WinDirStat or Windows Directory Statistics is a tool for disk usage statistics viewing and for file cleanup. The interface is similar to a Windows Explorer environment added with disk space statistics and its graphical representations. It is also an open source application which can easily be downloaded here.

Running WinDirStat

1. Double-click on the WinDirStat icon .

2. WinDirStat-Select Drives dialog will appear. Select which of the following options would be viewed: All Local Drives, Individual Drives, or A Folder. After the selection, click OK.

• In this example, Individual Drives option was selected. The selected drive is V drive which is the CESD Organizational Unit repository.

3. The result is a window with a Directory List, an Extension List, and a Treemap.

• Directory List resembles the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file size.
• Extension List serves as a legend of the file types and also shows statistics about them.
• Treemap represents each file as a colored rectangle, which area is proportional to the file's size.

• Just like Windows Explorer, the files in the Directory List can be expanded and collapsed.

WinDirStat As Tool

For OU Head

The OU Head which serves as an administrator for his respective OU repository, can regularly review the repository size against their allotted space. He can also monitor the distribution of space within the OU by percentage usage of each Scientist Branch.

In this example, assuming that the repository is almost out of space, the BBouman folder seems to be occupying most of it. The administrator can send an email to the Group Leader to check the disk usage and have a clean up if it is possible to reduce files.

To send an email, just click on Report, then click Send Mail to Owner.

The Disk Usage-Message dialog will appear. Just edit the message if needed, select the recipient of the email, then click Send. The Group Leader will recieve the notification email.

For Group Leader

The Group Leader who acts as an administrator for his own branch, needs to reduce disk space for his branch.

The Group Leader can look at the projects or file types and their relative percentage space usage. With this, he can also send an email to his Group Members to notify them of their disk space usage.

He can also determine if some large files can be deleted or archived to an offline storage, or if there are duplicate files. The Group Leader can select the biggest rectangle in the treemap so he can see which files actually occupies most of their disk space.

In this example, by clicking on the big red rectangle, the Group Leader knew that the file which take up a big space is the aerobic database. It can be seen by the blue highlight in the Directory List. And by looking at the Extension List, it can be verified that it is indeed a Microsoft Office Access file. If he wants to see the content of the aerobic database, he can simply double-click on the file in the Directory List to open the file.

For Group Member

The Group Member has the same use for WinDirStat as the Group Leader, only he is responsible for his own folder in the OU repository.

In this example, the Group Member can browse at the filenames and decide if he can already delete the file. If he has decided to delete it he can select the file and right-click beside it. Upon right-clicking, he can choose if the file will be sent to the Recycle Bin, where he can retrieve it just in case, or Delete the file permanently.