My mother grew up during the depression and then lived for many years in countries where we often couldn't find stuff even if we had the funds to buy said stuff. She never saw a plastic bag nor a cardboard box without thinking that she might be able to use it some day. When she passed away, I spent hours emptying one walk-in closet of its mostly empty cardboard boxes.
I learned from her - never throw anything away! John, I face a problem similar to yours, though with fewer copies (probably max of 5-6 copies of any given image) but less consistency in the naming conventions used from one period to the next. The solution I came to was to convince myself that it does not really matter. And I deleted many images that were probably but not certainly duplicates of other images with different names. Yes, I learned to never throw anything away, but I also learned that one person's treasure is another person's trip to the recycling center. In short, based on my experience, I would do the following: 1. Inventory your best 50/100/500 (whatever number is appropriate for you) images from each year. 2. Insure that you have 2/3/5/many copies of each. 3. Choose the backup disc that has the most other images on it, declare that to be the master. 4. Delete all other discs. 5. Back up your chosen master set. 6. Get on with your life. As an alternative to "4. Delete all other discs.", just stash all of the redundant discs in a storage locker someplace. Then lose the key and stop paying rent. Someday someone will buy your discs at auction and you will become famous. stan On Jan 26, 2011, at 10:25 PM, John Sessoms wrote: > From: Paul Sorenson >> Another option, for Windows users that hearken back to DOS days (or are >> comfortable with using the command line) is to use xcopy with whatever >> switches are appropriate. Put the command into a batch file and set the >> Windows Scheduler up to run the batch file to automate the backup. You >> can see what syntax to use and which switches are available by running >> "xcopy /?" from the command window. >> > > Now there's a real blast from the past. > > I don't know if xcopy can do what I want. I can write a batch file to copy > files over the network that uses the xcopy command, but I can already copy > files to the network drive fairly efficiently using Bridge. Or even using a > right click drag & drop in Windoze. > > Here's what I've got: I have a series of files - file0001.jpg, file0002.jpg > ... file9999.jpg. The files are spread out over a number of directories on my > computer. > > I've got a directory structure that's been evolving as I develop a more > rationalized scheme. Essentially I organize folders in a tree: > > Photography > \yyyy [year] > \\yyyymmdd_something that reminds me what I was photographing > > The current scheme has evolved to: > > \\yyyymmdd_something-to-remind-me > > It puts my work in a date sequence order that I find easy to search through. > > I've also got something like 10 external USB drives. I copied photos to these > USB drives at different times over the last 6 years using whatever version of > the sub-directory scheme I had evolved at the time. Sometimes I went back and > updated the sub-directory scheme and moved files around on the USB drive. > > Depending on when I copied files to the drive and if/when I updated the > sub-directory scheme it might be "_something that reminds me" or > "_something-to-remind-me" OR some combination of the two. > > Some or all of the files already exist on one or more USB drives. But the > sub-directory containing any file or group of files may not be the same on > the USB drive as it was on original drive NOR the same as my current scheme. > > I want to figure out what files are on what drive and what sub-directory > they're in. > > Lets say hypothetically that on a certain date - June 21, 2005 - I went out > to a local rose garden and took 101 photographs. > > To start with: > My computer has \\20050621_garden. > My laptop doesn't have \2005 at all, because I got the laptop in 2007. > Drive # 1 has \\20050621_garden. > Drive # 2 has \\20050621_rose garden. > Drive # 3 has \\20050621_rose-garden. > ... variations on a theme ... > Drive # 9 has \\20050618_around town (including some 20050621 images). > Drive #10 has \\20060521_rose-garden (because I fat fingered it). > > Further complicating things is I have gaps in what I copied onto the drives. > The folder on my computer may have file0022 - file0045 and then skip to > file0068 - file0101 because I deleted files at some time. > > USB Drive #1 has file0005 - file0045 and file0068 - file0101 > USB Drive #2 has file0022 - file0072 and file0075 - file0101 > USB Drive #3 has file0005 - file0021 and file0072 - file0101 > ... > > None of them has file0001 - file0004 *in that directory*, but those files may > exist in another directory on one of my USB drives. > > *AND* sometimes "file0025" exists on multiple drives, but it's not the same > file. It may turn out I renamed one of my missing files and over-wrote > "file0025" on a certain USB drives. > > Or renamed it on the computer after having copied it to one or more USB > drives and subsequently saved the renamed file to some other USB drives. > > What I'm looking for is a program that will allow me to see what files exist > on two different drives and to see what directory they're in, and see enough > info about the files to determine if they're the same file. > > That's so I can find the files that fill the gaps and find the files that > have duplicated names. > > And find the sub-directories where I fat fingered while updating > sub-directory names so "\\20050621_rose-garden" became "\\20051206_rose > garden". > > Or even worse "\\20060521_rose garden". > > I want a program to show me the discrepancies, so I don't have to go through > and output a directory listing for each folder on each drive and plow through > a line by line comparison to find the mismatches before I can wipe the drive > and make it a real backup. > > I want a program to high-light the discrepancies and tell me: > > "This file is here on this drive, but it's there on that drive." > > OR > > "This file is here on this drive, but it's not on the other drive." > > OR > > "These two files have the same name, but they're not the same file." > > I'd like something graphical, sort of like the old Windows File Manager, but > it shows the discrepancies in *BOLD* or highlighted. > > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 10.0.1202 / Virus Database: 1435/3403 - Release Date: 01/25/11 > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
