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.
1,303
questions
432
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25
answers
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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 ...
- 9,742
311
votes
23
answers
187k
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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
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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 ...
- 3,962
183
votes
18
answers
590k
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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 ...
- 12.8k
157
votes
11
answers
116k
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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?
- 5,654
156
votes
14
answers
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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 ...
aaginor
147
votes
1
answer
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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 ...
- 2,490
140
votes
25
answers
389k
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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
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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?
nekbaba
105
votes
11
answers
78k
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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 ...
- 943
93
votes
13
answers
57k
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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 ...
- 1,556
84
votes
13
answers
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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)
- 1,555
84
votes
5
answers
83k
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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 ...
- 10.9k
83
votes
9
answers
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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 ...
- 971
75
votes
17
answers
213k
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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
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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 ...
67
votes
5
answers
216k
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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 ...
- 671
65
votes
17
answers
268k
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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 ...
- 5,345
58
votes
6
answers
97k
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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 ...
- 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
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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 ...
- 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?
- 1,271
50
votes
15
answers
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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 ...
- 989
46
votes
7
answers
293k
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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?
45
votes
4
answers
20k
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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 ...
- 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 ...
- 563
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 567
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 ...
- 1,101
42
votes
3
answers
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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 ...
- 927
40
votes
7
answers
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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 ...
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40
votes
4
answers
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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).
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39
votes
7
answers
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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 ...
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36
votes
7
answers
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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, ...
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36
votes
6
answers
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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 ...
user4495
36
votes
9
answers
85k
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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 ...
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36
votes
8
answers
40k
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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?
- 11.2k
35
votes
3
answers
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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 ...
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34
votes
8
answers
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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, ...
- 843
34
votes
8
answers
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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 ...
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33
votes
5
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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 ...
- 482
33
votes
4
answers
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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 ...
- 1,631
32
votes
9
answers
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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 ...
- 551
31
votes
4
answers
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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....
- 2,600
30
votes
4
answers
130k
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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?
Erik Sapir
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 ...
- 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 ...
- 391
27
votes
5
answers
15k
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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 ...
- 1,173
26
votes
2
answers
46k
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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/...
- 1,617
25
votes
7
answers
50k
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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.
shorty