A disk utility is a utility focused on the functionality of computer disks. A disk utility may support one or more of the following capabilities: disk partitioning, logical volume management, changing drive letters and other mount points, renaming volumes, disk checking, and disk formatting. Typically, an operating system (OS) includes a disk utility for basic operations, and often other utilities are available for an OS.
A disk cleaner deletes unnecessary or unwanted files to free up disk space, reduce clutter, or protect user privacy. Such files may include temporary files, trash, old backups, web caches, and privacy-related data such as HTTP cookies, local shared objects, and log files.
Disk cleaners are distinct from antivirus software (which deletes malware), a registry cleaner (which cleans the Windows Registry) or data erasure software (which securely deletes files).
Examples:
A disk checker attempts to identify and correct invalid or corrupted disk areas and should not be confused with a disk cleaner, which deletes unnecessary files.
Some disk checkers can perform a whole surface scan to attempt to find any possible bad sectors, whereas others scan only the logical structure of files on the hard disk.
Operating systems often include one such tool. For example:
Disk formatting and disk partitioning tools generate low-level disk layouts and file systems. An operating system typically supplies one or more of such utilities.
Windows:
MacOS:
Linux:
A disk space analyzer (or disk usage analysis software) visualizes disk space usage by directories (including subdirectories) and files on a drive. Most such utilities generate graphical charts showing usage distribution by directory or other user-defined criteria.
Some disk space analyzers, such as DiskReport, also allow analysis of directory size and file count over time.
Examples: