File management often requires knowing how much space your files occupy and how much disk space you have left. Here are some quick takes on making assessments.Files only. Do you need to take stock of the number of files you have and the space they consume in a folder or drive? You'll need the status bar handy, so if it's not visible, choose View-Status Bar (in Explorer) or Options-Status Bar (in File Manager). If you're running NT or Windows 9x, make sure no files are selected to ensure a proper reading. To deselect all files, click an empty area of the folder. Note that the status bar object count includes everything in the folder, including subfolders, but that the size listing does not count subfolders.

Caption: The status bar shows the number and size of selected files in a folder (top) or of all files in the folder (bottom)

Files and folders. To get a measure of the files, folders, and subfolders occupying a drive or folder, do the following: In Windows 9x and NT, select the objects, right-click on one, and choose Properties (or press <Alt>-<Enter>). (If you care only about how many objects are in your selection, look at the status bar.) In Windows 3.x, display a folder in File Manager, choose File-Search, and make sure *.* appears in the Search For box (or change the file spec to analyse only a certain file type). Verify that Search All Subdirectories is selected and click OK. Press <Ctrl>-/ to select all files in the Search Results window and choose FileûProperties, or press <Alt>-<Enter> to see the Properties box that lists the number of files and the space they occupy.

Free space. Often the question isn't how much space your files take up, but rather how much room is left. Open an Explorer window (the two-pane window in Windows 9x and NT) or click the left pane of File Manager. Then, with the status bar visible, deselect all objects as explained earlier. Another option is to select a folder in the tree pane to make the status bar show, among other things, the free space available on that disk or partition.

Graphic reminder. If you run Windows 9x or NT, you can get a pie chart representation of free and used disk space. In My Computer, right-click the icon for the disk you want to examine, and choose Properties. With Windows 98 or Internet Explorer 4, make sure As Web Page is checked on the View menu, and select a drive (in the right pane if you're using Explorer) to see the pie chart in the preview area.