of your storage as a price for it.

In the old systems as FAT they can use even more - 30% - from the storage.

In the ext4 fs it is completely solved with this.

Linus Linux
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