search all folders, and copy files with a matching text string (regardless of file ext) into a target folder.

VBScript:

Those things need to be adjusted to your own:


scan_dir = "c:\windows\" (folder to be scanned)
textfile = "c:\temp\temp.txt" (here are the parts of the file names)
copy_dir = "c:\temp\" (files will be copied here)

Option explicit

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

Dim scan_dir,copy_dir,folder,fileCollection,file_read,test_text,textfile,ObjFSO,folderCollection,file,subfolder

scan_dir = "c:\windows\"
textfile = "c:\temp\temp.txt"
copy_dir = "c:\temp\"


Set ObjFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set file_read = ObjFSO.OpenTextFile(textfile, ForReading)
	Do Until file_read.AtEndOfStream
		test_text = file_read.Readline
		searchsub scan_dir, test_text
	Loop	
Set file_read = nothing
			
	
	
	
	
Sub searchsub(Source, text)
	Set folder = ObjFSO.GetFolder(Source)
	Set fileCollection = folder.Files
	Set folderCollection = folder.Subfolders
	
	For Each file In fileCollection
		if instr(file.name, text) then
			ObjFSO.CopyFile file, copy_dir & file.name
		end if
	Next
	
	For Each subfolder In folderCollection
		'wscript.echo subfolder & text
		searchsub subfolder, text
	Next

End sub

	

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Hi Kimputer,

changed the parameters as requested and Copied your script as detailed below into the macro application on excel 2010 and I get the error "compile error, invalid outside procedure"  ??

--

Option Explicit

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2

Dim scan_dir, copy_dir, folder, fileCollection, file_read, test_text, textfile, ObjFSO, folderCollection, file, subfolder

scan_dir = "c:\DRAGADOS\"
textfile = "c:\temp\temp.txt"
copy_dir = "c:\temp\P3FILES\"


Set ObjFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set file_read = ObjFSO.OpenTextFile(textfile, ForReading)
    Do Until file_read.AtEndOfStream
        test_text = file_read.Readline
        searchsub scan_dir, test_text
    Loop
Set file_read = Nothing
           
   
   
   
   
Sub searchsub(Source, text)
    Set folder = ObjFSO.GetFolder(Source)
    Set fileCollection = folder.Files
    Set folderCollection = folder.Subfolders
   
    For Each file In fileCollection
        If InStr(file.Name, text) Then
            ObjFSO.CopyFile file, copy_dir & file.Name
        End If
    Next
   
    For Each subfolder In folderCollection
        'wscript.echo subfolder & text
        searchsub subfolder, text
    Next

End Sub

I said it was VBscript (because it's easier that way, inside Excel it's VBA). Run it at the command prompt. Copy all the code into a text file, then give the script a name, something like "search.vbs"

Sorry, got it and ran it. It does seem to be working but very slowly (been running for half and hour and so far copies 8 files). It's looking through 400gb of data for these files, Does this code specify to look for each file individually and cycle through the folders and then look for the next file with a corresponding file name and cycle through again or cycles through once virtually stores the results and then copies across to the target folder?

It could be slow indeed. I was hoping your disk and cache would kick in, but seems it doesn't. I was trying to keep the code clean. Would need a lot of time to code something to load all the files on the disk into memory and do the matching there.

OK, it's just that at this rate it will take around 50 days to cycle through and find all the files. If it is unreasonable to expect a more workable solution I will credit you with the points?

If you could give me a day? (Could still fail though, if memory not sufficient)

I can certainly wait a day. I will credit you with at least half the points tomorrow one way or the other. If someone finds a more workable solution in the interim then half the points go to them, does that sound fair?

Sorry, I got caught up in other stuff and this slipped my mind. Not tested it but appreciate the work you've put in and have assigned you the points, I apologise for the delay in getting back to you.