Virtual folders
Overview
Section titled “Overview”Using this tool you can create a database containing a virtual “snapshot” of a location - for example a folder or drive, an offline archive, optical media, or a slow network location. This snapshot can then be used in future scans where the original drive doesn’t need to be present or connected. This is handy in many situations - for instance comparing working files against a backup or a DVD archive, or for repeated scans against a network drive that would otherwise be very slow.
Important note: A virtual folder is NOT a backup! It only holds information about the files, not their content. Don’t compare against a virtual folder and then delete an original file assuming it still exists elsewhere!
Creating virtual folders
Section titled “Creating virtual folders”- Source drive or folder: - The drive or folder to take a snapshot of. All files within it are added to the new virtual folder (unless a folder can’t be read, for example because of permissions).
- Name - The friendly name for this virtual folder, as it will appear in the folder tree.
- Hash - Tick to store a file hash for every file, and choose the hash type. This is what is used to compare exact file contents in a scan. Leave it unticked if you are only interested in comparing by file attributes, such as name and size.
Click Create virtual folder to start. Progress is shown below, and Cancel stops it - the virtual folder is not created.
Not yet available. Capturing Image, Audio and Video mode information in a virtual folder is not available in this version, so virtual folders can only be compared by content hash and file attributes.
Managing virtual folders
Section titled “Managing virtual folders”Your virtual folders are listed at the top of the tool.
- Delete - Delete the selected virtual folder. This only deletes the snapshot - the real files are not touched. A virtual folder can’t be deleted while an open scan is using it.
- Import / Export - Copy a virtual folder to or from a file, for example to use it on another computer.
Not yet available. Rescanning a virtual folder to bring it up to date is not available in this version. Delete it and create it again instead.
Using virtual folders in a scan
Section titled “Using virtual folders in a scan”Virtual folders appear under Virtual folders in the Available folders tree on the Where to look tab. Add them to Folders to search in the same way as normal folders.
If you are scanning by content, the virtual folder must have been created with the same hash type as the scan uses.
Files in a virtual folder can be marked and exported, but can’t be deleted, moved, copied, renamed or linked.