Also note that you may have 'lots of space' but if you've got less than 5% left, it's reserved for root and won't help you. So don't only look at free space in GB, but also as a percentage. tune2fs will help fix that.
I think you have this slightly backwards, the 5% you're mentioning is already accounted for by 'df' (sorta). Assuming the disk is at 100% usage as reported by df, there really is 5% free for use by root. 95% in use implies 5% available to normal users and an extra 5% on top available only to root.
Regards, -- Dave Steinberg http://www.geekisp.com/ http://www.steinbergcomputing.com/
