User question
Hello.
Tell me how I can find out what is taking up space on my disk. The fact is that I looked at the size of all the folders on it, folded them - and it turned out to be less than the total occupied space in the properties of the disk (on my computer). What to do?
Good time!
Yes, here is the time to remember one saying: "no matter what size your HDD- sooner or later it will be filled ... ".
In general, in your case, it is possible that the place was taken away by various hidden and system files (by default, the explorer does not display them). In my opinion, the easiest way to analyze the occupied disk space (ie to get a convenient and visual "picture" of who "chopped off" the entire space) is to use the help of specials. utilities.
As a rule, they can take 1-2 minutes. analyze your entire HDD, and display the results in the form of a convenient diagram (and on its basis, any, even a novice user, will be able to find out which way to "dig" and what to delete ...).
And so, now closer to the topic ...
How to find out what the hard drive is clogged with [Analysis!]
WinDirStat
A very small utility (less than 1 MB) that can show you in a matter of minutes which folders and files are taking up the most space. Moreover, all this is done very clearly, and the search for the "culprit" is very fast!
Below I will show with my own example how I found a file that "took away" 12 GB!
And so, after installing and running the utility, just select the disk (s) you want to analyze, click OK. See screenshot below.
Then you will see a color diagram: each "rectangle" is a file, the size of the rectangle is drawn relative to the file size. Those. thanks to this work - you immediately find the largest files on the disk and you can start deleting them ...
Analysis of my disk / Clickable
For example, on my disk 12 GB of space was occupied by a file pagefile.sys(see screenshot above). For those who have a problem with the same file, I will say that this is a swap file. It is used automatically by the system, but it can be limited, or transferred to another disk (how to do this is described in one of my articles, I give the link below).
Out of disk space? Remove all garbage and configure system files (including pagefile.sys) in just 5 steps-
TreeSize
TreeSize - main program window
This program, unlike the previous one, does not build diagrams, but it conveniently sorts folders according to their size. Moreover, opposite each of the folders "burns" a certain value in percentage, relative to its size (the entire disk is 100%).
I will note one more convenient thing: from its window you can open any of the folders (files) in the explorer. TreeSize "sees" all files and folders on the disk (including hidden and system ones), so be careful with deleting everything and everything ...
Approx. : it is possible to import the analysis results into an HTML file.
Scanner
A similar utility, however, its size is even smaller. After launching, the utility will quickly scan the disk and show you a pie chart: by hovering the mouse over its individual sections, you can find all the folders and files that have begun to take up too much space ...
Please note that on the left in the program menu, you can choose any of hard drives that your Windows OS sees.
SpaceSniffer
Note: the program does not need to be installed.
SpaceSniffer differs from other similar programs in a very original interface and a slightly different approach to business (perhaps due to this it is in demand).
At the first start, the program will show you all disks, and after you select one of them, it will start scanning. After that, a visual diagram will appear before you: moving along it you will quickly find what has "chopped off" the extra space on the disk (see the screen above).
The program also allows you to delete or move files directly from the window, search for files by a specific filter (for example, by their extension).
In general, the program deserves a high rating, I recommend it for use!
DiskView
DiskView main window
This program differs from the others in that it works even on relatively old Windows NT 4, 2000, XP ( new windows 7, 8, 10 - of course supported).
The rest of the work is the same: a disk diagram is built, using which, you can easily determine which file occupies certain clusters.
The program is free, Russian does not support.
JDiskReport
Supported: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
An excellent program for analyzing HDD. Allows you to find a lost place in a matter of minutes! Thanks to the ultra-convenient pie chart, you can immediately see which folders have taken up all the space.
I will note that, entering the largest folder: the diagram is rebuilt, and you again see which files / folders are already taking up space in it, etc.
By the way, the program has top 50 - it will show all the largest files on the disk!
Spyglass
A simple free program that allows you to quickly build diagrams based on the occupied space on the HDD. Note that Spyglass also includes a "locator" that detects full duplicate files.
From the program window, you can open any folder or file, or even send them to the trash (it will not work this way only with system files).
Additions on the topic will be very useful!
That's all for now, good luck!
Among the innovations in the operating room Windows systems 10 - utility for analyzing disk space. It is strange that such useful tool was not present in the arsenal of the operating system from Microsoft before, when the hard drives of computers provided for a much smaller capacity compared to the volumes of modern hard drives.
So, the peak of the urgency of the problem with the lack of free space on the system disk came at the time of the massive transition of users from Windows XP to 7. These versions of the system were radically different in the size of the disk space used for their needs. Whereas for a full-fledged Windows work XP was quite enough for a system partition of 25-30 GB, a computer with the same disk volume on which Windows 7, new at that time, was installed, after installing a couple of programs and accumulating temporary files, it was left without free disk space.
Members Windows versions up to 8.1 inclusive, faced with the problem of lack of space on the system disk even after using the standard Disk Cleanup utility or third-party cleaning programs, they are forced to resort to a special type of software - the so-called disk space analyzers. These are handy tools that allow you to quickly find weighty files and immediately get rid of them, either by deleting or transferring to another location. Such analyzers scan the contents of the computer and present information about the disk space occupied by various categories of files. Tabular data in such utilities is often accompanied by diagrams for visual estimation of disk space usage.
1 The built-in disk space analyzer in Windows 10 is the "Storage" section in the system settings. It is a synthesis of simplified versions of several system utilities that many users are used to seeing in separate programs or individual modules complex software packages. In addition to the presence, in fact, of a tool for analyzing the occupied disk space, the utility built into Windows 10 is equipped with some system cleaning functions and a primitive uninstaller of the installed software.
Windows 10 Disk Space Analyzer is among others system settings inside the Settings app. This is the "Storage" subsection, which can be opened by selecting the "System" section in the main window of the "Settings" application.
2 As in any other section of the settings, the "Storage" section can be quickly accessed using the system search.
The "Storage" contains a list of disk partitions and connected storage devices, if any. For each section, data on the total and occupied space are presented.
4 By opening each disk partition separately, you can see detailed information about the occupied disk space by different categories of files.
5 One of the items on the system partition of the disk is "System and Reserved". Since the utility is designed for ordinary people, there is only informational information on how much space the individual system files take. Naturally, Windows 10 does not provide any tools for deleting these files. The only thing that is offered to the user is the "Manage System Restore" option, which opens the system properties window with settings for rolling it back to a restore point.
6 The item "Applications and games" is the above-mentioned primitive uninstaller of installed programs, which does not even provide for the removal of preinstalled universal applications.
7 Documents, images, multimedia files are presented in separate categories, but the standard utility does not provide their table with the ability to sort by size. When you press the button for detailed viewing of these files, the system transfers to the corresponding folders user profile inside the conductor for manual removal unnecessary files.
8 The item "Temporary files", alas, does not provide enough detailed information which files will be deleted. Experienced users are unlikely to experiment with such understatement, and newbie researchers are likely to free up disk space without realizing what was deleted. Read more about it in a separate article.
9 The most sensible point of the Windows 10 Disk Space Analyzer is, perhaps, "Other". Here, in descending order of size, folders containing files not categorized as music, videos, documents, and pictures are displayed. Files in these categories are usually stored in user profile folders or specially created directories on non-system disk partitions, and you can review their contents in Explorer or file manager without any disk space analyzers. The latter will be much more useful to remind the user, for example, of storing weighty files, possibly already unnecessary distributions. operating systems or backups.
10 An integrated system analyzer, of course, is far from perfect and is inferior to many third-party utilities of this software niche both in functionality and in the convenience of data presentation. In general, little can be said about the new tool: Microsoft has built a good simulator for beginners in computer science into the system, but nothing more.
Have a great day!
The question "What is taking up so much space on my hard drive?" sometimes bewildering. It would seem - all weighty folders with documents, music, films, and installed programs we know, but ... When we click on "Properties" hard disk and we look at the ratio of the full and occupied volume, then we understand that there is an obvious discrepancy - several (or maybe a dozen or two) gigabytes of our precious disk space have been lost somewhere.
In such cases, you can revise the content 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 the system restore checkpoints, run the standard Windows utility - "Disk Cleanup" and so on. But these manipulations are not always able to shed light on the truth.
This entry lists several programs, the function of which is to analyze the structure and amount of information that is stored on the hard disk of a computer. For me personally, it is important that these programs are free, understandable to use, and most importantly, provide reliable information. With the programs that meet the specified conditions, I suggest we get to know better.
SpaceSniffer is a portable, free program that helps you understand the folder and file structure of your hard drive. The SpaceSniffer visualization diagram will clearly show you where the large folders and files are located on your devices. The area of each rectangle is proportional to the size of this file. You can double click on any sector to get more detailed information about him. 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 that it gives out seemed to me not very convenient for visual perception and, as a consequence, for their assessment. But in principle, it works quickly and efficiently. In any case, having got used to it, having rummaged in the settings, it is quite possible to use it.
WinDirStat collects information from the selected disk and presents it in three forms. A directory listing that resembles a tree structure Windows Explorer, is displayed in the upper left corner and sorts files and folders by their size. The extended list that appears in the upper right corner shows statistics about different file types. The file map is 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 did not go deep 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 turned on and a little over 3 GB is currently used for it. So the program lied.
TreeSize Free
Not portable, choice of languages from two: German and English. Microsoft certified. Allows you to launch the program in the usual way or from the context menu of a folder or disk. This is a very convenient feature, 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 in them. The selected folder or drive is analyzed and the result is displayed in the form of a tree and a diagram. The interface is English, the collection of information 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 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 showing the 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 the maximum number of files - 500,000, with a maximum hard drive capacity of 2 TB. It supports long filenames, unicode filenames and allows you to copy, move and delete files directly from 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 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 the folder tree and save the information to a text file.
GetFoldersize versions are 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 set GetFoldersize, the launch option from the context menu will be added to all of its capabilities in Windows Explorer to start scanning the volume of a folder or disk by right-clicking on it. The interface is English, a good choice settings.
RidNacs is a fast disk space analyzer that scans local drives, network drives or individual directories, displaying results as a tree and a bar graph as a percentage. 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 an option to launch the program in the context menu of Windows Explorer. When you scan a folder, it is added to your favorite discs list. You can also change appearance histograms by installing special skins (shells). The program is not portable, it has 2 interface languages - English and German. She could not analyze some folders, as you can see in the screenshot.
The portable Scanner program shows a pie chart with concentric rings to display the usage of hard disk space, external hard drive, network drive... Moving the mouse over the segments in the diagram displays the full path to the object at the top of the window, as well as the size of 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 context menu Windows Explorer and another to uninstall it.
I liked Free Disk Analyzer more than any other program. The installation process offers a choice of 5 languages, Russian is present. The free disk analyzer displays disks on the left side of the window, similar to Windows Explorer, which allows you to quickly navigate to the desired folder or file. On the right side of the window, all subfolders and files in the selected folder or drive are displayed, the size and proportion of the disk space that the folder or file is using. 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 in the same way as in Windows Explorer. Among the additional features, it is worth noting the launch of the uninstaller, as well as the settings menu, which allows you to filter only certain files:
If you have previously encountered problems with the "loss" of disk space, tell us how and with what programs (or actions) you solved them.
I often get questions related to the occupied space on the hard disk: users are interested in what the hard disk space is used, what can be removed to clean up the disk, why the free space is constantly decreasing.
This article provides a quick overview free software to analyze the hard disk (or rather, the space on it), allowing you to visually obtain information about which folders and files take up extra gigabytes, figure out where, what and in what volumes is stored on your disk and based on this information , clean it up. All programs claim support for Windows 8.1 and 7, and I myself tested them in Windows 10 - they work flawlessly.
Note that most often, "leaking" disk space is due to automatic file downloads. Windows updates, the creation of restore points, as well as the crash of programs, as a result of which temporary files, occupying several gigabytes, may remain on the system.
At the end of this article I will provide additional materials on the site that will help you free up space on your hard drive, if such a need arises.
WinDirStat Disk Space Analyzer
WinDirStat is one of the two free programs in this review, which has an interface in Russian, which may be relevant for our user.
After starting WinDirStat, the program automatically starts analyzing either all local disks, or, if you wish, scans the occupied space on the selected disks. You can also analyze what a specific folder on your computer is doing.
As a result, a tree-like structure of folders on the disk is displayed in the program window, indicating the size and percentage of the total space.
The lower part displays a graphical representation of folders and their contents, which is also associated with a filter in the upper right part, which allows you to quickly determine the space occupied by individual types of files (for example, in my screenshot, you can quickly find a certain large temporary file with the extension .tmp) ...
You can download WinDirStat from the official website https://windirstat.info/download.html
Free Disk Analyzer
Free Disk Analyzer by Extensoft is another utility for analyzing hard disk usage in Russian, which allows you to check what is occupied by space, find the largest folders and files and, based on the analysis, make an informed decision on how to clean up the space on the HDD.
After starting the program, you will see a tree-like structure of disks and folders on them in the left part of the window, in the right - the contents of the currently selected folder, indicating the size, percentage of the occupied space, and a diagram with a graphical representation of the space occupied by the folder.
Additionally, Free Disk Analyzer has "Largest Files" and "Largest Folders" tabs for quick search such, as well as buttons for quick access to the Windows utilities "Disk Cleanup" and "Add or Remove Programs".
Official website of the program: http://www.extensoft.com/?p=free_disk_analyzer (On the website at this moment it's called Free Disk Usage Analyzer).
Disk savvy
Free version of the site analyzer on disk Disk Savvy (there is also a paid Pro version), although it does not support Russian, is perhaps the most functional of all the tools listed here.
Among the available options are not only a visual display of the occupied disk space and its distribution by folders, but also the flexibility to classify files by type, examine hidden files, analyze network drives, and view, save or print diagrams different types that represent information about disk space usage.
Download free version Disk Savvy you can from the official site http://disksavvy.com
TreeSize Free
The TreeSize Free utility, on the contrary, is the simplest of the programs presented: it does not draw beautiful diagrams, but it works without installation on a computer and for someone it may seem even more informative than the previous options.
Once launched, the program analyzes the occupied disk space or the folder you have selected and presents it in a hierarchical structure, where all the necessary information on the occupied disk space is displayed.
Additionally, it is possible to launch the program in the interface for devices with a touch screen (in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1). TreeSize Free official website: https://jam-software.com/treesize_free/
SpaceSniffer
SpaceSniffer is a free portable (does not require installation on a computer) program that allows you to understand the structure of folders on your hard drive in much the same way as WinDirStat does.
The interface allows you to visually determine which folders on the disk take up the most space, navigate through this structure (using a double click), and also filter the displayed data by type, date or file name.
You can download SpaceSniffer for free here (official site): www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer (note: it is better to run the program on behalf of the Administrator, otherwise it will report the denial of access to some folders).
This is the one that over time there is little space. On the one hand, we bought ourselves 1 TB and it seems to be good, now everything will climb. But over time, it turns out that it "clogs up" and does not want to delete the old (and suddenly come in handy), but there is no place for a new place.
Then there comes a moment during which you can release something. But sometimes this is not enough.
Then a reasonable question arises in my head " what is taking up so much space on my disk?".
First of all, they "go" to folders with films, then games and programs. And you have to remove them by grinding your teeth.
So, I will not torment you, but I will write about several programs, the purpose of which 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 that are provided on my site) are free.
Looking ahead, I will let you know that the meaning is the same for everyone - to analyze the system and show in a visual form what and how it takes place, while showing some additional features. As a result, you can see and delete (if desired) unnecessary large files.
The first program to analyze the disk and find 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 you want to scan: all disks, a specific drive or a separate folder.
After selecting (I selected one system drive), the scanning process will begin:
As a result of which the result will be given. The program window is divided into 3 parts:
1 - result by folder
2 - result for files (types /) with indication of their legend
3 - general diagram. The point 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.
Thus, 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 just viewing it, 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 needed 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 starting it will offer to select a directory for scanning and open the saved file with analysis.
You can specify the whole disk and forward:
The window is divided into two parts: on the left, the location is indicated, and on the right, a diagram is formed.
Let's deal with the left side.
It displays a list of directories sorted by "most", ie. the more space a folder takes up, the higher it is. The subfolders are the same story.
The right side is much more interesting.
At the bottom, you can change the view of the diagram (of the four provided) and enable the display of files (checkmark Show files).
At the top, you can switch to 50 "best" files ( top 50), see how many files take up certain places in size ( Size Dist), when and how many files were last modified ( Modifed) and how much space certain types of files ( Types).
In the top menu of the program itself, only two switches are of interest: the first, for sorting alphabetically (and not by "most"), the second for displaying the number of files (not size).
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 next 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 starting, it immediately scans all disks and shows the summarized information:
You can select a specific drive, the scan will show the size of the folders: