Discussion about methods to organize a messy hard drive

My hard dive is an absolute mess it has many duplicates. I have a goal to organize my files
So I have one 4 Teribyte drive that I will call drive M. I plan to clone drive m to a external drive M-Copy and then I will use M-copy to move files and organize them to External Drive K-
Then after I get everything the way I want it on K I will clone K back to the original M.


So I have these Questions:
-renaming utitlity sugestions
-How do I copy files and force them to retain thier meta data and date info?
-Why do I have some folders that have files with all the same date ?
-are there file duplicate finders that will compair image files with the same name ? Like if two pictures have the same date and data size but they are differnt pictures is there a duplicate finder that can tell the difference. ?


When I use shell:sendto function by right clicking are there ways change the options on shell:sendto as far as retaining metadata and would their be a way to move rather than copy ?

When I use shell:sendto function by right clicking are there ways change the options on shell:sendto as far as retaining metadata and would their be a way to move rather than copy ?

SHIFT + rt click Send to opens the folder dialogue as Move rather than Copy.

-are there file duplicate finders that will compair image files with the same name ?

Yes. Google can help.

-Why do I have some folders that have files with all the same date ?

You perhaps need to distinguish 'Date' from Date created and Date Modified - other properties and columns you can show in file explorer.

Google will help you discover what these mean. 'Date' is somewhat obscure.

Hey Thanks Dalchina - I found out about Windows virtual desktops because I was trying to get alt tab sitautio worked out I could not figure out why they did not have shortcut for LAST WINDOW I WAS AT. with the alt tab - Some things are so cool to find out about. If it woudl have said "Virtual Desktops" Instead of task view I would have looked at it closer. I can view my tasks by pressing alt tab. So then this ctrl-Win right arrow left arrow that makes my day. Thats as useful as the Ctrl C Ctrl v. So its ctrl-c ctrl-v alt tab between two sessions of whatever to upate your stuff works great. When its beween two apps but so often it would be going back to the wrong place. Thanks for the INfo on send to. As far as getting organized the progect is started. ITs confusing for sure to get things organzied.
I settled on this file structure- its pretty flexable really and I think it will work out good because I can add to groups yet keep them in order. I used syncback to copy my drive 18hours away before its done then I am going to make a second backup then reformat drive M and then start moving files over to my drive. I do not see how to keep track of what the heck is going on if I Copy. I may try using syncback free to copy the files as it will give me a record and it deals with files that wont copy without doing this stupid thing where it does not tell me what files have been copied and it just hangs for days trying to copy stuff. THen if it fails on a move it will sometimes loose your data. Crazy - so Im looking for alternative ways to copy and move files safely or copy files in a way that I can keep track of what is what. It pays to be organized from the begining but these files go back all the way before 1989 when photoshop was on 2.5" disks and win 3.1 came out and gave us real fonts. 32 years of files. So finally they will get organized.
Any way 0 that pick is how Im thinking on organzing my files. i have tried many times to get it right and it seams I just made a big mess. Often we were lucky just to get them copied. LArge images were are a real hassle to figure out what was what back when the old slow hard drives where chattering away. We are so lucky to have these fast ssd drives now.

How to Upload File ,Folder or any Documents in Googel drive for Downloading tutorial by, Amjad Graph - YouTube
How to Upload File ,Folder or any Documents in Googel drive for Downloading tutorial by, Amjad Graph

Ok I get the pun now -Goo gel will help keep you hair-do in place - I was at first thinking a app existed that was termed goo gel but after more thought I get your meaning. So yes I will do some more searching I did find a few apps but I always like to get links from this forum that people know are safe. ITs easy to download things I should not. Sync back free was introducted to me on this forum. And a lot of other super cool utilties.

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So in sync back free It for some reason says 2 days and 21 hours- So something is wrong - I have my drive plugged into usb 3 but its through a powered USB 3 share device. That could be the problem. ?

I know Macrium could clone it all in 2 or 3 hours. So now I am learning about why windows copy can be slow and I am searching this out on google. I have a lot of duplicate images and mp4s that are on the drives so I am searching out file duplicate finders. settled on trying DupeGuru
Im studying out ease use Windows 10 Very Slow File Transfer [Real Fix] - EaseUS
and trying to understand why files copy slow in windows. I see Samuria likes the robocopy in windows. be he also states that antivirus can slow things up.
What would be tremendous is to be able to Clone a folder the same way I clone a HD. The same way. Just copy those zeros and ones that are present. So as I write this I see a new search term "Folder Cloner"