FolderSizes Help

Scanning options provide a level of control over file system analysis operations.

 

Reparse Points

 

•Follow reparse points - Reparse points are available only within certain Windows operating systems, such NT/2k/XP. They allow for specific types of actions (such as redirection) to occur during the parsing of file system paths. Mount points and symbolic links (also known as directory junctions) are forms of reparse points. Generally speaking, you will not want FolderSizes to follow reparse points – doing so can cause the inclusion of duplicate or unintuitive paths.

 

Hard Links

 

•Track hard links - A hard link is the file system representation of a file by which more than one path references a single file in the same volume. Enabling this feature will cause FolderSizes to adjust allocated size metrics based upon the number of hard links present.

 

Important: Hard link tracking requires that individual files be opened (albeit very briefly), which has a negative affect on file system analysis performance.

 

File System Redirection

 

•Disable WOW64 file system redirection when running on 64-bit computers - This option, enabled by default, disables file system redirection on computers running a 32-bit version of FolderSizes on a 64-bit Windows operating system. Applies to Windows Vista and later only.

 

Deferred Owner Lookup

 

For folder size reports, FolderSizes will normally extract file system object ownership data as late as possible (during report display) to improve scan performance. Looking up owner data is inherently time consuming, especially for remote (network) volumes, so this default can help scans to complete as fast as possible.

 

Sometimes, however, it may be preferable to extract ownership data during the file system analysis. For example, if you intend to export a folder size report in XML file format, you may want every node of the resulting XML file to contain file ownership data (rather than just the nodes that have been displayed).

 

This setting applies to folder size reports only.

 

Misc. Options

 

•Include folders in calculated date/time computations - By default, calculated date/time values are computed using both files and subfolders. You can configure them to use only files by disabling (un-checking) this option. Please note that some folders with no child files anywhere in their hierarchy will display "Unknown" calculated date/time values when this option is disabled.

•Assign backup/restore privileges to FolderSizes when possible - Allows FolderSizes to run with special privileges, which in turn improves the scope of its file system analysis capabilities.

•Set the allocated size of offline files equal to - By default, offline files will be shown as have an allocated size (e.g. "size on disk") equal to a single disk cluster. You can turn this feature off entirely, or configure it to use 4k, 8k, or 16k allocated size values for offline files.