Comparing the Contents of Two Folders.

[Headtime]

Is the a program that will compare the contents of two or more folders, and tell you if there are any files that do not appear in both?

I have two folders on two drives. One contains all my digital pictures, the other is a back up of that folder.

However I've now lost track of which pictures are in which folder, and it's a laborious task to compare the two manually.

MAny thanks.

[Lindy Loo]

What I do if transfering files from one place to another, is open the 'parent' folder and reduce the size of the 'window' to fit half the screen, then open the second folder and do the same.

That way you can see both folders at the same time and compair them side by side.

 

To 'shrink' the open window, click on the min/max icon, next to the 'close' icon, so it is just a single box. Then with the cursor, go the the edge of the window, so a left/right arrow appears. Left click and hold down, move the mouse to reduce the size. Repeat for the second window, and hey presto two shrunken windows!  When your finished just reverse the operation to return the windows to their original size.

 

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[LeMarchand]

If you want to have the same pictures in each folder (call them 1 & 2), assuming that they have unique names, you could create a new folder (3) and copy the contents of each existing folder into it. Any duplicates will pop up, and you can tell the computer to ignore any duplicates.

 

Folder 3 will then have all your photos, so you can copy it, leaving you with a folder plus a back up. Of course, this will only work if the photos don't unique names! (It might be worth copying the existing folders to disc just in case).

[garygadget]

Try ExamDiff Pro. Commercial product, but you can try it for free. You may need to play around with the options to get the view you want.

http://www.prestosoft.com

[stevie21]

Why not just copy all of the original folder's contents to the clipboard (Ctrl + A to select all and then Ctrl + C to copy) and then paste this into the backup folder. When a duplicate is found you'll be asked "Overwrite? Yes, No, Yes to all, No to all". and just choose No to all. That way only files not already in the backup folder will be copied into it.

As well as that, you could also get a backup program for future use. Most ask you to specify which folders you want backing up & will do this daily/weekly etc.

[Headtime]

Cheers all.  Greatly appreciated.

[Bernardw]

There is a useful programme called Total Commander, do a search and download it. It shows two windows and you can check folders two at a time whatever drive they are on. With both folders open there is a compare facility which will tell you what is missing etc. You can drag and drop or simply copy. Easy to use, I wouldn't be without it. You can open it twice so have four folders showing at once. Also has an uploading facility for sending files up to the internet.

[Headtime]

Thanks Bernard, I'll definitely check that out.