Session Tab Size Info

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  • rb27
    Visitor
    • Jun 2016
    • 5

    Session Tab Size Info

    Hi,
    I am evaluating BC4 on a Mac Book Pro running El Capitan (used to be Mavericks). I have upgraded to the newest version of BC4.

    I believe that at one time when making folder comparisons that the session tab view with the "Size" enabled used to have the "Size" of the folder(s) and file(s) for each comparison. Now it seems that only file(s) have the "Size" value populated.

    It seems you have to select the folder in question and expand it in the session tab. Once this is done, the "Size" value is then populated. This kinda makes it difficult to compare folders especially when the contents are the same but the folder name is different or the folder has the same name with the contents named the same but are different sizes.

    I have tried this in both the standard version and the pro version with the same results.
    I have reset the program back to original default settings with the same results.
    The same is true if these are local machine folders or network NAS drive folders.

    I am tempted to uninstall and reinstall.

    A great program!!

    Thanks
  • Aaron
    Team Scooter
    • Oct 2007
    • 15945

    #2
    Hello,

    The size of the folders only calculates if all the items within can be scanned. Expanding a folder triggers a scan, and the Session menu -> Session Settings dialog, Handling tab can control which are scanned automatically on session load.

    Any top level Orphan folders (only on one side) are not scanned by default, so you can expand them or enable to scan them in the session settings (which can be per session or updated as the default for any new Folder Compare sessions).

    Does enabling the additional handling options help get the behavior you expect?
    Aaron P Scooter Software

    Comment

    • Barcelona Quad
      Visitor
      • Jan 2017
      • 7

      #3
      Originally posted by Aaron
      Hello,

      The size of the folders only calculates if all the items within can be scanned.
      This is less than desirable behavior. It means that if there are a few unscannable files buried in hundreds of thousands of files, they either need to be discovered, or in order to get a rough sense of what is taking up all the storage space, each directory in the directory tree has to be queried manually with file explorer. It would be much easier if, instead of a blank for the size of a directory tree with one unscannable file, Beyond Compare displayed the size of the remaining files. Especially since those unscannable files happen to be in directory trees with scannable files that take up lots of space. The size of the scannable portions of the directory tree provides information for breaking up large sets of file for easier backup and transport.

      Caveat: Maybe I am missing an option setting and/or am using Beyond Compare incorrectly.

      Comment

      • Aaron
        Team Scooter
        • Oct 2007
        • 15945

        #4
        This would need some kind of interface enhancement that would very clearly show that the size reported is not a true overall size. We definitely want to avoid any confusion by presenting a folder as only a partial size and a user interprets that as a full report and acts on that information.

        The general workflow is to drill into any folders that are not reporting their size and determine where the trouble spot is within them. You may need to launch BC4 as an Administrator to give the bcompare.exe additional access, or there may be other errors preventing folders from scanning or expanding. What error messages are you seeing when you drill down and attempt to double click and expand a folder without size?
        Aaron P Scooter Software

        Comment

        • Barcelona Quad
          Visitor
          • Jan 2017
          • 7

          #5
          Originally posted by Aaron
          What error messages are you seeing when you drill down and attempt to double click and expand a folder without size?
          I don't see an error. The size is just blank. For example "C:\Windows" is blank. If I drill down, I see that some have sizes and some are blank. If I drill down all the way to C:\Windows\ImmersiveControlPanel\microsoft.system. package.metadata\Autogen\JSByteCodeCache_64, I see that there is a 4 byte file and once I click on that C:\Windows\ImmersiveControlPanel populates with a size. But C:\Windows doesn't, because there are others. I have a not very complicated Windows 10 install, but it is nonetheless 100,000 filed distributed over 20,000 folders. It would take a while to drill down to all of those folders just to get a sense of where all the space is being taken up. Buried in there are some multi-gigabyte files that can either be deleted altogether, or can be omitted from the backup.

          You make a valid point about not having a misleading total, but maybe a colored or asterisked partial total, since it is most likely to be close.

          Comment

          • Aaron
            Team Scooter
            • Oct 2007
            • 15945

            #6
            Hello,

            In order to show a size, all items within must be built. C:\Windows almost always has at least one blocked folder or item, so we wouldn't be able to show its size. You can use the Expand All command or in the right-click menu you can Open Subfolders to expand just the selected item, which will likely hit at least one problem folder, probably with Access Denied as the error.

            Partial size ideas are on our wishlist, and I'll add your ideas to our entry as well.
            Aaron P Scooter Software

            Comment

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