On the subject of moving a bunch of files around...

March 4, 2008 10:34 AM

Windows XP - How do I get a bazillion files out of half a bazillion child folders and into the parent without having to individually cut/paste from each folder?

So, my file structure looks like this:

C:\Parent_folder\child_folder_1\bunch_of_files.blah

There are about 140 of these child folders. Is there a fast and efficient way to get my file structure to look like this instead?

C:\Parent_folder\Umpty_billion_files.blah

...without having to cut the files out of child_folder_1, paste into Parent_folder, delete child_folder_1, and repeat for child_folder_2 through child_folder_eleventy-million?

posted by blackunicorn to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: Go to Windows Explorer and select the "Search" button. Search for the files you want. Open up another Windows Explorer that has the destination folder you want, and then move the files over. My Windows XP is a little unresponsive when doing moves across multiple folders, but it should still be a lot faster than manually copying and pasting.
posted by jasonhong at 10:37 AM on March 4, 2008 [2 favorites]

Zip or Rar up all of the folders and files, then extract without extracting the folder structure. Then, delete the originals and the rar. You should be left with just the .blah's in the root folder.

Be careful though, don't delete the originals until you're sure it went well.

I'm sure this isn't the most elegant solution, but it can be quick if the files are small. Make sure to set the zipping / rarring program to use no compression, or the fastest available.
posted by utsutsu at 10:39 AM on March 4, 2008

In addition to jasonhong's answer, when you search (use * for "all files") be sure to sort the list by type. Then you'll be able to select just the files and move them over to the new location. Then once all the files are moved you'll be able to select all of the child directories and delete them at once.
posted by rhizome at 10:41 AM on March 4, 2008

Make sure you don't have any file name collisions before you do this, too. If you have two files with the same name in different subdirectories, make sure you rename one of them before you do the operation.
posted by cerebus19 at 10:42 AM on March 4, 2008

Response by poster: I knew it was going to be a seemingly obvious answer, but I've been beating my head against a wall trying to come up with a solution for days. Thanks, you guys!
posted by blackunicorn at 11:17 AM on March 4, 2008

I actually asked this same question (worded differently, I'm not surprised you didn't find it). Several possible solutions were given.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:46 AM on March 4, 2008

Response by poster: that was half my problem. I didn't really know how to ask the question succinctly enough to get reasonably close search results.
posted by blackunicorn at 1:05 PM on March 4, 2008

When you search for all files, you don't even need the * in the filename box. Just leaving it blank works too.

The fastest way I know to bring up a single window that contains all the files inside Folder X (including those in subfolders) is just to right-click Folder X, select Search, then click the Search button without filling in any of the search boxes.
posted by flabdablet at 2:17 PM on March 4, 2008