Disk Tools

TreeSize tells you how your disk space is being used. It can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of the selected folder, including its subfolders. Each folder can be expanded in Explorer-like manner to view the size of its subfolders. Scanning is done in a thread, so you can already see results while TreeSize is working without having to wait. The results can be printed in a report. This version is a slimmed down, but fully functional and free version of TreeSize Pro and does not offer the graphical pie charts.

HDD Health is a full-featured hard disk failure-prediction agent that monitors your drives and provides detailed information about each. It uses S.M.A.R.T technology to estimate the T.E.C for each drive and displays extended information for each. You can set alerts (email, sound, popup network) and be notified when there are any problems.

Phantom CD enables you to mount a CD or DVD image and access it from a virtual drive, without the need to insert the physical media. If you have plenty of hard drive space to store your disk images, this method can be more convenient and offer faster performance than running the actual CD or DVD. Phantom CD supports ISO and BIN/CUE image formats that can be created with any disk imaging software. You can load disk images from the main interface or, more conveniently, by simply right-clicking on the virtual drive icon that is added to Windows Explorer.

CrystalDiskMark is a simple hard disk benchmarking software that can perform sequential or random read/write tests on a selected drive. You can select the number of read/wrte operations as well as the size of the data sample. The program presents you with easy to read MP/s results for each test. Standalone software, no installation required.

Disk Bench tests your hard drive speed in a real life situation not in a benchmarking environment. All it does is copies a file from A to B, times the time it took, and deletes the file from B again. Optionally, you can also run a benchmark by creating a file with a user-specified size.

Hardlink Shell Extension enables advanced users to create NTFS hard links under Windows 2000/XP without the need for the Windows Resource Kit. It installs as a dynamic shell extension that lets you picks the file or folder to be used for the hard link and drop it in the destination folder. It supports HardLinks, Junctions, and SymbolicLinks. Hard Links are a built-in, but not easily accessible feature of the Windows operating system and allow multiple references to a single file. You should be familiar with the concept of hard links to make use of this software.

JDiskReport is a disk analysis utility, that allows you to view disk space usage with the help of graphical, interactive pie charts. It allows you to quickly find the largest, oldest or newest files and gather statistics about file sizes and types for each drive. You can choose between different graphical charts or text reports.

HDClone Free Edition enables you to move the content from an entire ATA/SATA hard drive to another, larger one. The program installs itself on a bootable floppy or CD, and include it`s own operating system, so it runs completely independent from Windows. Once HDClone has created the bootable floppy or CD for you, you can use it to boot your computer and copy the drive content to the new (installed) drive, using a graphical interface. The free version is perfectly suitable to upgrade your existing drive to a larger one. It supports IDE/ATA/SATA hard disks and is able to copy up to 300 MB/min. The latest version now supports USB mouse and keyboard as well as USB 1.1 drives.

EaseUs Disk Copy enables you to create an exact copy/clone of your internal hard drive, by copying the data from one drive to the other, including all operating system settings, programs, data etc. This is useful when you are upgrading or replacing your hard drive as it eliminates the need to reinstall Windows and all your programs. The program runs from a boot floppy and includes a wizard that will create the floppy disk for you. In order for EaseUs Disk Copy to work, the new hard drive must already be installed (external USB or Firewire drives are not supported) and configured as a Secondary Master - this may require you to change Bios settings. Documentation does not come included but is offered from the web site.

DiskTT (Disk Throughput Tester) measures the performance of your harddrive`s read and write function. You can select a folder or drive to test and the program performs a real-time test on the selected disk.

Zero Assumption Disk Space Visualizer enables you to visualize the content of your hard drive, spot large folders and files, and optionally delete them to free disk space.

HD Speed measures both sustained and burst data transfer rates of your hard disks, cd/dvd-roms and floppy drives. It features a realtime graphical display.

DiskCheckup reads the S.M.A.R.T attributes of your hard drive and displays the current values in a report. It can also track changes over time and calculate a T.E.C (Threshold Exceeded Condition) date that may predict drive failure in the future. The program can optionally notify you by email when the threshold is exceeded. Unfortunately, DiskCheckup does not start automatically and cannot run in the system tray, which makes long-term monitoring very inconvenient (unless you want to keep it running in your taskbar at all times).

HD Tune is a hard disk benchmarking and information tool. You can use it to measures the raw performance of your drive(s), including transfer rate, burst rate, access time and more. In addition, it provides detailed information about supported hard drive features, as well as current temperature, S.M.A.R.T. Information (if available) and an error scanner.

DriveImage XML enables you create a complete backup image of any logical drive or partition, allowing to to restore your entire operating system along with installed programs, user settings, registry and all. You can restore the image later to the same or a different drive, and also choose to copy the drive directly to another one. The program includes an image explorer that lets you open previously created backup images and extract individual files. DriveImage XML can use volume locking or Volume Shadow Services (VSS) to create the backup image from within Windows, without the need to reboot. The program stores your images in .dat files, using XML format, allowing you to process them with 3rd party applications.

Drive Manager is a small and useful tool that makes it easy to retrieve drive information for all your drives at a glance. It runs as a standalone EXE file and displays Label, Type, Size, Used, Available, Format, Serial number and Percentage free for each local and removable drive. The information is refreshed every 20 seconds - double-clicking opens the drive in Windows Explorer. Drive Manager also allows you to create a substitute drive letter for a local folder, and to hide drives from Windows Explorer.

i.Disk counts the size of subdirectories including all their contents, and then lists their size in descending order. The program is simple, yet useful for tracking down where the space is being used on your hard drives. It offers the option to delete selected folders or file (with wildcard support). While there are better disk management tools, I found this one to be particular useful to track down empty folders, left behind from software installations.

LookDisk is multi-functional disk tool, that you can use to search for files using various parameters. You can search for text in any files, find duplicate files (by name or content) and also get an overall view of your disks and space usage. Additional features include several advanced filtering options, use of external viewers, support for compressed archive files (ZIP, ARJ, CAB, RAR, LZH) and more. The list of found files can be saved or printed. LookDisk can handle large amount of files without using lots of system resources.

Disktective is a disk reporting tool that allows you to visualize your hard disk usage with pie charts, allowing you to quickly spot which directories use up the most space. You can navigate the directory tree and get a pie chart for each selected item, which can also be printed (in full color) or exported to HTML (text based) or proprietary tree format. The program is simple to use and does not require installation - just run the executable.

Emsa Disk Check is a tool for disk checking, full disk reading and benchmarking of your hard disks or CD/DVD drives. It scans the entire contents of a disk and displays statistics, including file and folder count, read speed, total bytes and more. In addition, it reports if any read errors (bad files) are found. Easy to use, standalone utility.

Ycopy provides a simple interface to help copy large numbers of files from one disk or folder to another. Unlike the regular Windows copy option, which stops on errors, Ycopy continues to copy to the end, and then presents you with a log file of all encountered errors (if any). The program cannot copy files that are in use, it is not intended to duplicate a drive, but just for simple copy operations.

FoldersReport scans a selected drive or a base and displays details for the overall folder size, the number of files contained in each folder, the number of hidden files in each, as well as compressed files. You can sort the results by each column and thereby easily locate empty folders or see which ones use up the most space. Also supports CD-ROM drives, and network resources on a remote computer.

OverDisk is an interactive disk space explorer that displays your hard drive with clickable charts, allowing you to spot files and folders that are the most space consuming, and also get an overall idea of how your disk space is used. It can display charts based on physical size, logical size or wasted space and allows you to quickly browse and explorer a folder with a single click.

HDD Thermometer is a a small temperature monitoring tool for your hard disks. It takes advantage of S.M.A.R.T. technology, which comes with most modern hard drives, to retrieve the hard disk temperature information in Celsius or Fahrenheit. It then displays the current temperature in the system tray and you can configure custom thresholds that cause a warning or an alert. Alert options include system tray message, sound, command line execution, or it can also power off your computer to prevent damage or data loss.

Karen`s Drive Info allows you to learn the hidden `secrets` of your disk and CD-ROM drives. Are your files compressed? How big is each drive? Does the drive support Long File Names (LFN)? Karen`s Drive Info reveals all this and more.

WinDirStat is a visual drive space manager that uses treemaps to represent each file as a colored rectangle, allowing you to instantly visualize file distribution across an entire drive or folder. In addition, the file types are color coded and can be clicked to reveal file name and details with options to access via Windows Explorer, copy the path, or to delete the file. The concept is very similar to SequoiaView, however it provides additional folder tree access and an easier to use interface, as well as right-click integration via SendTo menu.

SC-DiskInfo is an easy to use disk space analyzer that allows you to see which folders take up the most space. It displays details, including number of subdirectories, file count and overall size, as well as a graphical chart display to quickly spot the largest folders. You can sort the report for all columns. Standalone, no install required.

Roadkil`s Disk Speed is a small and simple utility, that checks the read speed and access time of a selected disk drive and provides detailed statistics as well as an overall score. Standalone, no installation needed.

vSubst is a small tool that allows you to creates drive-letters for any folder on your hard disk. For example , you can take folder X and make it look and feel as if it was Drive X. This can be very useful if you need to simulate certain environments or want to create a virtual CD drive. There are certain restrictions, you obviously cannot defrag or format the folder as if it was a real drive, but other than that, Windows thinks it's the "real thing". You can choose to create the drives temporarily or permanently.

Mousesoft Directory Size is a quick and easy to use tool to get an overview of folder sizes on your computer. You can select the drive or directory and it displays a list of folders and files, sorted by their size and color code by type. The results can be printed, emailed or exported to text, HTML or Excel.

DriveZ is a very small, standalone program that comes useful if you need a list of files contained in a directory. Just select the folder, optionally set a file mask (e.g. only .mp files) and the program will create a plain text list with all the files or folders, that is copied to the clipboard.

PC Inspector Clone Maxx is a DOS based hard drive cloning (copy) program that offers high speed data transfer with speeds up to 3.3 GB per minute. This high speed is achieved by PC Inspector Clone Maxx through intelligent inspection of the PC motherboard and the hard drive controller. The software independently determines the fastest data transmission rate and achieves these exceptional speeds through optimal utilization of the DMA chipset on the motherboard of your PC. PC Inspector Clone Maxx downloads as ISO image file and needs to be burned to a CD. Does not work with external hard drives.