Buy › Software & Apps 9 Free Disk Space Analyzer Tools Free Software for Finding the Largest Files on a Hard Drive Share Pin Email Print Software & Apps Backup & Utilities Browsers & Internet Video & Audio Social Networking News & Reference Antivirus & Security Email & Messaging Windows Only Mac Only iOS Only Android Only View More by Tim Fisher Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology support experience. He writes troubleshooting content and is the General Manager of Lifewire. Updated October 16, 2018 32 32 people found this article helpful Ever wonder what's taking up all that hard drive space? A disk space analyzer tool, sometimes called a storage analyzer, is a program specifically designed to tell you that. Sure, you can check how much free space is on a drive very easily from within Windows, but understanding what's contributing most, and if it's worth keeping, is another matter entirely — something a disk space analyzer can help with. What these programs do is scan and interpret everything that's using up disk space, like saved files, videos, program installation files — everything — and then provides you one or more reports that help make very clear what's using up all your storage space. If your hard drive (or flash drive, or external drive, etc.) is filling up, and you're not exactly sure why, one of these completely free disk space analyzer tools should really come in handy. 01 of 09 Disk Savvy Disk Savvy v11.0.32. What We Like Much easier to use than most disk space analyzers Categorizes files in several ways Updates to newer versions often Able to scan multiple locations simultaneously Results can be exported to a report file Also works from within Explorer What We Don't Like Not all features you see in the program are free to use; some require you to upgrade to the Pro edition I list Disk Savvy as the number one disk space analyzer program because it's both easy to use and full of extremely useful features that are sure to help you free up disk space. You can analyze internal and external hard drives, search through the results, delete files from within the program, and group files by extension to see which file types are using the most storage. Another useful feature is the ability to see a list of the top 100 biggest files or folders. You can even export the list to your computer to review them later. There's a professional version of Disk Savvy available, too, but the freeware version seems 100 percent perfect. You can install Disk Savvy on Windows 10 through Windows XP, as well as on Windows Server 2016/2012/2008/2003. Disk Savvy Review & Free Download 02 of 09 WinDirStat WinDirStat v1.1.2. What We Like You can scan a whole drive or a single folder Provides unique ways to visualize disk space Includes the option to configure commands to delete data What We Don't Like Unable to save the scan results to a file that you can reopen later A bit slower at scanning than similar tools Runs on Windows only WinDirStat is another disk space analyzer tool that ranks right up there with Disk Savvy in terms of features; I'm just not too fond of its graphics. Included in this program is the ability to create your own custom cleanup commands. These commands can be used from within the software at any time to do things quickly, like move files off the hard drive or delete files of a certain extension that are in the folder you select. You can also scan different hard drives and folders all at the same time as well as see which file types are using up the most space, both of which are rather unique features not found in all of these disk usage analyzers. You can install WinDirStat in the Windows operating system only. WinDirStat Review & Free Download 03 of 09 JDiskReport JDiskReport v1.4.1. What We Like Shows disk space usage in five different perspectives Really easy to understand, even for new users Works on Linux, Windows, and macOS What We Don't Like Doesn't let you delete files from within the results Noticeably slower than other disk space analyzers Another free disk space analyzer, JDiskReport, shows how files are using storage through either a list view like you're used to in Windows Explorer, a pie chart, or a bar graph. A visual take on disk usage can help you quickly understand how the files and folders are behaving in relation to the available space. One side of the JDiskReport program is where you find the folders that were scanned, while the right side provides ways to analyze that data. Follow the link below to see my review for specific details on what I mean. Unfortunately, you cannot delete files from within the program, and the time it takes to scan a hard drive seems slower than some of the other applications in this list. Windows, Linux, and Mac users can use JDiskReport. JDiskReport Review & Free Download 04 of 09 TreeSize Free TreeSize Free v4.0.0. What We Like Lets you remove files from within the program Can scan individual folders and entire hard drives Supports both internal and external HDDs There's a portable option available What We Don't Like Doesn't work on Linux or macOS Filtering options aren't super helpful No unique perspectives are available like there are with similar tools The programs mentioned above are useful in different ways because they provide a unique perspective for you to look at the data. TreeSize Free isn't so helpful in that sense, but it certainly provides a feature that's missing in Windows Explorer. Without a program like TreeSize Free, you really don't have an easy way to see which files and folders are occupying all the disk space. After installing this program, seeing which folders are largest, and which files among them are using up most of the space, is as easy as opening the folders. If you find some folders or files that you no longer want, you can easily delete them from within the program to instantly free up that space on the device. You can get a portable version that runs on external hard drives, flash drives, etc. without installing it to the computer. Only Windows can run TreeSize Free. TreeSize Free Review & Download 05 of 09 RidNacs RidNacs v2.0.3. What We Like Minimal and simple interface makes the program easy to use There's a portable option Supports scanning for large files in a specific folder or the whole drive What We Don't Like Won't run on Linux or macOS Missing advanced features found in similar applications RidNacs is for the Windows OS and is actually very similar to TreeSize Free, but just doesn't have all the buttons that may drive you away from using it. Its clear and simple design makes it more appealing to use. You can scan a single folder with RidNacs as well as whole hard drives. This is an important feature in a disk analyzer program because scanning an entire hard drive may take a long time when you really just need to see the info for one folder. RidNacs' functionality is very straightforward so you know exactly how to use it right from the start. Just open the folders like you would in Windows Explorer to see the largest folders/files listed from the top down. Due to its simplicity, RidNacs just includes the basic features necessary for what a disk analyzer should have, but clearly, doesn't have all the features you'd find in a more advanced program like WinDirStat from above. RidNacs Review & Free Download 06 of 09 Extensoft's Free Disk Analyzer Free Disk Analyzer v1.0.1.22. What We Like Includes helpful and unique features Lets you find files that fall under a certain criteria Finding the biggest folders and files is easy with the tabbed interface What We Don't Like Works on Windows only Doesn't support exporting the results to a file Free Disk Analyzer is a really great free disk space analyzer. Above all, I like it because of how simple and familiar the interface is, but there's also some really useful settings I want to mention. One option makes the program only search for files if they're larger than 50 MB. If you have no intention deleting files smaller than that, then you can drastically clean up the results list by enabling this. There's also filtering option so that only music, video, document, archive files, etc. are shown instead of every single type of file. This is useful if you're aware that it's videos, for example, that are consuming the most storage — searching just for those saves time sifting through other file types. The Largest Files and Largest Folders tabs at the bottom of the Free Disk Analyzer program provide a quick way to go over what's eating up all the storage in the folder (and its subfolders) you're looking at. You can sort the folders by the folder size and location, as well as by the average file size in that folder plus the number of files that the folder contains. Though you can't export the results to a file like most disk space analyzers allow, I still highly recommend taking a look at Extensoft's program before you move on to the other applications in this list. Free Disk Analyzer is available for Windows users only. Download Free Disk Analzyer 07 of 09 Disktective Disktective v6.0. What We Like It's portable Able to scan for large files in a specific folder or the whole hard drive Provides two ways to view the disk space usage Lets you export the results to a file What We Don't Like Unable to delete directly from the program Exported results are hard to read The way size units are displayed makes reading the results hard Only Windows users can install it An update hasn't been released since 2010 Disktective is another free disk space analyzer for Windows. This one is completely portable and takes up less than 1 MB of disk space, so you can easily carry it with you on a flash drive. Each time Disktective opens, it immediately asks what directory you want to scan. You can pick from any folder on any hard drive that's plugged in, including removable ones, as well as the entire hard drives themselves. The left side of the program shows the folder and file sizes in the familiar Windows Explorer-like display, while the right side displays a pie chart so you can visualize each folder's disk usage. Disktective is easy enough to use for anybody, but there are numerous things I don't like about it: The export to HTML feature doesn't produce a very easy-to-read file, you can't delete or open folders/files from within the program, and the size units are static, meaning they're all either in bytes, kilobytes, or megabytes (whatever you choose). Download Disktective 08 of 09 SpaceSniffer SpaceSniffer v1.3. What We Like Shows data usage with simple blocks The results can be filtered a number of ways Results can be backed up to a file and opened again without having to re-scan Lets you delete files from inside the program A report of the large files can be saved to a text file Completely portable What We Don't Like Can be hard to grasp at first Works on the Windows operating system only Most of us are used to viewing the data on our computers in a list view where we open folders to see the files inside. SpaceSniffer works similarly but not in the same way, so it may take some getting used to before you're comfortable with it. The picture here immediately tells you how SpaceSniffer visualizes disk space usage. It uses blocks of varying sizes to demonstrate larger folders/files versus smaller ones, where the brown boxes are folders and the blue ones are files (you can change those colors). The program lets you export the results to a TXT file or a SpaceSniffer Snapshot (SNS) file so that you can load it up on a different computer or at a later time and see all the same results — this is really handy if you're helping someone else analyze their data. Right-clicking any folder or file in SpaceSniffer opens the same menu that you see in Windows Explorer, meaning you can copy, delete, etc. The filter feature lets you search through the results by file type, size, and/or date. I've added SpaceSniffer to this list because it's different than the majority of these other disk space analyzers, so you may find that its unique perspective aids in helping you quickly find what's using up all the storage space. Download SpaceSniffer SpaceSniffer is another portable disk space analyzer that runs on Windows, which means you don't have to install anything to use it. It's around 2.5 MB in size. 09 of 09 Folder Size Folder Size 2.6. What We Like Integrates with Explorer Lets you sort folders by size Extremely easy to use What We Don't Like Shows results in an extra window instead of within the original window you're viewing Runs on Windows only Folder Size is the simplest program from this entire list, and that's because it has virtually no interface. This disk space analyzer is useful because Windows Explorer doesn't provide you with the size of a folder you're looking at, but instead just the size of files. With Folder Size, a small additional window displays that shows each folder's size. In this window, you sort the folders by size to easily see which ones are using the biggest slice of storage. Folder Size does have some settings you can modify like to disable it for CD/DVD drives, removable storage, or network shares. A quick look at the picture here of Folder Size demonstrates that it's nothing like the other software from above. If you don't need charts, filters, and advanced features, but just want to be able to sort folders by their size, then this program will do just fine. Download Folder Size Continue Reading