Search by date on portable drive
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Thread: Search by date on portable drive

  1. #1
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    Search by date on portable drive

    I just moved a number of files from a folder on my laptop to a folder on a portable drive. After moving them, I went to the folder on the portable drive to see if they were there and they are not. I don't know where they are. How do I do a search by date (today's date) to see where they are in windows 10?

  2. #2
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    Rule #1:
    NEVER Move a file if it is the only copy of that file that you have. If the move fails, the file may be gone. Copy instead, verify that the copy is OK, then delete the original file if necessary.

    To search for files in Windows 10:
    https://www.howtogeek.com/243511/how...dows-8-and-10/

  3. #3
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    You could try using RECUVA to search for deleted files. The less you use the computer between now and the search the better odds of finding it/them.

    https://www.ccleaner.com/knowledge/r...arch-for-files

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  4. #4
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    Is it possible that you moved the files to a different folder? If you know some filenames, you could try using Everything Search to see where they are.

    https://www.voidtools.com/

  5. #5
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    JDC2000, thank you for that tip. I will try to remember to do that from here on out.

    I do not know the files names. I know the file extension. I was going to search by *.(file extension) and using today's date. They were the only files I moved today.

    I searched by external hard drive and the OS(C): on laptop by tying date:7/14/2021 and nothing found (if I did it correctly).

    I suppose my only other option is trying Recuva?

  6. #6
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    Recuva is free and can be very effective. There's no reason not to try it.

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  7. #7
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    I would try Recuva ASAP on both the external drive and the C: drive.

  8. #8
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    I tried quick scan on recuva and none of the files found. I am doing a deep scan on external drive now.

  9. #9
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    Recuva didn't find any of them. I see a file of the files that were video files in the recent folder in windows as shortcuts. They play like the original. Can I just move those files from recent to another file and it will be like the original file?

  10. #10
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    You should be able to look at the shortcut properties and find the source folder. Right-click on the shortcut and click "Open file location". See if your files are in there.

  11. #11
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    Midknyte, after clicking "open file location" on a few of them, it get a pop-up window that says "the item that this shortcut refers to has been changed or moved, so this shortcut will no longer work properly." Could ithe reason I receive this message when I try to locate the source is because I copied some of the video files that were in recent folder to another folder? Before doing that, a few of the shortcut video files played fine in the recent folder.

  12. #12
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    The Recent folder should only have shortcuts, though. Which Recent folder are you talking about?

    My point was to try it with the video shortcuts that actually play.

  13. #13
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    You can now search for the files by name since you have them showing as shortcuts. They have to be intact on an active drive somewhere in order to be played.

    You can also search by extension/file type eg: mp4, avi, mov, wmv, flv, etcetera.

    https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/s...fic-extension/
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  14. #14
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    I had no luck retrieving my files. I will try to remember to use copy command instead of move. I appreciate the help.

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