Question “What is taking up so much space on my hard drive?” sometimes it can confuse you. It would seem that all the weighty folders with documents, music, films, as well as installed programs are known to us, but... When we click on the “Properties” of the hard drive and look at the ratio of full and occupied space, we understand that there is an obvious inconsistency - somewhere Several (or maybe a dozen or two) gigabytes of our precious disk space have gone missing.
In such cases, you can audit the contents of user profiles, check hidden system files and folders, the size of the paging file (Pagefile.sys), the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys), the System Volume Information folder, which stores system restore checkpoints, and run the standard utility Windows – “Disk Cleanup” and so on. But these manipulations are not always able to shed light on the truth.
This entry lists several programs whose function is to analyze the structure and volume of information that is stored on the computer's hard drive. For me personally, it is important that these programs are free, easy to use, and most importantly, provide reliable information. I suggest we take a closer look at the programs that meet the specified conditions.
SpaceSniffer is a portable, free program that helps you understand the folder and file structure of your hard drive. SpaceSniffer's visualization diagram will clearly show you where large folders and files are located on your devices. The area of each rectangle is proportional to the size of that file. You can double click on any sector to get more detailed information about it. If you are looking for specific file types, such as JPG files, or files older than a year, use the “Filter” option to select the conditions you specify.
The program has many settings, but its interface is in English. The information it produces seemed to me not very convenient for visual perception and, as a consequence, for evaluating it. But in principle, it works quickly and efficiently. In any case, once you get used to it and delve into the settings, it’s quite possible to use it.
WinDirStat collects information from the selected disk and presents it in three views. A directory list, which resembles the Windows Explorer tree structure, appears in the top left corner and sorts files and folders by size. The extended list that appears in the upper right corner shows statistics about different file types. The file map is located at the bottom of the WinDirStat window. Each colored rectangle represents a file or directory. The area of each rectangle is proportional to the size of the files or subtrees.
The program is not portable, but it has a Russian-language interface. I didn’t delve too deeply into its settings, but one nuance immediately caught my eye - the System Volume Information folder, according to the program, is empty. In fact, this is not the case, System Restore is enabled and a little over 3 GB is currently used for it. So the program lied.
TreeSize Free
Not portable, choice of two languages: German and English. Microsoft certified. Allows you to launch the program in the usual way or from the context menu of a folder or drive. This is a very convenient opportunity, in my opinion. The program shows you the size of the selected folder, including subfolders. The results are presented in a Windows Explorer tree view, so you can expand the selected folder or drive and navigate to the file at each level. To analyze hidden system folders, the program asked to restart the PC.
Disktective is a free, portable utility that reports the actual size of directories and the distribution of subdirectories and files within them. The selected folder or drive is analyzed and the result is displayed in the form of a tree and chart. The interface is English, information collection is fast.
The interface is English, not portable. DiskSavvy is a fast and easy-to-use disk space analyzer that allows you to monitor disk space usage on hard drives, network drives, and NAS servers. The main window shows the percentage of disk space used by each directory and file. You can also easily view pie charts that show results in graphical format. Has a large number of settings.
DiskSavvy is available as a free version, as well as a full, Pro version that provides additional features and technical support. The free version allows you to scan a maximum of 500,000 files, with a maximum hard drive capacity of 2 TB. It supports long file names, unicode file names, and allows you to copy, move, and delete files directly within the program. Cool program, I liked it.
For each selected folder or drive, GetFoldersize displays the total size of all files in that folder or drive, as well as the number of files and their attachments. You can use GetFoldersize to scan an unlimited number of files and folders on internal and external hard drives, DVDs, and network share drives. This program supports long file and folder names and unicode characters and has the ability to display file sizes in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes. GetFoldersize allows you to print a folder tree and save the information to a text file.
GetFoldersize is available in both portable and installable versions, so you can carry it with you on a flash drive or external USB drive. However, if you install GetFoldersize, all its features will be added with the option to launch from the context menu in Windows Explorer, which will allow you to start scanning the volume of a folder or drive by right-clicking on it. The interface is English, there is a good selection of settings.
RidNacs is a fast disk space analyzer that scans local drives, network drives or individual directories, displaying the results in a tree and percentage histogram. You can save scan results in several formats (.TXT, .CSV, .HTML, or .XML). Files can be opened and deleted directly in RidNacs. During installation, you can add the option to run the program in the Windows Explorer context menu. When you scan a folder, it is added to the list of favorite drives. You can also change the appearance of the histogram by installing special skins. The program is not portable; it has 2 interface languages - English and German. She could not analyze some folders, as can be seen in the screenshot.
Portable Scanner program shows a pie chart with concentric rings to show the space usage of your hard drive, external hard drive, network drive. Moving the mouse over the segments in the diagram allows you to display the full path to the object at the top of the window, as well as the size of the directories and the number of files in the directory. Right-clicking on a segment provides additional options. It is possible to delete selected directories to the Trash directly from the program. The archive with the program contains 2 reg files, one of which is used to add the scanner to the Windows Explorer context menu, and the other to remove it.
I liked Free Disk Analyzer more than all other programs. During the installation process, you are offered a choice of 5 languages, Russian is present. The free disk analyzer displays drives on the left side of the window, similar to Windows Explorer, allowing you to quickly navigate to the desired folder or file. The right side of the window displays all subfolders and files in the selected folder or disk, the size and percentage of disk space that the folder or file uses. Tabs at the bottom of the window allow you to quickly select and view your largest files or folders. You can manage your files directly within the program, just like in Windows Explorer. Among the additional features, it is worth noting the launch of the program uninstaller, as well as the settings menu, which allows you to filter only certain files:
If you have previously had problems with “losing” disk space, tell us how and with the help of what programs (or actions) you solved them.
Lack of free space on your hard drive is a constant problem. With the purchase of a more capacious medium, this problem is not solved, but only worsened: the more information accumulates, the more difficult it is to control it and at the same time maintain a certain conventional order.
There are many utilities for searching for duplicates, outdated and other unnecessary files, but disk servicing does not eliminate the need to independently “sort out the rubble.” These files, as often happens, are stored in folders of various nesting levels. Using file manager tools for searches is one option. By the way, even standard Explorer has a filter and search. However, there are more efficient, comprehensive solutions for analyzing disk space. Typically they include features such as:
- Scan disks and directories
- Data visualization: display file structure as a chart, graph or map
- Advanced statistics and their export
- Search for duplicates, temporary files
- Filters and advanced search
- Additional tools
Today's guide participants are predominantly free programs. The exceptions are FolderSizes and TreeSize, although the latter also offers a free version in the Free edition. The resulting list of participants looks like this:
- TreeSize
- Scanner
- WinDirStat
- Space Sniffer
- JDiskReport
- Xinorbis
- FolderSizes
TreeSize Pro
TreeSize is a utility for finding files that waste disk space. Includes both information functions (visualization, statistics, export) and service functions: search for duplicates, outdated files, etc.
In the left panel of the TreeSize window there is a disk selection menu and a directory tree where navigation and selection of the scan source is carried out.
The results are displayed on the right side of the window, consisting of tabs. In the Chart section, a diagram is available from which you can find out the percentage of directories within the selected source. It is also easy to change the display of data in the form of graphs or maps. Detailed information about the directory (amount of data, space occupied, etc.) is available in the Details tab. Extensions - distribution of data according to their content: video, graphics, text and others. In Age of files - information about the age of files. In addition, it will be useful to analyze the chronology of disk filling (History). All data is available for export in XLS, CSV, HTML, TXT and other formats.
Top 100 contains a list of the largest files on the disk. The accompanying information in the columns of the table allows you to find out the date of the last access or creation of the file - this will help you decide whether to delete or leave the file.
No less interesting in TreeSize are the search (File Search menu). You can use all data types (All Search Types): this, in particular, includes searching for outdated, temporary files, and duplicates. The advantage of searching through TreeSize is undeniable: the program is multi-threaded, works over the network, and supports templates.
Alas, the free (essentially trial) version of TreeSize is significantly inferior to the paid version: multithreading, advanced search, visualization and many other important functions are not supported.
Summary. TreeSize Pro perfectly complements the capabilities of any file manager, allowing you to thoroughly analyze the occupied disk space and directories. A well-customizable interface and search, visualization, export - a standard set included.
[+] Functionality
[+] Advanced file search
[+] Fast multi-threaded scanning
[+] Additional tools
Scanner
Scanner is a free utility for analyzing the contents of your hard drive. No settings, a minimum of options - nevertheless, Scanner is a completely functional solution.
In the left part of the window, you can select a disk for analysis; you can also get information in existing files on all disks using the “Total” button in the lower left corner.
In the center is a pie chart that displays the file structure in segments. Segments, as is easy to note, have several levels of nesting and different colors. When you hover the cursor over a certain area of the diagram, information about the number, size of files, and their location is available. You can move to the directory by clicking on it, or perform operations with the file through the context menu.
Summary. The program will be useful for a quick visual analysis of occupied disk space. As for the available operations with files and directories, they are only sufficient to delete and open files. In other words, you won’t be able to use Scanner as a file manager (with search, display modes, statistics).
[+] Ease of use, intuitiveness
[−] Minimum number of file operations
WinDirStat
WinDirStat is a free utility for analyzing and cleaning your hard drive from unnecessary files.
The program scans the specified sources (directories or local drives) and provides information for analysis in an easy-to-read format. The directory structure is displayed in the form of multi-colored segments of different sizes, depending on the space occupied, at the bottom of the WinDirStat window. The table of color correspondence to the file type is in the upper right corner.
This structure representation has its drawbacks: for example, you cannot find out the file size when hovering, there are no marks. Therefore, in the case of WinDirStat, there is a lack of alternative visualization methods such as graph and chart.
By clicking on a segment, you can get detailed information about the corresponding file and its location. Standard commands are available for files, such as deleting (to the Recycle Bin or permanently), viewing properties, copying the path, and others. In the “Cleaning” section of the program settings, you can create custom actions that allow you to add up to 10 operations from the command line: deleting files, archiving, recursive deleting, and others.
In general, almost all WinDirStat settings come down to design, display of the structure and list of directories. There are no additional utilities, tools for reporting, statistics, or search provided here.
Summary. WinDirStat provides good customization options, but the lack of additional tools and display modes significantly limits the program's use.
[+] Selective scanning
[+] Command line support
[−] One file display mode
[−] Lack of detailed statistics and reporting
SpaceSniffer
SpaceSniffer is a free utility with a fully customizable interface and data display mode in the form of a map. Compared to similar solutions, notable features include multi-threading, search (including network search), and NTFS support.
For processing, you can select not only a disk from the list, but also a directory by specifying the path in the Path line. As a result of scanning, a map is formed in the form of blocks. The level of nesting can be adjusted using the Less/More Detail buttons - accordingly, the detail is reduced or increased. By clicking on a block, you can view its contents without going to the catalog. Navigating deeper through catalogs is no less convenient. There are no additional display modes in SpaceSniffer, but you can customize the design to your liking through the main settings (Edit - Configure).
Statistics functions are presented modestly. If desired, you can export to a text file: summary information, a list of files, as well as files grouped into folders. Interestingly, reports can be created using templates.
Additional features include tags and a filter. Filtering is carried out using the specified mask; the syntax is described in the Filtering help section. You can search by size, folder name, tags, attributes and other data. Tags allow you to make selections from data for subsequent filtering and batch operations. They can be thought of as temporary bookmarks within a session.
Summary. SpaceSniffer does not stand out for its wide functionality, but it attracts with its speed of operation, quite convenient display of data in the form of a map and additional tools, such as a filter and tags.
[+] Multi-window interface
[+] Integration with Explorer
[+] Filters and tags
[−] No search
JDiskReport
The free cross-platform utility JdiskReport analyzes which files take up the most disk space. In addition, the program provides statistics on the distribution of data, which can be viewed in the form of graphs and charts.
By selecting a directory or drive to scan, the user can view the collected information or save the result as a snapshot for later opening. This is relevant when constantly working with large volumes of data.
Statistics are divided into tabs: Size, Top 50, Size Dist, Modified and Types. The Size section shows the ratio of files in the selected source. There are several display modes to choose from: 2 types of charts, graph and table. Top 50 contains a list of the largest, oldest and newest files - potential “candidates” for deletion. The Size Dist, Modified and Types sections allow you to view the distribution of files by their size, modification date and type, respectively.
On the one hand, the statistics really give food for thought, on the other hand, navigation through files and sample directories is not thought out in JdiskReport. That is, any file operations are not available, there is only the “Open Explorer...” item in the context menu. There is no export, except that the file table and related information can be copied to the clipboard.
The program settings are mainly responsible for the interface. There are plenty of design themes, but, say, there are no options for displaying columns or a directory tree.
Summary. JdiskReport outperforms Scanner and WinDirStat due to file distribution statistics. But there are also weaknesses - first of all, there are no operations with files and directories.
[+] Statistics
[−] No export
[−] Non-functional context menu
Xinorbis
Xinorbis is a data analyzer on your hard drive with the ability to view statistics in the form of tables, charts and graphs. The program supports scanning on various sources: hard drives, removable media, local network, FireWire, etc.
When selecting a scan source, you can specify multiple paths, include and exclude items, and add favorites. The scan results are displayed in the form of a summary: this information will help you quickly determine the largest file or directory, familiarize yourself with the distribution of data by type, etc.
Detailed information is collected in the Folder properties section of the Tasks section. Data can be viewed in the form of custom graphs, charts, and structured by data type or file extension. Information about the age of data (Dates), chronology (History), and occupied size (Folders) is available. The Top 101 section contains a list of not only the largest and smallest files. The file table displays properties such as creation, modification, and last access dates.
The navigator context menu in Xinorbis is more than functional: it not only contains standard Explorer commands, but also provides for export, archiving, Hex editing, and checksum generation.
The Advanced section contains tools such as searching for duplicates by name and size. Other teams are also expanding their search capabilities. The most interesting section is Folder Detail, which is a filter based on a number of parameters: text, size, file attributes, owner, category.
An important advantage of Xinorbis is customizable reports in HTML, CSV, XML and other formats. As a result, it takes just one click to create a file.
Summary. In Xinorbis, it is most difficult to find shortcomings, since all the standard capabilities of a file analyzer are taken into account: from creating diagrams to exporting reports.
[+] Reporting
[+] Filter and search
[+] Flexible configuration and functionality
FolderSizes
FolderSizes is a program for scanning and analyzing disk space with the ability to export results as a report. Includes tools for searching files by multiple criteria: size, owner, age, etc.
The FolderSizes interface consists of several panels (navigator, drive list, graphs, address bar), as well as a ribbon divided into tabs. The main section is Home, where basic tools for analysis, export and other operations are available.
In the address bar you can specify not only the standard path, but also a server or NAS devices, network and removable media (Analyze path(s) option). The file panel is flexibly customizable, columns are easy to hide or add additional ones. Scan results can be viewed as graphs, charts, or a map in the Bar Graph area. Additional options related to displaying information in panels are available in the Graph tab.
To create reports, use the File Reports tool, which searches based on specified criteria and displays detailed information in a human-readable format. Report export is available in HTML, PDF, XML, CSV, TXT and other formats, including graphic ones. FolderSizes can be easily linked to a scheduler to automatically generate scheduled reports.
In addition to standard reporting functions, FolderSizes offers trend analysis. The Trend Analyzer tool is designed for this purpose; it allows you to familiarize yourself with changes in size, number of files, and other criteria.
Filter and search with rule support, built-in archiver, command line - the capabilities of FolderSizes can be listed further. The functionality of the program is unrivaled.
Summary. FolderSizes pleases with the presence of all the tools necessary for analysis, a user-friendly interface, and additional features that are not available in other programs (for example, trend analysis and archiver). As a result, it will be interesting for study by a wide audience.
[+] Fully customizable interface
[+] Trend analysis tool
[+] Convenient navigation through files and directories
[+] Filter and search
Pivot table
| Program | TreeSize Pro | Scanner | WinDirStat | SpaceSniffer | JDiskReport | Xinorbis | FolderSizes |
| Developer | JAM Software | Steffen Gerlach | Bernhard Seifert, Oliver Schneider | Uderzo Umberto | Jgoodies | Maximum Octopus | Key Metric Software, LLC. |
| License | Shareware ($52.95) | Freeware | Freeware | Freeware | Freeware | Freeware | Shareware ($55) |
| Localization in Russian | − | + | + | − | − | − | − |
| Visualization | Diagram, graph, map | Diagram | Map | Map | Diagram, graph | Diagram, graph | Diagram, graph, map |
| Export | XML, XLS, TXT, CSV, etc. | − | − | TXT | − | HTML, CSV, TXT, Tree, XML | HTML, XML, CSV, TXT, PDF |
| Search | + | − | − | − | − | + | + |
| Search for duplicates, temporary files | + | − | − | − | − | + | + |
| File distribution statistics | + | − | − | − | + | + | + |
| Scheduler | + | − | − | − | − | − | + |
| NTFS functions | + | − | − | + | − | − | + |
| Network support | + | − | − | − | − | + | + |
| Multi-threaded scanning | + | − | − | + | − | − | + |
C reads that there must be at least free space on the system partition of the disk 15%
from its full volume so that the Windows system can function fully - without freezes and slowdowns. Nowadays new hard drives can rarely be found with a capacity less 500 GB, therefore, when dividing the hard drive into partitions, you should not infringe on the system.
The system partition can safely be given order 100 GB. This volume is more than enough for the needs of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10, without the need to constantly clean folders "Temp" and limit the system in space to create restore points.
How to find out which files are taking up a lot of space on your computer's disk?
But if you store user files on the system disk - huge music collections, HD videos, voluminous software distributions - or install modern resource-intensive games on the system disk, over time even 100 GB may not be enough. If Windows displays a message about not enough space on the system disk, it’s time (following cleaning the folders "Temp", of course) analyze the occupied disk space of the computer.
You can clean your computer by clearing the disk of unnecessary files using Windows Explorer or a file manager. But this is an effective method under one condition - if it is definitely known where and what kind of heavy files can clutter up the system disk space. Otherwise, it is better to resort to the help of special programs - disk space analyzers. This type of program scans the computer's disks and presents the user with data about all the files he has in a convenient visual and tabular display. Popular disk space analyzers include programs such as: WinDirStat, Scanner, TreeSize Pro. Recently, you can find files on your computer that are wasting disk space using the popular system cleaning program -.
Many people know the free CCleaner program as an effective tool for cleaning temporary files, Internet cache, system registry and other system junk. WITH 5th version of the CCleaner program has changed somewhat in appearance, and now it matches the design Metro (Modern UI) Windows 8/8.1. But the changes in CCleaner affected not only the appearance of the program; the popular cleaner now has functions for analyzing disk space and searching for duplicate files.
Disk analysis using CCleaner
The disk analysis functionality in CCleaner, by and large, is in no way inferior to similar capabilities that are implemented in individual programs, in particular in those mentioned above. In CCleaner, you can get a graphical and informational report on the use of computer disk partitions - both system and non-system. CCleaner presents the files on your computer according to their individual categories - video, music, pictures, documents, archives, email, other files.
In the program window, select the section "Service" and go to the tab "Disk Analysis". By default, only the main categories of files will be selected for analysis. If necessary, you can add archive and email files. Select the computer disk - C , D , E etc. - and press "Analysis".
CCleaner allows you to sort all categories of files or each category separately by size. This will give you an idea of which specific files take up the most space on a particular disk partition.
By clicking on the appropriate sorting criterion in the table of contents, we can also sort the analysis results by file name, file type (format), and placement path.
At the top left we can see a pie chart with a visual representation of the analysis of occupied space by individual file categories.
Hefty files can be deleted from the system drive or transferred to a non-system drive. In the results of disk space analysis, select the desired file, call the context menu and click "Open folder".
A system explorer window will open, where we can remove the file from the system disk or delete it permanently.
Finding Duplicate Files Using CCleaner
CCleaner can now search for duplicate files. To run a search for duplicate files in a section "Service" open the tab "Search for duplicates". In order not to be distracted by lightweight files that will not particularly affect the freeing up of disk space, you can include a filter in the duplicate search criteria that sets the minimum size of the files being searched.
When deleting duplicate files, you must be extremely neat. You should not delete duplicate system files, as well as duplicate working files of individual programs. CCleaner, as well as similar programs that can search for duplicate files on a computer, look for files with identical names. And the working files of the system and programs may have identical technical names, but be located in different folders (folders of their programs) and, accordingly, serve the purposes of different programs. Therefore, you should not delete such duplicates. And when deleting a low-weight configuration file, there will be no significant release of disk space. It is better to get rid of duplicates if they are distributions of operating systems, videos and other heavy files.
You can delete duplicate files found by CCleaner in the same way as in the results of disk space analysis.
Call the context menu on the selected file and select the option to open in folder.
A small, fast program for determining the size of folders on hard drives.
Man is a creature for whom everything is never enough :). He always needs more money, more power, more... (continue the associative series yourself;)). This “greed” manifests itself no less strongly in relation to the computer.
It would seem that the recently introduced terabyte hard drives should be suitable for almost all ordinary users with their capacity. But no - there are “specialists” who run out of space on such a hard drive in just a couple of weeks!
They install dozens of games, download hundreds of gigabytes of information from the Internet for days, and then wonder: “Why is my computer running out of memory?” All this, of course, is a little exaggerated (well, very little :)), but in fact there are people who do not at all monitor the use of space on their PC, filling it with hundreds of gigabytes of various “garbage”.
If you find that there is too little free memory left on your hard drive, it’s time to do a total “cleaning” of your hard drive. You can manually view the size of each folder, open them and delete unnecessary files, or you can make your life a little easier by using the utility FolderSize.
This program quickly scans your entire hard drive and provides information about the size of the files and folders you select. What to delete and what not - judge for yourself ;). A commercial analogue of FolderSize is the FolderInfo utility:
Comparison of the FolderSize program with the paid analogue FolderInfo
Despite the fact that FolderSize is somewhat inferior to its paid counterpart in terms of functionality, it has a number of positive differences in its interface. It is quite simple (compared to a lot of tabs and additional information in FolderInfo) and, most importantly, it is in Russian.
The main disadvantage, in my opinion, is the need to manually mark all files and folders that are subject to the size determination procedure (should be corrected in the next edition).
Setting FolderSize
To install the program you just need to run the executable file setup.exe and wait a little while the necessary data is copied to your PC. Once the installation is complete, you will see the utility window launch:
At the top we see a small toolbar, and the rest of the space is reserved for the program’s work area, which is divided into 4 sectors: address bar (top), list of files and folders (left), information panel (top right) and message panel (bottom right) .
FolderSize does not require any additional settings and is ready to use after installation. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the operating principle of the utility using a real example.
Example of working with FolderSize
Let's say we want to see what we have on Disk D ;). We find it in the list on the left and click the plus sign next to the drive letter - the root folder of the selected partition with a list of attachments will open in front of us.
Now right-click on the letter of the selected drive, and in the context menu that appears, click “Mark nested nodes.” After this, green marks should appear next to all the items in the expanded list. Now all that remains is to go to the context menu again and this time click the “Size of marked nodes” button:
The scan of the selected partition will start and after a couple of seconds (the duration of the scan depends on the size of the selected directory) in the right column you will be able to see memory usage statistics:
By default, all subfolders of the selected directory are placed in alphabetical order, but to make it more convenient, you can sort them by size. To do this, just click on the “Size” inscription in the top line:
Thus, we see that the “Video” folder has the largest size. All that remains is to go to this folder and clean it, deleting old unnecessary films. To navigate to the desired folder or file in FolderSize, you can use several methods.
Method 1: Call the context menu and select “Open” or “Open location” in the “Tools” section.
Method 2: click on the desired element with the mouse wheel;).
Additional FolderSize Features
The last important feature of FolderSize is the ability to keep track of the size of the folders you need. Let me explain again with an example. In the previous step, we found out that the “Video” folder takes up the most space on Disk D. Let's keep an eye on her :):
Call the context menu of the folder and find the “Monitor size” item. After activating it, the following window will open:
In this window we need to set a limit, if exceeded, FolderSize will inform us that the maximum folder size has been exceeded:
The message about the size being exceeded can simply be deleted, but the next time you start it, it will appear again, and will appear to us until we either clear the folder, or increase the quota, or cancel tracking altogether :).
conclusions
FolderSize will be an effective help for those who decide to put things in order on their hard drive, but at this stage it lacks “globality” or something :). The program only shows the total size of folders, without displaying the internal hierarchy of subdirectories and files.
Thus, in order to find one large file that takes up maximum space in the directory, you will have to use the method of elimination, or manually mark all attachments, which is not very convenient. But this also has a unique advantage - you can see for yourself how much unnecessary “junk” you have accumulated on your hard drive;).
Good luck to you in the difficult task of fighting to keep your hard drive clean :)!
P.S. Permission is granted to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.
This is the one that over time there is little space. On the one hand, we bought ourselves 1 TB and it seems good, now everything will work. But over time, it turns out that it gets “clogged” and you don’t want to remove the old one (in case it comes in handy), but there is no place for a new one.
Then there comes a moment during which something can be freed. But sometimes this is not enough.
Then a reasonable question arises in my head: But what is taking up so much space on my disk?".
First of all, they “go” to the folders with films, then games and programs. And you have to remove them by grinding your teeth.
So, I won’t bore you, but I’ll write about several programs whose purpose is to show how many and which files (folders) take up the most space on your disk. Of course, all of them (like all the programs provided on my website) are free.
Looking ahead, I’ll tell you that the meaning is the same for everyone - to analyze the system and show in a visual form what and how it takes up space, while showing some additional capabilities. As a result, you can see and delete (if desired) unnecessary large files.
The first program to analyze a disk and search for large files and folders is WinDirStat.
After installation and launch, the main program window will look like this:
In it you can specify what exactly needs to be scanned: all drives, a specific drive or a separate folder.
After selection (I selected one system drive), the scanning process will begin:
Which will produce the result. The program window is divided into 3 parts:
1 - result by folder
2 - result for files (types/) indicating their legend
3 - general diagram. The meaning is simple - the more space it takes, the larger the display.
For convenience, the results are shown in descending order, i.e. The "largest" files are displayed at the top.
This way you can clearly see which files and folders take up how much space on the disk.
Now let's look at what you can do with this information besides simply viewing, namely, pay attention to the top menu with buttons:
Since the program is in Russian and the buttons contain tooltips, I can only list what you can do with a folder or file directly from this program:
As you can see, all the most necessary functions.
By the way, using this program you can also check external and network drives.
Another similar program is JDiskReport.
It differs from the previous one primarily in the absence of the Russian language.
After launch, you will be prompted to select a directory to scan and open the saved analysis file.
You can specify the whole disk and go ahead:
The window is divided into two parts: the left one indicates the location, and the right one generates a diagram.
Let's deal with the left part.
It displays a list of directories sorted by "majority", i.e. The more space a folder takes up, the higher it is. It's the same story in the subfolders.
The right side is much more interesting.
At the bottom you can change the type of diagram (out of four provided) and enable the display of files (check Show files).
At the top you can switch to the 50 “best” files ( top 50), see how many files in size occupy certain spaces ( Size Dist), when and how many files were last modified ( Modified) and how much space certain types of files take up ( Types).
In the top menu of the program itself, only two switches are interesting: the first, for sorting alphabetically (and not by “most”), the second to display the number of files (and not the volume).
But you can only view this information. To delete files, you will have to open Explorer and look for this folder or file there. But you can also right-click on the folder and select Open Explorer... to open.
The following program for analyzing and searching large files is Scanner.
The program differs from the previous ones in that it does not require installation (portable).
After launch, it immediately scans all disks and shows summary information:
You can select a specific drive, the scan result will show the volume of folders:
