How to visualize your hard drive usage ?

How many times have you run low on free hard disk space and then simply left off wondering what to delete, or what to move ? A big old avi stands out a mile in a folder of jpgs ! But what to do if you do know about its location. Here is an solution : Visualize your hard drive usage in blocks of files and folders as colored rectangle that's proportional to file or folder size .

Googling for tools for aforesaid job will give you plenty of results : some paid one . And you will be wanting the best one or probably free. Well what about if you get both ? Windirstat : another great title from the source forge community does the same job for free . Windirstat is a drive visualizer and space manager allowing you to instantly visualize file distribution across an entire drive or folder in the most intuitive way . Files and folders are color coded and can be clicked to reveal file name , path details etc .

Windirstat reads the whole directory tree once and then presents it in three useful views : the directory list , which resembles the tree view of the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file/subtree size ; the tree map , which shows the whole contents of the directory tree straight away : you are going to use this one the most ; and the extension list , which serves as a legend and shows statistics about the file types .

WinDirStat is loaded with features for managing your files , such as the ability to automatically delete files without even bothering with the Recycle Bin . It can also analyze your local devices .

It's one of those tools that you didn't know you needed until you started using it , but once installed , it's hard to imagine life without it. Granted, this is the program you are not going to use too often but it truly deserves to be kept in your arsenal . The program weighs a miniscule 720 kb so it can be used when you are rapidly running out of space. The visuals are extremely helpful and program works without bloating your system . After using the program you feel your gratitude towards developer for making such a great app . The program is simply the best of its kind !

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