How to check the disk space in Ubuntu 22.04

For a System Administrator, keeping track of the disk usage information is considered a day-to-day task. Also, monitoring disk space has its own significance when it comes to managing hard drives and partitions. For example, you need to know your hard disk’s used and free space before installing a new application. In such a scenario, you can utilize either terminal or GUI-based applications to check the disk space in a Linux-based system such as Ubuntu.

This post will discuss different methods for checking the disk space in Ubuntu 22.04. So, let’s start!

How to check the disk space in Ubuntu 22.04

You can check the disk space in Ubuntu 22.04 by utilizing any of the below-given approaches:

• Using terminal (df and du commands)
• Using built-in “Disks” application
• 
  Using third-party GUI tools

We will now discuss each of the mentioned methods in detail.

How to check the disk space in Ubuntu 22.04 using terminal

As a Linux-based system, Ubuntu 22.04 offers various useful commands for checking disk space, such as “df” and “du” commands.

Check the disk space in Ubuntu using df command

In Linux-based systems, “df” is an abbreviation for “disk filesystem“. This command is used for getting a full summary of used and available disk space of any Linux system such as Ubuntu 22.04:

Also, adding the “-h” option with the “df” command assists in displaying the file system and its usage in a “human-readable” form:

Check the disk space in Ubuntu using du command

“du” or “disk usage” is another command used to check the disk information of each directory and subdirectory within the file system. Utilizing it with the “-h” option will display the mentioned information in a “human-readable” format:

The combination of “-sh” options are also added with the “du” command to return the disk usage information related to the specified directory. For instance, to check the disk usage of the “home” directory, add “~” in the “du” command:

The below-given output signifies that the “89MBs” of the “/home/linuxhint” directory are used:

How to check the disk space in Ubuntu 22.04 using built-in Disks application

Ubuntu 22.04 provides a built-in disk management application known as “Disks” that can manage the partitions and drives of a Linux system. Reformatting the hard drive, resizing a selected partition, and checking the disk space also comes under the functionalities of the “Disks” application.

To launch the “Disks” application on your Ubuntu 22.04 system, type “disks” in the “Applications” menu and open it from the retrieved results:

As you can see from the below-given image, the layout of the “Disks” application is quite simple where the left side shows the list of the drives and the other part of the opened window displays the information related to the selected drive, such as its “Model”, “Serial Number”, “Assessment”, “Size” and types of “Partitioning”:

How to check the disk space in Ubuntu 22.04 using Third-party GUI tools

Want to try out any third-party GUI tools for checking disk space? If yes, go for installing the “Disk Usage Analyzer” or “Baobab” application. This software presents a visual depiction of the system disk drives content. Also, the interface of the “Disk Usage Analyzer” application permits you to scan and list a single folder or the entire file system.

To install the “Disk Usage Analyzer” application, type out the following command in the Ubuntu 22.04 terminal:

In our case, we have already installed the “Disk Usage Analyzer” application; otherwise, it would take a few minutes to complete the installation:

After installing the “Disk Usage Analyzer“, open it with the help of the “Activities” menu:

Then, select the drive which you want to scan. For instance, we have selected “linuxhint-VB” for scanning:

As soon as the scanning gets complete, you can check out the complete readout of how the space of the selected hard drive is distributed among the system directories with respect to the size:

We have compiled different methods for checking the disk space in Ubuntu 22.04. Choose any of the given procedures according to your preferences.

Conclusion

To check disk space in Ubuntu 22.04, you can either use the “df” or “du” commands or the GUI applications such as “Disks” and “Disk Usage Analyzer”. The “df” and “du” command print out the summary of used and available disk space in the terminal, whereas the “Disk Usage Analyzer” application displays a detailed layout of the disk drive content with their size. This post discussed different methods to check disk space in Ubuntu 22.04.