Disk & Storage Guide
By To find the largest files on Windows, open the drive in File Explorer, type size:>1GB in the search box and sort the results by Size. Turn on View, Show, Hidden items first or the biggest system files stay out of sight. For your own folders, Settings, System, Storage, Cleanup recommendations lists large or unused files with a remove option. For a ranked list of the whole drive, run a PowerShell sort by Length with -Force. Or scan the drive with an analyzer that shows the biggest files next to the folders they live in.
A drive fills from the top down. Five or six files often account for more space than the next five thousand, which is why hunting the largest ones first is the quickest way to get room back. The catch is that Windows does not keep a list of them. You have to ask, and each way of asking sees a slightly different slice of the drive.
Here are four ways, in order from the quickest to the most complete, followed by what the largest files on a typical PC turn out to be and which of them are safe to touch.
How Do I Find the Largest Files on Windows?
Start with the search box. If it does not show what you expect, work down the list. Each method sees more of the drive than the one before.
Search File Explorer by size
Open This PC or the C: drive in File Explorer, click the search box at the top right and type size:>1GB. Explorer lists every file over a gigabyte in that location and its subfolders. Change the number to suit: size:>500MB for a smaller net, size:>5GB to see only the giants. Switch to Details view and click the Size column header to sort largest first.
Include hidden files, or you will miss the big ones
Search skips hidden and system files unless you tell it otherwise, and some of the largest files on a Windows drive are exactly those: hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys, old restore points and update caches. In File Explorer open View > Show and tick Hidden items, then run the size search again. Do not delete system files from here. Note them and deal with them through their own settings.
Let Settings point out large or unused files
Open Settings > System > Storage > Cleanup recommendations. Under Large or unused files Windows lists big files in your user folders that you have not opened recently, with a size beside each and a tick box to remove it. It only looks at your profile, not the whole drive. It favours files that are both big and stale, which is often the right pair.
Use PowerShell for a ranked list of the whole drive
Right-click Start and open Terminal or Windows PowerShell. Paste Get-ChildItem -Path C:\ -File -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Sort-Object Length -Descending | Select-Object -First 50 FullName, Length and press Enter. The -Force part includes hidden files and the error setting skips folders you are not allowed to read. You get the fifty largest files on C: with full paths, largest first. Divide Length by 1073741824 for gigabytes.
Scan the drive and see the biggest files in context
The methods above give a list. What they do not give is where those files sit in relation to everything else. Univik Disk Usage Reporter scans the drive once and shows a biggest files view with the full path of each, alongside a folder ranking and a treemap, so you can tell a 20 GB game archive from a 20 GB backup you forgot. Right-click a file to open its folder, then decide. The list saves as an HTML or CSV report.
What Are the Largest Files on a Windows PC Usually?
After running these on a lot of drives, the same names keep turning up. The hibernation file hiberfil.sys and the page file pagefile.sys sit at the root of C: and can be several gigabytes each. Game installs and their update caches run to 50 or 100 GB. Video comes next: camera footage, screen recordings and exported edits. Then disk images, .iso installers and .vhdx virtual machine drives, which are huge and easy to forget.
On a work PC, add the Outlook data file. A .pst or .ost mail store of 20 to 50 GB is common and lives in a hidden AppData folder where search never looks. Old backup archives from a tool you stopped using round out the list. Most of these are either safe to move, or have a setting that shrinks them, which is the next section.
Which Large Files Are Safe to Delete?
Your own files, in your own folders, are yours to judge: old exports in Videos, installers in Downloads, finished projects in Documents. Move them to another drive if you might want them, delete them if not. Game and app files belong to the program that made them and should go through Uninstall or the game launcher, never the Recycle Bin.
The system files need their own switches. Turn hibernation off with powercfg /h off as administrator and hiberfil.sys vanishes. Leave pagefile.sys alone unless you know why you are changing it. Old restore points go through System Protection. Update leftovers go through Cleanup recommendations. The rule is simple: if a file is under C:\Windows, C:\Program Files or a hidden system folder, find the setting that owns it rather than deleting by hand.
A list of big files is half the answer. The other half is the folder around each one, because a 30 GB file in Videos and a 30 GB file in a game folder call for opposite actions. That is why the biggest-files view sits next to the folder tree in our tool, not on its own.
Large File Methods Side by Side
What each method covers, whether it sees hidden files and how it ranks the results.
| Method | Scope | Hidden files | Ranked by size |
|---|---|---|---|
| File Explorer size:>1GB | Any folder or drive | No, unless Hidden items is on | Yes, by Size column |
| Cleanup recommendations | Your user folders only | No | Yes, with a remove tick box |
| PowerShell one-liner | Whole drive | Yes, with -Force | Yes, top 50 with paths |
| Univik Disk Usage Reporter | Whole drive or any folder | Yes | Yes, with folder ranking and treemap |
Univik Disk Usage Reporter scans a drive once and gives you a biggest-files list with full paths, a folder ranking and a treemap on the same screen, hidden files included. Free edition with no account, and the list exports to HTML or CSV.
Windows 7 to 11 · about a minute per terabyte · runs on your PC
The short version
- In File Explorer, search size:>1GB and sort by Size. Use a number, not size:gigantic, because the named bands change between Windows versions.
- Turn on View, Show, Hidden items first or hiberfil.sys, pagefile.sys and mail stores stay out of the results.
- Settings, System, Storage, Cleanup recommendations lists large or unused files in your own folders.
- PowerShell with Sort-Object Length and -Force ranks the whole drive, hidden files included.
- Univik Disk Usage Reporter shows the biggest files next to the folders they sit in, which is what tells you whether to move, delete or leave each one.
List the biggest files on your drive, free
Large File Questions
About This GuideResearched and written by Leena Taylor Paul. Univik has built Windows utilities since 2013. The search syntax, the hidden-items behaviour and the PowerShell command were all run on Windows 11 while writing, and the size band note reflects the change Microsoft made between Windows versions. Updated 22 September 2026. Found a huge file you cannot identify? Support can help from the link below.
Reference: Microsoft Support: drive space and Cleanup recommendations · Univik Disk Usage Reporter