Easily identify hard drive waste with visualization.
In some previous technobabble articles we talked about some of the bloated files that Windows Update leaves behind. Many times drives fill up on users and there’s no obvious reason to where all the space is going. That’s where visualization comes in - at a glance you can identify the biggest parts of your file system.
First you need a tool to accomplish it. I’ve first seen a visualizer in Ubuntu as part of the disk cleanup process, if you have a recent linux install - chances are you have something already. As for Mac/PC people…
http://windirstat.info/ (Windows: WinStatDir)
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/ (Mac: Grand Perspectiv)
Both programs will scan what ever part of the file system you decide - one drive, two drives, one folder (like your home folder, for instance) when completed, you’ll see a psychedelic representation of what objects in your fiesystem are taking up the most space, relatively. Large blocks are larger files.
Once you identify a particular file or folder that takes up space, you can research what it is to determine if you can safely delete it. Running on a typical Windows machine you’ll typically find a gig or so of update backup files which can be removed safely, but when in doubt - just google something to determine if it’s needed by the system or not.
Good luck & happy spring cleaning!
Drive visualization in Windows
The large chunks to the left are big virtual machines