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J&P Group | J&P InfoSol | Applications | Disk Utilities

Disk Utilities

Introduction <top>

Want To

Application(s)

Comments
Good Overview of Large Files
  • WhatSize, 1st choice
  • Baseline, 2nd choice
  • OmniDiskSweeper - basic, but FREE
WhatSize has most flexibility
See/Find What Changes Over Time
  • Baseline (only choice1)
 
Find Duplicates
  • Baseline (only choice1)
 
1 I.e. among the applications listed here.

 

 

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/

Application

price

from

Version/Release Info Comments

Ver.

Date*

Size

Baseline $20.00 v1.4.2 20081124 (mod) 8.6MB

More info: mildmanneredindustries.com/baseline.

MW review v1.4.2 Dec 08, rating 4/5

GrandPerspective Free v1.0 20081222 (mod) 1.3MB

open-source; only a visual graphical representation and one that neither is that easy to interpret nor that useful (as far as seen/understood so far)

– Not that useful

(MW rating: 4/5, v0.93 - MacWorld's Byte breakdown Apr'06.)

OmniDiskSweeper

Free(1)

v1.7 20090224 (mod) 6.3MB

(1) Free since v1.7 Feb 2009 (was $15 prior)

+ Decent util (considering it's now Free) to get a good overview of large folders and files.

– No means to sort other than default (decending order size of folders/files).

More info: omnigroup.com/applications/omnidisksweeper.

(MW rating: 3.5/5, v1.5 - MacWorld's Byte breakdown Apr'06; NOTE: This rating was for the for-pay version.)

WhatSize $12.99 v(10.)4.5.1 20090317 (mod) 6.4MB

More info: id-design.com/software/whatsize.

(MW rating: 4/5, v10.3.9 (current per Apr09 is v(10.)4.5.1) - MacWorld's Byte breakdown Apr'06.)

 

The Top Five Mac Hard Drive, Diagnostic, and Repair Utilities, Feb 23, 2007 - http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=693649

  1. Prosoft’s Data Rescue II - http://prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php -,
  2. Also by Prosoft, Drive Genius,
  3. MicroMat’s TechTool Pro,
  4. Alsoft’s DiskWarrior
  5. AppleJack is the only open source

 

Hyperbolic Software Tidy Up! ($39) http://www.hyperbolicsoftware.com/TidyUp.html

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/tidyup.html

 

 

Side-by-Side <top>

Comparing 1Password - being evaluated - to Web Confidential - used for many years.

 

Mac OS X

Finder

Baseline OmdiDiskSweeper WhatSize Comments
Product Info Apple baseline omnidisksweeper whatsize  
Developer Apple mildmanneredindustries omnigroup id-design.com  
Pricing incl in OS

$20

Free

$12.99

 

General comments ###  

Rather simple tool,

only lists size (but still better than Finder (10.5)),

no Find Duplicates, ...

   
R&D          
Version 10.5.8 1.4.2 1.7 10.4.5.1 (i)

(i) = as per About information inside application

(m) = Modified time stamp as per Info (Command-I) for installed application.

Released

~2009

(10.5.8)

2009-11-24 (m) 2009-02-24 (m) 2009-03-17 (m)
since today   ~5 months ago ~ 2 months ago ~ 1 month ago (This review per Fri 2009-04-17)
R&D ? ? ? ?  
Application size ? 8.6 MB 6.3 MB 6.4 MB  
General Use          
Primarily how using  

From within browser.

(Application isn't even

visible in list of open

applications. Nice!)

Application itself.  

1P: adds a button - and toolbar - in web browsers and this is how accessing most commonly used features.

WC: from the application itself, limited integration with web browsers.

Starting   3 sec* 10 sec*  

1Password starts significantly faster.

*) Times only to be seen relatively; on a specific Mac (Mini), with lots of applications running.

 

Finder

Baseline OmdiDiskSweeper WhatSize Comments
# Views 4

4

1

5

###

names

1:As Icons (Cmd-1)

2:As List (Cmd-2)

3:As Columns (Cmd-3)

4:As Cover Flow (Cmd-4)

1:List View (Cmd-1)

2:Columns View (Cmd-2)

3:Tree Map (Cmd-3)

4:Duplicates (Cmd-4)

n/a

1:Browser View (Cmd-1)

2:Outline View (Cmd-2)

3:Table View (Cmd-3)

4:BarChart View (Cmd-4)

5:PieChart View (Cmd-5)

 
List View, Outline View Yes (Cmd-2)

Yes (Cmd-1)

No Yes (Cmd-2)  
Table View No No No Yes (Cmd-3) (1) (1) Including pre-defined searches
Columns View Yes (Cmd-3) Yes (Cmd-2) Yes Yes (Cmd-1)  
Cover Flow View Yes (Cmd-4) No No No  
Tree Map No Yes (Cmd-3) (1) No No (1) Similar to GrandPerspective's (not in this table) view.
BarChart View No No No Yes (Cmd-4)  
PieChart View No No No Yes (Cmd-5)  
Duplicates View No Yes (Cmd-4) No No  

Find duplicates

No

Yes

(but quite slow)

No No  
Total space occupied by duplicates n/a No n/a n/a  
Delocalization No No No Yes (Cmd-6)  

Baselines, save state to see changes over time

No Yes No No

Can be quite useful when trying to find out what's eating space over time (like memory leaking applications)

           

 

This section uses Nov 08 CSS Frames.