The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Free, or Purgeable. Testing conducted by Apple in October 2019 using preproduction 2.3GHz 8-core Intel Core i9-based 16-inch MacBook Pro systems with 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD. The wireless web test measures battery life by wirelessly browsing 25 popular websites with display brightness set to 12 clicks from bottom or 75%. Disk Space Analyzer is the best tool to find out what is taking up your Hard Drive space. It is a disk visualizer, which shows each folder size on a sunburst disk chart. When your startup disk is almost full and you need to quickly free up space on Mac, the disk storage analyzer will help you to view the drive usage map, find the largest. The Competition. DaisyDisk ($10) is a beautiful disk space analyzer. It's the preference of many Mac users. What it does differently is display disk usage data as a sunburst map, which some may.
You may not think much about disk space analyzers until the day you need one. When the error message pops up on your desktop telling you that you don't have enough room on your hard disk, it might be tempting to start tossing old songs or going over your photos to see if you're holding on to some blurry ones.
That's where a disk analyzer comes in. This type of utility looks at your hard disk as a whole and breaks down what's taking up the most space. Different disk analyzers sort and organize this information in different ways, but they're all designed to help you understand what you're devoting the most storage (and, hopefully, where you can get rid of some disk-hogging data). So what are our favorite disk analyzers?
| Rating | Name | Features | Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CleanMyMac X | The most powerful visual disk analyzer | Link |
| 2 | DaisyDisk | Provides handy storage categories | Link |
| 3 | Grand Perspective | Rectangle-shaped storage map | Link |
A disk analyzer is an important part of your storage management arsenal, but it's not the only part. Combined with a tool that can scan for junk data and do deep and permanent deletion, it can substantially improve your Mac's performance. It can give you a bird's-eye view of your hard disk and help you come up with a storage strategy that reflects your priorities.
Choosing the best disk space analyzer for Mac
How can you tell which storage manager will work for you? After all, the default Finder feature on your desktop has pretty decent functionality. Why not just use that?
To get a sense of what's out there, we went in search of the best disk space analyzers for Mac:
1. CleanMyMac X: A top-tier Mac disk analyzer
- It has a free version — a link download it from the developer's site
- Important system folders are protected
- Easy multi-level navigation and other disk maintenance tools
One of the standout disk analyzers available is CleanMyMac X's Space Lens feature. Part of the app's wider set of powerful utilities, Space Lens helps to visualize the relative sizes of different folders. Representing each area of storage as a bubble, this module helps you map and explore the different parts of your drive. Each bubble's size corresponds to the total storage it's using.
The interface lets you move smoothly between files, either by clicking with the mouse or using the arrow keys. This makes it simple to move through your disk and see what areas are using the most storage. The Quick Look tool gives you more detailed information about a file without actually opening it.
CleanMyMac X integrates file cleanup tools right into Space Lens. A pop-up window lets you select unwanted apps for deletion without leaving the file viewer. You can add files to a running hit list as you go, then permanently remove them all with a click once you've got enough to free up some room on your disk.
It's this level of slick functionality that makes CleanMyMac X our pick for disk analyzer. Click the link to try it for free.
CleanMyMac X is a disk space analyzer that's fully notarized by Apple.
2. DaisyDisk: a stylish Mac disk analyzer
The beautiful mapping features of DaisyDisk certainly win style points. The app represents your hard disk as a colorful wheel divided into segments.
You navigate by clicking into individual segments to zoom in on particular storage areas. A simple drag-and-drop tool lets you assemble the files that you'd like to delete, while a counter adds up the space you'll free up by deleting them.
DaisyDisk's integrated preview function lets you check the contents of selected files, even videos, so you can be sure that you're not deleting anything you'd rather keep.
3. Finder: The classic Mac disk analyzer
Finder is the standard-issue storage manager on every Mac computer. Its smiling blue face icon has been synonymous with Mac OS for years, and it's not a bad disk analyzer for the casual user.
Finder lacks the bells and whistles of some of the other apps listed here, but it's more than capable of sorting your hard drive by file size, giving you a rough but useful picture of what's hogging the most storage.
This isn't an ideal workaround, though. Finder is a general-purpose workhorse, and finding big files isn't its main job.
4. Grand Perspective: A great Mac storage manager
A longtime fixture for Mac disk management, Grand Perspective might look a little outdated. Its boxy, heat-map style display, though, is a surprisingly effective way to visualize blocks of data on your disk.
You can adjust the app to show more than just file size: the heatmap can be coded to file age, last change and more. However, it's more technical than its younger competitors, and takes a little more effort to decipher the results.
5. Disk Inventory X: a useful disk storage tool for Mac
Disk Inventory X is another disk analyzer that's been around for a while. Its age shows in its somewhat dated display, but its tree mapping of your hard drive is an excellent way to see where your storage is being used.
Disk Inventory X misses out on a leading spot because it's due for an update and because its tree mapping feature can be tricky to adjust to.
6. OmniDiskSweeper: a technical disk manager for Mac
Like the other apps discussed here, OmniDiskSweeper scans and interprets your hard disk data. Unlike the others, it doesn't visualize that data in any way.
While it gives users lots of raw information and control, the app also requires a higher level of technical skill than the others to operate. It relies on you, the user, to make decisions about what can be safely deleted.
More up-to-date disk analyzers can generally recommend files that are safe to delete.
Conclusion
Choosing the best storage manager depends on your user skills. Of course, you can always use Finder but you can do infinitely more with dedicated tools. If Omnisweeper is too geeky for you, you can look at CleanMyMac X's Space Lens — it's visually appealing and powerful at the same time.
Organize your cluttered files and recover precious hard disk space on your Mac in a few simple steps. Best mac widget games.
It makes disk management easier than before.
Analyzes Space Usage
The scan report shows usage statistics of storage in terms of file count, size and
percentage. It is one of the best disk space analyzer available today.
- Other Files
- Junk Files
- Audio Files
- Compressed Files
- Video Files
- Document Files
- Image Files
- 1 GB
- 2 GB
- 3 GB
- 4 GB
- 5 GB
- 6 GB
- Copy
- Move
- Compress
- Delete
Features and Benefits
Disk Analyzer Pro identifies large files & folders, deletes unwanted and de-clutters data on your Mac to recover precious disk space & keep your storage organized!
All Folders And Subfolders List
This feature of Disk Analyzer Pro shows a complete list of folders and subfolders on the drive sorted by file size. It helps in identifying the largest folders on the system. The list displays folder properties like their name, path, and size, number of sub folders within them etc. Apart from this last modified date and time are also displayed for user's convenience. Double clicking them would open up file explorer allowing you to manage these files.
Disk Inventory X misses out on a leading spot because it's due for an update and because its tree mapping feature can be tricky to adjust to.
6. OmniDiskSweeper: a technical disk manager for Mac
Like the other apps discussed here, OmniDiskSweeper scans and interprets your hard disk data. Unlike the others, it doesn't visualize that data in any way.
While it gives users lots of raw information and control, the app also requires a higher level of technical skill than the others to operate. It relies on you, the user, to make decisions about what can be safely deleted.
More up-to-date disk analyzers can generally recommend files that are safe to delete.
Conclusion
Choosing the best storage manager depends on your user skills. Of course, you can always use Finder but you can do infinitely more with dedicated tools. If Omnisweeper is too geeky for you, you can look at CleanMyMac X's Space Lens — it's visually appealing and powerful at the same time.
Organize your cluttered files and recover precious hard disk space on your Mac in a few simple steps. Best mac widget games.
It makes disk management easier than before.
Analyzes Space Usage
The scan report shows usage statistics of storage in terms of file count, size and
percentage. It is one of the best disk space analyzer available today.
- Other Files
- Junk Files
- Audio Files
- Compressed Files
- Video Files
- Document Files
- Image Files
- 1 GB
- 2 GB
- 3 GB
- 4 GB
- 5 GB
- 6 GB
- Copy
- Move
- Compress
- Delete
Features and Benefits
Disk Analyzer Pro identifies large files & folders, deletes unwanted and de-clutters data on your Mac to recover precious disk space & keep your storage organized!
All Folders And Subfolders List
This feature of Disk Analyzer Pro shows a complete list of folders and subfolders on the drive sorted by file size. It helps in identifying the largest folders on the system. The list displays folder properties like their name, path, and size, number of sub folders within them etc. Apart from this last modified date and time are also displayed for user's convenience. Double clicking them would open up file explorer allowing you to manage these files.
Custom Type Summary
This is a very interesting feature of Disk Analyzer Pro which groups data into various categories depending upon their file types like source code files, image files, oldest files, document files and compressed files. Double click on the categories to see more detailed information about the files listed and the space occupied by them on the drive.
Integrated File Explorer
Using the built-in File Explorer, you can browse through storage with ease. This feature also gives you the facility to manage operations like delete, copy move etc while browsing through the storage. While browsing you can see the detailed information of the current folder like the size, sub-folders, no of files, creation date, last modified date etc. You can further open these files, preview them, or simply show them in Mac's Finder using the File Explorer feature.
File Size and File Types
Freeware Disk Space Analyzer
'File Size' section presents to you a summary of the files on your storage grouping them on the basis of file sizes. Double clicking them would open up file explorer allowing you to manage these files. 'File Types' section presents to you a summary of the files on your storage grouping them on the basis of document types.Double clicking them would open up file explorer allowing you to manage these files.
Miscellaneous Settings
Here you can define settings & filters to refine search & display as per your convenience, like the unit for file size(KB, MB, GB), the drive/folder locations to exclude from the scan, the file types which should be shown in the scan results and the size and time filter for large and old files. You can choose to omit the display of empty folders in the scan results.
File Date and Unwanted Files
'File Date' sections show files grouped per size range, file types and date range respectively. Double clicking them would open up file explorer allowing you to manage these files. 'Unwanted Files' section lists all the unwanted files occupying unnecessary disk space on the drive. It includes junk files, temporary files, log files etc. which collect over time on your system. Regain gigabytes of hard drive space and de-clutter your system by getting rid of these files.
Disk Report and Overview
Disk Analysis report shows the usage statistics of the storage in terms of file count, size and percentage of the storage being used by various file types. It gives you both, detailed and graphical overview of the storage. Double clicking a file category in the overview section opens file viewer window where you can delete, copy, move, Zip files and apply further search filters.
A powerful disk analysis tool for MAC
Disk Analyzer Pro is a powerful tool which provides you a detailed overview of which files and folders are hogging the most disk space on the system, grouped by file size, file type, file date and other attributes.
Testimonials
Disk Analyzer Pro experiencesI am very pleased with this application. It is very intuitive and tells me what I want to know about the objects that are consuming space. I have found it to be extremely useful in managing the precious and limited space on my MacBook Pro 256 GB HD. I was constantly managing the last few GB of free space before I got Disk Analyzer Pro. When I used the application, it told me what I could move to my SD Card that would free up enough space to keep me from having to do constant space management on the HD.
Free Disk Space Analyzer
Disk Analyzer Pro experiencesOs X Disk Space Analyzer
Down to 4Gb's of space, this program helped me recover 45 GB's of space on my hard drive. It helped identify files I thought was long gone.
