GPT Partition - Used Space immediately after creating partition

Question

I wanted to try out the new GPT system, and used it to partition my new HDD, with the partitions themselves using ext4. For some reason, about 1-2% of the space in each partition is already shown as used, both in df and gparted. Currently the only content of the partitions is the lost+found folder which occupies all of 16K.

Is there a reason for this? Can this be fixed? Or is this just the space used by the file table (or equivalent)?

Edit: Is this more related ext4 than GPT? I found this just now, ext4: How to account for the filesystem space?

Perhaps tune2fs is what you're looking for, especially the -m flag. — schaiba, Feb 20 '13 at 13:51
or of http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/13547/ext4-how-to-account-for-the-filesystem-space/13551#13551 — Gilles 'SO- stop being evil', Feb 21 '13 at 00:38

h3rrmiller · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-20T14:39:00.900

2

1-5% is reserved for root and as overhead for the filesystem. It is NORMAL. This is done is to leave root that 1-5% so if the users on the machine fill the disk up, critical system processes and the root user still have a small chunk to play with. As jordanm pointed out, the reserved space is also used to reduce filesystem fragmentation.

You can use tune2fs -m 1.0 /dev/sda2 to lower the default 5% to 1%. Please note that it is not recommended to use -m 0 but still can be done.

edited Feb 20 '13 at 14:39

answered Feb 20 '13 at 14:25

h3rrmiller

13,235

I think you are mixing up things. The reserved space is proper disk space reserved to the UID 0, whereas the file system structures are meta-data and not normally shown. – 0xC0000022L Feb 20 '13 at 14:30
Was in the process of editing my answer, thanks though. – h3rrmiller Feb 20 '13 at 14:32
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The reserved space is also used to reduce fragmentation. – jordanm Feb 20 '13 at 14:33

GPT Partition - Used Space immediately after creating partition

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