fall in the increasing popularity of solid - state drives , with their smaller - than - backbreaking - drive capacities , and the prevalence of drive - hog medium files , sometimes it feels like we ’re back to the days when we constantly had to worry about fill up our effort .
Last November , I reexamine FreeSpace , a nifty app that displays , the right way in the computer menu bar , the boot volume ’s free outer space , with a pearl - down bill of fare display the free infinite on every other mounted volume , organized by case ( internal , extraneous , web , phonograph record image , and so on ) . It also gives you quick admission to any mounted volume — pick out one from the card to open it in the Finder — and it ’s the easiest style to unmounted connected volumes , thanks to the little eject button next to each volume in the menu . ( A squeamish trace : The FreeSpace icon blinks to let you have sex when the volume has successfully unmounted . ) There ’s even an Eject All command to unmount everything but internal drives with a click .
I persist in to use FreeSpace regularly , and it earn anhonorable mention on my 2011 favourite - jewel lean . The developer just releasedFreeSpace 1.1(Mac App Store link ) , and the new version is substantially ameliorate , addressing a number of my critique while adding even more utile features .
For representative , if a connected drive had multiple partitions , ejecting one using the original FreeSpace would mechanically unmountallof them . In version 1.1 , you’re able to Option+click any divider to unmount just that partition , leaving the others on that driving mounted . I also noted in my original review that unlike previous GemSpace Control , FreeSpace would n’t alert you if a particular volume was start smashed on space . In the new adaptation , FreeSpace automatically highlight any drive with less than 200 MB of loose outer space . This feature is n’t as powerful as Space Control ’s customizable alarum , but it ’s a prissy improvement .
Another complaint was that although you could take any interior volume for FreeSpace ’s menu - cake exhibit , you could n’t choose an external or web loudness . FreeSpace 1.1 Army of the Pure you choose any connected volume for its computer menu - bar display — just move the mouse to the left of the bulk name and flick the petty arrow button that appears . And if you choose a removable volume , FreeSpace call up that extract — when you unmount the mass , the display reverts to the kick loudness , but once you rise the removable book again , FreeSpace switch back to it .
With FreeSpace 1.0 , you could n’t customize the menu exhibit to , for example , show just a disk icon in order of magnitude to conserve menu - bar quad . reading 1.1 tender a figure of selection for prefer what gets display in the menu Browning automatic rifle : It can display just a drive ikon or that icon plus the useable detached blank , and for the latter , you may choose whether to expose the free space as an integer or with 1 , 2 , or 3 decimal spot , and whether or not to exhibit unit ( KB , MB , GB , or TB ) .
Other fresh feature let you eject internal ride ( except for the boot volume , of track ) from the fare , and sort volumes within group by name , free place , or mount time . Multiple net portion on a individual server or host are now grouped together in the menu , and if a drive has multiple partition , motivate the arrow over any one partitioning ’s eject clitoris highlights the eject clit for all those division , making it clear which volumes are part of the same thrust .
These variety make FreeSpace even more useful and , for those with herd menu legal community , a more - responsible menu - Browning automatic rifle citizen . It remains my favorite current utility for save an eye on your spare cause space , as well as for quickly accessing and unmounting volumes .
