WinDirStat is a great tool to determine what files are taking up the most resources on a given volume. Running a WinDirStat scan will reveal a graphical representation of the drives scanned.
If WinDirStat is not installed on your computer, and you have an account that is part of the administrators group, this application can be downloaded for free from the SourceForge project page.
- Go to the start menu and scroll through installed applications and locate WinDirStat. Then click WinDirStat with a folder icon and click WinDirStat with a tree icon. This will start the WinDirStat application.
- If multiple drives appear, select only the drives you want to scan for a file storage use report. In this instance, we are scanning the M drive.
- Click the OK button and wait for the scan to finish (this could take quite some time depending on drive size and file usage).
- The larger the file, the larger the area it takes up in the bottom results window. Click the largest boxes to select the largest files and evaluate if you need to keep them or delete them.
