# Help me find my missing disk space **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-my-missing-disk-space/292678 "2005-03-03T00:32:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-my-missing-disk-space/292678/1 "2005-03-03T00:32:59Z")
Basic question–are there any programs or services that will tell me what my harddrive is being used for? Say, that video file A is 7 megs, and application B is 500 megs, etc. Ideally, something free. Elaboration: I have a 26.2 gig harddrive, with 11.8 gigs showing free. Which gives me roughly 14.5 gigs being used. I can account for maybe a little over 5 gigs of that with various programs and files I have on my computer. I’m running WinXP Pro, which takes around 1.5 gigs, or so I’m told. After doing the math, I discover that I have 8 gigs that are still unaccounted for. A lot of space, especially on my dinky machine. I’m also wondering how much of that is windows updates. I believe I have SP2 downloaded (but not installed), SP1 and a few other patches, but I have no idea how much space those are taking up. I kind of doubt ithey’re taking up that much space though–if they are, someone needs to slap Microsoft. So I turn to my fellow dopers–HELP! ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-my-missing-disk-space/292678/2 "2005-03-03T00:52:14Z")
I found my disk space. It was behind the sofa the whole time. But seriously, folks. The Add/Remove Programs control panel will tell you how much each installed program takes up, but I’m not sure if thats what your looking for. You want sizes for all folders, too? ---
**Author:** ![Severian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Severian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Severian)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-my-missing-disk-space/292678/3 "2005-03-03T01:00:39Z")
Try an evaluation copy of DiskState from [Raxco Software](http://www.raxco.com). ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-my-missing-disk-space/292678/4 "2005-03-03T01:07:33Z")
_bangs head on desk_ Nevermind, found it. How you lose a 2 gig file is beyond me, but I managed it. Oh, and remind me to clean out my temporary internet files once in a while? I had over a gig of stuff in there. Now I’m off to write “I will try to fix problems harder myself before asking my fellow dopers for help” a thousand times in a word file. We’ll see how much space that takes up. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-my-missing-disk-space/292678/5 "2005-03-03T01:10:28Z")
I use [TreeSize](http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml). It’s an excellent little tool that will show you a breakdown of your hard-drive usage. The only thing you have to remember when running it in XP is to run it from an account with full Administrator privileges. If you run it from a Limited account, it won’t see all files on the hard drive. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-my-missing-disk-space/292678/6 "2005-03-03T01:11:31Z")
Well, it appears i was too late. Still, i think TreeSize is a good thing to have on your computer anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-find-my-missing-disk-space/292678/7 "2005-03-03T01:40:18Z")
A second for treesize. It’s one of my must-have utilities.