The Disk Analyzer answers the question every full drive raises: where did my space actually go? Point it at a folder or whole drive and it does one bounded scan that produces three views — a per-folder treemap, your top large files, and content-verified duplicate groups. Anything you delete goes to the Recycle Bin, so a mistake is always recoverable.
What it produces
A single pass over the folder you choose feeds all three results:
- Folder treemap — the immediate sub-folders of the location you scanned, sized by how much space each holds, so the space hogs jump out visually. Files sitting directly in the root are bucketed as "(root files)".
- Top large files — your 200 biggest individual files, each with its size and last-modified date, so you can spot forgotten ISOs, video exports, old installers and game downloads.
- Duplicates — groups of byte-for-byte identical files, found by SHA-256 content hash (not by name), ordered so the groups wasting the most reclaimable space appear first.
How to scan a drive or folder
- Open Disk Analyzer from the sidebar.
- Choose the folder or drive to analyze (for example
C:\, or just your user profile if you only care about your own files). - Start the scan. A large drive can take a while; the scan can be cancelled if you navigate away.
- Use the treemap to drill toward the biggest folders, switch to the large-files list to find single offenders, and check the duplicates view to reclaim space from redundant copies.
- Select items you're sure about and delete them — they go to the Recycle Bin.
The duplicate finder only considers files 1 MB and larger, and only hashes files whose size already collides with another file's — so it spends its effort where real space is at stake and never flags tiny, harmless config files.
How duplicate detection stays trustworthy
Name-based "duplicate" tools are dangerous — two files called config.json are usually not the same file. BRUTAL never matches on name. It first groups candidate files by exact byte size, then computes a full SHA-256 hash of each candidate and only calls files duplicates when their hashes match. That means a reported duplicate group really is identical content. Each group shows the reclaimable space as size times (copies minus one) — i.e. what you'd save by keeping a single copy.
Built-in limits (so the scan stays fast and safe)
- The walk is capped at 600,000 files as a backstop, and the hashing work is capped too — so even a giant drive won't hang the app.
- Reparse points (junctions and symbolic links) are skipped, so the analyzer never double-counts or wanders into linked trees.
- The scanner never throws on a locked or access-denied file — it simply skips it and moves on.
Deleting safely
Unlike the Disk Cleaner (which permanently removes known junk), Disk Analyzer deletes go through the Recycle Bin — these are your files, and the app treats them as recoverable. Review duplicate groups carefully before deleting: keep at least one copy, and be cautious deleting files inside an application's own folders.
A treemap or large-files entry can be a file an app actively needs (a game's data, a virtual disk, a database). Deleting it sends it to the Recycle Bin, but the owning app may misbehave until you restore it. When in doubt, leave application folders alone and target your own documents, downloads and media.
Common issues / troubleshooting
- Scan looks incomplete on a huge drive — you may have hit the 600,000-file cap; scan a more specific sub-folder instead of the whole drive.
- An obvious duplicate isn't listed — files under 1 MB are intentionally ignored, and only same-size files are compared. Tiny files aren't worth the risk or the space.
- Folder sizes look smaller than expected — linked folders (junctions/symlinks) are skipped on purpose, so space that lives behind a link is counted under its real location, not the link.
Once you've found the space hogs, use the Disk Cleaner to clear caches and dumps, and Install Residue to remove folders left behind by apps you've already uninstalled.
FAQ
How does the duplicate finder avoid false matches?
It never matches by file name. It groups files by exact byte size, then computes a full SHA-256 content hash and only reports a group as duplicates when the hashes are identical — so a flagged group is genuinely the same content.
Are deleted files gone for good?
No. Disk Analyzer routes deletions through the Recycle Bin because these are your own files, so you can restore them if you change your mind. (Disk Cleaner is different — it permanently removes known junk.)
Why are some small files or folders missing from the results?
The duplicate finder ignores files under 1 MB, and the walk skips reparse points (junctions/symlinks) and caps at 600,000 files. These limits keep the scan fast and stop it from double-counting linked locations.
Can I scan just one folder instead of the whole drive?
Yes — point it at any folder. On very large drives, scanning a specific sub-folder is faster and avoids hitting the file-count cap.