10 tools to help you find and delete the largest files on your disk

1. WinDirStat

Platform: Windows.

WinDirStat is a great tool that will help you monitor your hard drive space usage. Moreover, it works not only with built-in, but also with network drives. For example, with a NAS or home server.

After launching the program, select which drives or folders you want to analyze. The application will sort the found files and folders by size and arrange them in descending order. In addition, WinDirStat will create a color map that shows which data is taking up the most space. You can immediately open them in Explorer and delete or move them.

Download WinDirStat →

2. WizTree

Platform: Windows.

This application differs from many other analogues in its noticeable speed of operation. As soon as you launch WizTree, it instantly scans your HDD and provides detailed information about which files and folders take up the most space. The scan results are displayed in an interactive chart, which makes it easy to determine what can be removed to free up the disk.

Download WizTree →

3. TreeSize Free

Platform: Windows.

An alternative option, featuring a convenient ribbon interface, designed in the same style as Microsoft products. One of the convenient features of TreeSize Free is the ability to scan not entire disks, but the contents of any folder directly from “Conductor» Windows. Just right-click on it and select "TreeSize Free" to see which files are taking up a lot of space.

TreeSize Free also supports a tree map, as in the first two programs, it’s just disabled by default. To fix this, go to the View menu and select Show Treemap. You can delete or open files and folders by right-clicking on them.

Download TreeSize Free →

4. SpaceSniffer

Platform: Windows.

Unlike WinDirStat and other programs, SpaceSniffer does not show a detailed list of directories and files. Instead, the app only displays your data on the graphics card. Try it if the previous options seemed too complicated and overloaded with unnecessary information.

By default, the program offers to scan entire disks, but using the built-in viewer you can select a specific one folder and search for large files only in it. SpaceSniffer weighs only a couple of megabytes and works without installation.

Download SpaceSniffer →

5. CCleaner

Platform: Windows, macOS.

An extremely popular application for cleaning your computer from cache, unnecessary files and other garbage. Among other things, it can also find large files that take up a lot of disk space. CCleaner is available for computers running not only Windows, but also macOS.

Open the program and click “Tools” → “Disk Analysis”. The program will display a color chart showing what types of data are on your drives and how much space they take up. You can immediately select one or more desired files and delete them.

Keep in mind that by default CCelaner is not unloaded from memory when closed, but remains running in the background - this feature is called “Smart Cleaning”. There is little benefit from this, but the program takes up extra RAM, so in the application window it is better to click “Options” and uncheck the “Enable smart cleaning” option.

6. Memory control

Platform: Windows.

IN Windows 10 and 11 also has a built-in tool for managing disk space. Although it's not as advanced as previous disk analyzers, you can try it if you don't want to install anything extra.

Click Settings → System → Storage and select the desired drive. Here you will see a list of file categories taking up space: applications, games, system files, videos, photos and music. Click Show More Categories to see more detailed information so you can determine which items are cluttering your storage the most.

7. Disk Space Analyzer

Platform: macOS.

Huge unnecessary files especially ruin the lives of owners of a MacBook Air with a small volume memory. If you see that your 256 GB SSD storage is quickly running out, try installing Disk Space Analyzer.

This program is a disk space usage analyzer on Mac that will help you determine which files and folders are taking up more disk space. It scans your data and estimates the remaining free space. And then displays an intuitive chart so you can see your largest documents, images, audio and video recordings and folders, select the ones you don't need, and delete them.

The program supports the Quick Look feature for quickly viewing found items, and provides a “Show in Finder” option. The latter is useful if you do not want to erase files, but, say, transfer them to another drive.

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8. BuhoCleaner

Platform: macOS.

Another cleaner application designed to remove unnecessary files, search and eliminate duplicate data, as well as uninstalling programs and managing startup items.

Open BuhoCleaner and select the “Bulky files” option. Start scanning and wait a little - the program will find data that takes up too much space and offer to delete it. It's simple.

The free version of BuhoCleaner only allows you to clean 3GB of data before asking you to pay for a $19.99 license. But nothing stops you from simply opening files in Finder, deleting them or moving them to another drive, and continuing to use BuhoCleaner for free.

Download BuhoCleaner →

9. Storage management

Platform: macOS.

Experienced macOS users know that you don't have to install anything new to tidy up your Mac's drive. Apple computers come with a built-in Storage Management utility that lets you find large documents, files, and downloads and delete them.

Click the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen and select About This Mac. Click Storage → Manage → Documents. The Mac will show a list of files sorted by size. You can delete them right here, or open them in Finder and move them to an external hard drive or network drive so they don't clutter up your Mac.

10. Baobab

Platform: Linux.

Finally, an application for Linux fans. Some distributions, such as Ubuntu, have it built-in and call it Disk Space Analyzer, while others can install it by searching for Baobab in the app store.

Like its counterparts on other OSes, Baobab provides the user with a clear view of which files and folders are taking up space on their computer. hard drive. The graphic card displays their sizes as colored blocks, helping users easily identify the largest ones. At the same time, Baobab allows you to analyze not only local drives, but also other mounted devices, and even network folders.

On Ubuntu-based distributions, the program can be installed with the command:

sudo apt install baobab

In Fedora and its derivatives:

sudo dnf -y install baobab

In Arch and its derivatives:

sudo pacman -S baobab