GetFolderSize is a small, free program designed to reveal the disk size of folders and files on your hard drive(s) in a sorted list, to determine which folders, files or programs are taking up the most hard disk space.
It simply scans your selected hard drive or partition, displays both the folder list and the file list in two different panes, and allows the user to sort using any of the column heads in the display (such as size, number of files, or number of folders).
What I especially like about GetFolderSize is the availability of a portable version, which means that you can simply carry it around on a USB and use it in any environment that you need.
There are quite a few free programs out there designed to deliver more or less the same functionality, many of which offer visualizations such as graphs and pie charts. Getfoldersize, in contrast, sticks with a simple view similar to the Windows explorer details view, with two panes to display folders and sizes.
I will admit: at some point I stopped caring much for most programs of this sort that offer charts and graphs, with the notable exception of the so-called “treemap” representation offered by SpaceSniffer (which is my favorite program for monitoring disk usage and one of my favorite freeware programs period). I will also say that I like Free Disk Usage Analyzer, which does more or less the same thing with a few more bells and whistlers (e.g. top largest folders and top largest files tabs).
But every once in a while I find that I just would like a simple list that shows me folder and file sizes, without any data visualization pyrotechnics. Which is why I like GetFolderSize. The other reason I like it is the availability of a portable version, giving instant hard drive usage diagnostics on the fly, wherever you may be.
The program is very simple to use: just select the drive to scan and you will be presented with a sorted list of folders that you can drill down into in the left pane. The right pane displays the files contained within each respective selected folder, also sorted by size.
Version Tested: 2.2.6
Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, 2008. Runs on 32bit and 64bit machines. The portable version does not support Windows XP, 2000 without any Service Pack installed.
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 2.37 megs).
