# What is the best percent for overhead space?

**URL:** <https://forum.storj.io/t/what-is-the-best-percent-for-overhead-space/21278>\
**Category:** FAQ\
**Tags:** storage\
**Created:** [February 4, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/what-is-the-best-percent-for-overhead-space/21278 "2023-02-04T22:11:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![snorkel](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/letter_avatar/snorkel/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@snorkel](https://forum.storj.io/u/snorkel)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/what-is-the-best-percent-for-overhead-space/21278/1 "2023-02-04T22:11:06Z")

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I am wondering if it makes sense to stick with the recommended 10% free space for overhead even for bigger drives. For 20 TB HDD you will keep 2 TB unused. Is it realy necessary? Wouldn’t something like 500 GB be enough?  
Maybe someone with filled up drives can give some input… What do you use and how big is your drive?  
I run Synology NASes and the DSM creates copies of itself on each installed drive, so it takes like 200GB I believe on each. Just to be safe I allocate for Storj 14TB on 16TB drives. Is 1.8TB to much?

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**Author:** ![Toyoo](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/toyoo/32/1126_2.png) [@Toyoo](https://forum.storj.io/u/Toyoo)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 10:39pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/what-is-the-best-percent-for-overhead-space/21278/2 "2023-02-04T22:39:26Z")

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I had it very close, below 5 GB of free space on a 5.5TB volume. That was, uh, kinda an accident. Fragmentation started showing up, but except for that, it was working well. Though given the code is still young, I wouldn’t recommend it either, bugs may happen.