Finding and Deleting Large Files

[Bob_16]

I have a Win 2003 server where available disk space is becoming a problem. I would like to find large files, so i can review if they are valid, or needed. I would also like to list one entire partion by date, sending the output to a file for review. Would i use the dir command from a command window?

thanks.

[Phil.Howell]

You could...
but it would be more fun to use
http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/
Phil

[Ken wanderer]

Hi Bob,
I went through this issue last year before finally replacing the drives.
I looked for music, art and Power Point files as these were always the largest, could be copied to cd or dvd and would have no impact on the system.
fyi,
We replaced one drive at a time on our array and then after the three were replaced we created a new drive with the extra 54gb's.
we had 3 18gig drives and replaced w 3 72 gig drives. Once the last one was in and replicated, we created a new drive with the new space. We did not have to restart or redirect.
Ken

[Alan_152]

Just use the normal search utilty from the start button, and sort by file size by clicking on the "size" column header.

[Gary Cooper_1]

To display files above a certain size in Windows 2003, use the Search -> What size is it? function.

As far as I can see, there isn't a facility within windows to print the search results. You will need to resort to a third party product such as http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/sysexp.html

I've no experience of this product BTW, so can't offer any opinion. If do you use a third party product, please report back and let us know what you've used and how you got on.

Regards,

Gary

[Ken wanderer]

Gary,
Use the print screen key and then open 'paint' and paste the image from the clipboard into paint.
hint: hold the alt key and then hit the print screen key to only copy the 'active program' screen image.
Ken
There is no reason to buy a third party screen capture program unless you do not like to manually do it yourself.

[Gary Cooper_1]

Ken,

Wht you say will work for a small list of files, but if it won't fit on one screenful, you're stuffed.

BTW, the third-party product that I provided the link for is free.

Regards,

Gary

[Bob_16]

First let me thank everyone who replied, you each deserve points!

One thing these methods don't show is hidden system files. I use the dir command and found the pagefile.sys file was taking most of the space, more than necessary.

dir /a:h /o:-s > filesname.txt

displays hidden system files, and sorts the directory by size, largest to smallest.

I spent a little more time using the Help and Support feature and jogged my Dos commands memory, thanks again for everyone's help

[Gary Cooper_1]

Hi Bob,

You can search for hidden system files. In the search pane, if you click 'More advanced options', you'll see a tick box 'Search system folders' and also one 'Search hidden files and folders'.

Regards,

Gary

[Roger Faucher]

Bob:

I suggest making the page file equal 2x real memory size. If you have more than one physical drive put it on the non-boot drive (you'll still need some (64MB?) swap file space on the boot drive for system dumps).

Make a great day!

Roger

[Alan_152]

To tack on to Roger's comments about the swap file: make the swap file a contiguous file of 2xRAM+2MB, or 4095 min/4095 max (whichever is smaller). Put the swap file on the fastest drive you have. If that drive is not c:\, then make sure you have a 2MB swap file on c:\ as well for crash dump purposes.