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Calculate folder size from the command line

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by Steve Wiseman on July 23, 2010 · 0 comments

in Tips,Tools,Utility,Windows

Even with the huge amount of space that I have, I am always running out. When that happens I start digging.

Usually I wait through this:

Folder Properties

If you have more than just a few folders, it can be a huge waste of time.

I ran across a free tool from Microsoft called “Disk Usage”

You can download it from here

It is a command line tool. Point it at any folder, and get the same information:

Folder Properties DU

With one catch – it is much faster than using Windows Explorer ;)

For example, I went to the properties of a development folder on our server. It took 1 minute and 10 seconds to get the total size.

With Disk Usage it took 15 seconds.

The next part I am about to show you is even better. It is the real reason I love this tool. If you use the -v option, it will show you a breakdown of how much each sub folder is taking up:

Folder Disk Usage

Now with a quick glance, I can see what folders are taking up the most space. From there I can investigate and clean out anything that is not needed.

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