Need to rename 100s of files...need some tips

[slicksilver]

Hey guys I'm in a dilemma on how I should go about renaming my 3gp files. The problem is I have all of them in different folders and their file names are identical (for example, mov00001.3gp is in folder x and folder y but are different videos). How do I do rename them all with a unique file name and maintain the folder structure?

Thanks!

 

[chronodekar]

Finally! A puzzle with some entertainment value !!!

Now, let me see here...

You have a lot of files. They all have the same file-name, but differnet data. And they are all in separte folders.

This is best answered by describing what I did.

I did the following to reproduce the issue
==========================
On my desktop I made a new folder titled "New Folder". Inside that I made 2 more folders and in each of the folders I put in a text file. My final directory structure looked like this,

\Desktop\New Folder\New Folder\New Text Document.txt
\Desktop\New Folder\New Folder (2)\New Text Document.txt
\Desktop\New Folder\New Text Document.txt

Now what I need to do is figure out an easy way to rename all those text documents.

This is what I did to rename the files
=======================
I opened up Start>Search
I did a search for *.txt file in \Desktop\New Folder

I got a list of 3 files all named "New Text Document.txt"

Now (this is the important part), I selected them all, right-clicked and renamed the top file to "File.txt".

The resulting directory structure I got looked like this,

\Desktop\New Folder\New Folder\File (1).txt
\Desktop\New Folder\New Folder (2)\File (2).txt
\Desktop\New Folder\File.txt



I think I achieved what was desired now. The files are renamed and your directory structure is maintained.

Give it a shot and tell us how things went !! ( You might want to conduct an experiment first, to confirm things yourself )

Oh, and I should have mentioned this earlier, I'm using XP. But this method should work with any Windows OS.

 

[slicksilver]

You're a genius dude! Worked perfectly Thanks

 

[chronodekar]

You are welcome. Anytime.

 

[slicksilver]

btw, How do I proceed if I want to rename all the files to new unique file names (discount the folder structure)?

 

[chronodekar]

Unfortunately, you'll have to go manual on that. I mean, unless you view your videos, how can you decide what to name the file ? I've tried automatic ideas before (on pictures, not videos) and in the end, I just went manual. Anything else just ended up messing my files so much, that I was worse off from where I started.

 

[CuriousMike]

Does the folder name bare any semblance to what you want the filenames to be?

There may be a technique to rename the files based on their root directory names.

i.e.,
toystory\mp00003.mp4
shrek\mp00003.mp4

 

[Stiganator]

There is a really easy way to rename files in both osx and windows. I'm spacing on what exactly it was, but it was something along the lines of selecting the files then shift+right click rename and it would name them all with a trailing number. filename1 filename2 filename3

Anyone back my up on that one?

 

[lucasorion]

you could probably make a .vbs script that would run a loop to iterate through the folders and use an incremental counter to rename files (and even include the folder name in the file name), but my brain is way too tired to even start to write the code for that.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Stiganator
There is a really easy way to rename files in both osx and windows. I'm spacing on what exactly it was, but it was something along the lines of selecting the files then shift+right click rename and it would name them all with a trailing number. filename1 filename2 filename3

Anyone back my up on that one?

I don't know about that, but I have used Automator on OS X to create a batch file renamer that is useful to me. I think it could be fiddled with to concatenate upon a base file name, but I tend to not label files that way.

 

[dumbellwkeyboard]

Everything in the computer world is enterntaining to me haha..

Ok, I did this...

Now, I have 2 folders within a folder on my desktop.

Nothing is in those subfolders tho, so was this guy supposed to drag those unnamed files in those empty folders? lol

That was pretty cool.
I copy/pasted this lil tidbit, thx..lol

When I start burning the songs I buy, cant I use those folders for the download and one for the conversion?

Sounds like a plan LOL