Low disk space warning.

[#1]

I use a dual booting system Linux/Windows 7.
I Assumed (wrongly) that the space available would be allocated into to equal parts for both operating systems but linux only reserved 7 GB for itself out of the 250 GB with windows getting most of it.
I also assumed I could change the allocated space using Gparted but for some reason it will not let me increase that section with linux on it the box to increase the size is blanked out.
The 250 GB is on a SSD so not sure if that is relevant.
Can anyone give me some simple advice where to go from here other than to do a complete reinstall.
Linux Mint 17.1
Thank you

[#2]

You need to do two things:-
1. For Windows reduce the size of the file system (using Windows).
Boot into Linux,
2. Use gparted to reduce the Windows partition size.
3. Use gparted to extend the size of the Linux partition.
4. Use commands like

sudo resize2fs /dev/sdxy

where x=a,b,c... depending on the drive and y=1,2,3 etc depending on the drive.
You will need to unmount the partition for that last two steps.
If you want to increase the size of your root partition you need to that last step from a live CD or USB boot.

[#3]

Best option.
Backup your home folder stuff, if you have anything saved there. Backup your app choices.
Use M$ to defrag the M$ disk and then boot from a live cd.
delete the Linux partition, resize the M$ partition to leave the amount you want Linux to use, 50-100Gb is more than enough usually.
Run the install and chose custom install.
Partition the disk like this
[M$ partition <M$>][Linux partition <root 20Gb><Home NNGb><swap 1Gb>]
So if you have 70Gb free then a 20Gb root (/) and then a 49Gb /home and a 1Gb swap
you can play with the sizes until you press the apply button in gparted.
Restore you /home from the backup and restore your app choices.
2nd Option:
boot to M$
run a defrag
reboot
boot from a live cd
run gparted
decrease the size of the M$ partition to leave the amount want Linux to use at the end.
apply
move the Linux partition(s) down to the new starting point
apply
move/delete the swap partition
If you don't have a /home partition then just extend the Linux partition to end of the unused space
If you have a /home partition
move it up to create a new space below to allow the / to expand in to the space *
apply
extend the / partition
apply
extend the /home partition to the end of the unused space *
apply
*in either case leave 1Gb at the end for the swap partition
create the swap partition of 1Gb.
Hope that makes sense.

[#4]

Thanks for the responses, more complicated than I thought.
Is there not some problem using defragmentation on a SSD ?

[#5]

As a short term solution is there any stuff I can safely get rid of in Linux mint 17.1 without it affecting other program's ?

[#6]

Quote from: gleneagles

Is there not some problem using defragmentation on a SSD ?

another can of worms windows pretty much takes care of it - roughly windows does maintenance monthly on your SSD to keep it sorted.
don't run a separate defrag on it.

[#7]

Quote from: gleneagles

As a short term solution is there any stuff I can safely get rid of in Linux mint 17.1 without it affecting other program's ?

If you have multiple kernels installed you can remove older ones

$ dpkg -l | grep linux-image
ii  linux-image-3.10-2-amd64                                    3.10.5-1                          amd64        Linux 3.10 for 64-bit PCs
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64                                   3.2.32-1                          amd64        Linux 3.2 for 64-bit PCs
$ sudo apt-get purge linux-image-3.2.0-4-amd64

If you don't regularly do so

$ sudo apt-get clean

will likely free up a lot of space

[#8]

A problem you may have is Win7 having put "unmoveable" items that stop the partition being resized to your needs by MS windows tools   I had a laptop with Win7 and it would not reduce the partition below 400GB (with 350GB of unused space between the two blocks of files) - the simple solution was to do a full backup, delete the partition, create a new partition of the desired size and restore the backup
Phil

[#9]

Quote from: gleneagles

As a short term solution is there any stuff I can safely get rid of in Linux mint 17.1 without it affecting other program's ?

Depends on what you want to do with it.
You can remove LibreOffice/Gimp/etc.
Not being a M$ user I wasn't aware that they had entered the 21Cent and did auto defrag on NTFS. I still say option 1 is your easiest way. Mint backup will backup your installed apps selection and your data and you restore when you have created some space, since you only installed to a 7Gb partition I doubt your backup would be very large.

[#10]

Try

sudo apt-get clean

[#11]

Quote from: gleneagles

Thanks for the responses, more complicated than I thought. Is there not some problem using defragmentation on a SSD ?

SSD's should never be defraged, it serves no useful purpose,indeed you may well shorten the life of the SSD.  

[#12]

Quote from: Den1

it serves no useful purpose

When there is a file stuck at the end of a partition then that is the only real use of defrag, other than the fact that it can speed up when a large file has been split over lots of smaller spaces. I assume this is STILL the case in NTFS.
Maybe the original SSD's had issues with no of read/writes but the new ones are magnitudes better at it.

[#13]

The reason you should never defrag a SSD is that physical data placement on an SSD is handled solely by the SSD's firmware, and what it reports to Windows is NOT how the data is actually stored on the SSD.
This means that the physical data placement a defragger shows in it's fancy sector chart has nothing to do with reality. The data is NOT where Windows thinks it is, and Windows has no control over where the data is actually placed.
To even out usage on its internal memory chips SSD firmware intentionally splits data up across all of the SSD's memory chips, and it also moves data around on these chips when it isn't busy reading or writing (in an attempt to even out chip usage.)
Windows never sees any of this, so if you do a defrag Windows will simply cause a whole bunch of needless I/O to the SSD and this will do nothing except decrease the useful life of the SSD. 
 

[#14]

I would persist with gparted and not faff around with wrestling with the underlying commands as you run the risk of data loss in doing so. Gparted automates the process and, crucially, is fully aware of all the nuances of partition resizing and knows exactly what it's doing!
Is the partition that you want to grow mounted? It needs to be unmounted first, and you can't do that if it is actively being used which presumably it is. To work round this download a gparted liveCD and boot from that then all partitions will be accessible.
A screenshot of gparted would be helpful then we can be precise with what needs doing and why.

[#15]

Many thanks for the responses, I have deleted a few programs along with using sudo apt-get clean and the low disk warning message no longer appears (for now)
I Will use windows to reduce the size of the partition and then use gparted to expand the linux partition as suggested.