OverDisk is one of these software programs. It generates an interesting looking chart after analysing a hard drives contents. The chart displays the root level, the folders on that level and most of the subfolders with the size on the chart reflecting the percentage of disk usage on the selected hard drive. Additional information are displayed when hovering the mouse over one of the elements of the chart including the name of the folder, the total number of files and folders as well as the size occupied on the hard drive. A click on an element will center the visualization on that folder and build a new chart that display the different folder levels starting with that folder in root. This is an easy and convenient way to browse through the folder structure of the selected hard drive.

Several statistical information are provided in the toolbar menu. Interesting and unusual is the cluster information dialog that displays various cluster sizes and their implication on the used and wasted space on the hard drive.

Another option is to run queries to find the largest files, longest or deepest path names, directories with most file entries or bytes and those with greatest wasted space. OverDisk is an interesting software program to visualize the space utilization of selected hard drives.

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Whilst disk space is no longer seen as a problem, considering 1GB only costs about $0.20! However, I find it an issue on my MacBook where I only have 120GB of space and it can’t easily be expanded.

Finding hogs could be quite a task. Naturally, trawling through every directory is impractical, so automated tools must be used to find large directories and files. Software exists on most major operating systems to graphically show which folders are large and how large they are.

In 2005, gHacks reported about WinDirStat. This is freeware that shows how big directories are. WinDirStat displays everything in the C:\ (etc) drive, colour coded for the first level directory (eg Program Files or Windows), and on tiers below that it is divided as blocks. This is a easy to use visualisation. WinDirStat runs on all Windows operating systems from 95 (w/IE5) to Vista!

An OS X alternative to WinDirStat is Disk Inventory X. It is essentially identical to WinDirStat. GrandPerspective is another essentially identical option.

Linux users can choose between KDirStat or Baobab.

Another option is JDiskReport is a Java-based piece of software which analyses disk usage using pie charts. Presumably this will work on Windows, OS X and Linux.

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The program displays all connected storage devices, their capacity, free space and occupied space in the beginning and it is up to the user to narrow down the data by using the computer browser in the left pane.

A click on a drive letter will start an in depth disk space analysis of that drive which will display all files and folders from that root level on sorted by their size. It is possible to sort by name, type or date modified instead. A click on a folder will load the contents of that folder and display the data accordingly.

The Windows Explorer context menu is available after a right-click on a file or folder which means it is possible to perform operations like opening or deleting them right in the program’s interface.

The display mode can be switched to display only the files or folders sorted by size again. These two display modes are excellent to identify the largest (or smallest) files or folders on a specific drive or in a folder.

Files are sorted by their size and additional information like the filename, location and their relative size on the hard drive are listed. The folder display mode contains the same information plus information about the number of files and the average file size.

Links to drive cleanup and drive tools are provided for each drive letter in the general display mode. Cleanup will run the drive cleanup tool that is supplied with Windows while Disk Tools will display the disk properties of that disk.

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