Copy Missing Files Back

[InventEd]

Hi,

My NAS drive died a few months back. As it started to get flaky we managed to get the main folders we wanted before it stopped working. I went out, bought a new NAS drive, copied the folder structure and files I had managed to save and carried on working again (adding and moving files). Now two months later I have managed to get someone to extract all the files (in their original folder structure) onto a hard drive for me. Now the question is what is the best way to merge 1000s of files back together again using Hazel?

What exists on the new NAS has the same top level folders as the old NAS;
Documents
Pictures
Videos
.....

but within each of these there will only be some of the subfolders on the new NAS. Second but - new content will have been added in the form of subfolders and files on the new NAS that don't exist on the old.

So with all this in mind how easy will it be to make a set of rules to get Hazel to effectively add back from the old NAS any files that are missing on the new, but not copy over any files where the date on the new NAS is newer?

Any advice appreciated. My plan is to copy them from the old NAS hard drive and not delete anything.

Cheers

Ed

[Mr_Noodle]

The move/copy action has a couple options which will help you here.

First is that you can copy over the folder structure. You can set it so it will copy to the equivalent folder at the destination, creating any new folders as necessary.

There are also a few options for replacing an existing file. There is no option to do it based on date but if you are sure the ones on the new NAS should always be kept, you can set it to throw away the file being moved if it already exists at the destination.

Lastly, you'll need another rule to get Hazel to go into subfolders. See the sticky thread up top on how to do that.