What’s eating my disk space?
Working on a MacBook Pro is a real joy. It’s a beautiful and amazing machine, and I don’t know how I ever got along without it. But I’m painfully aware of the pitfalls associated with working on a laptop – especially limited disk space. So when I let unneeded files or apps slip through without being deleted or uninstalled, it becomes obvious rather quickly. If my space drops significantly, I’m manually sifting through my files and folders to find the culprit.
But in this month’s Macworld I was thrilled to read about GrandPerspective, a handy little (free) utility that shows your disk space usage graphically. You can set it to scan a particular folder or your entire disk, find the space eaters, and reveal them in Finder for removal. After running it once I was able to reclaim a couple gigs.
It’s a great little utility, a must have for your laptop. Did I mention it’s free?
Nerg on July 18th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
So what is eating your disk space? I have a MacBook with a 160 Gig HD and I’ve only used 40 Gig. Get it off your machine into an archive or an external. If you don’t access it at least once a month remove the file/app whatever. OSX thrives on ram and Disk space
CoSTa on July 18th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
eee… and what the helle are all those colours mean? :)
for some oldschool text information lovers – grab this: http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/ – also free, does the job quite well, i liked it a lot. drop an eye and find your lost gigabytes :)
Matt Radel on July 18th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
@ Nerg:
I’ve got the 120 gig HD in mine. Space goes quickly when you put CS3, Parallels and Boot Camp partition on it (to name a few). I’m using about half my space right now, but I’m always trying to keep my disk as free as possible.
Sam on July 18th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Comeon. Not all of us are on beautiful MBPs. Im going to go cry now.
grampabigal on July 18th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
yes; like the caveman in geico ads, I say: “what?”. I’ve got glaucona & need to blowup text to see.
when doing so the text goes out of column under the side ads.
do you think to use “bigger text” in browsers to dee if this happens? NO, you do not.
plse correct this.
thx- grampaBigAL…
Kai Howells on July 18th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/
A whole lot more elegant and far easier on the eyes
Thame on July 18th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
OmniDiskSweeper does a similar job. I’ve found that Final Cut Studio and its associated resources are the most disk-hungry on my MBP.
Tod on July 18th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
Gag! I hate these images that resemble the interior of a beehive on LSD. They tell me absolutely nuthin’.
As two other posters noted, “whatsize” is a more realistic alternative.
Of course, YMMV.
-Tod
BY on July 18th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Over the years I have also used and recommend both:
OmniDiskSweeper (free, or $15 to activate delete button), http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper/
and:
WhatSize (free), http://www.id-design.com/software/whatsize/index.php .
.
Both provide a list of files and folders and their sizes, in Mac column-style view to allow you to drill-down and see what’s what.
To me, far more useful than the eye-disorienting (IMO) GrandPerspective app.
J on July 18th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I use Disk Inventory X, also free and visually stunning. Check it.
Ryan on July 19th, 2007 at 4:45 am
I second Disk Inventory – it gives you the best of both worlds – the quick glance spatial view (like Grand Perspective), plus a hierarchical view – both of which are arranged from biggest to smallest. Plus, you can zoom in on a particular folder to weed out the space hogs. (Plus it is free, too).
Best of the bunch.
Niclet on July 19th, 2007 at 8:27 am
I third Disk Inventory (!) it’s an awesome tool.
Martin Cohen on July 19th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
A simpler alternative I have been using for many years on unix/linux/os x systems is this (in terminal):
du -k | sort -nr > filez
“du -k” gets the size of all files,
“sort -nr > filez” sorts the result of the “du” command in reverse order using the numeric value of the first field (the file size, in this case) and saves it in a file named “filez” (the name is arbitrary – just different from any existing file).
Then, edit “filez” with any editor.
mildm8nnered on November 23rd, 2007 at 4:47 am
You might also want to check out Baseline, which allows you to compare your disk against a previously saved scan, so that you can see what’s changed, as well as how much space each item takes up.
http://www.mildmanneredindustries.com/baseline
(I am the author of Baseline).
Markus Zeller on May 4th, 2009 at 12:57 am
I think it’s not a MUST HAVE only for laptop owners! Should be running on every system.