Discrepancy between displayed file space usage and actual file size

[Unraid_Noob]

Hi,

 

I just noticed that several files use space on my disks although these files are "empty". When I say "empty files" I mean files with a size of 0 bit. But even if these files are zero bit in size they still use space on the disk.

If I run ncdu or df -h the actual space is used but when I look at the different file there are zero bit in size.

I put several screenshots to explain this strange behavior.

Is there any logical explanation to that?

 

Thank you for your help.

[Frank1940]

As I remember, when a file is created, two things happen.  First, an entry is created in the File table which contains such information as the name of file and, second, the location of the first sector where the data is to be stored.  So even if the file has no data, that sector is still allocated and will be until you delete the file.

[Unraid_Noob]

Thank you for your reply.

It indeed was my problem.

I scripted something to delete all the file with 0 byte in size and recovered 30TB!

I am quite happy I noticed this by accident.

 

Thanks again for your help