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Author Topic: IDEA: Hard Disk Status Graph  (Read 8799 times)

787

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IDEA: Hard Disk Status Graph
« on: March 26, 2007, 10:28 PM »
Years ago, (1998), I came across an app called "Diskstate".
It was free then and it gives you many disk statistics.
But it is now available in a "paid" version only.
See here: http://geekcorp.com/diskstate/
It has a number of handy features but I want a very compact cut down version as follows:

A small window (without the usual windows overhead frames etc) with individual bar graphs for all logical disks.
Placed on the desktop with the ability to stay on top or not.
Can temporarily pop up a similar window when placing mouse cursor over it's systray icon (when minimised from the desktop.)
Can adjust the frequency of updates, e.g, from 2 secs to ?mins.
Place each partitions total formatted drive size at the top of each bar with the logical partition letter adjacent to each bar.
Show or hide the unusable area totals in each bar as shaded including the following files; Page file, Hibernate file, System files, Reserved space, Recycle bin.
Show the used space with a coloured fill and a value for the percent and Mbytes of free space.
Will also add or remove external disks to the list when connected, e.g. USB, etc.
Possibly but not essential, open the selected drive in Windows Explorer by right click on the desired bar.

That's it.
Very small in size but legible to read.
Bars can L-R or U-D, not important.
Bars can be all the same length, dynamically scaled for varying partition sizes to fit in the window.

I need this to monitor my drives space during video footage editing.

The rest of the fancy things can stay with my original free version of Diskstate.

Please point me in the right direction if such a beast already exists.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2007, 06:14 AM by brotherS »

brotherS

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Re: IDEA: Hard Disk Status Graph
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2007, 06:16 AM »
It does exist already: http://www.tiler.com/freemeter/

I used the free version for a long time until I decided that I don't need it anymore.

787

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Re: IDEA: Hard Disk Status Graph
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2007, 04:19 PM »
Thanks, looks good, I'll give it a go but I'm looking for a very simplistic interface (which could look rather boring) to just show my drive space usage.

[EDIT] I attached an image of what I'm looking for. It's basic, but that's exactly what I want.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2007, 06:42 PM by 787 »

brotherS

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Re: IDEA: Hard Disk Status Graph
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2007, 02:11 AM »
Yes, I know. You can reduce FreeMeter's GUI to that. Just try it! :)

787

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Re: IDEA: Hard Disk Status Graph
« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2007, 04:05 PM »
OK, have tried it and it is almost what I want so will do for now.
I think there's a bug with it's memory monitor.
As it didn't change the virtual memory size indicator to reflect a new forced setting after a reboot. (kept the original size as detected when I first installed it.)
But I'll report that to them.

Thanks for the link brotherS.  :Thmbsup:

app103

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Re: IDEA: Hard Disk Status Graph
« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2007, 06:39 PM »
One of the things I missed when I moved from WinME to XP...

The sidebar pie charts.

I finally found out where they are hiding in XP...and they are a pain to get to compared to ME.

In XP you have to right click the drive in Explorer and select 'properties' to see the chart:

SNAG-0287.png

This chart was always showing in the left sidebar in WinME at the root of each drive. Additionally, you could see the chart for each drive when highlighting it in Explorer from My Computer.

Why did they change it like this? I really miss those pie charts.  :(

787

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Re: IDEA: Hard Disk Status Graph
« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2007, 06:59 PM »
Yes, you can get disk stats from the "details" box to the LHS of the explorer window, make sure the "Folders" radio button is not selected.
Although, there's no pie chart and you loose the stats when selecting a folder as it is only shown when in the root of the drive.

[EDIT] Make sure you don't have "Use Windows classic folders" set in the "Folder Options" dialog box (Tools).
« Last Edit: March 28, 2007, 07:05 PM by 787 »