6 Linux Hard Disk Analysis Applications

You recently bought a screw on a terabyte, but when you try to install a new program, the message “Your disk is full” appears. Common situation?
When buying a hard drive, I usually try to take the largest one, so that it is where to place the entire collection of video and music, as well as the ability to install and test any software. However, I noticed that no matter how big the hard drive is, the free space on it quickly ends. If you have the same problem, then it’s time to analyze the hard disk bootup and remove everything unnecessary.
Hereinafter, several ways to do this in Linux.

Command line

If you are a true Linux user, the easiest and fastest way is to use the “df” command from the command line. Just type:

df –h

in the terminal and it will show you the hard disk load in percent


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As can be seen from the above screenshot, the method can only serve as a quick view of the available disk space and is definitely not the most convenient for carrying out hard disk analysis.

Baobab

Most Linux distributions with Gnome (in particular, Ubuntu) use Baobab as the default disk browsing application. This is a great application that can separate and analyze the storage structure of the hard disk until the last folder. Just specify the folders required for scanning, and as a result you will get a pie chart reflecting the amount of space occupied by each file.

KDirStat and GdMap

If you used WinDirStat in Windows, then agree that this is a very convenient application that allows you to analyze and optimize your disk space. However, few people know that WinDirStat is actually a clone of KDirStat . KDirStat has the same functionality as WinDirStat (or maybe the other way around), except that it is designed for use in Linux. Although KDirStat was developed for KDE, it is also compatible with any X11 window manager.

KDirStat displays your folders / files as rectangles. The larger the file size, the larger the rectangle. This allows you to quickly browse the file system, and easily determine which folder / file takes up a lot of hard disk space.



Gd Map is the equivalent of Gnome's KDirStat, except that it does not display a tree-like folder structure and does not allow you to clear the hard disk.

Filelight

Like Baobab, Filelight creates an interactive map of concentric, segmented rings to help visualize disk usage on your computer. You can easily zoom in on the folders you need by clicking on the corresponding ring segment.

Philesight

Philesight is an implementation of Filelight as a web application, it can be run on a remote server that does not have a graphical interface. Philesight uses the command line to generate PNG files in the browser and includes CGI scripts to navigate the file system. One of its features is a colorful rainbow of concentric rings, which makes it very pleasant to look at.

xdiskusage

xdiskusage is a small program that displays the file system hierarchically, from left to right, rectangular shapes, with sizes corresponding to the size of the files. If you are scanning your home folder, on the left there will be a rectangle displaying the entire home folder, and on the right all the files inside it.
You can easily zoom in / out, the necessary folders by double-clicking on the corresponding rectangle.