This chapter is for everyone.

Storage Management

Because LLMs can be several gigabytes in size, managing disk space is essential for a stable NeuralDrive experience. All models are stored on the persistent partition of your drive.

Checking Available Space

You can monitor your disk usage through three primary interfaces:

  1. TUI Dashboard: The main screen shows current disk usage as a percentage and in GB.
  2. Web System Panel: The Open WebUI administration area provides a graphical view of storage consumption.
  3. Command Line: You can run the following command from any terminal to see exactly how much space remains on the persistence partition: 
    df -h /var/lib/neuraldrive

Storage Thresholds

NeuralDrive monitors storage levels and will alert you when space is running low.

  • 80% Usage (Warning): A warning badge appears in the TUI and web interface. You should consider deleting unused models.
  • 90% Usage (Critical): System performance may degrade. Urgent action is required to free space.
  • 95% Usage (Blocked): Downloads are automatically blocked to prevent the system from becoming unresponsive.

Deleting Models

If you need to free up space, you can delete models that are no longer in use.

  • TUI: Navigate to the Models screen (M), highlight a model, and press D to delete it.
  • Web UI: Go to the Models page and use the delete icon next to the model name.
  • CLI: Run ollama rm <model_name>.

Deleting a model removes both its weights (blobs) and metadata (manifests) from /var/lib/neuraldrive/models/.

Hardware Recommendations for Storage

For the best experience, we recommend using a USB drive with at least 128GB of capacity. This allows you to store multiple large models (like llama3.1:8b and codestral:latest) while still having room for logs and document storage.

If you find that 128GB is insufficient, you can reinstall NeuralDrive on a larger drive or a high-speed external SSD for even more storage capacity.