extracting multiple folder contents to one folder

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I have been sent 3 seperate cds containing jpg photos. the problem is the photos are individual files in individual folders i.e. a cd contains 20 folders and each folder contains just 1 picture. (see attatchment) Is there a quick way of copying all of the pictures into a new folder? At the moment I only know to open each folder and copy paste each picture into a seperate new folder?

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… Is there a quick way of copying all of the pictures into a new folder? …

I’ve never done this from a CD. In order to do it, you’ll probably have to open a separate instance of Windows explorer and a window for the CD contents. It’s worth a try.

Since you can’t copy TO the CD, create the folder you want on the hard drive. Using the search function on the CD, search for all files with a .JPG extension and when you get that list, you might be able to highlight them all and copy to the folder on the hard drive.

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Since you can’t copy TO the CD, create the folder you want on the hard drive. Using the search function on the CD, search for all files with a .JPG extension and when you get that list, you might be able to highlight them all and copy to the folder on the hard drive.
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Nice idea. just tried it but even selecting the actual pics from the search when i copy to new folder they end up in individual folders again

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Nice idea. just tried it but even selecting the actual pics from the search when i copy to new folder they end up in individual folders again

Hmmm… I don’t remember how I did it but I have a couple of Windows Explorer context menu entries (see attachment) that DO work without copying the folder structure. My memory tells me that some utility I ran did the creation for me, but if you’re up to a bit of registry modification, I just found this:
[indent]Windows XP: Add “Copy to Folder” and “Move to Folder” to Explorer Context Menu – HelpWithWindows.com
[/indent]I’ll keep looking through my software respository to see if I can remember which utility did the work for me.

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I’ve never done this from a CD. In order to do it, you’ll probably have to open a separate instance of Windows explorer and a window for the CD contents. It’s worth a try.

Since you can’t copy TO the CD, create the folder you want on the hard drive. Using the search function on the CD, search for all files with a .JPG extension and when you get that list, you might be able to highlight them all and copy to the folder on the hard drive.

One way Ive tried is to open 2 windows with the cd contents and the “new” open folder side by side and selected each pic and dragged it into the new folder. It works of course but this was supposed to be my day off! leaving it for now and try again when I’m less angry

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One way Ive tried is to open 2 windows with the cd contents and the “new” open folder side by side and selected each pic and dragged it into the new folder. It works of course but this was supposed to be my day off! leaving it for now and try again when I’m less angry

Sorry for your frustration! I found what I used to add those two context menu entries and it was a couple of years ago, so I can’t remember where I got this.

The attached ZIP file has two registry mods that will add the two menus I wrote about. I did just now try my example using the search and the “copy to folder” and it works from multiple folders to one without copying folder structure.

Good luck.

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Sorry for your frustration! I found what I used to add those two context menu entries and it was a couple of years ago, so I can’t remember where I got this.

The attached ZIP file has two registry mods that will add the two menus I wrote about. I did just now try my example using the search and the “copy to folder” and it works from multiple folders to one without copying folder structure.

Good luck.

Whoa! Whoa! I know you’ll be interested in this Bigal…….Paint Shop Pro…..just had a flash of memory and of course PSP (or any other image editor I presume) will do a Batch Process. Just had a quick look and it looks like I can open and select any number of files and do a batch process of “copy” to specified place (folder in trhis case). I will try this later and then (am I hoping for too much?) I might be able to resize a bunch of them all at once in the same way.

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Several graphics tools can do this, for example FastStone Photo Resizer (free). You can move pictures from a whole set of folders to a single folder (make sure to clear the option “Preserve folder structure of input list”) and resize them at the same time.

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Whoa! Whoa! I know you’ll be interested in this Bigal…….Paint Shop Pro…..just had a flash of memory and of course PSP (or any other image editor I presume) will do a Batch Process. Just had a quick look and it looks like I can open and select any number of files and do a batch process of “copy” to specified place (folder in trhis case). I will try this later and then (am I hoping for too much?) I might be able to resize a bunch of them all at once in the same way.

Hmmm again. I’ve never tried that in PSP where the files are in different folders. Let us know how you do.

But, just for the future, you might want to add those two context entries. I think it’ll be even easier than using PSP. My test took less than two minutes.

I still don’t remember where I got the zip file, but here’s what I think are two confirming places where such is found. The first link seems to indicate Vista and Windows 7 but may be where I got it: Add Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu.

And here’s a second source from Kelly’s Korner, a site MANY of us use for XP tweaking. See line #45 on the left side: Troubleshooting Windows XP, Tweaks and Fixes for Windows XP.

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A warning about CopyTo MoveTo

After installing this I had some strange problems with Right Click menus, especially if I had multiple things selected. Sometimes the wrong right click action seems to take place.

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A warning about CopyTo MoveTo

After installing this I had some strange problems with Right Click menus, especially if I had multiple things selected. Sometimes the wrong right click action seems to take place.

Stuart,
I remember adding those menu entries a long time ago (these features were present in Windows 95 Powertoy, Send to X, a long with other entries, I think, so many people went looking for something similar in XP and then some different reg edits were mentioned).

But somehow my test (perhaps a manual reg edit) back then backfired also, if I remember correct, so I removed them. I can’t remember how and why, and I’ve not tested the reg edit this time around. But perhaps if one compares selecting one file with selecting several, as you said.

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A warning about CopyTo MoveTo

After installing this I had some strange problems with Right Click menus, especially if I had multiple things selected. Sometimes the wrong right click action seems to take place.

I don’t know what to say about that one, Stuart. Depends a lot on WHAT you installed. As I admitted, I don’t recall where I got the zip file but I did look again in my Software storage directory and the file is dated July 2008, so I’ve been using the revised context menus since then and never had any trouble.

Since my last post, I did compare the regedit entries at both the sites I linked to and the reg entries point to the same place in the registry. I’m pretty sure I didn’t use the ones from Kelly’s Korner, but nevertheless they work OK. Here’s a couple of shots of what I see, using first Windows search and then selecting some files from different folders. If I completed the task, the files were copied to the specified folder without their original folders embedded.

I guess we all (sometimes) have different experiences. And a PS if you will: Kelly’s selections are probably the safest to try since she also includes an “undo” version in case you don’t like what you get.

. . . .

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I don’t know what to say about that one, Stuart. Depends a lot on WHAT you installed. [snip]

Hi Al,
I think that your suggestion about the menu additions is as good as several of the others. When Stuart mentioned some odd findings I remembered that I had tried some of these before, as I posted, and that there were something that at least I stumbled upon.

I think I now have found what it was; at least it rings a bell. As I said, back then if I remember correct different reg edits circulated and depending on where you added it in the registry you could have some odd results. But back then I guessed it was something with me using a non-English OS.

Anyhow, on the second page, “manual way”, that is linked from the page in your first link (How-To Geek) I find in the comments a problem with the right-click explore entry, especially on the Start menu. Comment October 2, 2007 5:05 pm.

And a bit down a reply, comment June 24, 2008 6:27 pm

It says that one can move the entries in the registry, but then “Move To” and “Copy To” only work for files, not folders.

I think it was something along those lines that was my problem then.

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I have been sent 3 separate cds containing jpg photos. the problem is the photos are individual files in individual folders i.e. a cd contains 20 folders and each folder contains just 1 picture. (see attatchment) Is there a quick way of copying all of the pictures into a new folder? At the moment I only know to open each folder and copy paste each picture into a separate new folder?

Utterly trivial via the Command Prompt window! (Or a BATch file…)

First create your target directory – I’m calling it C:Target Directory – using whatever you like, maybe even MD “C:Target Directory” in a Command Prompt window

Now, in the Command Prompt window, assuming your DVD drive is D:, do
XCOPY D:*.* “C:Target Directory” /S
If there is other Stuff on the CD, you can change the D:*.* to D:*.JPEG or whatever, to restrict what gets copied (I couldn’t see what the file extension was)…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Utterly trivial via the Command Prompt window! (Or a BATch file…)

I may be misunderstanding something, but doesn’t that batch command copy files and folders? I understood the requirement was to compile a single folder containing just the contents of the multiple source folders.

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I may be misunderstanding something, but doesn’t that batch command copy files and folders? I understood the requirement was to compile a single folder containing just the contents of the multiple source folders.

Yes, you’re right – I tested it using
XCOPY C:*.TXT D:Test /S

You would have to specify a file extension for it to do what was requested… Sorry!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Utterly trivial via the Command Prompt window! (Or a BATch file…)

First create your target directory – I’m calling it C:Target Directory – using whatever you like, maybe even MD “C:Target Directory” in a Command Prompt window

Now, in the Command Prompt window, assuming your DVD drive is D:, do
XCOPY D:*.* “C:Target Directory” /S
If there is other Stuff on the CD, you can change the D:*.* to D:*.JPEG or whatever, to restrict what gets copied (I couldn’t see what the file extension was)…

Nope. got all the folders again instead of the individual pictures

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Nope. got all the folders again instead of the individual pictures

Correct – my test seems to have been significantly inadequate!
I will work on this, because it has fired my imagination/annoyance…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Nope. got all the folders again instead of the individual pictures

I was thinking somewhat along those lines as BATcher mentioned; but as you said it also created subfolders. A bit complicated it seems and it depends on where you run it, the folder structure and so I thought about something else for a moment, the DIR command and how you can exclude folders (/A-D), and did some searching; apparently this question has been asked before …

At petri.co.il forums I found this:
Copy only files, not folder structure from a directory
http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread/?t=24778

The “one-liner” seemed to work well with my tests (I changed Source and Destination).

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I was thinking somewhat along those lines as BATcher mentioned; but as you said it also created subfolders. A bit complicated it seems and it depends on where you run it, the folder structure and so I thought about something else for a moment, the DIR command and how you can exclude folders (/A-D), and did some searching; apparently this question has been asked before …

At petri.co.il forums I found this:
Copy only files, not folder structure from a directory
http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread/?t=24778

The “one-liner” seemed to work well with my tests (I changed Source and Destination).

I thought about the problem overnight and have just tested this simplistic BATch file:

@echo off
md “C:Many Pictures”
for /f “tokens=*” %%a in (‘dir /b /s /a-d D:*.jp*’) do copy “%%a” “C:Many Pictures”

then I read the above post!

My version works, but, as for all BATch files, if the directory name includes ‘poison characters’ like &, ( and ) then the files in that directory won’t be copied.
It takes a long time to ‘start’ because it is doing a directory list of the entire CD/DVD before doing any copying.
Change the target directory name (both places!) and filename extension to suit – you could possibly use D:*.* if there are no other files than those you want on the CD.

Not quite as trivial as I thought!

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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I hope Jay will check in here and at least try the Kelly’s Korner registry edits since they are reversible if needed. I don’t mean to be rude but all the other methods suggested in this thread are a lot more drawn out than a simple Explorer right-click with those two changes in place.

Just for the heck of it, while I’ve been away from here, I checked my Vista installation and I added those two right-click options to Vista a year ago by way of WinBubbles which is now available for Windows 7.

In the meantime, I applied the two registry edits in my zip file to my (temporary) Windows 7 RC installation and they worked just fine. The two additions for copy and move to folder were added nicely.

OK, I’m done “preaching.”

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I hope Jay will check in here and at least try the Kelly’s Korner registry edits since they are reversible if needed. [snip]

I’ve just tested the copy to / move to reg. edit from Kelly, it’s the “630 & 631” mentioned at several other places; as you said they can be found at several places, Al. And yes Al, Kelly usually has an undo, removing them; so that part is easy; it’s easier using her reg files many times.

It’s the 630 & 631:
Copy To “{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}”
Move To “{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}”

It works well so far in moving single or several files, but then how do you select several files in as many folders at one time?

Anyhow, just to explain what I meant that I found with these “ContextMenuHandlers”; apparently it has some small problem with the Start menu folders on the Start menu. If I select (and yes, we don’t do this very often) a folder by right-clicking on it and select “Explore” it first opens the Move dialogue, and if I cancel that one it then opens the Copy dialogue, and if I cancel that one as well, I finally get the Windows Explorer.

I don’t know if this one-liner in the Run box is a lot more drawn out than using the “Copy to dialogue”? How do you select multiple files in multiple folders? That would be a separate instance of Windows explorer for every folder to reach the files, wouldn’t it? Otherwise you would get the folder structure.

Code:

%comspec% /k title * & @For /F "Delims=" %! in ('Dir "F:Test" /b /s /a-d 2^>nul') do @echo.%! &(@xcopy "%!" "E:Copy" /i /y /h /q /c >nul)

Replace “F:Test” with the source, that’ll be the CD root.
Replace “E:Copy” with the destination folder.
And hit OK.
(Credit to “Rems”, a Mod at the petri.co.il forums that I mentioned earlier.)

I tested it on three subfolders with two subfolders in each, and each of them with one file, all six files copied to the destination folder in one batch.

If there happens to be one or two other files (non jpg) copied in the process, then they are easily deleted afterwards (since all are in one folder).

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… but then how do you select several files in as many folders at one time? …

Windows Explorer Search.

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Windows Explorer Search.

OK, a combination of search and a quick access to the copy dialogue; yes I see you mentioned search in your first post, sorry.

But that could be done without the context menus (via ctrl-c/ctrl-x etc.) with only another window open or by moving to the right folder/drive inside the same (search) window. But your method only requires one window.

The reason I removed the context menus back in the days of the Gold/SP1 was sometimes odd results and finally some articles that confirmed that. One link about using the dialogues out of context but in the context menus so to speak; this post by Raymond Chen, at his The Old New Thing: What goes wrong when you add “Copy To” to the context menu

I guess it all depends on how you work with the context menus, what kind of software installed, if you stumble upon anything odd; there are some examples on the net.

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I hope Jay will check in here and at least try the Kelly’s Korner registry edits since they are reversible if needed. I don’t mean to be rude but all the other methods suggested in this thread are a lot more drawn out than a simple Explorer right-click with those two changes in place.

Just for the heck of it, while I’ve been away from here, I checked my Vista installation and I added those two right-click options to Vista a year ago by way of WinBubbles which is now available for Windows 7.

In the meantime, I applied the two registry edits in my zip file to my (temporary) Windows 7 RC installation and they worked just fine. The two additions for copy and move to folder were added nicely.

OK, I’m done “preaching.”

Sorry folks for not joining back in earlier but it all got a bit too complicated for me. First off for my particular problem I found that I could create any number of “Batch Process” scripts in my image editor Paint Shop Pro X2. That’s OK for images and as far as other folders are concerned I tried Kelly’s Korner reg edit which worked fine and also reversed back with no apparent problems, I will be using that from now on. Thx for the original link Bigaldoc

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