Why is my 2 TB SSD showing only 120 GB of free space?
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MellowHarbor42
I'm running CachyOS on a 2 TB SSD, but Dolphin reports that only about 120 GB is free. Filelight shows roughly 67 GB used when scanning the filesystem root, while scanning my personal folder reports around 980 GB used. I can't determine where the rest of the storage is being consumed. My system also has a separate 1 TB drive mounted at /home/sid/Daten, and the main NVMe partition contains mount points such as /home, /var/cache, /var/log, /var/tmp, /srv, and /root.
Answers
Start with `df -h`. That shows the actual used and available space for every mounted filesystem, which is more reliable than a graphical directory scanner when separate partitions, bind mounts, or subvolumes are involved. Also check `df -h /` and `df -h /home` individually.
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The `lsblk` output explains why Filelight may be confusing. Your 1.8 TB NVMe partition has several mount points, including `/home`, while the separate 931 GB drive is mounted inside your home directory at `/home/sid/Daten`. A scan of `/home` can therefore include that additional drive, whereas a scan of `/` may not traverse mounted filesystems in the same way. `lsblk` only shows device sizes and mount points; it does not show how much space is used.
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Snapshots are another possibility, especially with a filesystem such as Btrfs. Check the snapshot list and their reported space usage, but don’t assume deleting snapshots is the answer until `df -h` confirms they are consuming space. Since removing the bootloader snapshots barely changed anything, the missing space is more likely in `/home`, a cache, logs, or another mounted filesystem. GParted can also confirm whether any part of the SSD is unallocated, although unallocated space would normally appear as a partitioning issue rather than hidden used space.
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MellowHarbor42: That separate drive is mounted inside my home folder, so it may be included in the personal-folder total even though it isn’t using space on the 2 TB SSD.