Easily find and delete BIG files that are taking up space on your Hard Drive

full-hard-driveEarlier today I tried to copy a large file I had made in Photoshop and I was told that the operation couldn’t complete because there wasn’t enough room on my hard drive for it. So, I needed a way to get a lot of space back, but I wasn’t sure what was taking up all of the room. I set about looking for ways to see what was going on on my drive and I happened upon some really great tools to help you visualize all your files. The process is called “Treemaps”.

I managed to find free Treemap programs for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. For Windows users, you need to get a copy of WinDirStat (Windows Directory Statistics) HERE. Once installed, you can start it up and tell it to either analyze your whole drive, or specific folders. Here’s how it looks.

windirstat-screen-cap

There is two options for Mac users. Grand Perspective (Gets up and going really quickly, easy to use) and Disk Inventory X (Longer to scan but a more thorough and detailed interface). Here’s how Grand Perspective looks.

grand-perspective-screen-cap

And this is how Disk Inventory X Looks.

disk-inventory-x-screen-cap

For Linux users, you can get KDirStat HERE. I havent tried it yet, but it looks very similar to WinDirStat. This screen capture is from their site.They are all fairly easy to use. Just roll your cursor over the big ones and the filename appears in the bottom left corner of the window. You can then decide which files you want to delete, and start enjoying some free space on your hard drive again.

Clear and delete the list of recent conversations in Heytell

Heytell IconHeytell is a great little app. For me, it’s like a phone call, a walkie talkie, and a answering machine all rolled into one. But if you have a few contacts, and use the app regularly, it wont be long before your conversation window is full up, and you can search the app until your blue in the face and you won’t find a “delete” or “Clear” option anywhere!

Thankfully, it is REALLY EASY to clear recent conversations!

All you gotta do is swipe your finger left to right on them! Just pick the conversation you want to clear, swipe your finger left to right on it as shown below,

swipe on heytell conversationAnd look what comes up!

Highlighted Heytell Conversation to DeleteA delete button!

great-successAll you gotta do now is press delete, and your window will be free and clear, and ready for your next conversation!

heytell window clearedEasy when you know how huh! This method also works in other apps to, so don’t be afraid to drag your finger across something, you never know what will pop up!

Disable and stop that annoying delete confirmation dialogue box in OSX Lion

delete-dialogue-boxI know that dialogue warning boxes are there for a reason, and they protect us from accidentally deleting stuff we don’t really want to delete, but I work with dozens of files, and dozens of versions of files at a time. If you are someone who has the need to delete files a lot, and likes to see the “Empty” trash can icon (like me) it is possible to disable that annoying “Are you sure you really want to empty your trash can, even though you just specifically right clicked on the icon and purposely selected the “empty trash” option?” dialogue box.

Click on your desktop to activate the finder, then under the “Finder” menu, select preferances.

delete-confirmation-dialogue-boxOnce you have selected “Preferences” and the preferences pane is open, its just a simple matter un-checking the “Show warning before emptying the Trash” option.

delete-confirmation-dialogue-box

Its only a little thing I know, but if you are a true “Power-User”, this is a godsend that can save you a lot of extra clicks.