When I put files into my 2nd storage HDD it also fills up the same space in my OS drive

Operating System ZimaOS
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1

Hi! I’m very new to all of this stuff. I have a newly built homelab with 3 storage drives, 2 2 TB HDD and one 256gb M.2 which is purely for programs and VMs. Recently I’ve been using a VM to download files online while I sleep and out of nowhere putting files into my HDD Storage 1 starts also filling up my m.2 1:1. I used space sniffer to try to find where all of these files are and its reporting 600gb used out of 256 on my m.2??? all in the X:.media\HDD_Storage_1\Media directory and nothing I do seems to lower the storage used. If anyone has any insight please let me know because I’m afraid this might brick my server at some point.

2

Okay I actually decided to move all of my media off of my storage 1 drive and delete the original files and my m.2 is still saying its full. I tried using space sniffer to find where the problem was and apparently there is 200gb of “inaccessible storage” what in the world does that mean

3

This isn’t duplication, it’s your VM using the M.2.

Inside the VM, that HDD path is just a mounted share.
So when you download:

  • it writes to the VM disk (on your M.2)
  • not directly to the HDD

That’s why both look like they’re filling.

Also when you delete files inside the VM, the disk doesn’t shrink, so space stays used → that’s your “inaccessible storage”.

Quick check:

du -h /DATA | sort -h | tail -n 20

You’ll see a big VM disk file (.img / .qcow2).

Fix moving forward:

  • download outside the VM (Docker app to HDD), or
  • mount the HDD properly into the VM so it writes directly there

If you want, send that output and I’ll point to the exact file.

4

Fantastic! thank you so much! I ran the command and found a .trash file that was 200gb, so after learning the most basic of Linux commands I ran:

rm -rf .trash/

which got rid of all of it. Thank you so much Gelbuilding I really appreciate it :slight_smile:

Now onto figuring out how to do your suggested fixes ha

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5

All good mate, that .trash folder will do exactly that, it just keeps growing in the background.

Nice work finding it.

Only thing I’d say is be a bit careful with rm -rf, always good to ls the path first so you don’t nuke the wrong folder.

Next step is what we mentioned earlier, make sure your downloads aren’t going into the VM disk. Best way is to run your downloader in Docker and map it directly to the HDD so your OS drive stays clean.

You’re on the right track.

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