from Amazon
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Transferring files to new computer
At my old job (which was when the economy was good), they used to hand out laptops at will. As a result, I’d get an upgrade every two years.
The way I normally worked the transfer of files is that I have one main external drive, and I have all my backups there by machine. So, I’d have Toshiba1998, Dell2000, Dell2002, Toshiba2005, etc to signify each machine and the files I had. I just couldn’t be bothered to create a proper backup system, because I had alot of overlapping files, and they were not in-synch. So, I did not want to replace one with another. Then, I’d create a Backup folder that moved those directories/files that I figured were unique from those directories.
Basically, it’s a mish-mash of a good backup system, and then a “to do” backups.
And I made sure that on SOME machine, those files existed still (so, files exist on the backup external drive, and one of the two working machines at home).
My head is spinning basically at what I’ve done.
I now just got a new laptop, and this situation is basically too much of a mess.
So, here’s where you guys come in. What I’d like is some sort of file comparison program that goes through all my files on the external drive and comes back with a report of those files that are duplicates somewhere else on that external drive. I do NOT want to see: compare this folder structure to that folder structure. What I DO want to see is: here’s my drive, tell me which files are duplicates.
Now, the duplicates can be just based on file size, and I’d be happy. I don’t want it by date, because sometimes the date gets thrown off by 1 hour due to daylight savings (or at least show the gap in date-time, and I’d love to see it if it’s off by 1 minute or 1 hour, which may still show it’s a match).
Anyway, looking forward to hear what you guys do.
I tend to rely on lifehacker.com for suggestions for simple software tools. Take a look at the suggestions under the “Duplicate Files” heading in the post linked to in my name. I don’t have any personal experience with these tools, but between the author’s comments and those by the users, you can get a pretty good idea of what’s good and what’s not.