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Questions tagged [file-management]

Methods by which files are managed and organized. Could refer to file management by the OS or by a third party application.

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432 votes
25 answers
549k views

How to delete directories with path/names too long for normal delete

Windows seems to have a length limit on file names when trying to delete, though it won't prevent those files from being created. Our build process creates a number of temporary files (many build off ...
Herms's user avatar
  • 9,742
311 votes
23 answers
187k views

How can I visualize the file system usage on Windows?

How can I visualize which folders and files are taking up all of the space on my hard drive? I'm getting some conflicting reports on the size of hard drive contents. Namely what is and isn't there ...
188 votes
6 answers
290k views

How can I determine file type without an extension on Windows?

I sometimes get files from my clients that have the wrong file extension. For example, the name is image.jpg but the file is actually a TIFF image. In many cases I can clarify it by opening the file ...
Martin's user avatar
  • 3,962
183 votes
18 answers
590k views

How do I delete a folder that's in use?

Sometimes when I'm working in Windows I'll get this prompt when I try to delete a directory: Folder In Use The action can't be completed because the folder is open in another program Close the folder ...
Factor Mystic's user avatar
157 votes
11 answers
116k views

How to set the default program for opening files without an extension in Windows?

How to set the default program for opening files without an extension in Windows?
Piotr Dobrogost's user avatar
156 votes
14 answers
152k views

Mass deleting files in Windows

I have a directory, that contains ~ 3 million files in certain subdirectories on a Windows 2008 server. Manually deleting the files via SHIFT+DEL on the root dir takes ages. Is there any other way to ...
user avatar
147 votes
1 answer
149k views

How do I delete all files smaller than a certain size in all subfolders?

I have a folder with many sub-folders containing small tif files (less than 160kb) which have been merged together in bigger pdf files, together with some big multi-page tif files. I want to delete ...
To Do's user avatar
  • 2,490
140 votes
25 answers
389k views

How can I mass rename files?

I've got a bunch of files named with a the pattern 99 - DescriptiveName.txt and I'd like to remove the number from the front so I just have DescriptiveName.txt. How can I do this? Can I do it from ...
135 votes
16 answers
375k views

How do I move files and directories to the parent folder in Linux?

In Linux (Ubuntu), how do you move all the files and directories to the parent directory?
user avatar
105 votes
11 answers
78k views

Windows 10 deletes lots of tiny files super slowly. Can anything be done to speed it up?

I work with tens of thousands 20 kB JPEG files in batches which add up to gigabytes. When I try to delete an old batch, Windows 10 has a very low delete rate which sometimes even drops to zero ...
Kagaratsch's user avatar
93 votes
13 answers
57k views

What's a good solution for file-tagging in linux? [closed]

I've been looking for a way to tag my files and search/filter them based on those tags. Here are my (updated) requirements : any file readable by the user can be tagged freely a user can search for ...
julien's user avatar
  • 1,556
84 votes
13 answers
198k views

Is there a way to batch rename files to lowercase?

I need a way to rename all files in folders and subfolders to lowercase. I'd like to know if there is a way to do that using only windows (XP or 7)
ino's user avatar
  • 1,555
84 votes
5 answers
83k views

What technical reasons exist for not using space characters in file names?

Somebody I know expressed irritation today regarding those of us who tend not to use spaces in our filenames, e.g. NamingThingsLikeThis.txt -- despite most modern operating systems supporting spaces ...
Chris W. Rea's user avatar
  • 10.9k
83 votes
9 answers
109k views

Windows 7, file properties, date modified, how do you show seconds?

Anyone know a way to immediately show the seconds of a file's date modified property in the GUI? So if you create a file, any file in any directory, right-click and choose Properties, the date ...
Jordan W.'s user avatar
  • 971
75 votes
17 answers
213k views

How do I find the largest files and folders on a drive? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: How can I visualize the file system usage on Windows? I am looking for a tool to tell me which files and folders are the largest as I need to do some cleanup.
71 votes
5 answers
51k views

How do I view the full path in search results?

<begin rant> I really hate the way Search Results works in Windows 7. You get something like this: ...and, wanting to see the full path (why doesn't it show you that automatically, either by ...
B. Clay Shannon-B. Crow Raven's user avatar
67 votes
5 answers
216k views

How do I move files out of nested subdirectories into another folder in ubuntu? (Trying to strip off many subfolders)

How do I move files and not directories into another folder/parent folder? I have a folder structure that is extremely ugly, with some .mp3 files buried 6 levels deep in a sub-folder. I want to ...
Chris's user avatar
  • 671
65 votes
17 answers
268k views

How to preserve file attributes when one copies files in Windows?

On Linux, we can simply do: cp -pr directory How to do that in Windows? Can it be done in Windows Explorer? Any GUI tool suggestions? It would be the best if I can keep the NTFS permissions and ...
netvope's user avatar
  • 5,345
58 votes
6 answers
97k views

How to merge (and not replace) folders when copying on the Mac?

There's a similar question about windows. This is the same, but for mac. By the way, it's odd there's no question on this yet, since it seems like it's the most hated thing on Mac OS X. If I try to ...
cregox's user avatar
  • 5,904
58 votes
15 answers
31k views

Which duplicate files and folders finders exist for Windows? [closed]

I need a free duplicate file finder/remover app, with ability to find duplicate files/folders by name and/or by size and to remove one of duplicates.
54 votes
1 answer
8k views

Why does Windows magically "couple" some files like this?

I saved a webpage in my browser as HTML. It saved not only a HTML file, but also a directory with various image files and whatnot. So I deleted the dir, since I only wanted the HTML file. Windows ...
A Rocque's user avatar
  • 549
53 votes
6 answers
78k views

Is there a linux command like mv but with regex?

For example I want to mv (.*?).sql $1.php, is there a command that lets me specify renaming patterns?
JoshRibs's user avatar
  • 1,271
50 votes
15 answers
12k views

How to store and preserve lots of data?

I have many DVDs with movies and games, they are getting old and dusty, some of them are damaged. And I have more than 300 GB of general files in my PC. I want to store and preserve all of my data and ...
Squall's user avatar
  • 989
46 votes
7 answers
293k views

List all files in all subfolders

In windows, is there any way to get a list of all files in a folder, including all the files within all the subfolders?
Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusk's user avatar
45 votes
4 answers
20k views

Replace GTK+ file dialog with alternative

Is there any way to configure GTK+ programs to use a different file dialog? Reading ancient articles on the default dialog and seeing no difference to the current version does no bode well for it's ...
gandalf3's user avatar
  • 683
44 votes
3 answers
128k views

Drag and drop through Remote Desktop Connection

I use remote desktop on a daily basis and I find that I often need to quickly transfer files between my physical PC and the RDP, or even between different multiple remote sessions. I have network ...
grooveDexter's user avatar
43 votes
6 answers
62k views

Almost half of disk space unaccounted for on Windows 7 computer

I'm trying to determine what's eating almost half of disk on my Windows 7 Lenovo laptop but haven't been able to determine what. I read some of the answers on this site but none of the causes seems ...
Tavo3's user avatar
  • 679
42 votes
2 answers
448k views

Easiest way to extract the contents of many folders at once?

In Windows 7, I have a directory of folders which each contain files as their contents. Is there any way to extract all of the contents of each the folders to a separate location other than cutting ...
John Dream's user avatar
42 votes
11 answers
40k views

Move files using just keyboard in Mac Finder?

As a Windows user in previous life, I kind of miss moving files using just keyboard. Is this possible with in Mac OS X? Edit: Related problem is navigating in finder using just keyboard without that ...
nexneo's user avatar
  • 1,101
42 votes
3 answers
24k views

How to make Windows Explorer always use detail view?

As a developer I work with a lot of source code files etc. and I need to copy these around, rename, etc. I'm sure any developer knows the drill. Windows Explorer is really "helpful" in suggesting ...
Jesper's user avatar
  • 927
40 votes
7 answers
52k views

Using underscore in file names?

I use the command line frequently to navigate my files so I try not to have spaces in file names. Typically I have used an underscore to connect words but it was recently suggested that I should use ...
DQdlM's user avatar
  • 2,739
40 votes
4 answers
49k views

How do I "cut" a file on OS X?

I'm a newbie on the Mac world and I'd like to know if it's possible to cut a file using a shortcut (like Ctrl+X on Windows).
user4292's user avatar
  • 514
39 votes
7 answers
352k views

How to tell full path of file on Mac?

I have a text file opened up in TextEdit, and I can't seem to figure out the full path of the file. Also, if I search for the file in spotlight, it doesn't seem to tell me the full path of the file ...
user27449's user avatar
  • 6,960
36 votes
7 answers
79k views

Recursively rename files (change extension) in Linux

How do I rename all files in a directory, recursively, changing one file extension to another, for thousands of files in thousands of subfolders? I see a lot of commands that do almost what I want, ...
endolith's user avatar
  • 7,561
36 votes
6 answers
57k views

How to securely delete files stored on a SSD?

From a (very long, but definitely worth to read) article on SSDs: When you delete a file in your OS, there is no reaction from either a hard drive or SSD. It isn’t until you overwrite the sector (on ...
user avatar
36 votes
9 answers
85k views

What is the easiest way to find and replace text in 20 text files in a directory? [closed]

I have 20 text files with various extensions in a directory. I want to replace "nnn" with "ooo" in all files. I could import them into a project in Eclipse or Visual Studio to replace them all but ...
Edward Tanguay's user avatar
36 votes
8 answers
40k views

Find duplicate files on Mac OS X

Is there an application that would search duplicate files in my Mac with an easy way to delete the duplicates?
Pablo Fernandez's user avatar
35 votes
3 answers
38k views

Recursive chmod: rw for files, rwx for directories

I want to chmod a lot of files and directories. As x indicates list for directories and execute for regular files I'd like to apply rw for files and rwx for directories. Is it possible using only the ...
Deleted's user avatar
  • 5,208
34 votes
8 answers
32k views

du which counts number of files/directories rather than size

I am trying to clean up a hard drive which has all kinds of crap on it accumulated over the years. du has helped reduce disk usage, but the whole thing is still unwieldily not due to the total size, ...
Jesse's user avatar
  • 843
34 votes
8 answers
49k views

How many files can you put in a Windows folder without a noticable performance degradation?

I'm guessing there's no hard limit, but I know that performance degrades when you put too many files into a single Windows folder. Does anybody have any good rules of thumb for when it becomes ...
Mark Ransom's user avatar
  • 2,150
33 votes
5 answers
20k views

I need an automatic way of making a lot of numbered folders

I need 100 or more folders named like such: ch.000, ch.001, ch.002, etc. In this case I need it to go up to ch.094 but I will need to create more folders later. That may be more or less folders, but ...
Safwan Abrar's user avatar
33 votes
4 answers
18k views

Moving a file while it's in use -- How does it work?

I've noticed that on non-Windows OS.... ie Linux/Mac I can do things like: Send a zip to a friend over aim Delete the file while it's in transfer And the transfer does not fail. Or, I can do ...
Mario Zigliotto's user avatar
32 votes
9 answers
117k views

How can I rename files and folders in Windows that are in use?

On Windows 7 Ultimate when I try to rename a new folder that is created (by copying usually), I usually get a "Folder is in use" error. I would have to wait a while before I would be able to modify ...
NMS's user avatar
  • 551
31 votes
4 answers
33k views

Delete multiple files on PowerShell command line

With PowerShell, what is the most concise way to delete multiple explicitly named files? E.g. on *ix it would be: rm subDir/a.png anotherDir/b.jpg thirdDir/c.gif I'm currently using: echo subDir/a....
Matthew Flaschen's user avatar
30 votes
4 answers
130k views

How to disable automatic opening of PDF files in chrome [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Stop PDFs from displaying inside Google Chrome Chrome is opening the PDF files automatically and don't give option to save the file. How can i change this behavior?
user avatar
28 votes
7 answers
20k views

Alternative to Windows Explorer for long path names [closed]

Update: I found that not only Windows Explorer but also other software suffers from too long path names. For example, in Firefox, when I save a webpage into a directory, I still cannot do it if its ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 17.3k
27 votes
16 answers
63k views

How to delete huge number of files on Windows

I have a directory that contains millions of sub-directories and trillions of files. And now I have to clear it. Saying trillion, I'm not talking about file size, but the number of files. I've tried ...
Jackey Cheung's user avatar
27 votes
5 answers
15k views

What does "preparing for copy" do?

When copying large numbers of files in one sweep, windows requires quite some time to prepare the copy? The same happens when deleting large amounts of files. What is happening here? What preparations ...
Björn Pollex's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
46k views

What would I find in /var/lib/ directory?

I'm trying to do some detective work and am hunting down a PostgreSQL installation. I've only got some low level access and cannot see inside the folder, but have found this likely candidate /var/...
Ian G's user avatar
  • 1,617
25 votes
7 answers
50k views

How to move only files in Unix

How can I move only the plain files (not the directories) from one folder in Linux to another folder using the mv command? I have tried mv * ~/, but it copied everything including the directories.
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