Disk Space Viewers

I used a program on my older computers to visualize the disk space used and the various file sizes. I don't recall the name, but it would split the window into rectangles with a size proportional to the file or directory size. Very handy for finding those large files and directories that are hogging the disk space. When doing simulations of FPGAs the data is saved on the disk and you have to remove the files manually. They can get very large, sometimes GBs each.

I couldn't find the program I used to use, but I found one that works even better. SpaceSniffer. It draws simple boxes without any special effects like shading and seems to run quickly.

formatting link

No Linux version it seems.

One thing that works better in this program than the old one I used is the ability to specify a starting folder rather than having to scan the whole disk drive. That can save a lot of time if you just want to look at one area.

WinDirStat is also mentioned a lot in the reviews, but the window is done with shaded boxes that look like they have a light shining off them. Not sure I'd like that.

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman
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In Linux, and traditionally in Unix, the program to find files by any criteria you like is called "find". It can easily find files above some specified size starting at a folder you specify, and you can mix in other criteria like time of last modification, pattern of the filename (e.g. extension), etc.

The manpage originally said "BUGS: the syntax is awkward", but once you get used to it, it is quite powerful. It can even perform actions on the resulting files, like removing them.

find /path/to/folder -size +3G -mtime -7 -name '*.dat'

To find all .dat files in that folder that are above 3G and have been changed in the past 7 days.

find /path/to/folder -size +3G -mtime -7 -name '*.dat' -exec rm {} \;

to remove them.

Reply to
Rob

probably spacemonger.

won't unzip :/

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

For linux, consider k4dirstat.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

rickman prodded the keyboard with:

What about "FSview" !

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Best Regards: 
                      Baron.
Reply to
Baron

...

Linux KDE "fsview" has similar behavior. Launch it from the command line in any directory, right-click to navigate.

There is a 3D fsv for linux, like Silicon Graphics' fsv in Jurassic Park :-) It dates back to 2001 and is not easy to bring up - it depends on libgtkgl which is kinda hard to find.

Cheers!

Reply to
c4urs11

I stand corrected... Out of curiosity/nostalgia I tried getting fsv up and running. It works. Library libgtkgl is part of library gtkglarea.

Cheers!

Reply to
c4urs11

du+xdu

Reply to
Johann Klammer

TreeSize

It's free and very good.

Years ago there was a Norton Utility called diskview or something like that.

Reply to
Tom Del Rosso

So what is wrong with just sorting the directory list by size in Windoze ? One click on the relevant column in File Manager does that.

Admittedly it wont recurse down the directory tree, but that is a different issue.

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Regards, 

Adrian Jansen
Reply to
Adrian Jansen

Dunno, I didn't have any trouble with it. Nice thing is you don't have to install it. Just run it, easy to use from a flash drive. But under Win 8 it's hard to get to the desktop.

I also tried WinDirStat and it's interesting. The window of size boxes don't have any text. Click on one and the other pane shows it to you in the file hierarchy like in windows explorer.

I thought I wouldn't like the highlights on the boxes. I didn't know why they would bother with that. But I realize it lets you see the boxes easily without boarders. The shading is very effective. Amazingly you can see many levels at the same time. Sometimes it is very slow to locate your file after clicking on it.

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman

And what does that tell you? I don't see any sizes next to folders. I would have to explore the entire directory tree to find the large files. That reminds me too much of using DOS.

That is *the* issue.

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman

Yeah, that was the one. Thanks

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman

It runs fine on my Xubuntu 16.04 laptop via the most recent version of Wine available through the repository. :-)

Reply to
bitrex

When I get Linux up, I'll give that a try.

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Rick C
Reply to
rickman

TreeSizeFree seems to do enough for my needs. YMMV

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Regards, 
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

Linux for the home user has really come of age with the latest round of Ubuntu releases. My girlfriend and I both have Core i5 laptops with similar specs, hers running an old install of Win 10 that's become real sluggish over time, and mine with the Xubuntu install and a 256 gig SSD.

We had a race. It took her machine nearly 2 minutes to go from cold boot to a usable desktop. It took the Xubuntu machine 13 seconds. :D

Reply to
bitrex

On Linux&OS/X, I use "du |sort -n".

"du" by default lists the size of all directories (in blocks) in a recursive descent, and "sort -n" sorts them in numeric order. The starting point will be last, but the 2nd last will be the sub-dir that cumulatively contains the most. If there is a vast file four levels down, the last five entries list the path to it. That's nice.

Clifford Heath.

Reply to
Clifford Heath

Yes, that is very useful. I always wonder why such a thing does not come with the Windows system. When you want to find where all your diskspace went, and don't want to install 3rd party tools that may not be trustworthy, you need to click a lot on folders to find it.

Reply to
Rob

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