![]() For example, show all your files in a flat view then sort them by size to learn where your hard disk space went. In particular, you can do highly complex saveable searches, which result in a flat sortable list of the matching items. On the whole, it’s like a modern DiskTop.Īdditionally, you get DiskTracker’s disk cataloging features. You can’t create an alias resource and data fork sizes aren’t listed separately invisible items can be shown or hidden, but there’s no direct indication that they’re invisible. You can open or reveal the actual item in the Finder. Copying files works through drag & drop, which is clumsier than DiskTop’s dialogs because of the single-window approach – what I’d really prefer is a Windows-like cut-and-paste metaphor – but it operates both internally and with the Finder, which is slick. You can rename items, delete items, move items to the Trash, copy an item’s path, create a new folder, and view and alter an item’s type/creator, creation/modification date, and locked and invisible attributes. As with DiskTop, files are listed in a single window, and you can navigate into a folder using the same window but you can also view folders hierarchically, as with the Finder’s List view. Catalog file size is roughly proportional to the number of files the catalog listing all 27,000 files on my hard disk occupies 1.5 MB of disk space.īut with the recently released DiskTracker 2.0, if the disk whose catalog you’re viewing is mounted and writable, you can make changes to it through the catalog. This, too, is a blast from the past, but in a different way: it goes back only to 1996, but its conceptual ancestry reaches well into the 1980s to another old favorite of mine, Bill Patterson’s FileList+ (itself based on Erny Tontlinger’s FileList).ĭiskTracker was originally a file cataloger, meaning that it quickly reads and stores into a single document the file information from as many disks as you like. The main downside is that it costs $50, which seems rather cheeky for software that isn’t being updated does Prairie Group think software improves by sitting, like wine?ĭiskTracker - For a thoroughly modern alternative that’s being updated regularly, you might try the $30 shareware DiskTracker, by Mark Pirri (Portents LLC). It opens files and folders, not through the scriptable Finder or other modern methods, but through the antiquated CE Toolbox extension (this rather hampered my system, and ultimately I elected to forego this functionality). It comes on a floppy! It’s not PowerPC-native. Indeed, much of DiskTop’s appeal, I have to admit, is that it’s such a blast from the past. In the past six years, DiskTop has been tweaked to ensure compatibility with Apple Menu Options and Y2K, but functionality remains unchanged. But carping, though easy, is pointless, since these issues will probably never be addressed. As you make an alias, you can’t dictate its name. For example, it lists invisible files, but it doesn’t tell you they’re invisible, nor does it let you search only for invisible files. You can also find by multiple criteria, quickly and easily. A Get Info dialog lets you get (and set) the sort of technical stuff for which you’d otherwise need ResEdit or Snitch. Supplementary modal dialogs let you delete or rename an item, pick a folder to copy or move an item to, create an item, learn a folder’s size, or copy a pathname. Navigation between folders (using always this single window), by mouse or keyboard, is lightning-fast you can also nominate favorite folders for direct access through a pop-up menu. Having bemoaned the frequent untimely death of good software, I was stunned and delighted to learn that DiskTop is still available – and still works, though the version number has increased only to 4.5.3.ĭiskTop is a single window displaying one folder’s contents, like a non-hierarchical version of the Finder’s List view, but including invisible files, and telling you type/creator codes and exact data/resource fork sizes. Over the years, DiskTop somehow fell off my radar screen, though I was dimly aware that CE Software had spun it off to the Prairie Group and TidBITS hadn’t reviewed it since 1994, when Stephen Camidge looked at DiskTop 4.5. ![]() Tools that Never Died: DiskTop and DiskTrackerīack in the hoary days of System 6, the Finder badly needed help, and DiskTop was one of my favorite helpers. 1647: Focus-caused notification issues, site-specific browser examples, virtualizing Windows on M-series Macs.#1648: iPhone passcode thefts, Center Cam improves webcam eye contact, APFS Uncertainty Principle.#1649: More LastPass breach details and 1Password switch, macOS screen saver problem, tvOS 16.3.3 fixes Siri Remote bug.#1650: Cloud storage changes for Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive quirky printing problem.#1651: Dealing with leading zeroes in spreadsheet data, removing ad tracking from ckbk.
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