- Find Out What's Taking Up Space On My Hard Drive
- Find Out What S Taking Up Space
- Find Out What's Taking Up Space On Mac
- Find Out What Is Taking Up Space
Let us know how it could help you to know what's taking up space on Mac. Smart Mac Care is a one-stop solution which can not only optimize your Mac but also secures it from malicious content, privacy traces, and unwanted junk files. You can see what's taking space on your Mac with the software's inbuilt feature Disk Usage. It lists bulkiest files, be it videos, photos, music, documents. A nice program like Treesize Free (free download from will surely help you to find what's missing. There are already many good answers about ways to find directories taking most of the space. If you have reason to believe that few large files are the main problem, rather than many small ones, you could use something like find / -size +10M.
When someone tells you they're running out of hard drive space, the first thing you would probably tell them to do is to clean up the system using a program such as CCleaner. That will help remove all the junk and temp files that can take up several Gigabytes on badly affected systems. Uninstalling old software might free up some more space depending on how many useless programs are installed.
Even after doing those things, a system might still be left with less than 10% of free space remaining and Windows doesn't really like that. Even if you have the operating system on an SSD or an NVMe drive, Windows will still slow down and misbehave if it runs out of available space. Other locations on the drive might have been filled with data that you or most cleaning programs wouldn't normally look in.
The normal thing to do would be to check the properties of each top level folder and navigate your way down until the culprit files and folders are found. This could certainly waste a lot of time and isn't an efficient method. Thankfully there are much better solutions for how to find out what files and folders are taking up hard drive space, and here's a selection of 8 free tools to do just that.
1. TreeSize FreeTreeSize Free is a popular tool because it quickly gives you a fair idea of which folders are taking up the most space. The occupied proportion of space each folder takes up is shown by a series of bars, and when you click to open each subfolder, the same bar layout shows the space proportions for that folder. With version 4.0 In 2017, TreeSize Free was updated to include the popular treemap view which was taken from its paid Professional version
Click the upper half of the Open Directory icon to open a requester or the lower half to open a drive list. TreeSize uses the MFT (Master File Table) to scan NTFS drives so is incredibly fast. By default, the file and folder tree is displayed with the size bars. To also open the treemap, click on View > Show Treemap Chart. The treemap can be shown on the right or bottom, be in 2D or 3D, and show labels/files, free space and etc.
Changes can also be made to the way the folder tree looks. For example, the text can be changed from size to file count to a percentage. You can also change the gradient colors on the size bar and change the UI itself to a dark or touch theme. Include/Exclude filters can be applied, and the program can be configured to let you easily run a scan from the Explorer context menu. Installer and portable versions are available.
Download TreeSize Free
2. SpaceSniffer
We're fans of SpaceSniffer because apart from being quite fast, it's live visual treemap layout can quickly give a very good idea of which files or folders are taking up the biggest amount of space on your drive. This has an advantage over software that only shows a bar or pie chart because you can already see several layers down. A massive file buried inside multiple subfolders is far easier to spot without touching anything.
Simply choose a drive or folder to scan from the box when you start SpaceSniffer and within a few seconds you will be able to recognize larger folders (brown boxes) and files (blue boxes) filling up the display. The bigger the box, the more space it occupies. Folders can be drilled down even further by double clicking on them, or the level of detail can be increased using the blue box icons in the toolbar.
The tri-colored box icon also shows different types of files with different color boxes. For example, the blue boxes are archives and disc images while the yellow boxes are executables and system files. There are other color styles for audio, video, and images or you can even create your own. Other aspects of the treemap display can be altered from the Edit > Configure window. SpaceSniffer is a zipped portable executable.
Download SpaceSniffer
3. RidNacs
This program is like a simpler and easier to use version of TreeSize in that it displays a number of bars to represent the percentage of space occupied on the drive or in the folder. It can show files in the tree and also the folder size, percent and number of files all at once though which might be more helpful.
To scan, press the yellow folder icon in the toolbar or click on the favorites button which should have your drives and any previously visited folders listed for quick access. The scan is reasonably fast and a report can be saved in a TXT, HTML, XML or CSV file. The size bars can also be changed to different preset colors which is useful as the default blue stripe isn't great (the image shows the Spectrum bar).
RidNacs has a portable and setup installer version. The website is in German but the download page is self explanatory and the program itself defaults to English.
Download RidNacs
Poker practice for fun. 4. WizTree
WizTree is by Antibody Software who also make the useful WizMouse and WizFile utilities. The program is very similar to the popular but very old WinDirStat (see below) but is much faster to display its results. WizTree is one of the fastest tools of this type and on par with TreeSize because it also uses the Master File Table to scan the drive. There is an animated donate button in the window but it isn't really a problem.
Select a drive or specific folder from the drop down and the results will be shown pretty quickly. The window is split into the file/folder tree view, the filetype view and the treemap at the bottom. Switching from Tree View to Flat View will change the window to a search filter and file display with options to sort the top files by size, modified date and etc.
Additional options include the ability to open a command prompt here, copy the file path, export to CSV, save the treemap as an image, dump the MFT file, and change the default treemap colors. Portable and installer versions are available.
Download WizTree
5. WinDirStat
WinDirStat is another tool to use the treemap visual interface which shows the size of individual files as a series of boxes to represent their space on the drive. When is the new animal crossing coming out. It's also still a popular tool considering there have been no updates since 2007. Some useful extra functions are included such as opening a Command Prompt at the location you're clicking on, copying the file path or emptying the recycle bin before a scan.
If you have more than one drive to scan they can be selected on startup by highlighting which ones you want. The display is split into three parts; one for the treemap, one for the directory tree and the top right window for telling you what the treemap colors represent. WinDirStat works on just about any version of Windows right back to Windows 95. WinDirStat never officially had a portable version but you can either extract the installer with 7-Zip or go to PortableApps.com to get one.
Download WinDirStat
6. Xinorbis
If you're someone that likes to look at large amounts of information then Xinorbis could be for you. This is because it analyzes and gives you details for just about everything that's occupying your hard drive space and the data is displayed in a number of different ways. There are separate windows for things like file types, extensions, history, dates, magnitude and size levels. Data can be viewed as text based tables, bar charts or pie charts.
The initial Summary screen will give some useful details about the number of files/folders, the largest file and folder, and bars for which category they fall in to. Click Folder Properties and all the different ways the statistics can be presented are available. There are other useful sections like finding duplicate files, search, folder structure/map/exploder views, and opening separate windows to create your own custom graphs and charts.
There are also options to create your own custom reports in HTML or CSV. Xinorbis is probably the most comprehensive tool of this type so it does require some time to figure things out. Installer, portable and also a useful command line version is available for download.
Download Xinorbis
7. Folder Size
The free version of Folder Size is perfectly usable but lacks some features that are reserved for the shareware versions. These include filters, export/print results, scanning over a network, multiple scans and command line options. There are a few ads for other products by the developer in the UI, but they aren't too intrusive.
Start the program and choose the drive from the drop down, then press the green scan icon, or a folder using the green/yellow icon. You will get both a text based view of the folder sizes and also the graphical view, either of which can be turned off. Switch between a pie chart or a bar graph using the icons in the lower pane. Then simply navigate your way around to see which files and folders are taking up space. Both portable and installer versions are available.
Download Folder Size
8. JDiskReport
JDiskReport is a tool that runs using Java meaning you need the Java Runtime Environment installed to use it. What's quite good is the different ways in which you can visually view the information. For instance, the size of a folder or drive can be displayed as different looking charts such as a pie, ring, bar or a details list. The color of the charts or the interface look can be changed and a context menu option can be integrated into Explorer.
Starting the program gives options to select the folder or drive to scan along with a few previous scan locations and the option to reload a previously saved scan result. There are different tabs to view the information in different ways including a size tab that gives the overall size of the selected location, a Top 50 tab which lists the 50 largest/oldest/newest files, and size/modified/filetype distribution maps.
Download the Zip archive on the website to use the portable version. If it doesn't run, right click on jdiskreport.jar > Open with > 'Java Platform SE Binary'. Being made in Java means JDiskReport is supported on a number of platforms including Mac OSX and Linux as well as Windows.
Download JDiskReport
Important Note: Unless you're very sure the files and folders listed can safely be deleted, don't delete them from within these programs. Just because the data might be taking up lots of space, you need to check first that it's not part of the operating system or installed software which could cause crashing or instability problems if you remove it.
You might also like:
10 Free Tools to Monitor Files and Folders for Changes in Real Time6 Tools To Take Ownership and Get Full Control Of Files and Folders10 Free Tools to Securely Wipe Free Disk Space Preventing Recovery5 Free Tools to Repair and Preview Corrupted AVI Files2 Tools to Search Any Files on Local Area Network Shared FoldersFolderSize did exactly what I wanted, I walked down the folder tree looking for big folders. I found 20gb of Windows install logs from 2011, realized I had a folder duplicated which cleaned up 7gb. The biggest culprit was a 15gb log file for McAfee. I didn't dig into any fancy features for this tool or the others. I just needed to see directory sizes so I could investigate. And like the warning in the article, it's very easy to delete files that shouldn't be deleted.
ReplyTreeSize Free helped me to clean up my Music Library which was ruined by iTunes. I was putting the task off for years, but this helped me speed it up by orders of magnitude, thanks!!
ReplyI use Directory Report. It looks just like the MS-Explorer but always shows the folder size. This lets me to quickly drill down to problem folders which contain the huge files.
ReplyI reccomend to use this utility to find top-N largest folders/files on a disk:
github.com/aleksaan/diskusage
I use Large Files and Folders Finder+. That is the only app that does the job. It finds large files and folders. It returns the complete report and works very fast too. It has some additional features such as Disks Watchdog.
ReplyHi actually none of them check dept of Path (directory levels) as I can see , but is ther som good tool for that on w2012? Best casinos in oklahoma to win.
ReplyGave WizTree a go tonight. It does not report accurately at all. I noticed it when I scanned the hard drive I use for all of my games. It was showing many directories as having 100MB, less, or even 0 bytes, when each are in the multiple GB range.
ReplyI just used it on a drive that contains most of my games (1.2TB) and it detected everything correctly. It's possible it could be something like UAC or permissions that is causing your issue?
ReplyScanner is AMAZING: tiny, fast, useful, free ! (steffengerlach.de/freeware/)
The best is Jdiskreport, but i hate java
Oh wow thx. This is awesome! Scanner is the fastest thing of them all he just needed seconds to scan may 250gb ssd while jdiskreport and WinDirStat need over 10 minutes
ReplyI tried a few of these – spacesniffer was the one I liked best!
ReplyI still use the free 'SpaceMonger', and skimming over this post I know exactly which one I want.
'SpaceSniffer'
That style of display is by far the quickest, as you literally see everything.
Very useful post.
WizTree for the win. Is the fastest hands down.
ReplyYeap, I would agree WizTree is a very quick tool and would have been included if it was around when the post was written. It is something that will very likely be added when this post gets an update. Personally, I still prefer SpaceSniffer though :)
ReplyWizTree the best. Thanks for the recommendation. ^_^
ReplyI have spent days trying to remember the name of this. I kept looking for wizard tree! I agree this is by far the best one to get an overview of everything. thank you!
Replyi'm using windirstat. faster to scan and easier to read than some other (not listed above) softwares.
most of those softwares 'slow' on updating the UI
thanks for sharing the list easy the pain looking for alternatives. but it seems none of them scan in the way like 'everything.exe': read MFT instead of iterating over directory. i'm still looking forward to seeing one
ReplyWizTree is an interesting one, working off the MFT, so its fast (& free).
Replythank you for the information, I'll download one of the software.
ReplyAmazing tools list! My work is more easy now. Thank you very much.
ReplySuch a wonderful post!!! It helps me a lot. Great post! Thx.
ReplyThe best for me is Scanner: steffengerlach.de/freeware/
I recomended it!
Another free tool of Hard Drive manager for you! With this utility, you can create, format, resize and delete the parition. Totally free for home users. Download free here.
fat-32-formatter.com/?trblo
A similar product is sequoia view, also very easy to use works fine on xp and win7 (only tried it on these two). I do reccomend it`s usage.
ReplyFind Out What's Taking Up Space On My Hard Drive
Such a wonderful post!!! It helps me a lot. Thx.
Replythanx for software update & it's vey amazing
ReplyThank you. in Ubuntu i use disk analyzer.
Replybest is Filepro, also Portable
Replywhat a great tip.Thanks for sharing wonderful information
ReplyThanks for the article, just tried Space Sniffer for the first time and love it! My 1.5TB hard drive is a mess – now I have a new favorite toy ;)
Something funny going on though, this article is dated Oct 16 this year, but there are comments from two years ago?
ReplyWell spotted Mr.Bigglesworth! This post is actually a 100% totally new article that replaces an old post with the same subject from 4 years ago. Raymond is going to write about the reasons for this and other things such as the new theme hopefully in the next few days. As Treesize and JDiskReport were in the original post, any commments that can stay were left in.
ReplySPACE MONGER looks like space sniffer, but it shows subfolders too. sixty-five.cc/sm/
ReplyGreat post! But isn't there any tool that gets embedded into windows explorer so that a live status can be obtained!!!
ReplyWinDirStat is my favourite but thanks to your article I'll now try some of the others on offering. Keep up the great work, Hal9000. Always a buzz to get ideas from this site.
Replythanks very much……this is what i was looking for…Treesize is the best software
ReplyRaymond,
what a great tip, how come the people whom created the Vista, Outlook don't know it….
I found 2 monstrous sized Hotmail files for MS Outlook! So I moved them to E drive instead of C. Freeing C drive with additional 10 GB.
Thank you, thank you, thank you….
Hani
Thanks for sharing wonderful information.
ReplyThank you so much! I was one of the people who got CCleaner and started wiping files and defragmenting my disk for small amounts of space, going through my official list of programs and finding nothing that takes up that much space, or finding things that take up space that i still use. You saved me so much space. Thank you.
ReplyHi, thank you soo much! after a couple of months of wondering where approx 150GB had gone, this Free and easy to use program showed it up in minutes!! i am no PC expert and this is a fantastic program which works well…thanks again!
ReplyThanks buddy.
ReplyExcellent software, does exactly what it says on the tin, simple to use and easily installed. Many thanks for sharing it.
ReplyThanks, I was looking for something like this :)
ReplyWOW. This program rocks. I did a complete reformat and thought all my pics which I backed up onto an external hard drive would have been wiped out. Was driving me crazy why I only had 2 gigs left on my hard drive. All my pics and programs were still there. This sotware found it all and allowed me to clean up my computer. This ought to be on cnet to download bet you could get a million downloads easily. Thanks again.
ReplyThanks SO much! I used JDiskReport and freed up 88GB of space!! I had no idea one of my programs was keeping backups of projects! Thanks again!
ReplyThank you for the resource I will be using this often! :)
ReplyThis is the best tool EVER!!! Ive regain 50 gb hardisc space using this and i loove it! thank u thank u thank u!!!
Replyvery useful thanks.
ReplyLeave a Reply
Summary :
Many computer users find that the hard drive is filled up and they may wonder what is taking up space on the hard drive and how to clean up the hard drive. This article will solve these problems.
Quick Navigation :
What Is Taking up Space on My Hard Drive
Many computer users may find that their hard drives are filled up without reasons after the computer is used for a while. And at last, low disk space error may come up (especially partition C). This problem will affect computer performance. For example: apps or files can't be downloaded, the computer gives no response to your command or it gives a delayed response.
Then, what cause this problem? Or what is taking up space on my hard drive? Many users may ask problems like these. Usually, the hard drive space is occupied by system files, installed apps or personal files, backups, virus or other malware, or other unknown files.
How to Check Hard Drive Space
How can we know what files take up the hard drive space most? Here is a tutorial for how to see what's taking up space on hard drive in Windows 10.
Step 1: Press Start button, and then navigate to Settings>System >Storage.
Step 2: Click a disk and then its storage usage will be displayed.
Click What Is Taking up Space on Win10 for more methods.
In general, computer users could check the hard drive space first, and then they can solve the low disk space problem according to the actual storage usage in their computers.
As for how to free up disk space, the following two categories of methods are suggested. And the method with MiniTool Partition Wizard is strongly recommended because it's versed in managing disk space and the ways provided by it can solve the problem radically.
How to Free up Disk Space on Windows
1. Free up Space with Disk Cleanup
Many computer users like to run Disk Cleanup to free up disk space. This is a common way for most of computer users. Right click the disk you want to clean up, and then navigate to Properties>Disk Cleanup. Then check the files you want to delete and click OK to carry out.
However, some users may find that it can't solve the problem fundamentally. Disk cleanup can't relieve the problem at all. Or it relieves slightly but the low disk space problem persists and it relapses after a while.
2. Deal with Personal Files to Free up Disk Space
If there are lots of personal files in hard drive, users can delete the unnecessary files to clean up hard drive. As for the important files, users can transfer them to another hard drive. Or, users can store files like music, movies, photos, etc. on external storage or in the cloud.
In a word, users could delete or transfer all files to another place except the files that must be stored in this disk. (Actually, this method not only can free up disk space, but also can help you to manage or optimize the disk space.)
3. Delete Backups and Reduce Space Used for System Restore
If users have habit of making backups, they could delete the backups to free up disk space. At the same time, system restore points can be automatically created when users install a new app or update and they take up a lot of hard drive space.
So, users can delete the restore points or reduce the hard drive space used for system restore to free up disk space.
Here is a tutorial for deleting restore points and reducing space used for system restore.
Step 1: Open Administrator and right click This PC,and then click Properties from the drop-down menu.
Step 2: Click System protection from the pop-up window to make System Properties window pop up. And then click Configure button.
Step 3: Drag the block to adjust the max space usage for system restore points. Surely, there will be less restore points for system restore if you do so. Or, you can delete all restore points and disable system protection to free up disk space. But if you do so, there is no restore points for system restore.
4. Uninstall Programs
Surely, most of the time, it is programs and games that take upmost of the hard drive space. So, users also can uninstall apps or games that they no longer need to solve this problem. Press Start button and navigate to Settings>Apps>Apps & features to uninstall programs.
5. Run Antivirus Program
Sometimes, a virus or other malware may consume a lot of hard drive space. If you suspect the low disk space is cause by a virus, you can use an antivirus program like Windows Defender to run a virus scan and cleanup.
However, most of the time, the low disk space is not caused by a virus, and running Disk Cleanup or deleting personal files can't solve this problem. Although uninstalling apps can relieve the problem slightly, many users wouldn't like to adopt this method because most programs on the computer are useful and necessary for them.
To solve this problem radically, MiniTool Partition Wizard,professional partition management software, is recommended, which is versed in dealing with problems like this. And it provides you three solutions to clean up hard drive.
The first solution is Space Analyzer, which is similar to the above methods. But it is easier for users to operate. The second and third solutions are extending partition and upgrading to a larger hard drive, respectively. Only the last two methods can radically solve the problem.
Free up Disk Space with MiniTool Partition Wizard
MiniTool Partition Wizard provides 3 solutions to clean hard drive and you can choose one according to your need.
1. Space Analyzer Feature
This feature is free for computer users. What you need to do is to download the MiniTool Partition Wizard and follow the following guide.
Step 1: Download MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch it to get its main interface. And then click Space Analyzer on the toolbar.
Step 2: Select the partition that you want to clean up to scan.
Step 3: Choose a file in Tree View, File View, or Folder View to delete.
Attention:
- The Space Analyzer feature can also help you to check hard drive space. The files are listed from top to bottom according to the percentages that they take up in hard drive.
- The result can also show you the hidden files and you can delete the files (even the hidden files) that you don't want.
- You could explore the selected file before you delete it to avoid deleting important files mistakenly.
- Click here to obtain file attributes, which can help you to decide whether the files can be deleted.
Compared with the above methods, this solution does actually free up disk space to a certain extent. However, it also can't help you a lot if all the files in the partition are important for you. So, you need to think of the following two solutions.
2. Extend Partition
If your hard disk has unused space, you can use Extend feature of MiniTool Partition Wizard to extend the disk space of partition to increase the real disk space. The reason why the extend feature of Disk Management is not recommended is that it has many limitations. Click Why Extend Volume Grayed out for more information.
Free up disk space of data partitions (not including system partition):
Free up disk space of system related partition: https://zyzfk.over-blog.com/2021/01/google-drive-sync-2-computers.html.
Step 1: Install MiniTool Partition Wizard and launch it to get its main interface. And then click Bootable Media on the toolbar.
Step 2: A media type selection window pops up, and then click WinPE-based media with MiniTool plug-in to get another window. And finally choose the media destination.
Attention:
- ISO File: If the boot.iso file can't be burned into the USB flash drive or CD/DVD successfully, you could choose this option, and a boot.iso file is generated. And then you could burn this file to your USB flash drive later.Finally, you can use the drive containing the file to boot your computer.
- USB Flash Drive (This option is recommended): If you have a USB flash drive, you could choose this one, and the boot.iso file will be burned into it directly.
- CD/DVD Writer: If your computer supports recording on CD/DVD, you could choose this one, and the boot.iso file will be burned into it directly.
Step 3: Set the Firmware to make the computer boot from the disk containing the burned boot.iso file.
Enter firmware (The specific entry methods vary from computer model to computer model). And then,navigate to boot page with right arrow key and put Removable Devices (USB)or CD-ROM Drive in the first place of the boot sequence with 'plus' key.
Step 4: Boot the computer to get the following interface. And then wait a few seconds without any operation to get the main interface of Partition Wizard.
Step 5: When you get the main interface of MiniTool Partition Wizard, Right click the partition that you want to extend, and finally click Extend.
Step 6: A window for adding space pops up. Drag the light blue block to adjust the space size to be added. Finally click OK.
Step 6: Click Apply button on the toolbar to execute the pending operations.
This solution is recommended because it increases the real disk space. Surely, some users may ask what if there is no unused space in the hard disk.Then, you must consider buying a larger hard drive if this situation happens.
Find Out What S Taking Up Space
3. Buy a Larger Hard Drive for Disk Upgrade
If your hard disk runs out and all data stored in it is very important, you should consider buying a larger hard disk. And then you could migrate OS to the larger drive to make it the new boot disk. And if possible, you could still store data on the original hard drive. Click here for the specific steps of migrating OS from the old hard disk to the new hard disk.
Find Out What's Taking Up Space On Mac
What Is Taking up Space on My Hard Drive FAQ
Step 1: Press Start button, and then navigate to Settings>System >Storage.
Find Out What Is Taking Up Space
Step 2: Click a disk and then its storage usage will be displayed.
Or you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to find large files taking up hard drive on Windows 10.
C drive keeps filling up because the following reasons:
- The C drive itself is very small.
- You have installed much software on this drive.
- The system is patched, and all patches are installed on C drive by default.
- Cache junk files are not cleared in time.
- Use Disk Cleanup.
- Uninstall programs you don't need.
- Use Space Analyzer of MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Your Voice
We really want to know whether these methods can solve your problem, so please leave a comment to let us know it. If these methods can't help you, please leave a comment to describe your problem in detail so that we can help you. You also can email to [email protected] for help. Expecting your good news.
