April 2, 2012

PowerShell script to list folders and sizes

Last week @beningus, also a Dutch PowerShell interested IT Pro, contacted me for some assistance troubleshooting a script.
The purpose of that script was to list the directories of, for example, the homedirs on a fileserver in order to find the “big spenders” among the users. For this, we’ve written the following function:

function Get-FolderLength 
{ 
  # Usage: Get-FolderLength.ps1 D:\Homedirs 
  param ( [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [String]$Path ) 
  $FileSystemObject = New-Object -com  Scripting.FileSystemObject 
  $folders = (Get-Childitem $path | ? {$_.Attributes -eq "Directory"}) 
  foreach ($folder in $folders) 
  { 
    $folder | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "SizeMB" –Value(($FileSystemObject.GetFolder($folder.FullName).Size) / 1MB) 
  } 
  $folders | sort -Property SizeMB -Descending | select fullname,@{n=’Size MB’;e={"{0:N2}" –f $_.SizeMB}} 
}

function Get-FolderLength

{

# Usage: Get-FolderLength.ps1 D:\Homedirs

param ( [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [String]$Path )

$FileSystemObject = New-Object -com Scripting.FileSystemObject

$folders = (Get-Childitem $path | ? {$_.Attributes -eq "Directory"})

foreach ($folder in $folders)

{

$folder | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "SizeMB" –Value(($FileSystemObject.GetFolder($folder.FullName).Size) / 1MB)

}

$folders | sort -Property SizeMB -Descending | select fullname,@{n=’Size MB’;e={"{0:N2}" –f $_.SizeMB}}

}

11 comments

Antonio says:

July 3, 2012 at 01:43

Does not work. Do I need to add extra code to make it work or this is supposed to be completed code? It generates the following error:

Get-FolderLength : Cannot bind argument to parameter ‘Path’ because it is an empty string.
At line:14 char:17
+ Get-FolderLength <<<< $args[0]
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidData: (:) [Get-FolderLength], ParameterBindingValidationException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : ParameterArgumentValidationErrorEmptyStringNotAllowed,Get-FolderLength
Jeff Wouters says:

July 3, 2012 at 15:14

Hi Antonio.,
Changed the code, now it works.
Thanks for the feedback.
Jeff.
Boycie says:

July 16, 2012 at 01:13

For me, this returns 0MB for all folders found, please help!
Jeff Wouters says:

July 16, 2012 at 08:48

Hi Boycie,
I’ve just tested the script in a newly installed VM, works for me…
The only situations I could think of where it would give 0MB for the directories is where they are empty, have less than 0,005 MB of data in them or when there is not access to the date in the directories.
Could you test and/or confirm this?
Jeff.
Ajit says:

February 6, 2013 at 23:04

Jeff ,

love your script thanks for the help
Hein Traag says:

November 26, 2013 at 10:15

Hello Jeff. Can this script be modified to search for certain extensions on a fileshare and then report them by mail to the sysadmin?
Jeff Wouters says:

November 28, 2013 at 11:11

Hi Hein,
That wouldn’t be a modification but an entire new script 😉
Jeff.
Philip says:

March 9, 2015 at 12:17

Hi Jeff

This works great! But I’m stuck with 1 folder which does not return a size at all.
If I do $objFSO.GetFolder($Folder.Fullname).Size it is empty … not even 0MB
Philip says:

March 9, 2015 at 12:53

Maybe I forgot to mention ….
– There’s plenty of data in this folder
– I’ve got full access to the whole folder hierarchy
Jeff Wouters says:

March 9, 2015 at 17:30

Hi Philip,
If it works for all other folders, but not for just one then I would recommend a game of ‘look for the difference’.
Think about folder attributes and such.
If you find a difference (there has to be one), let me know and I can investigate / solve.
Jeff.
chewbie says:

June 10, 2015 at 17:33

perhaps you can run it step-by step via Powershell ISE

JeffOps

PowerShell script to list folders and sizes

11 comments

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