Disk Tools

WinCDEmu is an open-source software that allows you to mount CD/DVD images as virtual drives by simply double-clicking on the file. You can select a drive letter each time you mount an image or let the program choose one automatically. WinCDEmu supports ISO, CUE, BIN, RAW and IMG formats.

CrystalDiskInfo enables you to monitor the health status of your hard drive disks, including the current temperature and S.M.A.R.T. attributes. The program also displays detailed hardware information for each drive along with the serial number and supported features.

Partition Wizard Home Edition enables you to configure and manage disk partitions on your hard drive(s). You can easily resize, move, delete or format selected partitions. In case you don`t have enough free disk space to create a new partition, you can reduce the size of an existing partition and use the unallocated disk space to create new or enlarged partitions. All these operations can be performed in a single process and will only require you to reboot once. Other features include options to format partition, wipe the content of a partition and set partition labels.

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.

EASEUS Partition Master (Home Edition) enables you to configure and manage partitions on your hard drive(s). You can delete or format, and also resize and move your partitions. If you do not have any free disk space you can reduce the size of an existing partition, and use the unallocated disk space to create new or enlarged partitions to better manage your data. In addition, you can view disk and partition properties, set an active partition, change drive letters and more. EASEUS Partition Master can be run from within 32-bit Windows.

TDP x-Ray Lite is a visual disk analyzer that enables you to spot large files and folder on your hard drives. It displays a sunburst pie chart that sorts your files by size and location and makes it easy to find the ones that take up the most space. You can click on the chart to drill to the next level and also open, recycle or delete files. A Pro version is available with features geared towards network administrators and advanced users.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Gizmo Drive enables you to mount ISO, BIN, CUE, NRG and VHD files to a virtual drive letter, allowing you to access CD/DVD content without the need to insert the physical media. You can easily create .ISO images from CD or DVD discs or local folders and load them into a virtual drive letter as needed. In addition, Gizmo Drive can even create virtual hard drives that can be used to store files in an encrypted state, as well as fast performing RAM drives, using custom drive sizes and file systems. All your ISO images and virtual drives are readily accessible from a library and can be mounted/unmounted as needed. The program lets you mount multiple images at the same time and can also mount selected images automatically when Windows starts. Gizmo Drive comes as part of Gizmo Central, an application suite that also contains several other freeware utilities (SQL Query Analyzer, Text Editor, Task Scheduler, Hash calculator), you can choose to install only Gizmo Drive or any of the other utilities as well.

Crystal DiskMark 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/write 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.

VSO Inspector enables you to inspect details for the CD and DVD drives that are connected to your computer. You can view a list of features that are supported by the drive, the current firmware revision, vendor information, supported speed and more. The program can also display details for the currently inserted CD or DVD and scan the media for read errors. Other features include a disk sector viewer and an option to create a report in .txt format.

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.

SpaceSniffer analyzes a selected hard drive and presents you with a dynamic disk map that makes it easy to spot files and folder that take up most of your space. You can review the map in real-time while the application is scanning, and any changes made (e.g file deletions, renames, new files) during the scan are automatically reflected without the need to rescan. Other features include support for NTFS Alternate Data Streams, customizable chart colors, file filtering, folder zoom and more.

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.

DriveSight is a tool for analyzing drives, folders and files which may be uploaded into, or indexed by, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. It categorizes each file by size, type, age, and determines whether or not it is indexable or blocked by SharePoint. DriveSight displays the results in real-time during the scan, and generates a comprehensive printable (.doc) report with tables and charts. The program is primarily target at SharePoint Server users but can also be used to simply report on the content of a drive, allowing you to get an overview of file types, storage utilization, file ages and other details.

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).

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.

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.

Active@ Hard Disk Monitor checks and monitors the status of your S.M.A.R.T. hard drives and provides you with a details analysis of current conditions and temperatures. The program takes advantage of your drive`s S.M.A.R.T. capabilities and can monitor hard disk parameters such as Temperature, Head Flying Height and Spin-Up Time. If the values reach a critical threshold, the program can notify you by pop-up window or email message. Active@ Hard Disk Monitor provides an easy-to-read interface that also displays other hard drive properties as well as the overall health status for each disk.

JDiskReport is a Java based disk analysis utility, that allows you to view disk space usage with the help of 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. Other features include file and directory filters and customizable charting elements.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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. You can then compare your score with same model or similar drives. 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.

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.

Disk Investigator helps you to discover all that is hidden on your computer hard disk. The program can display the true drive contents by bypassing the operating system and directly reading the raw drive sectors. You can view and search raw directories, files, clusters, and system sectors and also verify the effectiveness of file and disk wiping programs. The directory mode allows you to browse the file system in a file structure, the raw mode displays a sector-by-sector view (for advanced users).

Shalom Disk Space is a small disk space monitor that takes record of the disk space usage at the time it is started, and then continues to monitor for changes. It checks the drive(s) every second and calculates the difference to the original start value. Useful to monitor how much space is gained during disk cleanups, or to see how much disk space is used by new software installations.

Ever wondered why your hard disk is full? Or what directory is taking up most of the space? When using conventional disk browsing tools, such as Windows Explorer, these questions may be hard to answer. With SequoiaView however, they can be answered almost immediately. SequoiaView uses a visualization technique called cushion treemaps to provide you with a single picture of the entire contents of your hard drive. You can use it to locate those large files that you haven t accessed in one year, or to quickly locate the largest picture files on your drive. When using Windows Explorer, the user cannot obtain a global overview of the entire contents of his disk, because the number of files and directories that can be shown simultaneously is limited by the available screen space. Treemaps make more efficient use of the available screen space. Instead of showing a file system as a long list of files and directories, files are displayed as rectangles, with the size of the rectangle being proportional to the size of the file. We can then display more information at once if we use all available space. The program also allows you to apply different color schemes to easily identify certain file types.

Ranish Partition Manager is a program that partitions hard disks. For example, it will let you to run Win ME, Win 2k, and Linux on a single box. In addition, you can copy, move, and resize disk partitions. The program uses a commandline interface and is intended for advanced users that are comfortable with DOS screens.

Me.Ri.Quota is a small and unique folder size monitor that allows you to specify a list of folders and their maximum sizes. If the program detects that any of the specified folders are over quota, it can perform several actions, including a sound alert, pop-up notification, commandline parameter and more. Me.Ri.Quota can be run completely automated in commandline mode and timer mode, where it starts the check and then exits until the next scheduled run.

SpaceMonger is a tool for keeping track of the free space on your computer. Each file or folder on a given drive is displayed in a box in the main window whose size is a relative comparison to all the other files in your system. The program supports popup info-tips that can display the full filename, the icon, the date, size, and attributes of any file or folder. You can delete files from the right click menu and customize the number of files to be shown as well as the color scheme. (Newer versions of SpaceMonger are available as shareware).