Our Verdict
Over the year , a couple simple but popular genre of Mac Gems have been computer menu - saloon utilities that let you easily eject mounted volume ( see Ejector , Semulov , Volumizer , and Undock ) ; and menu - streak utility that show you how much space is usable on mounted volumes ( see SpaceControl ) . Today ’s Gem , FreeSpace 1.0(Mac App Store link ) , fuse aspects of both genre , make for a utilitarian utility for monitoring your parkway .
Like the aforementioned programs , FreeSpace runs as a systemwide menu . By default , it displays the liberal space on your boot mass ; snap FreeSpace ’s menu presentation and you ’ll see a list of every mounted intensity — form by type ( local , external , disc , connection , disk paradigm and so on)—along with the amount of free space on each volume . If you ’ve got a skilful identification number of drives and volumes , interior and outside , this everything - at - a - glimpse menu is a convenient way to keep an eye on how much infinite you ’ve perplex useable .
If you ’ve get multipleinternalvolumes , you may pick out which of those volume ’s loose quad come along in the menu bar . Just see the FreeSpace fare and move the cursor to the rightfield of the desire mass ’s free - space status ; click the ringlet icon that appears .
One interesting bank bill here : If you ’ve pay off a laptop Mac , and you haven’tdisabled peregrine Time Machine backups(a Lion [ Mac OS X 10.7 ] feature that save computer backup to your local crusade whenever your Time Machine volume is not available ) , the Finder and FreeSpace will probably show different amounts of destitute blank on your inauguration drive . This is because the Finder ’s free - space calculation disregard local Time Machine data — presumptively because that space can be freed up automatically if take — whereas FreeSpace considers that blank space to be in usage . On my MacBook Air , for exercise , FreeSpace showed I had only 19 GB of free quad available , while the Finder claim it was closer to 47 G . When I disabled local Time Machine fill-in — which also resign up any blank space previously used by local backup — FreeSpace ’s display increase to mirror the amount of devoid blank space reported by the Finder .
FreeSpace also lets you eject any volume without having to open a Finder window or view the desktop . Just get through the eject button next to a bulk and it ’s immediately unmounted ; FreeSpace ’s menu - bar show shew an eject image when the volume has been unmounted successfully . ( FreeSpace also exhibit a disk icon in the menu measure whenever a volume is mounted . )
If a link drive has multiple partitions , unmounting one mechanically unmounts all of them — you do n’t have to deal with the Finder ’s “ Do you want to eject [ volumename ] only , or all the partitions ? ” dialog . Alternatively , click Eject All to apace unmountallexternal volumes at once — commodious when you ’re about to jam up your MacBook Pro for a route tripper . ( You of course ca n’t unmount your startup drive , and FreeSpace wo n’t let you unmount other inner volumes . If you want to unmount a non - startup internal book , you ’ll need to take a trip to Disk Utility . )
FreeSpace ’s other simple - but - useful feature is that clicking on a intensity name in FreeSpace ’s menu open that volume in the Finder . This is often quicker and more convenient than flip to the Finder and , if necessary , opening a new Finder window for pilot to that volume .
Unfortunately , FreeSpace wo n’t alarm you if a fussy loudness is getting tight on space — that ’s one of my favorite features of Space Control . And I wish you could save carte du jour - streak space by showing only the FreeSpace ikon in the menu prevention , rather than a phonograph record icon and the gratis blank on one of your interior volumes . ( The developer told me he ’s considering the latter feature for a succeeding update . ) Still , FreeSpace is ready to hand for keeping an eye on your free cause blank space , as well as for rapidly accessing and unmounting volumes .
