Analyze and Clean Up Your Hard Drives

If you're like me, you have a ton of music, video and other files on your hard drives. I have multiple drives with files spanned across all of them on my network. So how to you manage and keep track of all of those drives? I have for you a collection of drive managers that can help you out.

First on the list is JDiskReport. This ad-free freeware program helps you keep track of the amount of space consumed on your drives by your files and . It also can help you find unused folders and files so you can get rid of them. Find out what files are hogging space on those drives. JDiskReport will analize your drives and give you stats, charts and tables that help you track what is on your hard drives. The app allows you to save scans and review those scans at a later time. Each of the charts allow you to click on them to view further information. You will still have to open up Windows Explorer to do the deleting and moving of files, but the free JDiskReport will give you the tools and information to find out the info you need on your drives. All charts include a pie chart, a bar chart, and a details table with information about your drives. One thing to note is JDiskReport requires Java.

Here are a few screen-shots of the resulting output from JDiskReport:

Read more on JDiskReport and download the application at JGoodies

Another Choice for Disk Information Software is Windirstat. WindirStat is another free, open-source application that will display your drive usage on a map that tells you what file types and folders are using the most space on your drive.
The free, open-source utility WinDirStat displays your disk usage in a color-coded map that shows what file types and folders take up the most space on your hard drive. If you don't like Java apps, then WinDirStat will be your favorite.

Read more on WinDirStat at their site


For the Linux Users, there is an excellent program called Firelight. This application displays data as hierarchical pie charts. Filelight displays files and folders as you hover your mouse over it showing information like # of files, size and percentage of the entire file size. You can mouse-click on the pie to zooms in and display a portion of the entire pie. For Linux only, firelight is fast and easy to use.

Check out Firelight at methylblue.com

Finally we have EasyDuplicateFinder that will scan your hard drive for identical duplicates by analyzing file size and attributes (regardless of filename) and notify you of any possible duplicates. I found this app via DownloadSquad. Read more and download the freeware app EasyDuplicateFinder HERE

Now you can make the most of your hard drive space by choosing one of these apps, taking inventory of your hard drives and cleaning out the stuff you don't need.

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