Question Weird File Copying question

[Dylan Beckett]

Hello

So every two weeks I copy a new bunch of files onto my external HDD but it's excruciating the way I have to do it...

I need to choose specific files from all different folders from all over the place on my PC (not just dumping a whole folder at a time).
I can only fit so much on the external drive (yes I'll buy a new one eventually - but even then I'll still need the same laborious process as I'll never fit it all at once)...


So I'm wondering if there's a way to make a 'tentative' list of selected files from all over the place - and be able to see the total size of them all in one big group.
This would help me figure out how much old stuff I need to remove to make room for the new stuff - allowing me to only remove 'just enough' to fit it in.

Then I'd switch it from a tentative list to actually copying it all and dumping it on my ext drive.

Please Note - copying them all to one folder first to the above; is not an option as it would take aaaages and it would make the whole process twice as long!
I'm trying to make this less painful not more so.

Is there anyway to do this in File Explorer or some other program?


Thank you for your help.

 

[Lafong]

I'm not aware of any "backup" type programs that will do that by default.

I'd guess somebody who is slick with writing scripts might be able to custom-make a way to do it. Something like that may be available on the Internet somewhere for all I know.

You might be able to do a DIR /s command and sort the results by creation date using an available switch on that command. Export that sorted list to a text file to show your "tentative" list. Then continue manually after studying that list.

I'm not sure I'd go through that trouble and learning curve rather than buy more drive capacity.

 

[Cj-tech]

Hello

So every two weeks I copy a new bunch of files onto my external HDD but it's excruciating the way I have to do it...

I need to choose specific files from all different folders from all over the place on my PC (not just dumping a whole folder at a time).
I can only fit so much on the external drive (yes I'll buy a new one eventually - but even then I'll still need the same laborious process as I'll never fit it all at once)...


So I'm wondering if there's a way to make a 'tentative' list of selected files from all over the place - and be able to see the total size of them all in one big group.
This would help me figure out how much old stuff I need to remove to make room for the new stuff - allowing me to only remove 'just enough' to fit it in.

Then I'd switch it from a tentative list to actually copying it all and dumping it on my ext drive.

Please Note - copying them all to one folder first to the above; is not an option as it would take aaaages and it would make the whole process twice as long!
I'm trying to make this less painful not more so.

Is there anyway to do this in File Explorer or some other program?


Thank you for your help.

You could write a script using Powershell that copies the files using the file path. Depending on the amount of files you need to copy though, this could be a lengthy process and the script could be fairly long.

 

[USAFRet]

This would have to be a custom script of some sort.
"...allowing me to only remove 'just enough' to fit it in. " is problematic. There is no AI to determine what YOU might want to delete.

I can only fit so much on the external drive (yes I'll buy a new one eventually - but even then I'll still need the same laborious process as I'll never fit it all at once)...

What is the amount of data and drive sizes we're talking about?