A program that sorts things? :P (better than it sounds)

[plagiarist]

I've backed up my system over to new OS's and HDDs over and over. I've got around 10-20 gigs of stuff that is maybe 30% redundant. What I would like is a program that sorts it. All of it.

It would put all graphical files in their own set of folders, based on date, md5, name, and size (or it could put them all together and just rename the ones that have the same name like 'image1'), the same with everything else. Executable files and their child files would be put into their own folders (except for setup type exe files which would all go to another folder labeled 'setup files'), etc etc etc. Same with video files and whatnot.

The more I think about this, the more I want it.

 

[Unkno]

gonna be hard for a program to sort things to your preference.....you could try sorting them by your self, hahahaha...

 

[plagiarist]

Lame!

I think it would be easy for a program to do that properly.

 

[notfred]

Originally posted by: plagiarist
Lame!

I think it would be easy for a program to do that properly.

How?

What constitutes an executable file's "child files"? If that's determined by finding a .exe and moving the entire folder containing it somewhere, then I hope you don't have any installers sitting on your desktop, or in C:\, because neither of those places will get sorted.

What counts as a graphics file? Do the wallpaper files in C:\windows count as graphics files? because if they do, windows wont be able to find them anymore.

If you started doing this, it'd tear apart everything on your hard drive that was organized by software manufacturers.

 

[Slogun]

Originally posted by: Unkno
you could try sorting them by your self, hahahaha...

Actually, not so tough to do...

I've got 50gigs of stuff stored on my D drive.
The thing to do, and I learned this before getting my first computer about 8 years ago, is to keep your stuff organized as you load it onto your drive.
You need to create a hierachy of nested folders.
I have most of my stuff in a folder labelled "Bob's Stuff."
Inside of that is a Games folder (with a folder inside for each game containing such things as saved games, no-cd patches, etc.) Music folder, Downloads folder, Photo folders labelled by year, etc.

Not quite what you're asking, I know, but perhaps someone will find this useful...

 

[EagleKeeper]

The problem is the initial organization.

Appaerently, the OP has not made that first critical step and wants a program to do what he is apparently unable to do.

 

[plagiarist]

I'm talking about a few folders of unorganized stuff from old OS's. Most of my stuff IS organized. I can do it, but it'll take me an hour or so. It would be so simple to sort two or three giant folders that are essentially the same thing- jumbles of porn, cool pictures, text documents, html files, and whatnot.

 

[Slogun]

OK, then within each folder, just select "View" and "Arrange icons by Type."

That'll do most of the sorting you need.