Software Recommendation for Consolidating Hard Drives

mcp6453

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Dec 10, 2009, 9:27:59 AM12/10/09

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I have a lot of hard drives that I have collected over the year from upgrades.
Our digital pictures and documents have all been backed up to my peer-to-peer
server drive. They are certainly not properly organized. The problem is that the
digital cameras of days gone by would always start naming the picture file the
same with each new session. So, there could be many pictures with a file name
such as 1000_0000001.jpg.

Over the holidays, I want to (once and for all) create a proper repository of my
files and pictures, do an off-site backup, and do two external drive backups.
The best solution to my problems seems to be software that will copy files from
one folder to another, but if the destination contains a file by the same name,
the file being copied is renamed to prevent overwriting.

My preference is some sort of Windows GUI type program (as opposed to xcopy or
xxcopy, for example.) Neither Picasa, SyncBack, nor FreeFileSync will work for
that purpose. I'm willing to bet that there are tons of programs that will do
this, but I cannot find one. Please let me know if you are aware of a program,
free or otherwise.

cal...@fly.srk.fer.hr.invalid

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Dec 10, 2009, 10:51:58 AM12/10/09

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mcp6453 <mcp...@gmail.com> kenjka:

> My preference is some sort of Windows GUI type program (as opposed to xcopy or
> xxcopy, for example.) Neither Picasa, SyncBack, nor FreeFileSync will work for
> that purpose. I'm willing to bet that there are tons of programs that will do
> this, but I cannot find one. Please let me know if you are aware of a program,
> free or otherwise.

Maybe Robocopy?

--
Dostavljaca pjeva debeli droto udise ponekad ? By runf

Damir Lukic, calypso@_MAKNIOVO_fly.srk.fer.hr
http://inovator.blog.hr
http://calypso-innovations.blogspot.com/

Yousuf Khan

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Dec 10, 2009, 11:37:47 AM12/10/09

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ACDSee used to be able to do exactly what you're looking for.

http://store.acdsee.com/store/acd/ContentTheme/pbPage.3up_bundle_02_ca/ThemeID.834200/pgm.12507400

Yousuf Khan

mike

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Dec 10, 2009, 12:51:23 PM12/10/09

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There are exceptions to everything...BUT...
Once they realize that the incremental cost of a picture is zero,
most people take WAY more pictures than they can ever view.
Times change. Today, pictures of girlfriend 27 seem important.
By the time you get to girlfriend 56, you'll regret wasting time
organizing pix of 27...you've already encrypted and stashed
the pictures taken on "that thursday".

The time to organize is when you TAKE the picture.

Decide how you want to organize...subject? time? place? event?
combination of all.
Construct a rigid naming format that makes it easy to do keyword
searches.

Build directory trees of groups of pictures with duplicated names
in different sub directories.

Zip up the directory tree with a name that describes what it is using
your naming convention. Probably can turn off compression if they're
already compressed.

Now, you have a bunch of zip files with descriptive names.
Archive 'em. Maybe add a text file that describes what you did
for future reference.

I promise, you'll NEVER go back and look at most of them...ever.
And you ever need to, you'll have only a few files to search.

Rod Speed

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Dec 10, 2009, 4:34:18 PM12/10/09

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You cant promise anything of the sort.

mike

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Dec 11, 2009, 6:14:00 PM12/11/09

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Sure I can. I just did.

Rod Speed

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Dec 11, 2009, 9:16:42 PM12/11/09

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mike wrote

Thats not a promise, just a mindless pig ignorant claim.