Knowing the total storage capacity of your computer’s hard drive is important for several reasons. First, it allows you to understand how much data you can store on your computer before needing to upgrade or add additional storage. The size of your hard drive limits the number of applications, photos, videos, music files and documents you can save locally.
Second, hard drive size gives you a sense of your computer’s overall capabilities and speed. The more capacity a drive has, the more data can be accessed which generally equates to better performance. Larger drives also allow you to run more resource intensive programs and multitask more efficiently.
Finally, drive size knowledge assists with troubleshooting and maintenance. If your computer starts running slowly or you get storage alerts, knowing your total capacity helps identify the issue. You can determine if you need to clear space, uninstall programs, or add a new drive.
Check File Explorer (Windows)
The easiest way to check your total hard drive size on Windows is to use File Explorer. Open File Explorer and navigate to This PC on the left side. Right-click on your C: drive and select Properties. In the pop-up window, look for the “Capacity” listing to see the total size of your hard drive. For example, if it says “111 GB” that means your total hard drive size is 111 gigabytes.
You can also see a graphical representation of hard drive space usage in This PC. Each drive shows a colored bar indicating used and free space. Hover over the bar to see the specific amount of free space left.
Check Finder (Mac)
On a Mac, you can view the total size and available free space of your hard drive right in the Finder. Simply open a new Finder window and look in the bottom right corner for the storage information. By default, Finder shows the available space, but you can also view the capacity by right-clicking on the drive and selecting “Get Info.”
To open Finder and view drive information:
- Click on the Finder icon in your Dock or select Finder from the Application menu.
- In the Finder sidebar, select the hard drive you want information about.
- Look at the bottom right of the Finder window to see the available free space and capacity of that drive.
- To see more details like total capacity, right-click on the drive and choose “Get Info.”
This provides a quick snapshot of the total hard drive space directly within macOS Finder. For even more details, you can use utilities like Disk Utility or third party tools.
Use Command Prompt (Windows)
One easy way to check your total hard drive size on Windows is by using the Command Prompt. Here’s how:
First, open the Command Prompt application. You can do this by pressing the Windows key and searching for “Command Prompt”, or by going to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt.
Once the Command Prompt window is open, type the following command and press Enter:
dir
This will display a list of files and folders on the drive along with the total used and free space. The total size of the hard drive will be shown on the last line under “Total Files Listed”.
For example, on a 500GB hard drive it may show:
Total Files Listed:
465,156,746,496 bytes
493,672,346,112 bytes free
So in this case, the total hard drive size is around 465 GB. The dir command provides an easy way to get this info right from the Command Prompt.
Use Terminal (Mac)
The Terminal app provides a quick way to check your Mac’s total hard drive size right from the command line. To use Terminal:
- Open the Terminal app, which can be found in the Utilities folder of your Applications directory.
- In the Terminal window, type the following command and press Enter:
df -h - The output will display the size, used space, and available space for each volume (drive) on your Mac.
- Look for the volume named “/” which represents your main startup drive. The “Size” column shows the total capacity of that drive.
For example, if your Mac has a 500 GB hard drive, you would see something like:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity iused ifree %iused Mounted on
/dev/disk1s5 500Gi 320Gi 180Gi 65% 4882770 9223372036852678528 0% /
The df -h command shows drive info in human readable format, making it easy to see the total hard drive size (source). Terminal provides a quick way to get this info without having to dig through Finder or other apps.
Check Disk Management (Windows)
One way to check your total hard drive size on Windows is by using the Disk Management utility. Disk Management allows you to view details about all the drives connected to your computer, including the total size.
To use Disk Management to find your total hard drive size, follow these steps:
- Open the Start menu and search for “Disk Management.” Select the Disk Management app to open it.
- In the Disk Management window, locate the disk drive you want to check the size of in the lower pane. This is usually listed as Disk 0 or Disk 1.
- Right-click on the disk drive and select “Properties” from the pop-up menu.
- In the Properties window that opens, switch to the “General” tab.
- The total size of the hard drive will be listed next to “Disk Size.” This shows the maximum total capacity of the drive.
Checking Disk Management allows you to easily view the total hard drive size for any drive connected to your Windows computer. Just a few clicks shows you the total maximum storage capacity for that disk. This works for both internal and external hard drives.
For more details, see this step-by-step guide: How to Check Total Hard Disk Size in Windows 10/8/7
Use Third-Party Tools
There are many free third-party tools available that provide detailed analysis of hard drive space usage. Some popular options include:
Speccy – This app provides an overview of your full system specs, including storage space. It shows both total capacity and available free space for each drive.https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy
TreeSize – This disk space analyzer scans your drives and visually displays folder sizes, making it easy to identify and clean up space-hogging files and directories. TreeSize has both free and paid versions available.https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free
WinDirStat – Similar to TreeSize, this app scans drive usage and presents an interactive graphical map to easily spot which files and folders are using the most space. WinDirStat is free and open source.https://windirstat.net
These third-party tools provide more detailed hard drive analysis than options built into Windows and Mac operating systems. They can save you time tracking down and freeing up disk space when needed.
Check Manufacture Specs
One way to find your total hard drive size is to look up the model number and specifications from the manufacturer. The model number can usually be found on the drive label or by using a command line tool. Once you have the model number, search for it online to find the technical specifications.
For example, if you have a Seagate Barracuda 2TB hard drive, you would search for “Seagate Barracuda 2TB specs”. The manufacturer’s product page will provide details like capacity, cache size, interface, etc.
Spec sheets from the manufacturer will clearly state the full formatted capacity of the drive. This is the maximum total storage space available, although the actual usable space may be slightly less once formatted and setup. But it provides an authoritative source on the total size of that specific drive model.
One downside is that finding the model number and looking up specs takes more work than using built-in operating system tools. However, it can provide reliable details directly from the source.
Physical Size vs Storage Size
The physical size of a hard drive refers to its physical dimensions and weight, while the storage size refers to its data storage capacity. There is often a mismatch between the two.
For example, a 3.5″ desktop hard drive may have large physical dimensions but only offer 500GB of storage space. On the other hand, a tiny SSD drive the size of a stick of gum could offer 2TB of storage. This is because physical size is limited by mechanical factors like platter size, while storage size depends on memory chip capacity.
As per Quora, hard drives need more moving parts like actuator arms andplatters. SSDs just use stacked memory chips. So SSDs can pack more storage into a smaller physical form factor.
So when buying a new drive, the physical size indicates portability and form factor, while the storage size indicates how much data it can hold. They are related but distinct specifications.
Conclusion
In summary, there are several ways to find out the total hard drive size on your computer:
- On Windows, check File Explorer or use the command prompt with the “wmic diskdrive get size” command.
- On Mac, check Finder or use Terminal with the “diskutil list” command.
- Use the Disk Management utility on Windows to view drive information.
- Download third party tools like Speccy or CrystalDiskInfo to get detailed specs.
- Check the hard drive manufacturer’s official specifications.
- Note that the total physical size may differ from the total storage capacity.
Knowing the full hard drive size helps determine if an upgrade is needed and how much new storage can be added. With several built-in and third party options, it’s easy to find out this key specification.