Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with files

An app for Windows for hunting down and eradicating multiple copies of files?

Unhyper — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:30:29 -0800

Is there an app for Windows that you know of for hunting down and eradicating multiple copies of the same files? Let's say I have a 1TB drive (I do) full of junk (I do) and much of that junk has duplicates, triplicates, and octuplicates of the same files in miscellaneous folders.

I'd like to find a program that I could leave running and it would scan the drive for these multiple copies and perhaps erase them for me, or at least allow me to do that later.

Know of any?

A million tiny pieces, on a USB drive.

tmcw — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:52:17 -0800

Transferring lots of files quickly to USB sticks? So, I'm trying to transfer map tilesets to USB drives ('sticks') - which means 1-12 gigs of data, but organized in files which are all less than 1MB. Transferring this with cp to a USB drive would probably take a week, so I've been trying to create images of the directory on my machine and then basically 'burning' the USB drive, with little success, since it appears that the Apple tools for this (hdiutil and asr) are either junk or too Apple-specific to deal with FAT32 - asr definitely can't.

So, how do people do this? I assume that they do, right? Ideas? Thanks

How to merge data fields into a plain text file?

geekgirl397 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:04:23 -0800

Is there some way to do a "mail merge" type operation on plain text, xml or html files without using a word processor? I've been working on our company wiki and I want to bulk create a bunch of pages by merging certain field data from spreadsheets, csv files or other datasources into the template text files that I've created. The output should be XML or plain text.

I have a separate task where I have a simple html template that I'd like to populate with data pulled from a csv. The output needs to be standard, simple HTML (no funny MS Word markup)

I have access to MS Office, Open Office and Abiword but everything I've tried so far seems to "pollute" my files with word processor type formatting. (I am running KDE on Ubuntu 9.10, but I also have Win XP running as a virtual machine under Virtualbox - I have access to any version of the MS Office software, and obviously anything open source).

I'm sure there's some open source tool designed to merge text files. I'm not opposed to using a command line interface although I probably would prefer a GUI. My Google-fu is failing me on this one.

Any tips on how I should achieve this, or pointers to the tools I should be looking at?

thanks!

How to Reorder and Rename Files

235w103 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:58:39 -0800

For an art project, I need to take several thousand image files, reorder them randomly and rename them sequentially. Is there an AppleScript for that? Or something? Hello! I am working on a video art piece, involving stretches of random images at 30 distinct images a second. I'm collecting these images from all sorts of sources, from old vacation photos to frames from industrial films, and putting them in a folder; I eventually will be bringing them into Avid Media Composer as an image sequence.
Basically, I want to take a folder full of files, with varying names, reorder them randomly and then give them sequential names like "1.jpg", "2.jpg", all the way up to "3000.jpg", so that Avid recognizes them as part of a sequence.
I don't know anything about scripts (or much of anything) and I work on Mac OSX- is there a simple way to script this?
Thank you so much in advance.

Smartest way to restore a mess of files to a newly formatted drive?

kitcat — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:29:39 -0800

I'm going to wipe my hard drive and reinstall Windows XP. But my files are in a huge mess and I'm scared I'm going to screw something up. This is my first time reformatting my hard drive on my 4 year old Dell laptop. I have my XP cd and I know how to find and reinstall the right drivers. But backing up and restoring my files to the new system has me nervous. I've pretty much decided to use Mozy, but can anyone tell me what the restore process looks like?

The thing is, there are all kinds of files on my laptop that are unfamiliar to me and they are strewn willy-nilly accross many folders. The folders do not have sensible names, either. These are files with code and scripts in them, audio files, image files, yada yada. The code files scare me especially - some I created myself and don't remember, but some seem to belong to open source applications and the like I downloaded as .rar files and that got scattered around.

Please help me figure out how to deal with this mess. Should I attempt to 'tidy up' before I backup the system (please don't scold me for not backing up sooner - I had been, but Mozy kept crashing my system) - or should I back everything up first and then work to restore only those files I think I need? Will Mozy allow me to 'look at' my files and choose the order in which to restore them? Will it let me sort everything by file type?

Any and all advice is deeply, deeply appreciated.

Naming convention for image files?

pleasantries — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:54:30 -0800

links to standards to naming scans (tiffs and jpgs) of slide images for artist's work? I about to start an extensive slide scanning project and I want examples of naming conventions used at other institutions. The name of each jpeg should include artist's name and the date of artwork.

How to merge multiple text files keeping original filename and date

chimrichalds — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:07:01 -0800

Hi AskMeFi. Can someone tell me how to combine 350 text files into one large text file so that the original filenames and dates are included above (or below) each entry? I'm using Vista Home Premium and they are all generic .txt files. I'm moving all of my notes into Evernote but want to save the names and dates of the individual txt files.

Choose Details in OS X

reenum — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:43:43 -0800

Mac OSX Filter: How can I change the details displayed for files in a directory while in list view? This may be a really easy question, but Google has failed me thus far.

When I used XP and viewed directories as lists, I could go to View and then click on 'Choose Details' to pick which file info I wanted displayed.

I can't seem to figure out how to do this on Mac OSX.

The reason I want to do this is because I listen to a lot of podcasts, and the title in the file info is often more instructive than the filename.

Is there any way to 'Choose Details' on Mac OSX?

Where are the digital, musical notes?

HopStopDon'tShop — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:36:24 -0800

Where can I find clear, accurate, small sound files of different musical notes. I don't mind if they're on a piano or a guitar or anything else. But I need a separate recording of each note through one octave, around about middle-C would be ideal but not necessary. (i.e. 12 files, each with a different note on them: A natural, A sharp, B natural etc.) Just for completeness sake: I don't mind paying a fee for these files if necessary.

Main log files for linux & Mac OSX

tahirh — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:04:40 -0800

What are the main logs for understanding what the Unix (Linux and Mac OS X) systems are doing? Which log files are important for system administration?

Help me move a huge file across the net is as fast a time as possible.

BrodieShadeTree — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:23:16 -0800

I'd like to move a big file (110gig) to a business associate across the internet. The file must arrive in as fast a time frame as possible in order to update a database with as little downtime as possible. FTP is an option, but the other party feels it might chew into their user bandwidth for too long. Are there file moving/bandwidth leasing options available for this sort of one time thing?

Recommendations for an online Document Management System?

kensch — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:25:55 -0800

Recommendations for an online Document Management System? Looking to host ~10 years of mixed files online (minutes, proposals, etc.), and have it be easily accessible and searched. I'm looking to move the entire record of our organization: minutes, proposals, amendments, flyers, and so forth online (This amounts to 10 years of weekly documents), to make them accessible to the general membership and public. I'm trying to find an online program or system that would easily structure these documents, sort them by date, and allow for searching. We're looking for either a free service, or open source package. Nothing should require you to log in, so there is no need for accounts except for administrator access. We also don't need access control (such as checking in/out documents).

I've been toying around with different things for a while now. We tried to use Scribd, which made documents very easy to read and accessible, but I found that it was difficult to sort by date and unwieldy with large numbers of documents. There were a few others that didn't work for various reasons. Knowledgetree was too caught up in version control. My latest attempt is with Owl Knowledgebase, though the normal version has too many features that we don't need and makes file access difficult. Owl-lite actually comes closest to what we need, and I've been doing my best to customize it. However, it has difficulty sorting by dates. So, any ideas? How have you overcome the obstacle of structuring documents online?

Batch convert Word docs to text files?

yarrow — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:29:40 -0800

Batch convert Word docs to text files? Does anyone know of a utility to convert a large number of Word documents (hundreds) to text files in Windows XP? They are in Word 2003 (.doc) format. The Word docs are about a 1MB each because they have images, but the text files they turn into are only about 4KB. I want to run a text processing script I wrote in perl on them, but I'm not sure how to get them in text format in the first place without opening each and converting it by hand. Looking for free solutions if possible, just because it's a pain for me to pay for software at work.

20 In 1 - How Do I Send JPEG's In One Folder

goalyeehah — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:00:08 -0800

I have 30 jpeg photos that I would like to send as one file. I have Mac. How would I go about doing that? I have 30-35 jpegs in one folder that I would like to send person building my website. I thought I could send the folder but it looks as if I have to send each jpeg individually. Is there an easier way to do this?

I'm such a clutz.

Zé Pequeno — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:45:22 -0800

I spent a month labouring away on a website only to somehow delete it before emptying the trashcan. Yes, I know. Pathetic. It's been a week, however, and I'm seriously thinking of going to the expense of having it professionally retrieved. I know deleted photos can usually be retrieved - which is good because I really need them - but what are my chances of being able to get back properly formatted .html pages? Or formatted in such a way that I can at least try and restore them to their former glory.

What tool/program/script can I use to manipulate files based on a list of filenames?

tinamonster — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:39:03 -0800

I have a text file containing a list of image filenames and I'd like to be able to point at a folder and have it select, move or label based on the list of filenames. Is there software, script or tool that makes automating this possible? I read this question which is similar but couldn't get the solutions to work since my list is an exact filename rather than a keyword and I didn't know enough about the commands being used to adjust them.

I can also easily manipulate the list to be an exact list of paths if necessary.

As a stop-gap I am using Extensis Portfolio and tagging a custom field to move and manipulate. This limits me to one set of files rather than any file in a select folder and it also takes a very long time to catalog large numbers of files.

If there is a potential solution that has limitation please call them out. I may, from time to time, want this to work on 60k files but most days it will be only a few thousand. Your help is much appreciated.

Need products to help organize a home office

mtphoto — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:48:32 -0800

What organizational products should I get for a home office? I have a very small home office and need to organize everything. I'm looking for product suggestions like a wall file holder that will work within my limited space. My desk space is a 6' x 2.5' table, if that helps with any ideas.

How can I hide files from a tech-savvy person?

rintako — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:02:59 -0800

How can I hide files from a tech-savvy person? I need to hide files from a slightly tech-savvy individual. Meaning going to properties and setting the file to hidden isn't going to trick this person at all. Would be nice if I can hide the file from being searched too. Thanks.

Btw I don't have an external hard drive to mess with

WTF ~WRL

cachondeo45 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:55:53 -0800

Computer Filter: What does ~WRL2334.tmp mean? And why do I have a million of these "files" (with different numbers after the WRL part) in my folders?

iPod Touch Recovery

Kiwi — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:31:34 -0800

How to recover videos from an iPod Touch? My video files were kept on an external HD, which has now bitten the dust. Does anyone have any experience with getting the videos back off the iPod and onto my PC?

Merging folders in OS X

Silky Slim — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:49:01 -0800

Please help me merge two folders on my mac. Two mp3 folders. One internal, one external. Many duplicates. Many unique files.
What's the simplest way of merging them on the external drive without losing anything?
Googling has led me to the Terminal's mv command, which seems to be the simplest solution. I was just wary because of the delicate nature of the operation. Can someone post an example of the exact syntax I would need to use?
Or perhaps another (free) solution?
Also, I'm sure some of my files have been updated on my mac. Can I also make it so newer files replace older ones?
Many thanks in advance.

Best hard drive practice?

edbyford — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:51:48 -0800

Is CHKDSK actually any good? I had a problem a few months ago where my hard drive started corrupting my files. I don't blame chkdsk for this, but when I was trying to sort out how I could recover some of these files, somebody implied that all chkdsk did was mark the sector bad, rather than try and save what is on there. Is this true? If so, isn't it a pretty bad hard disk checker?

Now, my hard drive contains many many photos, music and video files, which I want to make sure don't get corrupted or damaged in any way. What would you recommend I use or do to check my files over and make sure they're ok?

TIA.

Where does "Cashew, Carrot and Cardamom Cupcakes with Cashew Cream Cheese Frosting go?

the luke parker fiasco — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:08:18 -0800

Help an application Luddite find a good system for organising recipes. I'm looking for a blog-like organisational system that I can use for an offline compendium of files--specifically, a recipe collection. I'd like to be able to sort, cross-reference, etc., using tags and keywords like ingredients or recipe type, instead of having either a glut of filenames that need to be scanned or an arbitrary filing system based on name or main ingredient or whatever.

Does anything like this exist as a non web-based application? I'm currently on a Mac but once I get back to the States will be back on Linux.

Firefox, Adobe and tiffs, oh my!

pasici — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:11:02 -0800

How do I tell Firefox to use the Adobe Acrobat plug in to view tiff files? For my work, I get sent a lot of CD-ROMs that contain tiff files. I would like to set my Firefox settings so that I automatically open and view these tiff files with Firefox's Adobe Acrobat plug in, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to tell Firefox to do that using the Applications settings in the Tool/Options menu. The only option the Applications settings gives me is Adobe, not the plug in. It says I can browse for other applications, but I can't figure out how to browse for the plug ins. Any help immensely appreciated.

Tag--you're it

peanut_mcgillicuty — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:15:59 -0800

How can I tag my large collection of video files for easy searching? I've read this question but it's two years old and doesn't specifically solve my problem of different formats. Picasa catalogs every media file on my hard drive (as opposed to the one folder I'd like to catalog), except it inexplicably did not include more than 700 of the files that I WANT to tag, even though the formats are supposedly supported.

What's new since 2007 that might help me? I have basically the same requirements:
1. free for Windows XP
2. save the tags and descriptions in the video file itself
3. have a decent user interface (like photoshop album or something similar)
4. small and fast memory footprint
5. Bonus points for a portable app that could be run from a thumb drive

Thanks!