Submitted by mallenwho t3_11ahhil in LifeProTips

This is not an ad but just an honest review. It really sucks to try and hunt down what folders on your computer are using up all the space. There are several tools out there, WinDirStat being an old and free one, that analyse your hard drive and visualise your folder and file structure. It groups folders together and colours by file type so you can see exactly where all the large files are located. It also lets you navigate directly to them if you wanted to delete or relocate them. I found an entire game I had forgotten about 7 years ago that was still using 70gb of space. Genuinely it made file cleaning fun. A version for Linux is QDirStat, and OSX has Disk Inventory X. Normally this is the sort of tool that is flogged as a paid 'make your computer faster' tool but it's a simple free piece of software that is surprisingly intuitive, fast, and effective at helping you make decisions to clean up your files.

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RelevantJackWhite t1_j9s25bd wrote

I find SpaceSniffer to more useful for the average user

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GRZMNKY t1_j9s2myk wrote

I only use SpaceSniffer for things like this.

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ogn3rd t1_j9s2rpl wrote

Is spacemonger still a thing?

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VonDia t1_j9x11wu wrote

I love spacesniffer, keep a portable copy at work, makes life so much easier

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Salty_Fixer t1_j9s7dyq wrote

I've been using WinDirStat for years and it's extremely handy.

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MD_House t1_j9tkedc wrote

I can recommend WizTree :)

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Reeheeheeloy t1_j9un92z wrote

Wiztree portable, just perfect. If you use WinDirStat, give Wiztree a try. Sooooo much faster.

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Sea_Flounder9569 t1_j9s4iiz wrote

Totally blocked from tech support... But check out windirstat, great program for isolating where storage is being used.

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Dipso88 t1_j9tibnt wrote

I use DaisyDisk for Apple

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HK047 t1_j9vajld wrote

I justed used TreeSize to see which folders were bloated on my mother in-laws laptop. Turns out my father in-law had been using the free AVG anti-virus and it wrecked there computer. TreeSize has a free version as well and it worked great.

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snaykz1692 t1_j9vxlno wrote

Wow i was literally thinking about needing something like this the other day, so many files that don’t show up on the add/remove programs and I’m stuck searching through my program files for half an hour

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keepthetips t1_j9s1tj9 wrote

Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!

Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.

If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.

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binaryman4 t1_ja7iugn wrote

I use Directory Report to see where all my space is going. Run as administrator to see hidden files

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hearnia_2k t1_j9tgfe0 wrote

>I found an entire game I had forgotten about 7 years ago that was still using 70gb of space.

How? Why? It should show up in add/remove programs in control panel. Also, what kinda gamer would have been playing 70GB games 7 years ago, and/or never have reinstalled Windows or changes hardware in that time?

I think Treesize is better for Windows than WinDirStat these days.

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