# Expunge deleted data?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [March 1, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139 "2016-03-01T17:30:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@yahoo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yahoo)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139/1 "2016-03-01T17:30:14Z")
I deleted 6 indices (I used for learning) each is less than 2 MB, a month ago by:
`$ curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/logstash-*'`
they do not show up when
`http://127.0.0.1:9200/_cat/indices`
but the data folder still has them.
How to clean the data folder?
In the data folder:
there are all the stuff related to indices, with subfolders and plenty of files.
They are available in 4 nodes.
Each folder is 7-14 MB.
For example:
Here is the outcome of the
tree /f
for the 4th node
starting form
cluster/nodes/4/indices/Shakespeare/
```
-->1
-->index
segments_6
write.lock
_0.cfe
_0.cfs
_0.si
_1.cfe
_1.cfs
_1.si
_2.cfe
_2.cfs
_2.si
-->translog
translog-1.tlog
translog.ckp
-->_state
state-0.st
-->2
-->index
segments_5
write.lock
_0.cfe
_0.cfs
_0.si
_1.cfe
_1.cfs
_1.si
_2.cfe
_2.cfs
_2.si
-->translog
translog-1.tlog
translog.ckp
-->_state
state-0.st
-->_state
state-1.st
```
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139/2 "2016-03-01T21:12:13Z")
That's unusual, what's the timestamp on those dir/files?
---
### Author:  [@yahoo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yahoo)
#### Post date: [March 1, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139/3 "2016-03-01T22:02:56Z")
1/29/2016
---
### Author:  [@yahoo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yahoo)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139/4 "2016-03-03T17:35:52Z")
@warkolm
The time stamp on the files are
1/29/2016
How long do I have to wait till be able to get the disk space back?
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139/5 "2016-03-03T23:46:36Z")
It should release it immediately, so this is odd.
Do you have another index you can delete to see if the files are removed?
---
### Author:  [@yahoo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yahoo)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139/6 "2016-03-05T21:34:09Z")
Thank you.
I wasted too much time on this.
I deleted the whole thing and started from scratch.
So far no problems in expunging the deleted data in the re-installation.
Best regards
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/expunge-deleted-data/43139/7 "2017-07-05T23:10:57Z")