RedHat Linux Space Usage Problem

Question

I recently downloaded something on my Redhat Linux computer, and it told me I was out of space. I checked my disk usage, and it says I've used 100% of my folder, but as you can see I still have almost 900Gb available. How can I reallocate some of that space to my user?

Here is a screenshot of my disk usage: http://i.imgur.com/o2CzK.png

I know this may be a basic question, but I can't find a way to give myself more space. Also, I have root access.

Please let me know if anything else is needed.

EDIT: output of df -h

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
                      901G  3.5G  852G   1% /
tmpfs                 1.9G  1.2M  1.9G   1% /dev/shm
/dev/sda3             194M   31M  154M  17% /boot
/dev/sda5             4.0G  3.7G  105M  98% /home

Answer 1

You have a tiny /home partition (where your home directory is) and a huge system (/, root) partition.

You can create a directory for yourself outside /home, for example /LARGE/sortinghat, and create a symbolic link in your home directory:

ln -s /LARGE/sortinghat/LARGE ~/LARGE

Put all your large files under ~/LARGE, and keep your most critical files in /home. This kind of setup is cumbersome, but can be useful if you have different backup policies for /home (small, critical data, often backed up) and /LARGE (huge, less critical data, backed up occasionally).

Alternatively, move /home to the root partition. This is best done from a live CD/USB as moving your home directory while you're logged in is delicate at best. You might take this opportunity to remove the /home partition and enlarge the root partition by that much:

1. Make /dev/sda5 an LVM physical volume (pvcreate).
2. Add it to the VolGroup00 volume group (vgextend).
3. Enlarge the LogVol00 logical volume (lvextend).
4. Enlarge the filesystem on it (resize2fs)).

Alternatively, shrink / and enlarge /home. You can't shrink a mounted filesystem, so boot from a live CD/USB.

1. Shrink the filesystem (resize2fs).
2. Shrink the logical volume (lvreduce).
3. Create a new logical volume in the free space (lvcreate).
4. Create a filesystem on the new logical volume (mke2fs).
5. Move your data from the existing home partition to the new filesystem.
6. Turn /dev/sda5 into an LVM physical volume and add it to the VolGroup00 volume group (pvcreate, vgextend).
7. Add the new space to one of the existing logical volumes (lvextend) and extend the filesystem on it (resize2fs).

Answer 2

Disk Usage Analizer on your screenshot shows only data for your home directory. Home is treated as 100% and below that you can see size of directories in your home with percentage data.

For example ~/Desktop directory is 55.1% of your home directory.

Using icons on the top of application window you can analyze another directories like /mnt or just /.