1. Use the Advanced Windows 8 Search Attributes To Find Files Of Certain Size Range
1. Step Open the Windows Explorer (Windows key + E)
2. Step At the top right there is an input field Search This PC, enter size: and a dropdown will appear that ranges from Empty to Huge files. Windows considers 1 – 16 MB large files and huge files are 16-128 MB. I am not sure what hard drives they are using at Microsoft to consider 128MB huge, but that’s what they used:
3. Step Luckily, the Windows 8 field supports direct input. You can simply enter size:>1GB to find files that are larger than 1GB for example
4. Step You can even use the AND operator to search for a specific size range. E.g. if you know that your target file is larger than 100 MB and not larger than 1GB (1000MB) then you can use a syntax like this: size: >100MB AND <1GB
2. Use A Tool Such As TreeSize To Analyze Your Disk
TreeSize is a great utility to analyze your disk on Windows 7 or 8 and can quickly show you the largest directories and largest files. The tool is free to download
3. Use A Powershell Script To Find Large Files Recursively on C:
1. Step Powershell is not as difficult to use as the command prompt utility and is a very powerful tool. We have various Powershell tutorials to help you get started
2. Step Alright, simply highlight and copy this Get-ChildItem -path C:\ -recurse | where { ($_.Length / 1MB) -gt 10 }
3. Step You can paste it straight into powershell after right-clicking into the Powershell (NOTE: Copy and paste works via a simple right-click. You may have to try it a few times, you may have to copy the original code a couple times via CTRL + C and insert via right-click. At times it will paste empty lines!)
Conclusion
Know any other method to find large files? Let us know in the comments. If you have any useful snippets or Powershell scripts, post the code below.
If you have any questions, post any questions!