OT: need file utility...

[Dave Labrecque]

...with a very specific function: I need to list all files within a folder and its subfolders, sorted by size. That is, many folders, but one single list of files.

TreeSize, FolderSize and the like don't appear to be able to do this.

Anyone know a way? If I have to use some old DOS method, I'm game. Though a nice UI would be, well, nicer.

Thanks.

[Dave Labrecque]

Hi Stash,

Sounds like I'm being about as clear to you as I am to Google. ;)

I would like one list of all the files within a single folder as well as all the files within all of its subfolders, their subfolders, etc., sorted by size. E.g., all the files that fall under C:Program Files\, including all of the files in all of its subfolders and their subfolders and their subfolders... -- in one list, sorted by size.

Many folders, but one list of all the files that are in all of those folders.

[Sean McCoy]

Try selecting the main folder and doing a *.* search, then sort the search results by size.

[Dave Labrecque]

Try selecting the main folder and doing a *.* search, then sort the search results by size.

But of course. Thanks, Sean!

UPDATE: That was the ticket. Took a while to load, and scrolling the list around was no picnic, but it revealed exactly what I was looking for. My online backup program has been showing huge (2.5 GB) "to do" data in the queue on and off during the day. I couldn't figure out what was causing it, since mostly I'm just doing email and web stuff, and I'd assumed Thunderbird and Firefox had lots of little discrete files for all their data (unlike Outlook's infamous PST file), but it turns out that there are some mighty big files in Thunderbird, too. My Thunderbird Sent email data shows up as a 2.4 GB file! Time to set those auto-archive parameters that I never got around to when I installed T-bird years ago!

[Dave Labrecque]

All that better be billable.
Let us know how many 'thumbs' and 'icon' files you get.:)

Ha! Well, I limited it to my user account's AppData folder, but it was still way too much for comfort. :o

[Ian Alexander]

A few months into each year, I break off the past year's emails into folders like Sent 2013 and In 2013. Once they're archived, they don't change and don't get copied every night.

[Dave Labrecque]

A few months into each year, I break off the past year's emails into folders like Sent 2013 and In 2013. Once they're archived, they don't change and don't get copied every night.

And that's my new plan! :)

[RBIngraham]

Take a look at Microsoft's Sync Toy. Yeah.. silly name but it is actually a pretty nice tool for backing up and archive use.

[Dave Labrecque]

Take a look at Microsoft's Sync Toy. Yeah.. silly name but it is actually a pretty nice tool for backing up and archive use.

I use Sync Toy on a client's computers. They use it to back up to each other every night. Pretty simple and useful. I use an online backup service for an offsite/cloud solution. I should probably get my client on that, too.

I presume SyncToy doesn't use data deduplication, but, of course, that's not nearly as useful over LAN vs. over the Internet.

[mr_es335]

Hello,

If you are looking at doing a simple text file listing of a current directory or folder, you can use the following in a batch file:

Dir /b> \[path]list.txt

I use this all of the time to perform simply directory listings.

PS: I use another program called QTDSync for backup purposes. It uses Linux as a back-end - QTDSync (http://qtdtools.doering-thomas.de/page.php?seite=0&sub=0&lang=en)

[Dave Labrecque]

Hello,

If you are looking at doing a simple text file listing of a current directory or folder, you can use the following in a batch file:

Dir /b> \[path]list.txt

I use this all of the time to perform simply directory listings.

PS: I use another program called QTDSync for backup purposes. It uses Linux as a back-end - QTDSync (http://qtdtools.doering-thomas.de/page.php?seite=0&sub=0&lang=en)

As mentioned my needs were a little more involved than simply displaying the contents of a folder. Happily, Windows search function did the trick. :)

[RBIngraham]

I use Sync Toy on a client's computers. They use it to back up to each other every night. Pretty simple and useful. I use an online backup service for an offsite/cloud solution. I should probably get my client on that, too.

I presume SyncToy doesn't use data deduplication, but, of course, that's not nearly as useful over LAN vs. over the Internet.

If by data deduplication you mean it won't copy over a file that is already there, SyncToy can do that. Assuming you are backing up to the same folder all the time anyway. It has a few different modes.

I usually use Synchronize which will copy over the latest version of each file in both directions. I use this for my current projects because I have my work drive at home, a network back up at home, the drive I use to transport files to the theatres and the machine at the theatre. So I use Synctoy to keep full duplicates of all the files on every machine. Add a new file to any of them or change a file on any of them and after you've run all the syncs they will all be identical. That way I have several copies of everything and at least 2 physical locations.

There is also a contribute mode which I use for things like iTunes back up. So as I check in and maybe grab something from iTunes on a few different machines, I can back all of them up to the network storage at home without having to sync the entire library to any one machine, which I don't care about since I only use that kind of stuff for work. Not to carry my music around with me everywhere like most folks.

[cgrafx]

Data De-duplication is the process of determining if there are identical duplicate files and only storing a single copy.

This means the same file stored in multiple folders will actually only be stored once and a reference will be kept to make it look like copies are saved in all folders.

[Dave Labrecque]

Data De-duplication is the process of determining if there are identical duplicate files and only storing a single copy.

This means the same file stored in multiple folders will actually only be stored once and a reference will be kept to make it look like copies are saved in all folders.

With CrashPlan (my online backup service), as I understand it, what they call their data deduplication works like this: for all files that are marked for backup (changed since the last backup), a block-by-block comparison is done with the off-site (previoiusly backed-up) data. Any block that's different is uploaded; any block that's the same is not. The combining of old and new blocks on the CrashPlan server rebuilds the entire files. For really big files that change very little every day, this is a huge time- and traffic-saver. E.g., the Sent data file for Thunderbird in my case, which had several-years-worth of emails in it (imagine trying to upload 2.5 GB every 15 minutes).

I'm guessing they do what Phil is describing, too, perhaps on an even lower level, to keep backup sets compact on their servers. Wikipedia describes identifying 'unique chunks of data' or 'byte patterns'. It starts to sound an awful lot like data compression, which, I suppose, it is.

[RBIngraham]

With CrashPlan (my online backup service), as I understand it, what they call their data deduplication works like this: for all files that are marked for backup (changed since the last backup), a block-by-block comparison is done with the off-site (previoiusly backed-up) data. Any block that's different is uploaded; any block that's the same is not. The combining of old and new blocks on the CrashPlan server rebuilds the entire files. For really big files that change very little every day, this is a huge time- and traffic-saver. E.g., the Sent data file for Thunderbird in my case, which had several-years-worth of emails in it (imagine trying to upload 2.5 GB every 15 minutes).

I'm guessing they do what Phil is describing, too, perhaps on an even lower level, to keep backup sets compact on their servers. Wikipedia describes identifying 'unique chunks of data' or 'byte patterns'. It starts to sound an awful lot like data compression, which, I suppose, it is.


Ah.... good to know.

Yeah, SyncToy is definitely not doing that! :)

It only compares file dates at the per folder level.

[Jon R]

That's a good idea, Ian. I have started doing IMAP instead of POP3 with my e-mail in Outlook so i have everything across all platforms, but needed a way to have one archive for the older stuff. The folder idea is just what i need.