Finding large files can be difficult, especially when they’re scattered across multiple drives and folders. However, with the right tools, figuring out what files are taking up the most space becomes a simple task.

1Use Third-Party Disk Space Analyzers

Disk space analyzer apps scan your storage drive and list files by size in descending order, putting the largest files at the top. This makes it easy to identify which data is consuming the most space. I use the Disk Space Analyzer app for this task on macOS, while on Windows, I use TreeSize.

How to Use Disk Space Analyzer on macOS

Repeat these steps for all large files.

How to Use TreeSize on Windows

Work through the list and remove any large files you no longer need.

2Use Your Operating System’s Built-In Tools

If you prefer not to use third-party apps, Windows and macOS offer built-in tools to help you scan for and delete large files.

you’re able to also manually search for large files in specific folders. Select the drive or folder you want to scan on Windows, type “size: gigantic” in the search bar, and arrange the results by file size to find the largest files. On macOS, select the directory you want to scan, and type “size:>size in bytes” into the search bar. macOS will filter files larger than that size.

Checking the data consuming the storage space using the Disk Space Analyzer app on macOS.

3Don’t Forget These Unusual Space Hogs

When checking for folders and applications that consume the most real estate on your storage drive, keep an eye out for duplicate files, as they unnecessarily take up valuable storage space. For detailed instructions, refer to ourguide on finding and removing duplicate data from your Windows PCormacOS device.

If you’ve used virtual machines in the past, it’s worth checking if they’re taking up significant storage on your drive. If your virtualization software offers a “dynamically allocated storage” option for virtual disks, consider enabling it. This feature allows VMs to occupy only the storage they actually need rather than the total amount allocated to them.

Checking data consuming the most resources in the Treesize app on Windows.

Backups can also take up a lot of space because they often duplicate large amounts of data, store multiple versions of files, and include redundant data for safety. If you regularly perform full backups instead of incremental ones, this can add to the storage burden. So, switch to incremental backups and reduce the frequency of your backups to alleviate this issue.

Analyzing the data consuming the most storage space in macOS settings.

Checking data consuming the most resource in the Windows settings app.

Manually checking the large files in a folder in macOS.