Software for finding and saving images

dizidav

dizidav

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David
Edit My Images
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Is there a simple piece of software that can find and catalog the images on several HD,s and save them to a master file.
 
What do you mean by"them" when you say "save *them* to a master file"? The images, or the file names/locations?
 
StewartR said:
What do you mean by"them" when you say "save *them* to a master file"? The images, or the file names/locations?
Click to expand...
Sorry didnt make myself clear, I meant to save the images to a master file rather than scattered across several disks.
 
So you want to combine dozens or hundreds or thousands of image files into one file?
 
I want to collect all my image files to one location
 
You don't say what operating system you are using...

In any case, you can most likely script this up.
 
I,m using Win 7, don't think I could as you say 'script this up', not that good with computers.
 
It would seem that by 'file' you mean folder ...
 
I seem to be using the wrong terminology here, Folder would be the correct term, not really of the computer generation, much easier with film, just index all your negs and you can find then in seconds
 
OK, so you want to search several hard disks attached to a Win 7 machine, identify all the image files and move them to one designated folder. Is that right?

One issue here is that there will be loads of image files which are not your photos, but which are essential components of the operating system and/or the programs you have installed. So you would need to exclude those locations from the search. If you have your OS and all your programs installed on one drive (C: for example) and none of your photos are on that drive, then it should be straightforward. Otherwise it will be a bit messy. Do you know what the situation is likely to be in this respect?
 
Are there truly all of the place? Are they truly stored in random folders/directories?

If so I would suggest to scripts it; I.e. Search for files of a certain type and if above a certain size then copy to a new directory of your choice. I would also write the source directory/file name into a text file as upon successful import you may want to delete then. Anyway then just point Lightroom to that folder and import the files to catalogue them.

If they aren't all over the place but merely across several discs in a few locations I would just import them manually.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I don't have Lightroom so that's out, a software version of that Picture Keeper would probably do, I have some on HDD's and some on CD/DVD,s, so it looks like I will be busy manually copying them over manually.
 
As I have said in other similar threads, lightroom will do file and metadata management in its free state. You probably have the files not in random locations (i hope), so you will need to find the folders that have the images, and import the folders into lightroom. You will first tell lightroom where you want your files kept, so make sure that location / drive has enough free space.
 
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You could spend some time scripting this up with PowerShell, which should already be installed on your PC.
I've written this off the top of my head (currently on a Linux box, so no way to test):

get-childitem -path c:\ -recurse -filter "*.jpg","*.png","*.NEF" -exclude "c:\windows","c:\programdata\*","c:\program files\*","c:\program files(x86)\*" | % { move-item -path $_ -destination c:\mypicturefolder -whatif }

The "-whatif" parameter means it should just show you what it would do, if it doesn't blow up because I've made a mistake.
You could possibly somehow get the date the picture was taken and organise into subfolders based on date. That's a bit more complex though, I'd have to check it out. However, it'd be something like:

$datesarray=@()
$destFolder = c:\mypicturefolder
if(!(test-path $destFolder){
new-item -path $destFolder -itemtype directory
}
foreach ($file in get-childitem -path c:\ -recurse -filter "*.jpg","*.png","*.NEF" -exclude "c:\windows","c:\programdata\*","c:\program files\*","c:\program files(x86)\*")
{
if($file.takenDate -notin $datesaray){
$datesarray+=,@($file.takenDate)
new-item -path $destFolder/$file.takenDate -itemtype directory
}
move-item -path $file.whateverTheFullPathPropertyIsCalled -destination $destFolder\$file.takenDate
}

Granted, that won't work as is, but you get the idea. There are plenty of Powershell tutorials on-line and the inbuilt help is fairly good to. Look for 'PowerShell ISE' on your PC. The get-member commandlet is your friend.
 
Thanks guys, I will look into the Software solutions.
 
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