Suggestions for shrinking my file sizes

[Jing]

This is the spec of my current laptop.

System:    Kernel: 5.13.12-zen1-1-zen x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0 
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen root=UUID=8e775f0f-1ed0-43b7-8e05-8c1830cbceaa 
rw rootflags=subvol=@ loglevel=3 quiet splash 
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.4 tk: Qt 5.15.2 info: latte-dock wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM 
Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 81Y3 v: IdeaPad L3 15IML05 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
type: 10 v: IdeaPad L3 15IML05 serial: <filter> 
Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0J40688 WIN serial: <filter> UEFI: LENOVO v: EJCN25WW 
date: 05/21/2021 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 32.0 Wh (98.2%) condition: 32.6/36.0 Wh (90.5%) volts: 12.7 min: 11.2 
model: SMP L18M3PF2 type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: Unknown cycles: 32 
CPU:       Info: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-10110U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake note: check 
family: 6 model-id: 8E (142) stepping: C (12) microcode: EA cache: L2: 4 MiB 
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 20799 
Speed: 3168 MHz min/max: 400/4100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3168 2: 2956 3: 2809 4: 3709 
Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
Type: mds status: Not affected 
Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling 
Type: srbds mitigation: TSX disabled 
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel CometLake-U GT2 [UHD Graphics] vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 v: kernel 
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9b41 class-ID: 0300 
Device-2: NVIDIA GP108M [GeForce MX330] vendor: Lenovo driver: nvidia v: 470.63.01 
alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1d16 class-ID: 0302 
Device-3: Syntek Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-7:3 chip-ID: 174f:244e 
class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter> 
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: modesetting,nvidia 
unloaded: intel display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1594 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1013x420mm (39.9x16.5") s-diag: 1097mm (43.2") 
Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142 size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6") diag: 395mm (15.5") 
Monitor-2: HDMI-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 96 size: 510x287mm (20.1x11.3") diag: 585mm (23") 
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.1.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH-LP cAVS vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci_intel_cnl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:02c8 class-ID: 0403 
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.13.12-zen1-1-zen running: yes 
Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no 
Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no 
Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.33 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH-LP CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 5000 
bus-ID: 00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:02f0 class-ID: 0280 
IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter> 
Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 
v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200 
IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter> 
IF-ID-2: zthnho6wmh state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 
bus-ID: 1-10:4 chip-ID: 8087:0aaa class-ID: e001 
Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.17 TiB used: 314.05 GiB (26.2%) 
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Lenovo model: UMIS RPJTJ256MEE1OWX size: 238.47 GiB 
block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
rev: 2.0C0628 temp: 36.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10SPZX-08Z10 size: 931.51 GiB
block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400
serial: <filter> rev: 1A05 scheme: GPT
ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB model: USB DISK 2.0 size: 28.91 GiB block-size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: PMAP scheme: MBR
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 100 GiB size: 100 GiB (100.00%) used: 44.86 GiB (44.9%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 maj-min: 259:6
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 260 MiB size: 256 MiB (98.46%) used: 178.4 MiB (69.7%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 300 GiB size: 294.29 GiB (98.10%) used: 73.65 GiB (25.0%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/sda4 maj-min: 8:4
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 100 GiB size: 100 GiB (100.00%) used: 44.86 GiB (44.9%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 maj-min: 259:6
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 100 GiB size: 100 GiB (100.00%) used: 44.86 GiB (44.9%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 maj-min: 259:6
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 7.51 GiB used: 3.69 GiB (49.1%) priority: 100 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:      Processes: 295 Uptime: 1d 2h 55m wakeups: 41 Memory: 7.51 GiB used: 5.6 GiB (74.5%)
Init: systemd v: 249 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 12.0.1 Packages:
pacman: 1696 lib: 414 Shell: fish v: 3.3.1 default: Bash v: 5.1.8 running-in: konsole
inxi: 3.3.06

Because this laptop's performance cannot fulfil my need, I bought another laptop. The new laptop have Ryzen 7 5700U with integrated graphics, 16 GB RAM, and 512 GB SSD.

Here's the thing. I'm currently using 400GB+ of storage space on this laptop. But the new laptop only have 512GB of storage. I'm afraid that it will be not enough for me since I'm dual booting Windows 10 and Garuda.

I found that most of my storage are used by games and music files. So I tried to move music files into a USB drive, and uninstalling most of the game that I didn't play very often.

But I'm still worry about the chance that 512GB of storage won't be enough for me. So, how can I do to leaving more space for the new laptop?

If you read till here, thank you for your patience. And sorry for my bad English. Any suggestion will be appreciated.

[regularCoder]

Dude I have windows and garuda and arch and my own distro quad booted on a 216 gb ssd.I

[Naman]

First thing, you should remove all the unnecessary files/audio/games. You can still find most of them on internet. Just take some screenshots, in case you may think that you would need them latter. Most of the music files are generally useless to store, especially when they are downloaded from youtube.

Second, there are various compression techniques available, in case you would like to retain the files, but not need them at the moment. But compressing and extracting is a time consuming process. So, try to make it under 50gb at most. Also, make small packets of around 1GB with descriptive names, so that you can extract only the needed files in future. You can search on any search engine and choose the compression methods/ formats you like.

[Jing]

Okay, that's useful. After I remove some of the unnecessary files, I have my disk usage down to 300+ GB. I will keep searching for imformations about compressing, and keep trying my best to minimize my disk usage. Thank for the advises.

[sammiev]

The easiest way to make room is to kick Windows to the curb or buy a 2nd ssd for Linux and switch them out as required.

[dr460nf1r3]

Thanks to BTRFS, we have one option which might help:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/btrfs#Deduplication