When I run into a PC that has low disk space, there are usually culprits that you can point a finger at. The problem is that sometime the disk usage is not taken up in the folders that you might expect. When there is no smoking gun, I turn to my toolbox to check where the disk usage is being taken at. Below are a few tools that I use to see what is causing the issue. There are many tools out there but here are my favorites…
- WinDirStat – On start up, it reads the whole directory tree once and then presents it in three useful views:
- The directory list, which resembles the tree view of the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file/subtree size,
- The treemap, which shows the whole contents of the directory tree straight away,
- The extension list, which serves as a legend and shows statistics about the file types.
The treemap represents each file as a colored rectangle, the area of which is proportional to the file’s size. The rectangles are arranged in such a way, that directories again make up rectangles, which contain all their files and subdirectories. So their area is proportional to the size of the subtrees. The color of a rectangle indicates the type of the file, as shown in the extension list. The cushion shading additionally brings out the directory structure. (Content provided by WinDirStat Homepage)
- Spacemonger – The newest version is no longer free so the homepage here only reflects the latest build of the software.
- Claims to be 6x’s faster than WinDirStat
- Scan, map and manage PC, network and cloud storage
- Copy, move and delete files to free up storage space
- Locate large files and folders quickly with Treemap visuals
- Find files by size, type and custom criteria with flexible search
- Take clean-up actions on dynamically built file lists
- Options to run in command line
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