Current Directory and Browse Button

Near the top of the WatchDISK window, you will find a box containing the current scan path.  This is the directory where WatchDISK will start scanning for disk space usage.  You can type the desired path in, or click the Browse button to select the current directory graphically.  Note that when choosing a directory with the Browse button, selecting a file is not necessary--files are only shown to help give you decide where you want to scan.

As the scan directory changes, the Disk Space Grid will automatically update to display any data for the displayed directory.

If a network drive is chosen, WatchDISK will attempt to convert the path into UNC format (ie \\Server\volume\directory\subdirectory).  This enables the directory information to be related to an absolute location, rather than to a drive letter which can change from user to user, or can even change often for the same user.

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Scan Button

The update button tells WatchDISK to go to work.  It starts from the directory specified in the Directory field, and tallies disk space usage in all subdirectories.  A progress indicator bar will appear to give you a rough idea as to how far along you are.

Newly scanned data can automatically be saved if the proper option is selected in the Preferences dialog.  Also, you can choose to manually save the data by pressing the Save button.

After any scan happens, basic statistics including the total space used are displayed.

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Print Button

Pressing the print button gives you the option to print to the default Windows printer (the one that is assigned as Default Printer in Control Panel) or print to a text file.  If you print to a printer, a temporary file is actually created, and that file is then printed by the Windows NOTEPAD.EXE application.

Because this application supports long filenames, the printed data could be too wide to fit on a page.  For this reason, you are able to print only the number of columns of data (1-6) that you would like.  Simply indicate the number of columns to print in the space provided oin the dialog.

Lastly, if you want to import the data into another program (spreadsheet, database, etc.), you can print to file in comma separated form.  The format is as follows:
Row 1 are the textual lables for the columns.  The column text will be “Directory” for column 1, and the rest of the columns will be the date of the column.

Rows 2+ are the individual directories that were scanned.  The first column of the row will be the directory name, and the rest of the columns will be the size (in bytes) of that particular scan.

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Preferences Button

The Preferences button displays a dialog that allows you to control how WatchDISK runs.  The settings you choose are user specific, so if two people use WatchDISK on the same computer, they can both have their own settings.

The selectable preferences are:

- Display Units

You can choose to display all values in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes or Smart.  Smart means to let WatchDISK choose the unit itself to display the most significant digits.

- Cluster Size

You can determine how WatchDISK determines cluster size.  The cluster size affects the accuracy of WatchDISK’s scans.  The Normal setting just asks the disk for its cluster size.  Compressed means you know the disk is compressed and a cluster size of 256 bytes should be used.  Smart means WatchDISK should try to determine if the drive is compressed or not, and then automatically use Normal or Compressed based on the finding.  NOTE: Windows95 appears to report that all hard drives are compressed if at least one hard drive is compressed, so you may want to manually set this parameter for those hard drives that not compressed if any other drives are compressed.  See Scan Statistics for more information.

- Sort Method

The data that will be displayed in the Disk Space Grid and in printed reports can be sorted by directory size, change in directory size, or directory name.

- Data

Automatically save data: This option will automatically save the data set any time the data set is updated (after a Scan happens).

Rescan directory when double clicked on: In the Disk Space Grid, you can double click on the directory name.  When clicked on, the Current Directory is updated to what was clicked on.  When that happens, a scan can automatically begin if this option is chosen.

Data storage path: The data sets are stored in the location specified by the path in this edit box.

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Help Button

The help button simply brings you to this help!

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Save Button

Pressing Save saves the current data set.  Where the data actually gets saved is based on the setting in the Preferences dialog.

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Exit Button

Exit the WatchDISK program.

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Disk Space Grid

The Disk Space Grid is how you see where all of your drive space is disappearing to.  You can sort the data by directory name, size or change in size.

You can choose how directory sizes are displayed in the Preferences dialog.

By double clicking on the directory name shown, the scan directory will change to the new directory.

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Registering WatchDISK

Registering WatchDISK will:
* Get rid of the registration screen that keeps popping up when WatchDISK starts

* Your Registration Name will be displayed at the top of the WatchDISK screen and on all printed reports.

Complete registration instructions are shown on the initial registration screen.  Be sure to send an e-mail address when you register so I can send your Registration Name and Registration ID via e-mail (I typically get e-mail out much quicker than postal mail).

Registration happens on a per-user basis.  So, if two users use WatchDISK on the same computer, both users need to register.

Until you register, the registration dialog will come up every run of the program.  You can also access the dialog from the About WatchDISK dialog.  That dialog can be accessed from the system menu (by clicking once on the upper left corner of the app).

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Scan Statistics

After a scan takes place, the above statistics are displayed.  Additionally, note that Scanned Directory Size and Total Used are part of the saved data, so they will be shown for the most recent scan (which means they are not necessarily accurate if things have changed since the last scan).

Cluster Size is an important statistic to make note of.  This is the value that is used to determine how much actual disk space each file takes up.  Files are allocated in chunks, or in clusters.  Files are allocated using complete clusters, so a 1 byte file takes up an entire cluster (which in the example above is 4K).  A 12K+100byte file would take 4 clusters (12K / 4K = 3 clusters plus the rest of the file (100 bytes) which need an additional cluster).

If you are using disk compression, the cluster size defaults to 256 bytes which is probably a good guess.  If compression is detected, the Cluster Size text in the above graphic will have an asterisk to the left (as in Cluster Size* :).

Also, if there is an error reading the cluster size, you’ll get an error message indicating the problem the first time you select that drive.  Thereafter you will not receive the warning.  The Cluster Size text above will have a ? appended, as in “Cluster Size? :” if there was an error reading the cluster size.

In case of an error reading the cluster size, a dialog will appear that allows you to specify the cluster size of the target drive.  This value will be saved away and you won’t be asked about that drive again.  A check box is also displayed that, if set, will never pop-up that cluster size dialog, but rather will ALWAYS use the value you enter for all drives for which the cluster size can’t be automatically determined.

In all cases, Cluster Size will indicate the value that is being used for calculations.

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Command Line Options

WatchDISK has the abililty to run in an automated fashion using command line arguments.  The following arguments can be passed to WatchDISK on the command line:

/DIR=scandir    	Set scandir to the directory you want to use

NOTE: None of the other options work unless a directory

has been set using this parameter

/SAVE	This option causes the scan to be saved when done

/SCAN	This option causes a scan to happen

/PRINT={LPT1|FILE=xxx}  This option causes a disk space report to be printed

/DEBUG=dump.txt	Causes diagnostic output to be written to the file dump.txt

Use this option if you should ever need to send me feedback

about a problem you’re having (hopefully you’ll never use this

one!)

The /DIR option can also be used by itself to command WatchDISK to come up with the specified default directory.

Example, the following line will scan C:\WINDOWS and save the data when done:

/DIR=C:\WINDOWS   /SAVE   /SCAN

The following line will simply print the current data (ie, not do another scan) to D:\DATA\DIRSIZE.TXT for the directory of U:\USERS:

/DIR=U:\USERS   /PRINT=FILE=D:\DATA\DIRSIZE.TXT

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WatchDISK Registry Entries

All of the settings that WatchDISK uses are stored in the system registry.  You can access those settings by running REGEDIT and selecting:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Dnebeker\WATCHDSK.

Be careful not to change the Registration Name or Registration ID if you’re already registered or you might accidentally unregister yourself!

These registry settings are not meant to be editted manually, but I thought you should know where they are just in case...

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Table of Contents

WatchDISK Table of Contents

Buttons

Scan Button

Save Button

Print Button

Preferences Button

Help Button

Exit Button

Information

Scan Statistics

Disk Space Grid

Current Directory and Browse Button

Command Line Options

The Registry

Registering WatchDISK