For as long as I can remember, the Linux GUI environment has always had good ways of seeing useful disk usage statistics, but in the Windows environment this is not the case. The best you can get is a pie or bar chart that doesn’t state too much.
There is a free utility called WinDirStat that will give you very good, very useful (important) information about your hard drive. For example, it’s really easy to answer simple questions such as “What’s the biggest file on my hard drive?” and “What file type is taking up the most space?” The color coding in WinDirStat makes this ridiculously easy to use, and the ability to launch command prompts or Explorer windows that directly go to files is also very trick. On top of all that, WinDirStat is tiny. The installation file is only 645K!
See video below for details.
If you try this and like (or not like) it, let people know by leaving a comment below.
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TemperingPick
01. Dec, 2009
Also, if you use PortableApps there is a portable version too.
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/windirstat_portable
SageCrispin
01. Dec, 2009
I have a “package” that I maintain for use when setting up a new machine. Windirstat has been in there for as long as I can remember. I find it far more useful than the “HD cleaners”. Not to say I don’t reach for CCleaner now and then, but when space gets tight, Windirstat is the one to go to first.
SageCrispin
01. Dec, 2009
While not in the video, perhaps it should also be mentioned that it is possible to click in the upper right window to see all files of a given type. The colored blocks will then highlight all “.mp3;s”, “.exe’s” or “.avi’s” or what have you, showing what TYPES of files are using up your valuable space. Also, clicking in the upper left on folders, not just files, shows the space used collectively by all the contained files. Hitting “My Music” or “My Videos” can be quite enlightening.
David M
01. Dec, 2009
Cool… it looks biological, like the individual cells of something alive. I could see my collection of tens of thousands of songs, dozens of games and thousands of pictures.
Thanks Rich
Joe
02. Dec, 2009
I like it! Wow, a 320 GB hard drive almost 80% full.
Charles Kane
08. Dec, 2009
Regrettably it had terrible problems parsing my user directories on a win 7 machine till it finally gave up and froze.
Tried again on a reboot and it failed again. Third try I let it do another drive first and after about 20mins it finally finished reading my C drive. Not good.
Very pretty once running and works fine.
I’m rather attached to Free Disk Analyzer which is not pretty but is very clearly laid out with Largest Files and Largest Folders tabs – that about it. Still in this scase simplicity is pretty neat. I recommend it.
SageCrispin
08. Dec, 2009
Charles-Ran perfect the first time through on my Win7 HP tablet. Reinstall maybe?