If you are using your computer for a variety of purposes rather than just a single one; you need to have one of the best disk space analyzers on board to help manage your data effectively.
No matter how large your hard drive capacity is (say 1 TB or 10 TB), you would encounter a point in time when you will wonder – “What is taking so much space on my computer?”. Maybe, you have not kept track of it, or simply you forgot? (we are humans!). So, where do you start searching from? Are you planning to browse your entire drive to find out what thing is occupying that much of space?
No, of course not, instead it is something that is totally unproductive to do in the first place.
Fret not folks; we have listed the best disk space analyzer available for Windows, Mac, & Linux (two for each) to help you manage your data in an efficient manner.
Best Disk Space Analyzers For Windows
If you have got Windows 10 installed on your system, you would not require installing an additional application unless you do not like the inbuilt disk space analyzer. In either case, if you are running on Windows 8.1 or lower, you might want to install software to help analyze your disk space.
1. Inbuilt Disk Space Analyzer In Windows 10
To launch the disk space analyzer, you need to follow the steps mentioned below.
Steps To Launch Disk Space Analyzer In Windows 10
- Click on the start button and then head to the Settings.
- Now, click on “System.”
- You can observe several options listed. You need to click on the “Storage” option.
- Finally, at the right-hand side of the window, you will notice the drive partitions mentioned. Simply, click on any of the desired to drive to analyze as shown in the image below.
- When you select the desired drive, it will start analyzing it and display the storage fragmented into sections as – System and Reserved, App and Games, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, OneDrive, and so on, as shown in the image below.
2. TreeSize Free
TreeSize is a quite good disk space analyzer for Windows developed by JAM Software. It offers a free version as well as a professional version. To our experience, the free version would be sufficient.
You get to know about the percentage of the disk space occupied by folders, the number of files, and the last modified date. Unfortunately, with the free version, you do not get a visual report of your disk usage. So, for that, you may go ahead upgrading it to the professional version at 44.95 Euros.
3. WinDirStat
WinDirStat is believed to be a clone of a similar application available for Linux. Whatever that may be, it is one of the most useful disk space analyzers for Windows powered computers.
While the application starts scanning your computer, it shows you an impressive Pac-Man animation searching for the required data on your computer. After it completes scanning your computer, it offers a detailed visual report to help you know better what type of data does take the maximum disk space.
Best Disk Space Analyzers For Mac
1. DaisyDisk
Undoubtedly, DaisyDisk is one of the best disk analyzers for Mac. It is a paid application which you can initially try to know what it offers and how it works. The full version would cost you 9.99 USD. Image Credits: Abhishek Dubey
DaisyDisk offers one of the finest user interfaces one could ever encounter on a disk usage analysis utility. You can easily check what is taking up the disk space and free up some space later. It also effectively helps to find out the junk data space occupied by the files of a program already uninstalled.
2. GrandPerspective
An impressive open source project which competes with the premium ones to stand as one of the best disk space analyzers. It is available for free on SourceForge, but if you want to support the development of this project, you can purchase it from the App Store as well for a mere 1.99 USD.
It offers a user-friendly user interface and an interesting graphical report. The rectangles refer to the folders found on your computer. It is a simple yet an effective disk space analyzer available for free.
Best Disk Space Analyzers For Linux
Linux OS may not be widely used among the ordinary consumers, but still, stands strong as one of the leading OSs in the Industry. There are surely user-friendly programs for Linux to help analyze the disk space. However, if you want to check out some simple disk statistics, you can try typing in df -h in the terminal. For more detailed reports, you can try the programs mentioned below.
1. Disk Usage Analyzer
You do not need to install a disk space analyzer if you have got Ubuntu installed on your system. You get it built in as – “Disk Usage Analyzer.”
On the off chance, if you do not have it installed, you can install it quickly by typing in the following command in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install baobab
It is a simple yet one of the best disk space analyzers one could find for Linux (Ubuntu).
2. NCurses Disk Usage (ncdu)
It is a program that runs on the console without a UI. So, despite the lack of a UI, it is still one of the recommended programs to analyze the disk space usage.
Without a GUI, it might prove to be harder to know the exact disk space usage. So, if it is not something you like, you could also a take a look at an abandoned project – Filelight. It is one of the best disk space analyzers that resembles WinDirStat.
In order to install NCDU, you need to type in the following commands in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install ncdu
To launch NCDU in the terminal, you will have to enter the following command:
sudo ncdu
Wrapping Up
If you were searching for the perfect disk space analyzer, the applications mentioned above are the best you can get. However, when it comes down to your personal preferences, you may state to differ with what we recommend.
So, did we miss any of your favorites? Do you think there’s a better alternative for any of the disk space analyzers mentioned above?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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