Find and Replace MAJOR error

General discussions about Advanced Find and Replace
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ataxia1
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 4:17 am

Find and Replace MAJOR error

Post by ataxia1 »

Was trying Find & Replace. Was extremely happy with it--almost ready to purchase--because it was the only program I've seen that will do a find and replace on file names. Did a find and replace on about 600 files, and it did a great job... until I found out it was deleting the files instead of renaming them. Never appeared in the recycle bin or anywhere. Any suggestions?

I'm guess they are gone forever?

Abacre
Site Admin
Posts: 1223
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:32 pm

Post by Abacre »

When experimenting with file renaming or replacing inside files you
should always backup your files first!

We reassure: Advanced Find and Replace does not have any
functions/instructions to delete files.
Maybe you renamed all files by one name? like:*
file1.txt, file2.txt ... file600.txt into the same name file.txt?
(For example you can do that by using regular expression:
file\d+\.txt)

Note, that when remaining files you should have the following options:
Batch Replace options:
checked: "Replace in File Names"
unchecked: "Replace in File Bodies"
unchecked: "Include File Name into Search Scope"

Try also to find your files on computer. Maybe they have been moved into
another location/folder. (But AFR does not move files).
So try to use Find operation and search for some text that has been
inside the files.

Anyway in Windows you can always recover your deleted files.
In fact when Windows deletes the files. They stay intact on hard
drive. They are only marked as "deleted". And Windows replaced the
first char of the file by ?. So your files will be ?ile1.txt,
?ile2.txt etc
In order to files stay intact you should not use this hard drive until
you do not install recovery software. If you do a lot of file moving
it will probably write over sectors of hard drive having your removed
files. So it could override your files.
Ideally you should find and install your recovery software on another
computer and then switch on your hard drive there.

Try to search Google for file recovery software:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=fi ... y+software
Kind regards,
Abacre Limited
http://www.abacre.com
support@abacre.com

ataxia1
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 4:17 am

More detail

Post by ataxia1 »

Unfortunately, I believe they are gone forever.

Initially, I did have a good backup and made a few innocuous Find & Replaces to assure it worked. Once satisfied that it was working, I let it run...

First things I tried were to one, search the HD for the files, and two, run my undelete software. It's as if the files were never there.

Here's what I was doing, if you want to to replicate the problem.

Had a folder with around 600 files in it, as follows.

this_is_my_file_name-(ver 1).txt

First: (replace in file names only, not file body or anything else)

- Replace "_" with " " (worked perfectly)
- Replace "-(ver 1)" with "" (worked perfectly)
Removed my backup at this point and ran it on the actual folder (DOH).
Wanted the files in title case, so ran the following routines
- Replace " a" with " A" (I did not have "Case Sensitive" on. I would have figured it out soon enough...)
- Replace " b" with " B"
- Replace " c" with " C"
...
- Replace " s" with " S" (noticed at this point the folder was empty)

Stopped using the HD, immediately started recovery attempts, then posted the original post.

Just tried it again on some backup files, and I was able to replicate this problem in another folder.

Files just disappear. The disk size increases. Undelete indicates nothing was ever there.

Hope this helps.

Abacre
Site Admin
Posts: 1223
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:32 pm

Post by Abacre »

We reproduced the error. It will be corrected in few hours.

BTW do you need conversion to title (upper case)? In fact you can do
it much more simply using regular expressions. We have "Upper"
function. We will send you r.e. after correction of the issue.
Kind regards,
Abacre Limited
http://www.abacre.com
support@abacre.com

Abacre
Site Admin
Posts: 1223
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 5:32 pm

Post by Abacre »

We have corrected the issue.
Download the updated version from the following location:
http://www.abacre.com/afr.zip
Install it over existing version. It will update needed files.

Here is the promised regular expression.
It will convert all file names into title (upper) case.
For example, filename.ext into FILENAME.ext
(extension will stay intact).

Go to main menu - Action - Options - Batch Replace
check "Modifier G"
check "Modifier E"

Go to Batch replace tab, check on "Use regular expressions".
Put into the grid, search for:
(.+)(\..+)

Replace with:
<%=Upper("$1")=%>$2
Kind regards,
Abacre Limited
http://www.abacre.com
support@abacre.com

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