How to copy across files but not sub folders???

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I have thousands of images stored in hundreds of folders within the "My
pictures" folder and I want to copy them all into a single folder.

There must be a faster/better way that going into each folder individually
and copy and pasting it into a new folder.

I was mucking about with some dos commands (copy and xcopy) but they still
copy across the sub folders. Maybe write a dos batch program though I have no
idea how to do this?

Anyone got any clever ideas???

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I dont know this helping you or not.

If all of your pictures are in sub-folders, you can R-click main folder to
search all image files out. Then, select all found files, Cut and Paste to
the folder where you want.

"Freddo Frog" wrote:

> I have thousands of images stored in hundreds of folders within the "My
> pictures" folder and I want to copy them all into a single folder.
>
> There must be a faster/better way that going into each folder individually
> and copy and pasting it into a new folder.
>
> I was mucking about with some dos commands (copy and xcopy) but they still
> copy across the sub folders. Maybe write a dos batch program though I have no
> idea how to do this?
>
> Anyone got any clever ideas???
>
>

 

[Jon]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

One way could be to right-click your "My Pictures" folder and choose
"Search"

Enter
*.bmp,*.jpg,*.gif
(and select the option to search subfolders too)

Then when your results are displayed, press ctrl-a, and then right-click
them and drag to the folder

Jon




"Freddo Frog" <FreddoFrog@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C6B185DB-C349-4DF2-8620-33365FBB205C@microsoft.com...
> I have thousands of images stored in hundreds of folders within the "My
> pictures" folder and I want to copy them all into a single folder.
>
> There must be a faster/better way that going into each folder individually
> and copy and pasting it into a new folder.
>
> I was mucking about with some dos commands (copy and xcopy) but they still
> copy across the sub folders. Maybe write a dos batch program though I have
no
> idea how to do this?
>
> Anyone got any clever ideas???
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Freddo Frog" <FreddoFrog@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C6B185DB-C349-4DF2-8620-33365FBB205C@microsoft.com...
> I have thousands of images stored in hundreds of folders within the "My
> pictures" folder and I want to copy them all into a single folder.
>
> There must be a faster/better way that going into each folder individually
> and copy and pasting it into a new folder.
>
> I was mucking about with some dos commands (copy and xcopy) but they still
> copy across the sub folders. Maybe write a dos batch program though I have
no
> idea how to do this?
>
> Anyone got any clever ideas???
>
>

I believe that xxcopy.exe (downloadable) has a switch to
flatten a directory tree. Alternatively you could use the
following batch file. You must start a Command Prompt,
then run it from your source folder.

line1 @echo off
line2 if exist "%temp%\dir.tmp" del "%temp%\dir.tmp"
line3 for /r %%a in (.) do dir "%%a" /a-d /b | find /i /v "file not found"
>> "%temp%\dir.tmp"
line4 pushd "%temp%"
line5 for /F "tokens=*" %%* in (dir.tmp) do echo xcopy /d /c /y "%%*"
"c:\Some Target Folder\"
line6 popd

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

A program like Irfanview can do it. Just turn off the actual image
processing. See File -> Batch conversion/Rename.

It's got an "include subdirectories" switch and you can select the output
directory and rename them automatically if you want.

Might be worth doing a test to check it handles duplicate file names ok.

Set it up to make copies, then delete the original tree when you are happy.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Freddo Frog" <FreddoFrog@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I have thousands of images stored in hundreds of folders within the "My
>pictures" folder and I want to copy them all into a single folder.
>
>There must be a faster/better way that going into each folder individually
>and copy and pasting it into a new folder.
>
>I was mucking about with some dos commands (copy and xcopy) but they still
>copy across the sub folders. Maybe write a dos batch program though I have no
>idea how to do this?
>
>Anyone got any clever ideas???
>

How many thousands of images?
Is the disk drive where the images are stored NTFS or FAT32?

If it is a FAT32 drive then there is a limit of 65,534 directory
entries in a single folder. Files with Long File Names use a minimum
of 2 directory entries for each file. You will probably run into
serious problems (depending on how long the file names for your images
are) if you try to put more than 20,000 files into one folder and with
very long file names (e.g. averaging more than 30 characters per name)
you may get less than 15,000 files into it.

NTFS folders do not have this file limitation, insofar as I am aware.

Good luck
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Nightowl]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Ron Martell wrote on Wed, 15 Jun 2005:

>"Freddo Frog" <FreddoFrog@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>>I have thousands of images stored in hundreds of folders within the "My
>>pictures" folder and I want to copy them all into a single folder.
>>
>>There must be a faster/better way that going into each folder individually
>>and copy and pasting it into a new folder.
>>
>>I was mucking about with some dos commands (copy and xcopy) but they still
>>copy across the sub folders. Maybe write a dos batch program though I have no
>>idea how to do this?
>>
>>Anyone got any clever ideas???
>>

How about trying WinZip? In the Add dialog, in the files box put *.* and
click on Add with Wildcards. Make sure Include Sub-Folders is checked
(so the pics from the sub-folders are included in the archive).

When you extract, be sure that Use Folder Names is *unchecked* and all
the files should end up in the same folder.

WinZip 9.0 says there is no practical limit on the number of files you
can include in one archive, but does warn of operating system limits as
Ron did.

Hope this helps.

--
Nightowl

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. When I get home I'll try them out.

Downloaded xxcopy, looks simple enough so will give that a whirl before
trying the batch file.

I have already tried (and failed) at the the seach file suggestion but I
just ran a test on my office pc and it worked! My home pc runs XP Home (SP2)
as opposed to XP Pro (SP1) at work so not sure if this is the difference but
will have another crack at it.

In both cases the hard disc is NTFS. As a rough estimation I "only" have
about 5-6000 images [only had digital cameras about 3-4yrs ] The folder
structure is chronological so is relatively shallow but there is a folder for
every day eg ...

> "My Pictures" > "2003" > "2003-04-23 picnic", "2003-04-24 fishing trip" etc...

The actual file names are short, typlically “IMG 4894.jpg�, “IMG 4895.jpg�
(it’s easier to rename the event rather than 5000 individual images!)

Will let you know how I progress