Calculate Subfolder Size not working

[richardk]

I have 'calculate subfolders size automatically' checked and the time it takes for the sizes to display for any given set of folders can be anywhere from about a second to a minute to 10 minutes to never. I have tried closing all other programs but nothing seems to help.

It seems to vary from day to day and you can even get some displaying quickly, then you go immediately to another folder with roughly the same number and size of subfolders yet those won't display.

[nikos]

even when you have automatic size calculation turned on, it doesn't work for root folders or those that are remote (network). If you use folder sizes a lot you may be better off installing folder size shell extension
www.zabkat.com/blog/23Aug09-folder-size.htm

[richardk]

even when you have automatic size calculation turned on, it doesn't work for root folders or those that are remote (network). If you use folder sizes a lot you may be better off installing folder size shell extension
http://www.zabkat.com/blog/23Aug09-folder-size.htm

I take it "root" means C: or whatever the disc's absolute highest level is? I mean, there are not multiple, 'relative' roots within a disc - correct? If so then the folders in question are neither root nor remote, which should have been clear by the description of how the size appears sometimes, but not always, for a given set of folders, or taking a few seconds one time, then 10 minutes another time, although nothing in the folders had changed and the number of other programs running didn't change either.

I'm not seeing any mention in the link about how the extension is better; perhaps I overlooked it. Can you clarify?

[nikos]

xplorer2 calculates folder sizes each time from scratch. The other shell extension maintains a cache so it should be faster.
in xplorer2 you can get immediate results if you use ACTIONS > FOLDER STATISTICS menu command

[richardk]

The extension page says it doesn't work for Win 7, which I have as specified in my sig.

[Kilmatead]

It does work in Win7 when using xplorer2 because Nikos has re-enabled the column handlers that Microsoft disabled (long boring explanation may be found here). The foldersize site is aimed at Windows Explorer users, and so for them it will not work anymore, in typical MS fashion.

Do not use the newer version, take the one from this link (2.5 x64) - do not use the 2.6 version, as that's filled with the work-around nonsense your man tried to add in desperation to make it work with Win7 (before he apparently gave up). This "older" version works appropriately, the primary column will be available within x2 as Folder Size [X], with customisation options found in the Control Panel (under the 'FolderSize' item).

For the record, I have no problems at all with x2's Calculate Folders option, and have never been able to reproduce any that others seem to have experienced in the past. I suspect most of those were due to slow/low-power 5000 RPM drives which were popular in all laptops before SSD's became the norm.

In any case, the FolderSize extension is useful as it works on network connections as well as root folders, the background service tracking as cache, not wasting its time on constant real-time calculations. (Naturally, it can take a bit of time to build up this cache if indeed your drives are slow or overloaded.)

[richardk]

Thanks for the translation into human language and clarifications!

[nikos]

I'm sure there will be a WDX plugin that does folder sizes, that will work with the newest version 3.1

[Kilmatead]

Yeah, like that wasn't an obvious salesman's ploy! Saw that one coming a mile away, so's I did. Even the cattle I lost years ago in the hills can still be heard mewing with derision at such an obvious display of dis-ingenuity! At least try and inject a little faux-subtlety into your words next time. It's stuff like that that gives the Greek lads a poor reputation with the women on school dance-nights. And when your wee butterfly turns 16 and all the young boys from the village come-a-courtin', your fatherly BS-detector will be bursting out of your skull with indignation at all their "How are you this evening, sir?" and "I think there will be a swell harvest this year, sir" small-talk.

As it happens, there is actually a plugin for it, though when I initially tried it it didn't quite behave as expected, though I don't recall exactly why right now...

Edit: Well, one good reason it didn't behave as expected was because this one causes x2 to have paroxysms of crashes (at least on x64).

[nikos]

I'll have a look about this errant plugin

[RightPaddock]

I find the item count (Content) adequate for day-to-day use. When I do want to know the size of directory it's usually one that has many sub directories. Today I use FileMenuTools' (FMT) Folder size option, it's the only one I know of that offers the option to exclude hard link duplicates - that makes it very slow on something like the Windows directory, but at least the results will be accurate in terms of device space usage (eg my Windows directory is 24GB without hard link exclusions and 18GB with them).

When I had a folder size column (Win-XP X2-1.8 days) I found that it chewed up resources telling me something that I didn't need to know most of the time. So I ditched the column and used MindGems FolderSize utility as and when needed, it was subsequently usurped by FMT

RP