Can this be searched for?

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phototaker
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:45 am

Can this be searched for?

Post by phototaker »

Is it possible to isolate all files on a drive that have \f as for what to search for? If so could the same search handle more that one NTFS drive at once.

Thanks in advance
NotNull
Posts: 5461
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:22 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by NotNull »

phototaker wrote:all files on a drive that have \f
I don't understand what you mean by that.
Could you give some examples of files (folders?) that match this description? And some examples of files that *almost* match this description?
phototaker
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by phototaker »

Yes that is in the description
phototaker
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by phototaker »

I am looking for a list of files that are on a particular NTFS HDD what only has (\f) in its description.

More so you understand I have lots of mp3' all of which were recorded from my CD's. They had been on iTunes but it appears that Apple assigns every track a jumbled 4 place alfa code that they connect to it's library. I have old libraries that are listed on PC that relate to my tracks. So thousands of my legitimate tracks are mixed in with what Apple wants. I want to eliminate all Apple connecting files all of which have \f in its description.
Stamimail
Posts: 1122
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:05 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by Stamimail »

I also don't really understand what you meant (a screenshot would probably help).
But since \ character cannot be a character of foldername or filename, the only thing I can think of is trying to use "content:" function.
PATH content:
"X:\Music\" content:\f
viewtopic.php?t=5121
therube
Posts: 4985
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by therube »

in its description
Just what is this "description"?
phototaker
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by phototaker »

I should not have used the word description. I should have said file name.

Sorry about the confusion
NotNull
Posts: 5461
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:22 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by NotNull »

You now have (at least) 3 people trying to help you, where @Stamimail and @therube are *very* experienced in doing that.
But still, none understands what you mean.

It would really help if you posted a screenshot that clarifies which files you want to find (like @Stamimail suggested).
Otherwise this will become a guessing-game ..
phototaker
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:45 am

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by phototaker »

See attached. I hope that this is whats needed. I have hundreds with the \f that I wish to delete.

Thank you
Attachments
Snip for everything.JPG
Snip for everything.JPG (19.73 KiB) Viewed 8211 times
Stamimail
Posts: 1122
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:05 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by Stamimail »

Please try:
\Users\YourUserName\Desktop\ITunes\F
Look at the results.
Is this what you were looking for?
NotNull
Posts: 5461
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:22 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by NotNull »

phototaker wrote:See attached. I hope that this is whats needed. I have hundreds with the \f that I wish to delete.

Thank you
That makes it much clearer!
What you called " description" is actually the path of the file (see the header above the result list)

Anyway:
You were looking for mp3's in a folder, which foldername starts with an "F". But there is an even stronger characteristic you could use to identify the files that you want: the filename is 4 characters (a-z) long! Who gives his MP3's such a filename?? (except for Apple, that is)
So, if you search for:

Code: Select all

????.mp3
you get all the mp3's with 4 chracters (including 0-9 @ ! , etc). That is probably accurate enough for your purpose.


If you want only the a-z/A-Z MP3's ,you can use regular expressions:

Code: Select all

regex:\\[a-zA-Z]{4}.mp3$
To narrow it down even further, you can search for those 4 letter MP3's in folders which (whose?) name starts with an f (or F), followed by only numbers (like F1 or f345):

Code: Select all

regex:\\[fF][0-9]*\\[a-zA-Z]{4}.mp3$
Stamimail
Posts: 1122
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:05 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by Stamimail »

Who gives his MP3's such a filename?? (except for Apple, that is)
I'm familiar with this format. The concept is probably that music files don't need to use their filenames but their Tags.
Music apps can handle these tags very well, while Everything still need some improvement to work best with Tags (not indexed).
therube
Posts: 4985
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:48 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by therube »

It seems that regex: ignores case - unless Match Case is enabled, or case:, is used.

regex:.*\\F, finds F or f
case:regex:.*\\F, finds only F (case:regex: have to be joined)

regex:.*\\F, will also find files (in addition to directories) that start with F
It is not limiting the search to a file path that begins with F.
I suppose it is searching the full name - which includes both the path & the filename, as one "string", so in that respect, every file name has a proceeding \ (path separator), if you will.

So:

M:\MUSIC\Fischerspooner
is found
as is
M:\MUSIC\Busdriver\FVWR.mp3

You can include something like ext:mp3

So: regex:.*\\F ext:mp3

If all of these files are in "ITunes" directories, include that.

regex:\\ITunes\F ext:mp3

You might not necessarily need regex:

\itunes\F ext:mp3
NotNull
Posts: 5461
Joined: Wed May 24, 2017 9:22 pm

Re: Can this be searched for?

Post by NotNull »

therube wrote:It seems that regex: ignores case - unless Match Case is enabled, or case:, is used.
Thanks for that! That's a bit uncommon for regular expressions, but actually makes perfect sense in combination with Everything's case:
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