HddMon - The Next Generation

[Phoenix]

In attached file you will find a new version of HddMon. There are a lot of changes, so i have started a new topic.

In this version, the disks are monitored by volume instead of device, so it is possible to show more detailed information by drive letters. You also can see, which volume(s) support performance requests.

The read/write activity is shown by two icons in the system notification area. If you want to, choose "details" from popup menu to see activity by volume, supported or all detected volumes. You can set the alpha value of the details window as well.

This one was tested on WindowsXP Pro SP2 (32bit) and W2K SP4.

Two problems remain: the icons in SNA look ugly with W2K although there are different iconsets selected for XP and W2K. I need serious help with this because i cant figure out what happens. The W2K-icons are 16 by 16, 256 colours. Maybe W2K only displays 16-colour-icons in SNA?

The other problem is - W2K again - when you do a selection from the details window menu, the tooltip of the SNA-icons is covered by the details window. This problem was not seen on my XP-box until now.

An other interesting behaviour is, that the kind of suppurted drives is different depending on OS - i have an old 64k USB Flash Drive where performance requests are supported by W2K-drivers but not by XP-drivers(!?)

Regards, Phoenix

EDIT: New Version uploaded
- drag of details window enabled
- snap details window to the screen edge(s)
- restores position of details window
- you should delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HddMon -> Init" before running if you have the previous version
- Win98 bug solved
EDIT: New Version uploaded (with source)

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Mark Jones]

Very nice! :toothy

The "details" and "...reported drives" are very nice features indeed. :U

Curious though, is it supposed to make two circular icons in the taskbar?

[PBrennick]

I have five drives, 2 reporting.  IMO, it should be 5 drives, 3 reporting.  Evidently, the USB drive is not handled?  I think if details is showing, lose the balls. Also, would be nice to dock the details wherever a person wants to though you may already have the best place.  I will probably change the color of the detail window.  It is hard for me to see (personal problem).

All in all, pretty cool, though.  XPHESP2

Paul

[MichaelW]

My system, running Windows 2000 SP4, has two partitions on the ATA HDD, an ATAPI CD-RW, an ATAPI Zip drive, and a 3.5-inch diskette drive. HDDMon detects 5 drives, and it shows the C and D partitions on the HDD and the Zip drive as reporting, even when the Zip drive has no disk inserted. It does not show the CD-RW drive as reporting when it has a CD inserted, or when I read from the CD. In the details the indicators for the CD-RW and diskette drive are yellow, and never show any activity even when I am accessing the drives. The Zip drive shows read activity when I read from it and write activity when I write to it. When I access the Zip drive drives C and D show write activity, but I think this may have something to do with caching.

Under Windows 2000, after spending hours trying, I could not produce any non-rectangular icon that had a reasonable appearance in the notification area, even when the icon looked good elsewhere.

[hutch--]

Seems to work fine here. A win2000 box with 4 x 120 gig HDDs, each partitioned to 4 partitions, it detects 19 drives and reports 16 which is correct, a floppy and 2 x DVD drives make the other 3.

The "Details" option looks grayed out and is a bit hard to read, perhaps a popup window would be easier to read.

[Phoenix]

Thanks to all for testing and feedback!

After all it seems to work without problems...

Mark: yes, it was my intention to have two icons in the taskbar (i didn't know that this is possible before)

PBrennick: it is a secret to me if USB drives support performance requests or not... my 80gig USB harddisk is supported, but no flash drives here on my XP box. Docking the details window on custom places on the screen is the next thing to work on for me..

MichaelW: CD or DVD drives are not supported by performance requests in this way, i have to look up the way to do it. If you select "show --> detected" not suported volumes are shown with yellow color. Nice to know, ZIP works!

hutch-- : 19 drives, thats a lot! Perhaps you could add a multicard reader to see if all 26 possible work?  :lol  The details option becomes grayed out if details window is active, or does it look grayed out anyway?

Does anybody have some time to review the code? Its the first time that i work with gdi and backbuffer, so any advice would be appreciated... i usually prefer gdi+.

Regards, Phoenix

[PBrennick]

Phoenix,
I am sure that a lot of people wouldn't mind reviewing your code.  You certainly have done a great job for a first try with gdi and backbuffer.  I use Ewayne's apploader and it is docked top right and I would like to put yours right next to it.  I also think us old guys will see it better up there.  I will certainly take a look at what you gave us.

Paul

[Phoenix]

PBrennick,

thanks a lot  :U

us old guys will see it better up there

Thats me, too... (YOB 1961) :lol

[MichaelW]

When I do a search of a directory on C or D, in the details both drives show the same activity.

[EDIT]

Ignore this part, I just remembered that I was experimenting with the system DLL's the last time I used the system, and I don't even remember what I learned from the experiments :(

When I tried to run HDDMon under Windows 98 SE instead of a message box with szOsInfoT and szOsInfo, I got:

A message box with:

Error Starting Program

The HDDMON.EXE file is linked to missing export USER32.DLL:SetLayeredWindowAttributes.

And another with:

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\HDDMon.exe

A device attached to the system is not functioning.

[/EDIT]

I have had it running for 22 hours now, and the accumulated CPU time is 51 seconds. An average utilization of .06% is probably low enough :U

[John]

Phoenix,
I like most of the new stuff, especially doing it by supported volumes. I have to say that I much prefer the one icon from the previous version though to the two used here. Just my opinion though. Functionally it is fantastic on my computer. Nice work!

[six_L]

Hello,Phoenix
The attached file HddMon.zip can't be unziped.

[Phoenix]

Thanks John  :U Anybody else thinking that one icon in the system notification area is better?

Hello six_L, try this: http://www.7-zip.org/ if you like or try downloading it again.. the archive seems to work ok for me.

[six_L]

Thanks you,Phoenix
it works ok.

[Phoenix]

Updated Version uploaded with first post:

- drag the details window to your favourite position - as requested by PBrennick  :lol
- details window snaps (only) to screen edges
- placement on the screen is restored

Before running this version, you should delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HddMon -> Init" in registry if you tried the last one.

Still need to solve the Win 98 errors (Thanks MichaelW).

Have fun!
Phoenix

[Phoenix]

When I tried to run HDDMon under Windows 98 SE instead of a message box with szOsInfoT and szOsInfo, I got:

New Upload: Solved by using run-time dynamic linking for SetLayeredWindowAttributes function.

I have had it running for 22 hours now, and the accumulated CPU time is 51 seconds. An average utilization of .06% is probably low enough

MichaelW, how did you measure this?!