-=PCTechTalk=- Fw: Karen's Power Tools Newsletter September 17, 2003
- From: David F Wooledge <wooledge001@xxxxxxxx>
- To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 19:34:26 -0400
---Troth
Here is the information about the drive info program from Karen's Power
Tools I wrote about the other day. Hope this helps.
Dave
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Karen Kenworthy" <powertools@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 08:33:46 -0500
Subject: Karen's Power Tools Newsletter September 17, 2003
Message-ID: <APPSruJfE9MswF0SsAt00005fbc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
KAREN'S POWER TOOLS NEWSLETTER
~~~~~~~~~~ This Week's Power Tools Sponsor ~~~~~~~~~~
Karen's Power Tools are now available on CD!
To learn all about it, and securely order online,
visit: http://www.karenware.com/cd.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 17, 2003
By Karen Kenworthy
Read the Web version of Power Tools online!
http://www.karenware.com/newsletters/2003/2003-09-17.asp
IN THIS ISSUE
* More Drive Info
* Really Big Drives
* Quotas
* All of Karen's "Power Tools"
* Subscription Center
You can feel the season changing, here at the secluded Power Tools
workshop. Just a few days ago, the days were long and hot. Now there's a
chill in the early-morning air. The afternoons, and the all too early
evenings, are wonderfully cool.
There's energy in the air, as people and animals prepare for the long
winter sleep. My friends, the turtles, are on the move again. And I hear
our magnificent hawks and eagles are packing their bags, preparing for
their annual return from Canada.
More Drive Info
---------------
I'm not planning a migration. But I have been especially busy lately.
I've
explored a new version of Windows, and updating a few web sites. I've
also
managed to produce a new version of one of the oldest Power Tools, the
popular "Drive Info" program ...
Since its birth, way back in 1997, this little utility has performed the
same basic job. When run, it scans your computer, detecting each local
drive, and any drives connected via a network.
Once the inventory is complete, the program has always examined each
drive
individually, discovering lots of interesting facts. For example, Drive
Info determines the type of file system Windows uses to organize data on
the drive. It also learns the drive's name, volume serial number, cluster
size, total size, and amount of free space.
Over the years, the program has become more curious. It learned to
display
the type of each drive (hard disk, CD Drive, removable drive, etc.), and
whether the drive supports long file names. It even computed exactly how
many characters each file or folder name could contain. The program also
determined if Windows can automatically compress the entire drive, or
transparently compress just selected files and folders.
But the new Drive Info does even more. It now displays 25 fascinating
drive facts, and several important totals. All in all, it's more than
enough to make you the life of the next office party or family get-
together.
What can the new version tell us? Let's take a quick look at some of the
new drive details it reports:
Network Name. This is the name of the drive, used when accessed across a
local network, often called the drive's "UNC" (Universal Naming
Convention) name. In most cases, it consists of two parts: the name of
the
computer where the drive physically resides, and a "share" name assigned
to that drive. The final result looks something like this:
\\computername\sharename.
Space Used. Earlier versions of the program displayed the total size of
each drive, and the amount of that space that was "free" (not yet used to
store data). Now the program also computes and displays the amount of
used
space on each drive -- the amount of data the drive contains.
Used %, Free %. These two new items let you tell at a glance if a drive
is
nearly full, or still has plenty of room for your data to grow. If half
of
a drive's total space already holds data, its "Used %" will be 50%. If
two
thirds of a drive's total space is free, its "Free %" will be 66.67%.
Encryption. Newer versions of Windows can encrypt individual files,
folders, or even entire drives. This item reveals whether your Windows
supports this feature on a particular drive.
Unicode Support. In the early days of computing, each letter of the
alphabet, each punctuation mark, and each numeric digit, was represented
by a unique value stored in a single 8-bit byte. This meant computers
could recognize and display as many as 256 different symbols and
characters.
This was more than enough, back when computers only spoke English. But as
computers learned other tongues, they quickly discovered there are more
than 256 written symbols in use worldwide. The solution is something we
call "Unicode". It sets aside 16 bits of data to store each character,
allowing computers to use a greatly expanded alphabet containing as many
as 16,384 different symbols.
What does this have to do with disk drives? Windows NT, and its
descendants (Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003) can use
Unicode to store file and folder names. If these multilingual names can
be
stored on your drives, the new Drive Info will let you know, reporting
that Unicode is supported.
Really Big Drives
-----------------
Over the years, we've all seen capacities of personal computer hard disks
grow. When I started working with these strange machines, a "large" disk
could store a few hundreds of thousands of bytes (KB). Today, drives
holding several gigabytes (GB) are common. A few folks now have drive
arrays that can store more than a terabyte (1 TB, or 1,000 Gigabytes).
And
there's no end in sight ...
As disks grow, software has often struggled to keep pace. If you've been
around computers a while, you'll remember times when Windows couldn't
support the largest drives then available.
Sometimes a third-party driver provided a temporary solution, while
Windows raced to catch up. Other times, we resorted to partitioning of
large drives, making them appear to be two or more smaller drives. I even
remember formatting only a portion of a "large" 40 MB drive, abandoning
some of its capacity because the Windows of the day simply couldn't cope
with the drive's enormous size.
Now other programmers may struggle with these growing pains for years to
come. But I believe I've solved this problem once and for all, at least
for the Drive Info program. The new version of this Power Tool supports
drives as large as 18.01 YB!
To see where this fits into the history (and future) of disk drive
capacities, take a look at the following table. It shows the relationship
between several data units of measure:
1 Kilobyte (KB) = 1,000 bytes
1 Megabyte (MB) = 1,000 kilobytes
1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1,000 megabytes
1 Terabyte (TB) = 1,000 gigabytes
1 Petabyte (PB) = 1,000 terabytes
1 Exabyte (EB) = 1,000 petabytes
1 Zettabyte (ZB) = 1,000 exabytes
1 Yottabyte (YB) = 1,000 zettabytes
So now you know. The new Drive Info program can work with drives (and
groups of drives) containing as many as
18,010,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
bytes! Put another way, the new version compute and display drive sizes,
used space, and free spaces as large as 18,010,000,000,000,000 gigabytes.
What could you do with that much storage? Experts say digital video
requires a lot of disk space. But 18 YB is enough space to store
600,000,000,000,000 years of uncompressed, round-the-clock, full-color
HDTV video, and CD-quality stereo sound. If you had the time, you could
record the entire life of each person on earth, and use only one-tenth of
one percent of your drive's available space!
Of course, few people will want to watch this much video. But the point
is, when drives this large arrive, the new Drive Info will be ready to
tell you all about them. :)
Quotas
------
No doubt those big drives will come in handy. But for now, most of us
still struggle with smaller drives and limited disk space. Fortunately,
newer versions of Windows provide us with several tools that help us
conserve this valuable resource.
One such feature, which first appeared in Windows 2000, is called "Disk
Quotas". In a nutshell, quotas allow you to limit how much disk space
each
user of a computer can consume.
Does your son's download habit keep your computer chronically starved for
disk space? Does a co-worker forget to store large files on a network
server, tying up limited space on the local drive? If so, quotas can come
to your rescue.
First, you'll need to log onto your computer as the Administrator, or as
someone with Administrator privileges. Next, use your mouse to
right-click
a drive's icon in the My Computer folder. From the context menu that
appears, select "Properties", then click the "Quota" tab of the "Drive
Properties" dialog.
Now you're ready to enable Windows' quota feature. Just place a checkmark
in the box labeled "Enable quota management". On this dialog you can also
select the amount of space users are allotted, and when they should be
warned they are nearing their limit.
Initially, the limit you specify here will apply to all users of this
drive. But you can customize quotas, giving different each user his or
her
own disk space limit.
Just click on this window's "Quota Entries" button. You'll then see a
list
of all users authorized to access this computer, alongside their
individual quota settings. Double-click a user's name, and you can adjust
the limit and warning level of the selected user. You can even remove
quota restrictions from especially responsible and privileged users, such
as yourself. :)
What does this have to do with the new Drive Info program? Now, the
program reveals whether quotas are supported on each drive. If so, it
goes
further, telling us if quotas are currently enabled, and reporting the
current disk space limit and warning level for the current user. It even
shows how close we are to filling our portion of the drive, by displaying
the percentage of our quota that is already in use!
There's a lot more to say about the new Drive Info. But it'll have to
wait
until our next get-together. In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more
about your drives, download your free copy of Drive Info from its home
page at:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdinfo.asp
And if you'd like to see how the program spelunks a drive, download the
program's free Visual Basic source code too.
Better yet, get the latest version of every Power Tool, including the new
Drive Info, on a shiny CD. The disc also contains three bonus Power Tools
not available anywhere else. You'll find the source code of every Power
Tool, every back issue of my newsletter, and even some of my original
Windows Magazine articles! The CD also includes a special license that
lets you use your Power Tools at work.
Buying a CD is also the easiest way to support the KarenWare.com web
site,
and this newsletter. To find out more, visit:
http://www.karenware.com/cd.asp
Until we meet again, I'm going to spend some time with my turtles. They
get lonely if we don't play often. If you happen to see my hawks and
eagles flying overhead, let them know we're looking forward to their
return. And if you see me on the 'net, be sure to wave and say "Hi!"
Karen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visit Karen's Power Tools Store and check out her collection
of Power Tools T-shirts, mouse pads, hats, tote bags, mugs,
and more! A portion of each purchase helps keep Karen's
Power Tools newsletter and programs free!
http://www.karenware.com/store.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All of Karen's Power Tools
--------------------------
Note: For the most up-to-date list, visit:
http://www.karenware.com/powertools.asp
NOTE: You should use Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs applet to
remove the old version, before installing a new version of a Power Tool.
Note: Be sure to install the Visual Basic Runtime v6.0 before installing
your first Power Tool. It's required by all the Power Tools, and must be
installed first. You can download a copy of the Visual Basic Runtime v6.0
installer, vbrun60-setup.exe, from any of the pages where you download
the
Power Tools themselves, or from my special Runtimes page at:
http://www.karenware.com/runtimes.asp
-- K-A-R-E-N-'-S--P-O-W-E-R-T-O-O-L-S --------------------
Copyright 2003 Karen Kenworthy
http://www.karenware.com/
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