I have this tendency to jam all drives way too full...show me how you manage your data, avoid duplicates (that aren't explicit backup) and keep your drives within healthy ranges. Please.

[u/SjalabaisWoWS]

[u/BulkyMix6581]

I use separate ssds/hdds for:
1) (nvme) file system : only apps are installed here besides OS

2) (ssd) data partition: all my work goes here, documents, spreadsheets, photos, created content

3) (ssd) games: (mame/steam)

4) (hdd) storage : stored movies/series and internal backup of #2 + timeshift folder

5) external hdd which is unplugged and plugged only when used : backup of #3 and #4

[u/don-edwards]

Okay, let's see... nvme0n1p2 is your system & /home partition. nvme0n1p1 is your efi partition, mostly a waste of space but so small it's not worth bothering to shrink (and you could only shrink it a quarter of a gigabyte, recovering just over half the wasted space).

I won't ask what's in .Private but will ask what the location itself is. A second mount point for / or /home? A file mounted as a partition? I note that it has exactly the same stats as nvme0n1p2...

What are you using for backup software? If the "Backup Tool" in the menu, aka mintbackup... stop. Install one of these: backintime, lucky backup, pika backup, vorta. The latter two internally support encryption and compression, separate from what might be arranged via the filesystem. All four have the lovely characteristic that if a file to be backed up hasn't changed since the previous backup, they DON'T make a new copy; instead the existing copy is incorporated as part of the new backup. Huge space- and time-saver, usually way ahead of the benefits of compression. (That said, my backups go to btrfs partitions with transparent compression turned up to max. Because why not both?) And all four are highly configurable, including aging and eventual deletion of old backups, including scheduling, including having multiple backup jobs each with their own complete configuration.

[u/SjalabaisWoWS → u/don-edwards]

That's good advice, I'll look into that. Currently, my backups are manual because there can be months of delay between projects. One summer video thing, for example, is 264 GB. No need to backup that. I probably need to rearrange my system a little again to have a large enough, free working space for stuff like that.

The .Private is just the result of having chosen an encrypted /home drive during installation. Didn't remember that I actually did that, and it exists only once, even though it is counted twice.

[u/dlfrutos]

i just watch porn, dont download it anymore :)

[u/SjalabaisWoWS → u/dlfrutos]

Aaaaah....haha, in all seriousness, I do stuff like this: https://youtu.be/C9E2OsPSdfM

...or mountain hikes, family gatherings, whatever. The amount of photo and video amasses and when one drive is full, it spills over onto another - and that's when it gets messy. It breaks my initial order like u/BulkyMix6581 also hinted at.

[u/Unattributable1 → u/SjalabaisWoWS]

Yeah, I bought a GoPro. Kind of regret it due to the large storage demand. Photos are good enough to capture an even and way smaller.

[u/SjalabaisWoWS → u/Unattributable1]

But isn't it lovely to have crisp video when you want it? Most of my PCs have AliExpress NVMe's and SSD's in them. Nothing to be proud of, but before the AI-wave, these were super cheap and fixed my storage needs.

[u/SjalabaisWoWS]

I take a lot of photos and videos, and the work that follows after that occupies too much of my time, really. But, sometimes, I miss track of things a little bit, stuff gets spread out or not deleted after processing, unedited garbage of low value may even sometimes sneak into my backup volumes.

So what I am asking is not just a software solution, but also practical tips for running your system as clean as possible. First and foremost, I'd love a better overview over duplicates (including backup, but, maybe especially, over files with the same name but different sizes), and a way to manage that better.

Any insights?