Managing storage capacity in enterprise file servers often becomes reactive rather than proactive. When you receive a "low disk space" alert, identifying the source of sudden growth becomes a forensic exercise. The ideal solution would track folder sizes at regular intervals while being:

• Lightweight enough to run on production servers
• Capable of historical comparison
• Flexible for specific folder monitoring
• Visualization-ready for trend analysis

For Windows environments, PowerShell provides excellent capabilities without requiring additional software. Here's a script that logs folder sizes to CSV and detects growth patterns:

# FolderSizeTracker.ps1
$targetFolders = @(
    "D:\Shares\Finance",
    "D:\Shares\Engineering",
    "D:\Shares\Marketing",
    "D:\Shares\HR",
    "D:\Shares\Operations"
)

$outputFile = "D:\Admin\FolderSizes_$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMdd').csv"
$results = @()

foreach ($folder in $targetFolders) {
    $size = (Get-ChildItem $folder -Recurse | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB
    $results += [PSCustomObject]@{
        Date = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
        Folder = $folder
        SizeGB = [math]::Round($size, 2)
    }
}

$results | Export-Csv -Path $outputFile -NoTypeInformation -Append

Combine the PowerShell script with Task Scheduler (running weekly) and Power BI for visualization. Create a Power Query that consolidates all historical CSV files:

let
    Source = Folder.Files("D:\Admin"),
    Filtered = Table.SelectRows(Source, each Text.StartsWith([Name], "FolderSizes")),
    Combined = Table.Combine(List.Transform(Filtered[Content], each Csv.Document(_,[Delimiter=",", Encoding=1252]))),
    Typed = Table.TransformColumnTypes(Combined,{{"Date", type datetime}, {"Folder", type text}, {"SizeGB", type number}})
in
    Typed

For environments where PowerShell isn't available or practical:

TreeSize Free

Jam Software's TreeSize Free can be scheduled to run with command-line parameters:

TreeSizeFree.exe /scan "D:\Shares" /s /export=csv /output=D:\Admin\TreeSizeReport.csv

WinDirStat with Automation

While primarily GUI-based, WinDirStat can be automated:

wds_stat.py --path "D:\Shares" --output json --file report.json

For enterprise deployments, consider storing data in SQL:

CREATE TABLE folder_sizes (
    id INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
    scan_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
    folder_path NVARCHAR(512) NOT NULL,
    size_gb DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
    file_count INT NOT NULL
);

-- PowerShell adaptation would insert records
$query = @"
INSERT INTO folder_sizes (scan_date, folder_path, size_gb, file_count)
VALUES ('{0}', '{1}', {2}, {3})
"@ -f (Get-Date), $folder.FullName, $sizeGB, $fileCount

Add threshold-based alerting to your scripts:

# Compare with last week's size
$lastWeek = Import-Csv $lastWeekFile | Where-Object {$_.Folder -eq $folder}
if ($sizeGB -gt ($lastWeek.SizeGB * 1.5)) {
    Send-MailMessage -Subject "Rapid growth detected in $folder" -Body "50% increase detected" 
}

As infrastructure scales, tracking storage consumption becomes critical yet tedious. Traditional methods like manual directory size checks or built-in OS tools provide only point-in-time snapshots without historical context. Here are robust scripting solutions I've implemented across enterprise environments.

This PowerShell script logs folder sizes with timestamps to CSV for trend analysis:

# FolderSizeTracker.ps1
$logPath = "C:\StorageLogs\size_log.csv"
$targetFolders = @(
    "\\fileserver\shared\finance",
    "\\fileserver\shared\engineering",
    "\\fileserver\shared\marketing"
)

$results = foreach ($folder in $targetFolders) {
    $size = (Get-ChildItem $folder -Recurse | Measure-Object -Property Length -Sum).Sum / 1GB
    [PSCustomObject]@{
        Timestamp = Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"
        Folder    = $folder
        SizeGB    = [math]::Round($size, 2)
    }
}

$results | Export-Csv -Path $logPath -Append -NoTypeInformation

For mixed environments, this Python script offers greater flexibility:

# folder_monitor.py
import os
import csv
from datetime import datetime

def get_folder_size(start_path):
    total_size = 0
    for dirpath, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(start_path):
        for f in filenames:
            fp = os.path.join(dirpath, f)
            total_size += os.path.getsize(fp)
    return total_size / (1024 ** 3)  # Convert to GB

def log_sizes(folders, output_file):
    with open(output_file, 'a', newline='') as csvfile:
        writer = csv.writer(csvfile)
        for folder in folders:
            size_gb = round(get_folder_size(folder), 2)
            writer.writerow([
                datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"),
                folder,
                size_gb
            ])

if __name__ == "__main__":
    folders_to_monitor = [
        r"/mnt/shared/finance",
        r"/mnt/shared/engineering",
        r"/mnt/shared/marketing"
    ]
    log_sizes(folders_to_monitor, "storage_growth_log.csv")

For automated monitoring:

• Windows: Create scheduled task running the PowerShell script daily
• Linux: Add cron job (e.g., 0 2 * * * python3 /path/to/folder_monitor.py)

The CSV output can be imported into:

• Excel/Power BI for trend charts
• Grafana with CSV data source plugin
• Custom matplotlib/Pandas visualizations

For large environments consider:

• SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor
• Paessler PRTG with file sensor
• NetApp OCUM for NAS systems