File duplicator software

[Doug Nelson]

I need a freeware program for Windows that can duplicate any file any number of times, adding an incremented number at the end of each. Google shows tons of duplicate eliminators, I want to make duplicates. A lot of them, even 100,000.

[joe_7]

Re: File duplicator software

Sounds like something a simple DOS script could do?

[pixaeiro]

Re: File duplicator software

All copies in the same directory?

[Doug Nelson]

Re: File duplicator software

Yes, all copies in the same directory.

[pixaeiro]

Re: File duplicator software

This batch script will do it:

for /l %%x in (1, 1, 100000) do (
if  %%x geq     0 if %%x lss     10 copy file.txt file00000%%x.txt
if  %%x geq    10 if %%x lss    100 copy file.txt file0000%%x.txt
if  %%x geq   100 if %%x lss   1000 copy file.txt file000%%x.txt
if  %%x geq  1000 if %%x lss  10000 copy file.txt file00%%x.txt
if  %%x geq 10000 if %%x lss 100000 copy file.txt file0%%x.txt
)

In the code, rename the source and destination filenames. Hardcoded now to file.txt and file000000.txt.

In the for statement, change the 10000 to the number of copies you need.

This script will format all files with 0 before the number, so they have the same number of characters. If you want less characters, you'll need to modify the batch.

Copy this to the directory where the source file is located, to a new file named multicopy.bat (extension bat is important).

Open your command windows ( cmd.exe ) by typing cmd in the start menu Search programs and files.

If you have Python, this can be done in a much simpler script.

[pixaeiro]

Re: File duplicator software

And sorry if this is ugly.. I am not an expert with batch command files, but everybody has cmd.exe in windows.

[pixaeiro]

Re: File duplicator software

Oh, and if you add:

echo off

to the first line, it will not print all the ifs and copy commands to the screen:

echo off
for /l %%x in (0, 1, 100) do (
if  %%x geq     0 if %%x lss     10 copy file.txt file00000%%x.txt
if  %%x geq    10 if %%x lss    100 copy file.txt file0000%%x.txt
if  %%x geq   100 if %%x lss   1000 copy file.txt file000%%x.txt
if  %%x geq  1000 if %%x lss  10000 copy file.txt file00%%x.txt
if  %%x geq 10000 if %%x lss 100000 copy file.txt file0%%x.txt
)

[Doug Nelson]

Re: File duplicator software

Thanks!

[Doug Nelson]

Re: File duplicator software

A little slow (would take 37 hours to make 100,000 copies) and can't do folders or multiple files. But it would get the job done. Luckily this is a one-off project.

I've found one dedicated program that does this ($40) and several multi-tool programs that have this included (usually much more than $40). Either I'm the only person that ever needed to do this, or there's an opportunity here for a programmer.

[pixaeiro]

Re: File duplicator software

Hi Doug,
What exactly do you need to do?

[Doug Nelson]

Re: File duplicator software

I have a project in mind that requires making many copies of several raw files. The final total number of copies depends on some things I don't know yet, so I'll probably have to do it several times, erasing between each. But it will likely be somewhere between a few thousand and 100,000 total files. $40 isn't very much money, it just seems disproportionate to the function.

[pixaeiro]

Re: File duplicator software

For this kind of thing Python would be the easiest tool... Creating a script that copies a file, x times, with a filename template would take just a few lines.

Something that looks like:

Duplicator my_raw.cr2 50000

[Doug Nelson]

Re: File duplicator software

But still only single-threaded, ie: one copy at a time.

[pixaeiro]

Re: File duplicator software

I could be wrong, but File IO for a single HDD is always single threaded.

[Doug Nelson]

Re: File duplicator software

It might be marketing speak. The trial versions are too limited to tell.