Copyright: Copyright ©1998, Digital Information Gallery


Contents
How to view reports

How to view charts

How to view summary information

How to set options

How to interpret the data

How to save a report to a file

How to print a report

How to add drives/folders

How to explore drives/folders

How to view file properties

How to use from the command line

How to register DISKdata


How to add drives/folders

When you start DISKdata, it normally lists your computer's  physical or mapped drives. However, you may want to add other drives/folders so that they appear in DISKdata each time it starts. This is especially convenient if you want to monitor network folders, orother folders, that are not mapped to a drive letter.

To add a drive/folder, choose the "FIle->Add Drive/Folder" menu item, then select the item to add from the list that appears.


How to explore drives/folders

You can explore a drive or folder in the report list by right-clicking it and choosing the "Explore..." menu item. You can also use the "File->Explore selected drive/folder" menu item, or pressing F4. This will open Windows Explorer directly to the drive/folder currently open in DISKdata. This feature provides a quick and convenient way to switch to the Windows Explorer from within DISKdata, and is especially handy when you want to delete folders or files.


How to intrepret the data
How to interpret the data

DISKdata reports the following information for each file/folder:

Name

Name is the filename or folder name of the item.

Actual Size

Actual size is the amount of actual data that the file/folder contains. This is different than the allocated size of the file/folder (see below).

Allocated Size

Allocated size is the amount of space on the disk that the file/folder occupies. This is usually larger than the actual size for the file/folder due to the way file space is allocated on disks.

Efficiency

Efficiency is the percentage of a file/folder's actual size versus allocated size. An efficiency of 100% indicates that the file/folder does not waste any disk space due to the way files/folders are allocated.  An efficiency of less than 100% indicates that some disk space is wasted.

Slice

Slice is the percentage of a file/folder's allocated size versus the total allocated size of all other files/folders at this level.

Version

Version is the version information as stored in the file. This information is only contained in some files (usually EXE files or DLL files). The "Show file version information" option must be check for any version information to be displayed.

Modified

Modified is the date/time that the file/folder was last modified.

Attributes

Attributes convey the state of the file/folder. Each attribute is indicated with a single lower case letter as follows:

a	archive

d	directory

r	read only

h	hidden

s	system

Uses

Uses is the percentage of a file/folder's allocated size versus the total space available on the volume.


How to Print a Report

1	Select the view that you wish to print such as the text report or bar chart, then choose "Print report..." from the "File" menu or click the toolbar print button.

2	After the print dialog appears, select the printer and then click OK.


How to register DISKdata

We kindly ask that you support the development of DISKdata. A license is needed to use DISKdata in a personal, home, work, business, government, educational or other environment. To obtain DISKdata licenses, please go to the web site at http://www.digallery.com/diskdata/.

Once you obtain a license, you will be supplied with two important pieces of information: the "licensed to" name and the "license key". To register DISKdata, click the about tab, enter the license information into the appropriate text boxes, and click the set button. Your license information will be checked and saved at this time. Once DISKdata is registered, the opening registration splash screen will no longer be displayed and all features of the program will be enabled.


How to save a report to a file

1	Choose "Save Report As..." from the "File" menu.

2	After the file dialog appears, enter the name of the file where the report will be saved. The default extension is "CSV" which is automatically opened by spreadsheet applications. However, you can change the extension to "TXT" if you want to be able to view the report file with any text editor.


How to set options

Several options are available that affect the way DISKdata functions. These options can be set by clicking on the "Options" tab. The options are:

Show free space as a folder called "(Free Space)"

Selecting this option results in a folder titled "(Free Space)" to appear when viewing a report or chart for a disk's root folder (such as C:\). The free space folder shows the amount of free space for the disk in comparison to all other files/folders on the disk.

Show files as a folder called "(Files)"

Selecting this option results in a folder titled "(Files)" to appear in place of all individual files. The files folder shows the total amount of actual and allocated space for all files at the current folder.

Show file version information (slower)

Selecting this option extracts and displays version information for all files that contain such. Usually only executable or system files (EXEs, DLLs, etc.) contain version information. If a file does not contain any version information, then the version field will be blank. Selecting this option causes DISKdata to operate much slower, so it is recommended that this option be selected only when version information must be displayed.

Show sizes in megabytes (MB)

Selecting this option displays all file/folder sizes in Megabytes rather than Kilobytes.

Show local/mapped drives

Selecting this option adds all local and mapped drives to the DISKdata drive list at startup. Uncheck this option if you want to completely customize the drives that show when DISKdata starts.

Scan drives/folders automatically when selected

Selecting this option will cause each drive/folder to be scanned automatically. Since this can be time consuming when browsing drives/folders, you may want to uncheck this option and refresh manually.

Show tool tips and hints

Selecting this option causes tool tips and hints to show automatically when the mouse moves over certain items..

Highlight list items when mouse passes over them

Selecting this option causes list items to be highlighted.when hovering above them.

Force cluster size as

Selecting this option allows you to override each drive's cluster size and to use the default cluster size instead. This option should generally only be selected under the following circumstances:

1	A drive that you wish to scan with DISKdata is a network drive and you know the actual cluster size of the drive. Network drives usually assume a mapped cluster size value which is not indicative of the drives actual cluster size.

2	A drive that you wish to scan with DISKdata is a network drive and indicates an erroneous cluster size. Some network operating systems have this problem. If this happens, you can override the cluster size with your own value.

3	You might wish to experiment with the cluster size value to see how it affects the free space on your drive. For example, the FAT16 file system often assumes a cluster size of 32 Kb whereas the FAT32 file system often assumes a cluster size of 8 Kb. You can manually override the FAT16 cluster size and set it to the typical FAT32 cluster size see how much free space will be available if you convert your drive to FAT32.

Note: if the cluster size of any disk cannot be determined by DISKdata, then DISKdata will always assume the default cluster size, even if the "Force cluster size as" option is not selected.

Show only files with the "Archive" attribute

Selecting this option causes only files with the archive (a) attribute to show. This is useful for seeing a summary of files that have changed since the last archive/backup.

Hide empty files/folders

Selecting this option causes empty files/folders (those with 0 bytes) to not show on the report.

Specify single color for charts

Selecting this option causes the bar charts and pie charts to show in a single color as specified by the Color box (rather than as different colors depending on file/folder size).

Show report grid lines

Selecting this option causes gridlines to show on the report.

Show DISKdata command in Windows Explorer folder menus

Selecting this option causes the Windows Explorer context menu for folders to include a menu item called "DISKdata...". Selecting this Explorer menu item will start DISKdata and open the selected folder.


How to use from the command line

You can start the DISKdata program from the command line and include up to two optional paramters as follows:

Initial drive/folder path  Including this parameter causes DISKdata to immediately scan the given path.

Save report file path  Including this parameter causes DISKdata to run in hidden mode and save the report to the indicated file. When complete, DISKdata will automatically exit.

For example running:

DISKdata.exe "c:\program files"

will cause DISKdata to run and immediately scan "c:\program files". In addition, including a second parameter as follows:

DISKdata.exe "c:\program files" "c:\report.csv"

will cause DISKdata to scan  "c:\program files" as before, but will also run in hidden mode and save the report to file "c:\report.csv", then exit. This is convenient if you want to run DISKdata on a regularly scheduled basis as part of an automated disk monitoring sequence.


How to view charts

Charts provide a graphical overview of the files/folders on a selected drive. You can view a chart by clicking on the "Chart" tab. Selecting different drives/folders from the drive/folder outline on the left pane will result in the drive/folder being scanned and file/folder information being displayed as a chart on the right pane.

There are two types of charts: bar charts and pie charts. The type of chart can be selected from the "View" menu or the toolbar. Bar charts are useful for showing the relative size of files/folders. Pie charts are useful for showing the overall allocation of space among files/folders. Only up to 10 pie slices are shown on a pie chart.

Charts will always reflect the same field and sort order as you have selected for the report. So if you wish to view a different field, choose that field and sort order on the report, and then return to the chart tab.


How to view file properties

You can view the properties of a file by right-clicking it on the report list and choosing the "Properties..." menu item. This will open a Windows properties dialog.


How to view reports

Reports provide detailed information about the files/folders on a selected drive. You can view the report by clicking on the "Report" tab. Selecting different drives/folders from the drive/folder outline on the left pane will result in the drive/folder being scanned and file/folder information being displayed as a report on the right pane.

The report consists of a separate row for each file/folder. You can drill down inside folders by double clicking a folder in the report. Each file/folder row is divided into separate columns such as Name, Actual Size, etc. You can sort on any column by clicking the column heading. You can reverse the column sort order (ascending/descending) by clicking the column a second time.


How to view summary information

General disk drive, system and memory information is displayed by clicking the "Summary" tab.