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SpaceMonger

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70 pointsaarobot42 comments

WizTree is currently the best on Windows. It uses the MFT to scan disk, so it is incredibly fast, just like search engine everything. Its not FOSS, but its free for personal use and actively developed.

https://www.diskanalyzer.com/

https://www.voidtools.com/

Spacemonger is probably the oldest piece of non-updated software I still use. I've been using it continuously for over 20 years, about the same length as I've been using Winamp 2, and just recently used it to clear out some large files to create a full-disk backup.

It still works blazing fast on hard drives that are 1000 times the size than the drives that existed when it was programmed, and nearly as well as 20+ years ago (there are some occasional crashes when removing some system protected files, but easy to just open it up and scan again). I never made the jump to Spacemonger 2 because in the early years that I started using it, I was in high school without a credit card.

I emailed the author in December 2020 to see if there was a way to enable HiDPI on it, since that's the only real flaw of it right now. He responded 3 months later with a very personal message that I really appreciated.

I use "ncdu" on Linux and Mac, when I ran windows I ran WinDirStat, not because it's the best, but because it's floss

Thanks for [ncdu]. I like it and had not heard of it.

I see no mention of [KDirStat] http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/ of which, the much more famous, but later, [WinDirStat], is a clone.

Windirstat is similar and my go-to for this on PC. Is there a similar Mac/Linux app?

Yes, GrandPerspective is a visual file space tool for Mac OS http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

Strangely I haven't found yet a tool like spacemonger or spacesniffer for Linux. None have that square layout so ncdu it is.

Edit: I am trying something new here. Usually when I have beeninging complain or ask for help regarding a computer problem for a long time the solution appears in the minute in the comments or in a Google search. Fingers crossed.

QDirstat and K4Dirstat were the ones to use as of a few years ago; I don't know if there's a newer option since then.

They are still alive but they don't show the folder's names in the squares

I use Baobab on Linux. It appears to support MacOS as well.

https://apps.gnome.org/app/org.gnome.baobab/

I often type

  du -ax / | xdu -n -c 9

I've used duc on Linux for a while. Can recommend.

https://duc.zevv.nl/

And the fact that you can run the indexing and visualization in separate passes is extremely useful, especially for E.g. large network file systems that are slow to index.

I like, I've been working on a faster parallel scanner written in go for the really large filesystems, in my env it's around 10x faster. In any case I find the scan -> database which the client can view quickly very useful.

Also note that there's text based, graphical, and web interfaces to view the database.

DaisyDisk on macOS https://daisydiskapp.com/

OmniDiskSweeper on mac: https://www.omnigroup.com/more

qdirstat is the Linux equivalent. https://github.com/shundhammer/qdirstat

I use DaisyDisk for my Macs and WizTree for Windows

qdirstat - https://github.com/shundhammer/qdirstat

http://www.spacegremlinapp.com

GrandPerspective is free and has a lot of feature overlap http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/

I've used Sequoia view for years. Looks great. https://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

SpaceSniffer is a great more-recent alternative http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/

Disk Inventory X for MacOS is great. https://www.derlien.com/

Also Daisydisk, though it's paid: https://daisydiskapp.com/

I'm a bit confused at why people are saying it isn't updated, as its now a paid Stardock product (officially licensed, according to Sean Werkema's resume):

https://www.stardock.com/products/spacemonger/

The Stardock version 3.0 Build 1711 is from 2018, so that is a while since the last update and there's still no HiDPI. There's also a bug where it interprets 0-byte placeholder files as 8GB giants. But 2018 seems to be a newer update than what people here are suggesting.

But v3 isn't free, and I've not tried the old freeware / open source version, so I don't know if newer actually means "better".

There is an open source version of this:

https://www.werkema.com/programming/the-spacemonger-1-x-post...

Spacemonger was great, but it hasn't been updated in years. I recommend Wiztree. https://diskanalyzer.com/

Keeping the dream alive :)

http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/

I use treesize free edition on Windows. It displays an orderered tree of sizes, much more useful than any graphical representation, for me anyway.

Omg SpaceMonger. There's a blast from the past. Used to be an essential and crucial tool for me back in the day around the turn of the millennium.

Respect to whoever programmed it. Disk Inventory X became a must-install as soon as I switched over to Mac. Something about being able to see your whole disk that's more enlightening than browsing directories or trees somehow.

They have stopped developing it long time ago. Current alternative is SpaceSniffer http://www.uderzo.it/main_products/space_sniffer/

> They have stopped developing it long time ago.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I still use it and it does exactly what I want it to do - help me figure out what’s using up all of the space on my disk. It used to usually be media files. These days it’s usually Windows.

I used it back in days of 98 and XP. There were things they were going to develop. They were related to search I think. Don't remember. They remained only partially implemented.

SpaceSniffer on the other hand don't have that many features but it's very fast. If you are cleaning up files, you can see the size of boxes getting smaller in realtime as files being deleted.

Such a great tool. My Dad gave me a copy of the .exe on a USB when I was much younger. Since then I have kept a copy of it on my PC. Never fails. Nice surprise seeing this on HN today!

I still use this regularly. I literally used it yesterday. It’s a great solution to the problem of “how can I tell what is taking up all of the space on my drive”

Same here. I think I first found it on a shareware disc years and years ago, but still use it today on my Windows 10 machine

Same here. Spacemonger along with a very old version of Paintshop pro (paid) have been moving around my systems for almost two decades. Everytime I reinstall my computer I verify that I still have these two faithful programs somewhere.

This was a good free app to start with but I found that WizTree is faster across my 50+ TB bunch of drives consisting of internal and external USB drives.

Most alternatives mentioned here miss the main point of this, which is that it shows you 1 app that is equal to the size of x other apps

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