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➤Disk Space

Commands and tools to analyze, monitor, and manage disk space on Windows!

Windows
Published on
Karl Certa
#windows #disk #storage #powershell #logs

Maintain and manage storage space on a Windows system using PowerShell, CMD, and built-in Windows tools.

📊 Storage Overview

📋 Disk space per drive

Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_LogicalDisk | Select-Object DeviceID, @{Name="Size(GB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Size/1GB,2)}}, @{Name="FreeSpace(GB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.FreeSpace/1GB,2)}}
wmic logicaldisk get size,freespace,caption

💽 Modern disk space view

Get-Volume | Format-Table DriveLetter, FileSystemLabel, @{Name="Size(GB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Size/1GB,2)}}, @{Name="Free(GB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.SizeRemaining/1GB,2)}}

💿 Detailed disk information

Get-Disk | Format-Table Number, FriendlyName, @{Name="Size(GB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Size/1GB,2)}}, HealthStatus
diskpart
list disk

📂 Directory Analysis

📦 Directory size (PowerShell)

(Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Windows" -Recurse | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB

📊 Size of all folders in current directory

Get-ChildItem -Directory | ForEach-Object { $size = (Get-ChildItem -Path $_.FullName -Recurse | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1MB; "$($_.Name): $([math]::Round($size,2)) MB" }

🧱 Directories by descending size

Get-ChildItem -Directory | ForEach-Object {
    $size = (Get-ChildItem -Path $_.FullName -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1MB
    [PSCustomObject]@{Name=$_.Name; Size=$size}
} | Sort-Object Size -Descending

📁 Directory contents with sizes

dir /s

🏆 Identifying Large Files

🔍 Top 10 largest files

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Sort-Object Length -Descending | Select-Object -First 10 FullName, @{Name="Size(MB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Length/1MB,2)}}

🐋 Large files (+100MB)

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object {$_.Length -gt 100MB} | Select-Object FullName, @{Name="Size(MB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Length/1MB,2)}}

🗂️ Largest files by extension

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Recurse -File -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Group-Object Extension | Sort-Object @{Expression={($_.Group | Measure-Object Length -Sum).Sum}} -Descending | Select-Object -First 10

📁 Largest directories

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\" -Directory | ForEach-Object {
    $size = (Get-ChildItem -Path $_.FullName -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB
    [PSCustomObject]@{Path=$_.FullName; Size=$size}
} | Sort-Object Size -Descending | Select-Object -First 10

🧹 Cleanup and Freeing Space

🗑️ Windows Disk Cleanup

cleanmgr /sagerun:1

🗑️ Empty recycle bins

Clear-RecycleBin -Force

📜 Clean temporary folders

Remove-Item -Path "$env:TEMP\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Windows\Temp\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

🧹 Clean old files (>30 days)

Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Logs" -Recurse -File | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30)} | Remove-Item -Force

💿 Clean restore points

vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /oldest

🚨 Real-time Monitoring

📊 Continuous space monitoring

while ($true) {
    Clear-Host
    Get-Volume | Format-Table DriveLetter, FileSystemLabel, @{Name="Size(GB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.Size/1GB,2)}}, @{Name="Free(GB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.SizeRemaining/1GB,2)}}
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 10
}

🔄 Large directory monitoring

$folders = @("C:\Windows\Logs", "C:\ProgramData", "C:\Users")
while ($true) {
    Clear-Host
    foreach ($folder in $folders) {
        $size = (Get-ChildItem -Path $folder -Recurse -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB
        Write-Host "$folder : $([math]::Round($size,2)) GB"
    }
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 30
}

📋 Advanced Log Management

📝 Windows Event Logs

Managing Windows system logs to purge and limit used space

Cleanup commands

# Check event log sizes
Get-WinEvent -ListLog * | Where-Object {$_.RecordCount -gt 0} | Select-Object LogName, @{Name="Size(MB)";Expression={[math]::Round($_.FileSize/1MB,2)}}, RecordCount | Sort-Object "Size(MB)" -Descending
 
# Clear a specific log
Clear-EventLog -LogName "Application"
Clear-EventLog -LogName "System"
Clear-EventLog -LogName "Security"
 
# Clear all logs (caution!)
Get-EventLog -List | ForEach-Object {Clear-EventLog $_.Log}
 
# Backup before clearing
Get-EventLog -LogName Application | Export-Csv -Path "C:\Backup\Application.csv"

Configuration via Group Policy

# Open local policy editor
gpedit.msc
 
# Path: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Event Viewer
# Settings: Maximum log file size

🔄 IIS Logs (if applicable)

Automatic IIS log rotation to prevent unlimited growth

# Locate IIS logs
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles" -Recurse
 
# Delete old IIS logs (>30 days)
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\inetpub\logs\LogFiles" -Recurse -File | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30)} | Remove-Item -Force
 
# Configure automatic rotation via IIS Manager
# IIS Manager > Sites > Site > Logging > Format: W3C > Advanced > Log File Rollover

🔍 Windows Update Logs

Windows Update log cleanup

# Clean update files
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\*" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
 
# Clean Windows Update cache
Stop-Service -Name wuauserv
Stop-Service -Name cryptSvc
Stop-Service -Name bits
Stop-Service -Name msiserver
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Start-Service -Name wuauserv
Start-Service -Name cryptSvc
Start-Service -Name bits
Start-Service -Name msiserver

🧹 Manual Log File Cleanup

Commands to manually purge log files and reclaim space

# Delete old .log files
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Windows\Logs" -Recurse -File -Filter "*.log" | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30)} | Remove-Item -Force
 
# Delete dump files
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Windows\Minidump\*" -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Windows\memory.dmp" -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
 
# Clean application logs
$logPaths = @(
    "C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles",
    "C:\Windows\debug",
    "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER"
)
foreach ($path in $logPaths) {
    if (Test-Path $path) {
        Get-ChildItem -Path $path -Recurse -File | Where-Object {$_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7)} | Remove-Item -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
    }
}

🛠️ Built-in Graphical Tools

💾 Disk Cleanup

# Open disk cleanup tool
cleanmgr
 
# Advanced cleanup with system options
cleanmgr /sageset:1
cleanmgr /sagerun:1

📊 Storage Usage Analyzer

# Open Windows 10/11 storage analyzer
ms-settings:storagesense