I have a Deskstar 80GB PATA drive with a 40GB Partition (sdb4) which serves as a store for BackupPC which is backing up 2 machines.

Currently File, Properties in Konqueror tells me that I have 51GB of files on this partition and 1.5GB free!

I have copied all the files (261,000) to a new hard disc (also a Deskstar 80GB) and the file size is still shown as 51Gb. This time however the free space indication seems correct.

Can I assume that there is an error somewhere? Is it likely to prove fatal? Can anybody suggest a fix short of deleting everything and starting a new set of backups?

Depending on file & cluster sizing and the amount reserved for root, both might be right.

If you're suspicious, try du -sh lost+found/ on the drive.

I tried du -sh lost+found/.

It came back with 16K.

What's puzzling me is that I have 51GB on a 40MB partition!

OK, I'd fill lost+found. Unmount it
&
e2fsck -fcvy /dev/whatever