This is a guide to accomplish a specific task and not a question for anybody to respond to.
However, if anybody finds any errors I've made or suggestions for easier ways to do things then please feel free to comment!
I used Everything Version 1.5.0.1380a (x64) for this guide.
I've had more than one HDD die or have corrupted data after sitting in a drawer for some time. (Yeah, time flies - it turned out to be more like 12 years they were sitting there. Sigh) So I figured it was time to 'refresh' my stored data every once in a while to keep it intact. Below is my plan and hopefully someone else can find some of this useful.
I have managed to put together a procedure for checking the integrity of the data stored on an external drive that I plan on removing and placing into storage at another location (in case of theft or a disaster such as fire or electrical surge). I figure that every so often (maybe every few years) I can retrieve the drive and copy the contents to another drive. I can then repeat the procedure outlined below to validate the data using SHA-256 hashes.
I'm posting this guide because I had a difficult time piecing together exactly how to accomplish this and had I found a post with a step-by-step example like this I could have modified it to suit my needs much more easily than figuring it out from scratch.
Please take note: Generating SHA-256 hashes on large amounts of data is very time-consuming (as in possibly many hours). And you will have to generate the hashes twice for this procedure initially. Later you will only need to re-generate them one time.
The following steps are an example and you will need to modify as necessary for your setup and needs.
conditions for the example:
I have an external archive drive that is currently mounted as drive D:
I want to use a SHA-256 hash type.
I don't normally index on the SHA-256 property or generate hash files for my normal computer usage so I will be removing the properties that were added during this procedure from my indexing settings after verifying the external drive and placing it in storage.
Steps to follow:
1. use voidhash.exe to create the .sha256 hash files for the entire archive using the following command and wait for it to complete:
voidhash.exe -sha256 D:\
2. In the everything Tools->Options dialog box, click on Indexes->Properties then do the following:
Click the 'Add...' button and add the SHA-256 property.
Set "Include only folders:" field to "D:\" (without the quotes).
Set "Exclude files:" to "*.sha256" (again without the quotes).
Check the 'Fast sort' box. Don't close the dialog box yet.
3. While still in the dialog box from step 2:
Click on the 'Add...' button again and choose the property "sha256sum SHA-256".
Check Fast Sort on this property.
Click 'Apply' and 'Ok' to close the dialog box.
Wait until indexing of properties finishes. Could be several hours depending on amount of data.
There will be an Indexing Properties: progress bar on the status bar. You can hover your mouse over it to see what file it is working on.
4. Make sure that you have Folders turned on (make sure view->folders is checked) and then click on just the archival drive (D: in my case)
because you only want to see and check files on that drive.
5. In the search results list area:
Right-click on any column header and add the "SHA-256" and the "sha256sum SHA-256" columns to the result list.
Enter the following search in the search area:
!folder: !*.sha256
Then make a note of the number of items from the bottom left corner of the window.
Then change the search to:
!folder: !*.sha256 sha256:==sha256sumsha256:
Assuming everything was done properly, the new number of items in the search result list should match the noted number of items.
Now for the hard-earned result. Change the '==' to '!=' in the search so it looks like this:
!folder: !*.sha256 sha256:!=sha256sumsha256:
Hopefully, this gives you a result list with zero items. This would indicate that all pre-generated hashes match the generated hashes.
6. Do a safe removal of the storage device. If the system keeps complaining that some process is using a file on the drive, you may need to do a normal computer shutdown and remove the drive while the computer is off. Store the drive in a safe place off-site.
7. Now get back into Everything and remove the 2 property indexes that were added in steps 2 and 3 (assuming you don't index these properties normally)
8. When you decide to 'refresh' the data (maybe a few years down the road) then (after cloning or copying the drive to a new drive) you just need to follow steps 2-7 as the generated .sha256 files will all still be on the drive and can be used to compare with the newly generated hashes in step 3.
Note: If you later want to add files to the drive, you should follow steps 1 and 6 at a minimum. voidhash.exe will not overwrite any previously created hash files and will only create ones for the new data. Do steps 1-6 for a full verify if you are of a more cautious type.