Our Verdict
trillion of file lurk in your oculus sinister X installation , many of them utilitarian ! In an age of spin grueling - driving plenty , in which a 3 - terabyte drive is cheap and fit in the distance a 250 gigabyte or 500 GB one did a few years ago , many of us are still constrained by the size of an SSD — or the annoying of a Mac model that has a hard drive it ’s nearly impossible to safely upgrade . WhatSize will aid you figure out the enigma of what ’s filling your drive , and give you both advice and tools to trim the fat .
WhatSize merge the functions of analysis and utility . Its psychoanalysis scans every file and folder on the disk and builds sortable , browsable , and optical directories . Its utilities can indicate files to remove . It all begin by take a parkway in the Devices tilt : WhatSize goes about its indexing business or loads a previously completed scan .
The analysis part is divided into internet browser , Outline , Table , and PieChart . browser app and Outline correspond to the pillar and views in the find . mesa comprises every file and folder on a drive , and can be sorted and filtered . For instance , you may find every file that ’s two yr or older that occupies 100 MB or more on your drive . This can avail spot standout problems easily .
Find just files , brochure , or both that meet filter criteria . ( get across any of these screenshots to enlarge . )
I find the PieChart view most immediately useful , however , because it visualize how store is separate up into folders and files , and click a Proto-Indo European segment lets you descend into leaflet . In this opinion , I discovered I had tens of gigabytes of old practical machine ( VM ) snapshots that I ’d never deleted relate to a long - unused Windows XP VMware installation that I would never involve to utilize again .
WhatSize ’s pie chart reveal to me diagrammatically how outdated practical machine snapshots had occupy up my drive .
On the tool side , Cleaner , Delocalizer , and duplication have unique mathematical function . The Cleaner shows you all the logarithm file , caches , temporary files , and downloads , as well as “ nib ” files . Nibs are user - interface bundles that are often bust out by lyric ; these can often , but not always , be deleted without affect the diligence . Delocalizer identifies OS X resources that are need for other languages . In the past , such localization principle single file could take up substantial quad , but they were only a few megabytes for me .
Logs , downloads , and more can occupy your drive ; the Cleaner feature finds them .
The most common cock you ’ll probably use , however , is Duplicates . When WhatSize creates its file list , it puddle a short - helping hand signature of every filing cabinet ’s depicted object , and uses that to identify identical files , ignore system metadata and the file name . This is useful , because if you had a 5 GB motion-picture show that you copied and renamed , a shaft that agree only name and file size would miss its duplicate condition . And conversely , 1000 files cry Image1.png would appear to be duplicates by single file name , even if each data file check a unique image .
It ’s likely your parkway is full of multiple copy of the same data file , sometimes advert differently , but distinguish as matches by Duplicates .
The Duplicates feature have you instantly delete a file or move it to the Trash . Even with the Admin place setting enable ( click the curl and enter an administrative word ) , WhatSize wo n’t let you trash files direct that fall outside the Users directory , lest you kill a file critical to OS X ’s normal operation .
you’re able to also prefer to replace a duplicate with a hard link , a feature that ’s used by Apple to create Time Machine backup man directories . A emblematic or balmy radio link is a kind of redirection , like an alias in the Finder . A grueling connection exploit in the filesystem just as if a written matter of the data point were in the same shoes , which ascertain that program or projects do n’t flunk if you Diamond State - matching . Multiple gruelling links can channelize to a single data file .
Scan in the place where you work
In test the software on a crowded 500 GB drive that had roughly 25 GB free , I was rapidly able to remove the aforementioned practical - machine snapshots , and a host of large and medium - sized duplicates , shedding over 90 GB , and give myself some breathing elbow room .
One major word of advice : It took more than a full workday to execute the initial analysis on my mid-2011 Mac miniskirt ( 16 GB RAM ) , often slowing down other operations . There ’s no way to pause a CAT scan in progress , though you could give up the program . In my examination , quitting halted the process , but relaunching allow it in an incomplete state , and the Remeasure option come out to start all over again . An Activity Monitor will at least show you the progression .
Its greatest flaw is n’t functionality , but price : Is it deserving $ 30 for what might be a one - prison term task ? Yes , if you frequently discover yourself with a filling drive and no explanation , or want to murder duplicate on a regular base . Standalone de - duplicators make the same and be less , but miss the visualisation and other lists and tools .
Bottom line
However , I ’m trusted I ’ll follow back to WhatSize on this organisation repeatedly , as I have nearly filled the driving force before and previously used Spotlight in a Finder windowpane to search for declamatory files , and manually hunt for duplicates . If you discover yourself squash regularly , or need a great one - clip blast , WhatSize fits the bill .
