Solved Time Shift ate my hard drive. 0 bytes left!

[Arminius]

Mint 21.2
Brave browser indicated there is no space left and suggested I clear some cookies. Brave then locked up. I rebooted the system using the shut down or reboot option. Upon loading, very tiny text appeared that I did not have time to read, followed by regular sized text message indicating 0 bytes were available. I was given an option to look through some files- I know I'm generalizing here; I was given an option to look through some files and when I did, found that Time Shift, a program that creates snap shots of your operating system, Time Shift had filled my Mint partition with 60 gigs of snap shots- leaving no space for the operating system.

I was able to navigate to the Time Shift snap shot folder, however, there is not enough free space to delete the snap shots and reclaim drive space.

At the boot menu, I entered recovery mode but, don't know what to do and I don't want to damage anything further. I'm wondering if it's possible to, from the command line, delete the Time Shift folders, or perhaps there's another way. Create live USB; Boot, and clean up the linux partition on the C: drive?

Thank you for any assistance you may provide,

Arminius.

 

[PuppyHome]

@Arminius (That name sounds very familiar. Are you from Holland?)

That's what Timeshift did the very first time to my drive on Mint as well. (Couple years ago).
That's why I always immediately remove it when it comes packaged with any distro. (I usually install some distro's in a Virtual Machine)

There are a couple of things you could do: You could load a live session in RAM and remove the snapshots OR do a new install. The latter is what I did back when.

Also on your next install go to Timeshift settings and choose when to do a snaphot (or none). It appears that on Mint Timeshift is taking snapshots left, right and center OOTB.

(There is probably another way to remove the snapshots on your filled drive but I am not aware of them. I'm sure some folks here are and would gladly help you out)


Peace.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

timeshift has a command line option to delete snapshots. you should be able to first list the snapshots with

sudo timeshift --list

then you should be able to delete one or more with

sudo timeshift --delete --snapshot '2014-10-12_16-29-08'

changing the date in the last part to that of the snapshot (or snapshots) you want to delete. if all of the above seems like it would be easier from a live usb, that should also work.

It appears that on Mint Timeshift is taking snapshots left, right and center OOTB.

as someone who has used timeshift successfully for years on mint and other distros, that is just patently untrue.

 

[PuppyHome]

as someone who has used timeshift successfully for years on mint and other distros, that is just patently untrue.

Well, it surely did on 3 occasions on my end and ONLY on Mint. None of the other distros it was packaged with did. Just Mint.

And OP's case here is proof of that.

 

[Arminius]

timeshift has a command line option to delete snapshots. you should be able to first list the snapshots with

sudo timeshift --list

then you should be able to delete one or more with

sudo timeshift --delete --snapshot '2014-10-12_16-29-08'

changing the date in the last part to that of the snapshot (or snapshots) you want to delete. if all of the above seems like it would be easier from a live usb, that should also work.


as someone who has used timeshift successfully for years on mint and other distros, that is just patently untrue.

My error was placing the snap shots on the mint operating system drive. Previously they were placed on a data drive.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

i keep mine on a separate drive as well. to save some space and just in case of an issue with the system drive itself. i hope you are able to boot back into your system soon.

 

[Arminius]

I just recalled, I have a usb drive with MX-Linux installed. If I boot that, what if I resize the partition? Problem I'm having with gparted and the other tool is: I can't get the resize option to function. I think it's something to do with the way I'm using it. Do I have to unmount a drive to resize the partition?

I'm using the computer in question now. I bought it with windows 10 back in 2018; Soon after installed Linux. Aside from that- Like most of ya'll, I've got multiple computers with various operating systems installed, and of course, internet.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

Problem I'm having with gparted and the other tool is: I can't get the resize option to function. I think it's something to do with the way I'm using it. Do I have to unmount a drive to resize the partition?

you can't be booted into the partition (if i am reading that right) and it needs to be unmounted to be able to resize it. so using the usb should work.

 

[Arminius]

Well I'm back. Sometimes if you ignore a problem, it will go away. That was the case this time. Well, sorta. When booting into Linux with 0 bytes, the error message has three options. One of which is to, "Ignore". I chose that this time and the system booted. I was able to start Time Shift, and delete all of the backups. All 60 Gigs worth. After that I set the configuration to perform a backup once a week.

Thanks for the assistance. Now if I can just figure out how to mark the thread solved, that would be great. I saw the option earlier, can't find it now.

Arminius.

 

[z7vl7abxc]

thank you for sharing your solution. it looks like if you click the Edit button at the bottom of your first post there is an option to edit the title prefix to add Solved.

 

[Condobloke]

Just above your first post there is an 'unwatch' icon/button...Click on the three dots beside it, and follow that

 

[wizardfromoz]

If you are happy with the outcome, just go to your first post, choose Edit Thread and click No Prefix and choose Solved.

Welcome to linux.org, @Arminius

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[Arminius]

Done.

Thanks all.

 

[mrcrossroads]

Well I'm back. Sometimes if you ignore a problem, it will go away. That was the case this time. Well, sorta. When booting into Linux with 0 bytes, the error message has three options. One of which is to, "Ignore". I chose that this time and the system booted. I was able to start Time Shift, and delete all of the backups. All 60 Gigs worth. After that I set the configuration to perform a backup once a week.

Thanks for the assistance. Now if I can just figure out how to mark the thread solved, that would be great. I saw the option earlier, can't find it now.

Arminius.

I have TimeShift configured to only keep the 5 most recent snapshots. That way I don't have to manually delete them to free up space.

 

[Condobloke]

Ditto the above.....4 or 5 most recent.....no need to manually delete

 

[Hillbilly H]

Glade you got it fixed. LOL this is the One Linux problem i could have helped with but to late.
i had over a TB of backups.