How To Compare Only Folder and File Names With Different Root Folders

[EasyGoingPat]

I am sure this question has been asked before but I don't seem to be able to find an answer.

I have a folder-tree containing files that gets backed up. This means I have two folder-trees that should be identical but will have different roots. For example:

D:\Folder1
\Folder2
a.txt
b.txt
\Folder3
c.txt

Will get backed-up to something like:

E:\Backups\Folder1
\Folder2
a.txt
b.txt
\Folder3
c.txt

What I want to do is compare D:\Folder1 with E:\Backups\Folder1 and see only differences in file and folder names.

I don't seem to be able to hit upon a way to do this. My differences view always shows folders and files as being orphaned (e.g. c.txt is shown as orphaned on both sides of the compare, presumably because the folder path to each copy of c.txt is different). How do I tell BC4 to ignore the path below a certain level? I thought the act of choosing the appropriate folders for the left and right side of the compare was all that was required for this?

Kind wishes ~ Patrick

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC4's Folder Compare has 4 view modes. In 3 of the modes, the subfolder structure must match for files to align and be compared. This means your base folders (typed folder paths) would be D:\Folder1 <> E:\Backups\Folder1, and all the subfolders and file names below are on the same level with the same names.

The 4th view mode is Ignore Folder Structure. In this mode, subfolders are removed and all files on each side are placed in a single large bucket for comparison, so files will align by only file name. If there are duplicate file names on the same side, however, the alignment still happens before the comparison, which means it may not pick the pair you expect. You will have to manually align or compare if dealing with duplicated names.

[EasyGoingPat]

Thank you for the explanation.

I think this may partly have been a red herring. When I looked more closely at the orphaned files, I discovered that there were subtle differences in the file names, caused by non-English characters not being handled correctly by my backup software. So most of the orphaned entries in the comparison were quite correct.

I did find a few that appeared to have no explanation, however. For instance, I found one Word .doc file that has the same name, same date/time and even the same byte-count, but was reported as an orphan on each side. Not sure what is going on here but that's a different question, I guess.

- Patrick

[Aaron]

Hello,

If you select a file, right click, and Copy Filename, then paste the name into a blank Text Compare, and repeat for the other side, do they report as equal file names? There may be a subtle difference, like whitespace.

[EasyGoingPat]

Hi,

I don't have the files that were causing the problem available anymore. If I encounter the problem again, I will do as you suggest. You are almost certainly correct. I mean, if I were experiencing such a fundamental problem, a thousand people before me would already have reported it.

Thanks for you help.

- Patrick

[EasyGoingPat]

I managed to recreate the problem. You are indeed correct. The backup software had changed the character used for an apostrophe.

- Patrick