How can I visualize the file system usage on Windows?

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How can I visualize which folders and files are taking up all of the space on my hard drive?

I'm getting some conflicting reports on the size of hard drive contents. Namely what is and isn't there and what folders are actually using the space.

I need to know which of the files or folders the culprits behind all this hidden bloat. Also there should be a print option to get it on paper.

mutewinter

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 767

Want to suggest an website that don't require any installation: diezyweb

– Endless – 2016-10-24T18:42:02.833

I know that there is some software out there that will do it, but in my searches a few years ago, I was unable to find a free/open source one. However, I use Space Monger on Windows 7 and have taken to it's layout. – kobaltz – 2012-03-11T07:17:30.517

Keep in mind, this can be detrimental to performance. Plus the numbers can never be accurate, thanks to hardlinks. – surfasb – 2012-03-11T19:15:23.240

2Right-click and go to properties. The folder size will be calculated when that request is done. Like surfasb said, performance is probably the major reason that this isn't show anymore. – Terry – 2012-03-12T13:26:32.443

Try out TreeSize -- its free, can scan a directory or disk, and graphically will list out where all your "stuff" is and what's taking the most space.

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/

– SnakeDoc – 2013-03-13T21:43:54.067

Answers

279

WinDirStat is a port of KDirStat for Linux. It's free, lightweight, small (650kb installer), fast, portable (as a standalone .exe file), and works on multiple versions of Windows. Besides showing folders and percentages (for the entire disk or any subset of folders), it also displays an (optional) graphical usage map. Works well with NTFS Junction folders, avoiding counting folders multiple times.

WinDirStat screenshot

Ludwig Weinzierl

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 7 695

9If only they could do something about those rather ugly shiny boxes at the bottom :S – Svish – 2010-04-22T14:32:49.930

1Thanks for this, I quite like that it does all the work first, and there it's fast. It would be cool if you could pick a dynamic scan mode, depending on the directory you looked at. I don't see much need to scan every file on the disk. I tried using diskview, but it made my win 7 machine crawl, I think the explorer intergration is a bit ropey (in diskview, not this). – optician – 2010-06-17T20:16:49.590

WinDirStats Portable's "installation" simply extracts it to a folder. Or basically, it is a standalone version. – surfasb – 2017-07-20T19:02:45.923

6+1 because it understands NTFS Junction folders so some directories are not counted multiple times. – Agent_9191 – 2010-08-25T16:41:48.150

3I love WinDirStat, and the fact it's a small standalone .exe makes it even nicer. – Dentrasi – 2009-08-29T17:19:07.703

1+1 And after WinDirStat came Disk Inventory X to Mac (Linux -> Win -> Mac) – tidbeck – 2011-12-15T17:31:50.927

3@Svish : I know it's been a while since you posted, but you can adjust WinDirStat's settings to change the look of the ugly boxes at the bottom to something that better suits your tastes. – evilspoons – 2012-01-03T15:31:38.407

@optician: you can choose a single folder for it to display. – That Brazilian Guy – 2013-01-15T02:55:42.813

@pcapademic: well perhaps if you somehow managed to steal the code for SequoiaView, which was never released. The only thing that mimics SV is the default color theme of the treemap. – 0xC0000022L – 2013-02-25T20:09:05.107

Seems to be based on an earlier college project SequioaView (http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview//). I suspect both are derivative.

– pcapademic – 2009-07-19T22:39:23.690

1+1 (and yes KDirStat was the original, WinDirStat is the copy) – David Z – 2009-11-14T08:45:21.227

It's a bit unfortunate that this answer mentions a stand-alone version and provides a link that leads to a website that apparently does not contain any stand-alone version. To prevent others searching for the stand-alone version as long as I did: simply google WinDirStats portable. Update: Just realized that this "portable" version also requires installation. I give up: I can't find a stand-alone version...

– bluenote10 – 2013-12-26T18:12:24.917

SpaceSniffer is another possibility. It can scan Alternate Data Streams (ADS) and correctly ignores junctions. However, it is not hard-link aware. If a file has multiple links, they will show up in the scan more than once. I've personally tested all this information to be accurate on Windows XP as of version 1.1.2.0.

SpaceSniffer Screenshot

afrazier

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 21 316

2It updates real-time when cleaning up the disk. – Chiel ten Brinke – 2017-01-04T11:17:39.637

9+1 For me it's an improvement over WinDirStat and SpaceMonger... This one also shows live changes! ;-) – Tamara Wijsman – 2011-03-23T15:50:15.953

2Yes! Looks so much better than the ugly WinDirStat. Very clean. Thanks :) – Svish – 2013-02-20T12:17:52.250

TreeSize is pretty sweet.

Its advantage over the others is that on NTFS drives, it works on the MFT (Master File Table) and reaches extremely high scan speeds.

They have three versions of the product: Free, Personal and Professional.

The free version doesn't have fancy visualizations and reports but should be sufficient in most cases.

TreeSize screenshot

raven

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 5 135

JDiskReport (also available for Mac OS X and Linux).

enter image description here

arathorn

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 8 559

2It's a great app, but it doesn't account for Junction folders in NTFS so the total size may be calculated as larger than it really is. – Agent_9191 – 2010-08-25T16:36:01.857

2Amen, I've tried many apps in this genre, and most add so many bells and whistles that it's just distracting. I adore JDiskReport, it makes everything so easy. – username – 2009-07-22T17:55:33.343

I've always used, and liked, SpaceMonger. There is a paid-for newer version, but the old version works fine for my needs.

SpaceMonger screenshot

robintw

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 131

1The only problem with SpaceMonger (at least the older freeware version) is that it ignores Unicode filenames. It just skips right over them and doesn't include the file at all. WinDirStat at least handles those correctly. I don't know about newer versions of SpaceMonger. – afrazier – 2010-04-20T13:28:33.733

2+1 I heard about this program years ago now in a Maximum PC issue. I STILL use it. It's the best visualizer for me, in my opinion. Other visualizers either try to be too 'cool' or I don't know but they seem convoluted. – Jorge Israel Peña – 2009-07-18T23:38:07.763

I tend to stick with Scanner. I occasionally try programs with more features, but I find Scanner does everything I actually need.

Screenshot

Blorgbeard is out

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 2 565

I like FolderSize, since it's integrated into Explorer and caches the results. You always know how much space a folder is taking, and can easily identify space hogs. It's always there, so you don't have to start a separate program.

FolderSize screenshot

jmanning2k

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 121

20It looks nice but it's not for Windows Vista or Windows 7 – Jonas – 2011-02-27T17:35:16.967

It's old, but I really like the tree map view in SequoiaView.

SequoiaView is free and happily works all the way up to Windows 7 and Server 2008.

SequoiaView screenshot

Joel Lucsy

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 121

I'd recommend Disk Space Fan. It has a similar UI to Scanner or Overdisk, but looks more fashionable. Current price for a single license in 15$.

Disk Space Fan screenshot

Mark

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 11

This program totally locked up and responded very very slowly when used on any partitions > 2TB. – glenneroo – 2011-09-13T19:36:41.697

4Note: It's not free – Sawny – 2012-11-20T19:17:10.880

With Sysinternal suite, you have du.
I like it, because it is command-line, very lean and fast. And it is free :-)

C:\>du somedir

Du v1.33 - report directory disk usage
Copyright (C) 2005-2007 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Files:        28618
Directories:  2625
Size:         671,672,063 bytes
Size on disk: 671,672,063 bytes


C:\>

rob

Posted 2009-07-18T21:51:22.043

Reputation: 197

3du is also hardlink-aware, with the -u parameter. With that, it can show you the count of actual files on disk and their size if there are any hardlinked files. – afrazier – 2011-01-05T15:42:44.803

3lol... windows becomes more and more POSIX compatible every day... oh my! – SnakeDoc – 2013-03-13T21:45:47.153

There are many possibilities, but in my opinion the bests programs to show file system usage are: WinDirstat, Scanner, Xinorbis and SpaceSniffer.

JDiskReport (requires java)

limited

not free