If your computer is running out of disk space, then you should remove useless files from your system with CCleaner, Atomic Cleaner or any other tool. If this doesn’t help, identify and delete large files from the hard disk drive or compress them. To find large files, you should have good knowledge of the Windows OS commands or you must use a software the fires this command and makes you aware of the files.
The 2nd option is better because you won’t lose data. Confused? Commands are difficult to remember. If you fire an incorrect command, you may lose important files forever. Furthermore, you won’t be able to recover the files with data recovery software. Developers launch software products only after thoroughly testing them. Hence, it is unlikely that you’ll lose files after running disk space usage analyzer tool.
Below we’ve shared the best disk analyzer Windows software that will make you aware of the file system structure and space occupied by files and directories. These programs are safe. They won’t result in loss of data unless you use their delete folder option.
Best disk space analyzer Windows programs
1TreeSize
TreeSize is one of the most popular hard disk space analyzer software for Windows OS. It is a lightweight utility tool that allows you to view the structure of the file system.
The program offers graphical user interface. Its main UI features a toolbar and a table. The software displays the following information on the table.
- File name, size, allocated space.
- The number of folders/files, and last modified date.
TreeSize allows you to reorder the columns. Its main interface boasts a toolbar where you’ll find options to sort the contents of the table by the file’s name, size, modification date, etc.
The program provides an option to display the space occupied by a file in KB, MB, GB, TB format. You can configure it to show the free and utilized HDD space without decimals.
TreeSize provides a powerful filter tool which you can use to display files of specific extension or the files whose name contain the string you provide as a filter.
2SpaceSniffer
SpaceSniffer is yet another widely used disk space analyzer software for the Windows OS. When you run SpaceSniffer, you’ll be prompted to select a drive which you want to work with.
Once you select a drive, SpaceSniffer executes its file analyzer function which runs for a few seconds to get details of the file system structure and space occupied by the folders. SS displays the progress of the scan operation on its toolbar.
Like TreeSize Free software, SpaceSniffer comes with a filter utility. The filter is embedded inside the toolbar of the software. SpaceSniffer supports customization. You can change the font size, animation duration, frame rate, colors, etc. SS consumes a low amount of RAM and requires up to 10 megabytes of HDD space.
The program provides an option to export the file structure information to a file. SpaceSniffer has a button to refresh the panel where it displays file system details.
3WinDirStat
WDS is one of few program that has a perfect rating of 5 on sourceforget.net. It is one of the best disk space analyzer tool for Windows OS.
WindDirStat and TreeSize software have a similar interface. Like TS, it displays the details of the file system in a table.
You can sort the table data by clicking on the columns. WinDirStat can open the folder of your choice in the command prompt.
WDS comes with options to move the permanently delete a folder or move the folder to recycle bin. It provides two views, treemap and hierarchical. You can enable both views at a time.
4JDiskReport
JDiskReport makes you aware of the top 50 largest files on your PC. It displays a pie chart that explains how the storage space is distributed among files. It comes with an option to delete files from the system.
JDR has a brilliant interface. It enables you to sort the directories by their name and size. It allows users to search files saved on the PC. JDiskReport provides different views to see the file system structure.
JDR works on computers that run the latest version of Java Runtime Environment. JRE is free to download. Visit Oracle’s official website to get the setup file of JRE.
JDIskReport is an excellent alternative to Windows Explorer and other disk analyzer software we’ve mentioned on this list.
5Disk Savvy
Disk Savvy won’t scan the file system when you run it. You must provide the path which you want the program to scan. To do so, click on the Analyze button on the toolbar.
You can configure DiskSavvy to scan multiple paths at a time. DS lets you sort files in 11 different ways. It allows you to classify files. The program can generate a graph of the disk usage. It supports two graphs, pie and bar chart. It provides an option to print the two charts.
DiskSavvy lets users identify the top 100 largest directories and files. You can see disk space occupied by files of specific type and extension.
DiskSavvy can scan drives of computers connected to the same network. The program can generate HTML report of the storage memory utilization. You can use it to compress and move large files to another directory.
Conclusion: The above disk space analyzer programs are free, lightweight, and fast. You can download their portable, 23-bit, or 64-bit version on your Windows 10, XP, 7, 8.1, 8 or Win Vista PC and use it forever without paying any subscription fee.
These programs are updated with new few features every 3 or 4 months.
Why have we mentioned only 5 software?
The above five applications provide plenty of features. Millions of Windows users and thousands of Windows Administrators are using them on daily basis.
Other programs you’ll find on the web offer similar features as TreeSize, JDiskReport, WinDirStat, DiskSavvy, and Sniffer.