[JayJay1974]

When you select "Calculate folder sizes" in the view options dialog, where does Mac OS keep the information gathered? Is there anyway, short of not turning the computer off or reseting, to get Mac OS to keep this information when you reset or restart? I can't understand how each finder window can show you how much free space there is left on a drive/partition, but still has to calculate folder sizes all the time.

Thanks for any info,
JJ

Added: I just realised (probably for the zillionth time) that just closing a finder window will make Mac OS forget the folder sizes. Very annoying! (I hope that there will be a fix for this in Mac OS 9.5 or even X (but not getting my hopes up))

[This message has been edited by JayJay1974 (edited 03-08-2001).]

[Cipher13]

It takes ages as that command is given a very low priority by the System.
It would take AGES to calculate how much space everything uses at startup.

Looking at a drive, its easy to see how much is free - its hardware wise.
However, looking at what you're talking about, the individual file sizes need to be calculated - then folder sizes, and so on, taking into account subdirectories and so on.
Its not an easy task.

The problem is it DOESN'T keep that information anywhere - it calculates it on the fly.
There won't be a fix in OS9.5.

Cipher13

[JayJay1974]

I just thought of an idea. What could be done is that when sherlock indexes your drive, it should also get the current size of the files as well. This way, all the folder sizes could be calculated from sherlock's index. When a new file is created, a background task (not too processor intensive, low priority) would update the sherlock index. When you want folder sizes calculated, all the system has to do is refer to the sherlock index.
The initial task of indexing would probably take a while, such as it does now using sherlock, but I think it's better than having to do it constantly, which in the long run, takes far longer. Any thoughts?

[Cipher13]

The problem isn't file size calculation - its a matter of calculating ALL files within a folder.
That takes a while.
Creating an index would still take too long, what with updating and all that...
It wouldn't be noticable, but its just ONE MORE THING stuck into the MacOS.

Cipher13

Originally posted by Cipher13:
It takes ages as that command is given a very low priority by the System.
It would take AGES to calculate how much space everything uses at startup.

Looking at a drive, its easy to see how much is free - its hardware wise.

Cipher13

This is not quite true. Knowing the free space of a volume has nothing to do with HW. The reason why this works so quickly is that the file manager of the MacOS stores the amount of free space in the volume header of the volume in question. So the information is just there and does not have to be calculated.

cu
Lars

[Cipher13]

Yeah, the easiest way to explain it is just to say its hardware wise.
You know what I mean.

Regardless, that data is in a single place - a single bit of information.
No need to check the size of thousands of files, add them up, etc...

Cipher13