If your hard drive is starting to run out of space, your Windows updates (and many others) could fail and you may run into security issues. To solve this, your best option is to check largest items on hard drive that has Windows on it and relocate (or delete) them.
Option 1: Use Windows Storage Settings for a Broad Overview and Smart Options
By default, Windows might be keeping some old update files and updates that can be safely removed, which can save a few gigabytes of space.
Step 1. Open Settings via “Win + I” and go to “System.”
Step 2. Select “Storage” and wait for Windows to complete calculating available space.
Step 3. If you want to save a bit of space, click on “Temporary files.”
You can instantly remove temporary files from there. Keep the suggested options checked and select “Remove files.” You can also keep “Storage Sense” on to periodically remove obsolete files.
Option 2: Use a Third-Party Tool to Find Largest Items on Hard Drive
Third-party tools allow you a much better filtering view and have a visual interface that helps you check largest items on hard drive partitions easily.
To find large items on Windows, WinDirStat is likely your best bet (which we’ll use for demonstration). For Mac, you can use GrandPerspective.
Step 1. Download WinDirStat from the official download page. In most cases, you’ll want the Intel 64-bit installer.
Step 2. Run the downloaded file and follow the installation instructions.
Step 3. Find and open the application from your search bar if you didn’t add a shortcut to your desktop.
Step 4. Select the drives you want to check or go to “All Local Drives” and select “OK.” You can choose to scan for duplicates, but this is much slower.
Step 5. Click on the “Largest Files” tab on the bottom of the path selector (but above the visual grid).
In there, you’ll get a direct path to the largest files and their extensions. You can use the extension descriptor on the right to determine what each file is supposed to be. In most cases, the paging files or Windows installation files will be at the top, followed by large graphics caches and video files.
You can also manually click on a particular file from the graphical view on the bottom, which displays items based on the relative space they occupy on the disk (so the largest single block is the biggest file).
Option 3: Use File Explorer to Find Large Items Natively
If you don’t want a full graphical interface, you can search through big files with File Explorer.
Step 1. Open File Explorer or This PC, then find the hard drive you want to browse.
Step 2. In the search bar, enter “size: >” followed by the size you want and the unit needed (so “size: >150MB” will search for all files larger than 150 MB).
The search may take a long time if you have a lot of files, so it’s not a foolproof method.
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Last updated on 11 January, 2026
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