Using forfiles to delete files, Need report first

I would like to use the following to delete file older thatn 180 days in a temp folder:

ForFiles /p “C:\temp”/s /d -180 /c “cmd /c del /q @file”

Before i run it i would like to see a report showing the files that will be deleted and total space freed up.

Any thoughts? Maybe easier to do this in powershell?

All help appeciated!!

Thank you!

Not that simple. the temp folder houses a couple TB of data, and this process will evetully be automated.

C:\Temp was a bad example..... Apologies. I have a directory where i have my designers save thier files. To keep things tidy i intend on keeping the file age to a max of 180 days. I want to run a purge script every sunday to acomplish this task, or simply enable file age in windows. Before I run it I would like to generate a report listing what will be deleted and the total size that will be freed up...

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I figured out what i needed. Now just need to clean up excel. thx for the replies.

forfiles /p "C:\randomfilepath" /s /m . /D -180 /C "cmd /c echo @file @fsize" >>C:\users\user\documents\Deleted.csv

PowerShell makes this task easier.

Code:

$Path = 'C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot'
$Days = 180

$Today = Get-Date
$CutoffDate = $Today.AddDays(-$Days)

$List = @(Get-ChildItem $Path -File -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -lt $CutoffDate } | foreach {
    [PSCustomObject]@{
        Days = (New-TimeSpan -Start $_.LastWriteTime -End $Today).Days
        Bytes = $_.Length
        Filename = $_.FullName
    }
    $TotalSize += $_.Length
})

switch ($TotalSize) {
    { $TotalSize -ge 1GB }  { $ReportedSize = ('{0} GB' -f ($TotalSize/1GB).tostring("#.##")) }
    { $TotalSize -ge 1MB }  { $ReportedSize = ('{0} MB' -f ($TotalSize/1MB).tostring("#.##")) }
    { $TotalSize -ge 1024 } { $ReportedSize = ('{0} KB' -f ($TotalSize/1024).tostring("#.#")) }
    default { $ReportedSize = ('{0} bytes' -f $TotalSize) }
}

'{0} Files, {1} total' -f $List.Count, $ReportedSize
$List | Format-Table -AutoSize

Code:

S C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads> .\Age.ps1
5 Files, 7.2 KB total

Days Bytes Filename                                              
---- ----- --------                                              
 725  5857 C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\autounattend.xml 
 725   268 C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\create-MBR.txt   
 725   371 C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\create-UEFI.txt  
 725   659 C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\startnet-ORIG.cmd
 216   195 C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\unattend.xml

This is perfect!! What do i need to add to export to CSV?

The last two lines are inelegant, because the results header isn't the same format as the PSCustomObject. Otherwise you could just export a CSV file using "$List | Export-Csv", but that only keeps the file list.

Code:

$Path = 'C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot'
$Days = 180

$CSV_File = 'Report.csv'

$Today = Get-Date
$CutoffDate = $Today.AddDays(-$Days)

$List = @(Get-ChildItem $Path -File -Recurse | Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -lt $CutoffDate } | foreach {
    [PSCustomObject]@{
        Days = (New-TimeSpan -Start $_.LastWriteTime -End $Today).Days
        Bytes = $_.Length
        Filename = $_.FullName
    }
    $TotalSize += $_.Length
})

switch ($TotalSize) {
    { $TotalSize -ge 1GB }  { $ReportedSize = ('{0} GB' -f ($TotalSize/1GB).tostring("#.##")) }
    { $TotalSize -ge 1MB }  { $ReportedSize = ('{0} MB' -f ($TotalSize/1MB).tostring("#.##")) }
    { $TotalSize -ge 1024 } { $ReportedSize = ('{0} KB' -f ($TotalSize/1024).tostring("#.#")) }
    default { $ReportedSize = ('{0} bytes' -f $TotalSize) }
}


@("""{0} Files"",""{1} total"",`r`n,," -f $List.Count, $ReportedSize
$List | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation) | Set-Content $CSV_File

Code:

"5 Files","7.2 KB total",
,,
"Days","Bytes","Filename"
"725","5857","C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\autounattend.xml"
"725","268","C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\create-MBR.txt"
"725","371","C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\create-UEFI.txt"
"725","659","C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\startnet-ORIG.cmd"
"216","195","C:\Users\GARLIN\Downloads\Multi-boot\unattend.xml"

I created a much more robust Powershell function that can accomplish this. The function retrieves files from a specified directory (and optionally its subdirectories) based on their age. It can filter files that are older or newer than a specified number of days. The function displays the file size, age, and name of the matching files.

The output is sorted by age.

Show-FilesSortedByAgeInDirectory.ps1

Here are some examples to get you started:

Code:

# Show all files modified within 10 days
Show-FilesSortedByAgeInDirectory -Directory "C:\Windows\System32" -NewerThan 10

# Show all files modified over 40 days ago
Show-FilesSortedByAgeInDirectory -Directory "C:\Windows\System32" -OlderThan 40

# Show all files CREATED within two days
Show-FilesSortedByAgeInDirectory -Directory "C:\Users\Public" -NewerThan 2 -DateMethod Creation

# Show all files MODIFIED within 20 days, and display only filenames
Show-FilesSortedByAgeInDirectory -Directory "C:\Users\Public" -NewerThan 20 -FileDisplay FileOnly

Edit: Screenshot.



Hope this helps!