Well done for opening this after a title like that! :) I couldn’t resist the comparison…
Just a quick note today, I wanted to share with you one of my more useful and well used desktop (Win) tools.
It’s called SpaceSniffer, no it’s not SpacePiG, this one’s not one of mine. It’s a very handy disk space visualizer so you instantly see exactly which directories and files are hogging the most space on your drives.
There was a time when I didn’t give a flip about what was on my multiple drives, space wasn’t an issue, I downloaded AND KEPT everything!
Since then I’ve started to embrace minimalism in many areas of my life one of which has been my office setup. Moving from a 3 PC 3 screen setup to a single 17″ laptop has been one of the best moves I ever made.
At the same time I also decided I wanted to mirror my entire D: drive online with DropBox for total peace of mind and portability, but this meant limiting myself to 100GB of space.
SpaceSniffer helped me shed almost a terabyte of crud from my disks – old videos, mysterious temp directories, tons of PDF’s & zips that I am just never going to read. I’m now running at well below 100GB and by using SpaceSniffer regularly I plan to keep it that way.
The benefits have been astounding:
- I can actually find things quickly now
- I have peace of mind knowing my whole disk is safely mirrored offsite
- Windows file search doesn’t start crying when I ask it to locate p*.*
- My skin feels smoother
- My kids are smarter
- I’ve cleared all my debts
- Well, you get the idea…
It’s a completely free download, not an email form or API key in sight. No ones making any money here, just a free tool from me to you.
I’ve used similar tools that didn’t perform this well and cost $40.
I’d love to build up a list of tools you couldn’t live without, I’m not just talking plugins and IM here, we spend most of time on PC/Macs not servers anyway.
Leave a comment below with top tools.
Tags: DropBox, online, visualizer, SpaceSniffer, file search, terabyte, crud, free tool, Today, SpacePiG
Leave A Reply (12 comments So Far)
Roy
588 days ago
Wow! I just got rid of 10 gig of useless crud within 1 minute of opening this software on my machine, and I haven't even started using it properly yet. Wonderful. Thanks.
BlogPiG
587 days ago
Awesome Roy. It really is a great tool.
monetizethis
588 days ago
I snagged the killer app and will use it. There's something like this on my Mac and you're right, it's very useful (and does all those other magical things you mention as well)…
But I want to give kudos to your post (which I received by email) which is entertaining and fun and not pushy but actually offering something of value. Thanks for that and the awesome BlogPig software, too!
Kind regards,
Dave Jackson
BlogPiG
587 days ago
Thank you Dave. Glad you like the stuff we do ask you to pay for too! :)
Chris
588 days ago
Great plug-in, wonder if there's something similar I could use on my web server. One app I use every day is KeePass.
BlogPiG
587 days ago
Good idea about the server side tool, although without a GUI there won't be much to see. There's probaly a native *nix command that does it all for you but I' not that good.
Artty Sie
588 days ago
Dropbox (obviously)
LastPass
Chrome's built-in bookmark sync
BlogPiG
587 days ago
I'm a roboform fan and I'd struggle without my firefox plugins although Chrome's extension gallery is getting there now. Dropbox is the coolest thing out there.
Don
588 days ago
nice! Thanks for that! :)
One of my GEMS has been…
The "Everything" search engine
Locate files and folders by name instantly.
no more waiting for windows search! http://www.voidtools.com/
HTH!
Don
P.S. The draw for the free pro license was rigged cause I didn't win! :D
BlogPiG
587 days ago
No problem, I'll try Everything out. I've not had much luck with search services that index constantly but I've now I've got so few files it should work out better.
ps. Yep, it was rigged, we're all related :)
Dee
587 days ago
Thank you for sharing this great resource. It looks like it will be very useful! I had HDgraph, which shows you which folders are using the most space, but it did not give you the ability to zero down to specific large files.
My top free resources are probably well known to many:
7-Zip – zip and unzip files
Picasa – find photos and create free albums on the web
GIMP – edit photos (can draw, but not so well)
Filezilla – upload and download files from your websites
VMN Toolbox for grabbing screenshots and getting info about colors
My "best kept secret" is a a free video creation software for Windows that is very easy to use, has a lot of power, and is not top-heavy like some of the commercial ones. It is called "Memories on Web". It works great!
BlogPiG
584 days ago
7-zip I use everyday, it's ace.
Picasa is used to hold every photo I've ever taken, the face recognition has to been seen to be believed.
GIMP I could never fall in love with, I'm Photoshop and Picasa for edits too.
FileZilla is free right? Pretty amazing software for free. I use CuteFTP simply because I always have.
I'll try out VMN Toolbox and MoW soon, thanks.