What is eating my HDD space?

[ljmramst]

Hi all.
If you've seen my other post you'll know I'm struggling with an epg problem.
That means I've not yet used the box for any recordings, apart from one to check that the feature worked.

My other issue is the use of HDD space, I've just clicked on PVR now to check and it stands at 32% remaining. What's happening?
The only way to get it all back is to completely cut power to the box.

It's a 500gb drive, installed at purchase. I followed instructions for initialise and checked in vix / mount manager, it's mounted as: /media/hdd and ext4 R/W.
I set up swap file, menu/setup/vix/swap manager, select media/hdd, create swap file 256 mb. Activate, autostart and exit.

That's all I've done apart from trying to set up my epg's as explained in the other thread.

Elsewhere I've seen suggestions turning off 'timeshift' may cure this, others say not. Still, not an ideal solution and anyway what's going to happen to that space when I do start making recordings?
Any help or suggestions gratefully received, thanks.

 

[Andy_Hazza]

A swap file on the OS Mega. Seriously? Thats doing more harm than good I tell ya. Best thing to do is start a fresh. Setup as new. And without a SWAP FILE.


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[ljmramst]

Thanks Andy, as you can probably tell from this and my other thread I'm new to this and trying to learn by following instructions on forums, threads and videos all over the place.
I'm getting close but not quite there yet, appreciate the advice.

 

[Andy_Hazza]

Just take your time. It will seem daunting but you'll slowly get there. We've all been there. Anything you need to know, just shout up, and we'll try and guide you. [emoji4]


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[ccs]

I you're familiar with telnet, the command

find /media/hdd -type f -size +50000k -exec ls -lh {} \;

may tell you what's eating up your hdd.

 

[kokojnr]

This seems to be an "initial problem" with EDISION OS MEGA because i had exactly the same issue within a week of my purchase.
It seems like the receiver somehow struggles to correctly read the available HDD space

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[1999gtv]

Mine did the same initially I found going into setup/system/storage devices and running filesystem check sorted it eventually.

 

[speedygonzalez]

I am having exactly the same problem as the OP with my OS Mega. I bought it with a 1TB hdd from WoS a couple of weeks ago. I was not looking for the problem, but it was hard not to notice when hdd free space went from 99% to 33% after leaving it on for a few days, with just a few recordings.

I have found that:
1) huge hdd space loss will occur: a) with timeshift on, or b) when recording, or c) pausing a programme with the remote control even if timeshift has been switched off and no recording is on
2) directing timeshift or swap directories to a 16GB usb stick formatted in ext4 had no effect on rapid space loss; examining files/directories in the usb stick indicated that the redirections did work
3) reinitialising the hdd, again to ext4, has no effect
4) disabling swap, as Andy suggested above, has no effect
5) if timeshift is off, no recording is on, and I do not touch the pause button, i.e. just keeping the box on, it is fine and free disc space stays constant, for OpenVix 5.0.002 anyway
6) puttying 'ls -alR' on the hdd shows no file size that can explain the hdd space loss
7) puttying 'ls -alR | more' from root shows nothing of significant size either, except kcore in ./proc which is ~2GB
8) Recorded file sizes seem normal
9) running filesystem check (fsck) on the hdd, or restarting the box, are effective to return the lost space in full, but do not fix the problem

It would therefore seem timeshifting, recording or pausing a programme leaves huge orphan hdd space. Because it is not visible by 'ls -a' but is dealt with by fsck, it might be a system software issue? Help!

Cheers!

 

[birdman]

A swap file on the OS Mega. Seriously? Thats doing more harm than good I tell ya.

How can it do harm?
If you aren't running out of physical memory it won't be used, so won't be a problem. If you are running out of memory then you have a problem anyway.

 

[Andy_Hazza]

Harm in SLOWING the receiver down.


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[ljmramst]

Mine did the same initially I found going into setup/system/storage devices and running filesystem check sorted it eventually.

Tried doing that and I get the message Error:umount: can't unmount/media/hdd: Device or resource busy

 

[speedygonzalez]

Tried doing that and I get the message Error:umount: can't unmount/media/hdd: Device or resource busy

I was able to do a filesystem check on the hdd by ensuring a) swap file and timeshift directories were pointing to a mounted USB stick in ext4, and b) no programme recording was on. But there is no point in going through all the trouble - the problem of hdd space loss remains after the filesystem check in my experience, all it did was to reclaim the lost space until it gets gobbled up again through box use, and you can reclaim lost space easier by a restart.

Sorry I have never been here before so please forgive my ignorance, would somebody associated with WoS/Edision be exploring and addressing the issue now?

 

[1999gtv]

I have 2 folders on my hdd one named movie and another called timeshift and my recording path is media/hdd/movie, timeshift path is media/hdd/timeshift. This seems to differ from other peoples path and I wonder if this has any effect on my results. My hdd is correctly reported as approx 300 gb it is a 320 gb but once space for filesystem is taken into account 300gb is about right. Last night I recorded 2 programmes about 2 hours or so of hd and space dropped by 8gb. Wife watched first programme and deleted it and space went back up by 4gb again about right. Also as mentioned this was not happening before I ran fsck instead I had errors only showing 32 % of space, since running fsck 5 days ago no errors at all. Also I have not updated to Vix 5 yet and I am still on 4.2.030 if this has any bearing on results.

 

[speedygonzalez]

I have 2 folders on my hdd one named movie and another called timeshift and my recording path is media/hdd/movie, timeshift path is media/hdd/timeshift. This seems to differ from other peoples path and I wonder if this has any effect on my results. My hdd is correctly reported as approx 300 gb it is a 320 gb but once space for filesystem is taken into account 300gb is about right. Last night I recorded 2 programmes about 2 hours or so of hd and space dropped by 8gb. Wife watched first programme and deleted it and space went back up by 4gb again about right. Also as mentioned this was not happening before I ran fsck instead I had errors only showing 32 % of space, since running fsck 5 days ago no errors at all. Also I have not updated to Vix 5 yet and I am still on 4.2.030 if this has any bearing on results.

I was on 4.2.030, and had/have the same movie and timeshift directory structure as you do.

I wonder if you still have timeshift on (because I think it can increase the rate of hdd space loss dramatically), and I also wonder if you are still losing hdd space. To test the second conjecture, you could:
1) jot down the size of disc free space in Menu / Information / Device
2) observe the size of a sizeable recording that is to be deleted, either by looking up the size of a relevant .ts* file in hdd/movie/ using Filezilla, or through the Info button when pointing at the .ts file using the Dream-Explorer PlugIn under Menu / PlugIns.
3) delete the recording from Planner
4) wait 15 minutes, because it takes a few minutes for the system to release deleted file space
5) observe the size of disc free space again in Menu / Information / Device. If the difference is well accounted for by the file size observed in step 2, then you obviously have no disc space loss issue. Otherwise, you probably have.
6) You can further establish the extent of disc space loss by a Menu / Standby and Restart / Restart. If the disc freespace after the restart is more than what you have found in step 5, then again you are likely to have the disc freespace loss issue.

Cheers!

* the size of all the other files with the same name are tiny in comparison

 

[1999gtv]

Mine is fine and everything works as it should now, I was curious if the OP had the same structure on his hdd as mine and if not why are the folders not present.

 

[ljmramst]

Appreciate all the advice, thanks to speedygonzal for your posts and trying out all that, telnet & using PuTTY is all new to me and I haven't quite got my head round it yet, so while it might not have been a success it saved me a lot of trial & error.
Filezilla is also new to me but I've been trying to learn and I'm going to try and follow what you ask above. I'll set it to record something tonight and report back.

1999gtv I've disabled timeshift and today whilst trying to sort out my epg I've had no issues, prior to this I was getting as low as 32% without making any recordings.
I'm on 5.0.0002 and appear to only have 1 folder on my hdd (media/hdd) I had 2 yesterday with a bookmark? Has turning timeshift off got rid of this? As I've said I'm in uncharted waters here and really not got a clue what I'm on about.

 

[1999gtv]

Haven't got round to 5.0.002 yet as mine is working ok on vix 4.2.030 (don't want to break a good setup by updating when it isn't necessary). Speedygonzal has given you some good advice to follow it sounds quite daunting when you are new to these boxes but is not as bad as it sounds and becomes clearer as you actually do it. I have only been using E2 boxes for about 18 months and found everything difficult at first but once you get the hang of it you will find yourself doing it without any problem. The good people on this forum are always willing to help when you get stuck. I really am not sure why you are having this many issues with your hdd I am guessing your problem may be different to mine. As I mentioned I had initial issues but these have been resolved for me by doing the steps from a few posts back. I cannot remember if I created the folders myself using dream explorer downloaded from the plugins section or whether they were there already. I have just tried turning timeshift off and still have both folders. Give Speedygonzals suggestions a try just take you time and don't rush, I will do a full backup tonight and try 5.0.002 tomorrow to see if I get same issue as you.

 

[speedygonzalez]

Mine is fine and everything works as it should now, I was curious if the OP had the same structure on his hdd as mine and if not why are the folders not present.

I do hope sincerely that yours is working fine 1999gtv, because that might mean there is a relatively easy fix for many machines that are like mine, and are losing disc space like they are going out of fashion.

I wonder if you would mind doing me a favour...

Assuming that you have been recording and deleting programmes since the last Restart/reboot of the machine, if you go into Menu / Information / Devices and look up the Free space for /media/hdd, then restart the machine by Menu / Standby and Restart / Restart, then look for the same Free space figure, are the numbers the same before and after the restart?

I am asking because the fundamental symptom of the problem, as far as I can see, is that orphan disc space is created by timeshift, by recording, and by pressing the pause button on the remote (even if timeshift is off), and such orphan disc space is restored/reclaimed by a restart.

Another question if I may, when you said you ran fsck 5 days or so ago, did you run it from Menu / Setup / System / Storage devices / Filesystem check, or did you actually putty/telnet/etc. into the system and execute a fsck command?

Cheers!

 

[1999gtv]

Ok done as requested and hdd size is 312.37 gb ,free space 299.87 gb. After reboot hdd size is 312.37gb , free space is 303.58gb about 3.5gb more. Box has been running since 4.30 pm and 3 recordings have been done and 2 watched and deleted plus some pausing of live tv. Hope this helps

 

[1999gtv]

To add to previous post I will leave box in standby overnight and turn on when I get home from work tomorrow, record and delete some random stuff and make a note at each stage of space used and space available followed by another reboot and see if there are any major differences. just saw your edit and answer is via menu/setup/system/storage devices/ Filesystem check