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This article provides a step-by-step guide to compare a FileWatcher inventory against a different folder from the original inventoried path. To be able to complete this guide, you will need access to the windows command prompt and an inventory created by FileWatcher.
A standard comparison is where FileWatcher compares the contents of an inventory against the original inventoried folder. A slightly more advanced comparison is where FileWatcher compares an inventory against a different target folder. An example of this usage is with comparing distributed files or applications where the installation location may differ between computers.
The only difference of note to the comparison carried out is with regard to file or folder paths. FileWatcher uses relative root paths when checking against a different folder: the path checked is relative to the root of both the originally compared folder and the root of the folder being compared against.
For example: An Inventory was created against the folder D:\Testing. This inventory contained a file at the path D:\Calzada Media\Testing\MyFolder\04_hd.png. This inventory is then compared against the folder D:\Testing2. FileWatcher will rewrite the paths and will actually look for a file at the path D:\Testing\MyFolder\04_hd.png
This guide uses the inventory generated in the Creating an Inventory with FileWatcher article in which an inventory was created as follows:
This resulted in an inventory file of Inventory-18-Jan-2019_113221.xml being saved in D:\Testing\MyInventories.
In this article, we will comparing against the folder D:\Testing\MyFolder2.
Open a command prompt. This may done either by click searching for "Command Prompt" or pressing Windows Key + R and entering "cmd" and then pressing enter.
Once in the command prompt, go to the location were FileWatcher application is stored.
cd "D:\Testing"
Enter the create inventory FileWatcher command and then hit enter.
FileWatcher /COMPARE /CI "D:\Testing\MyInventories\Inventory-18-Jan-2019_113221.xml" /CF "D:\Testing\MyFolder2"
In the example above, the arguments are:
Once you hit enter, FileWatcher will start the comparison process. Depending on the size of both the original inventory and the target folder, this may take some time depending on available system resources.
During this process, FileWatcher will write a verbose output of what it is doing to the console and also to the comparison log file. In the example below, the comparison has found a number of missing and unknown files. At the very end of the output there is a summary of found, changed, missing and unknown files.
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Writing log to 'InventoryCompare-25-Jan-2019_162325.log' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Generating temporary inventory for folder 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Successfully generated inventory for folder 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\03_hd.png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\04_hd.png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\05_hd.png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\A_Bar_at_the_Folies-Bergere_(Manet).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\A_Vanitas_Still_Life_(Claesz).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\A_Young_Girl_Reading_(Fragonard).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Adoration_of_the_Magi_(Mantegna).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Alexander's_Victory_(Altdorfer).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\American_Gothic_(Wood).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Aristotle_Contemplating_the_Bust_of_Homer_(Rembrandt).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Bathing_at_Asniers.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Thumbs.db' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\04_hd.png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\45-degree-fabric-light.png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\73351_v0_600x.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\b83136607970012f2fdf00163e41dd5b.gif' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\A_Bar_at_the_Folies-Bergere_(Manet).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\A_Vanitas_Still_Life_(Claesz).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\A_Young_Girl_Reading_(Fragonard).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Adoration_of_the_Magi_(Mantegna).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Alexander's_Victory_(Altdorfer).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\American_Gothic_(Wood).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Aristotle_Contemplating_the_Bust_of_Homer_(Rembrandt).jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Bathing_at_Asniers.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Thumbs.db' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded folder' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded folder\03_hd.png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded folder\04_hd.png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded folder\05_hd.png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded images' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded images\blade runner.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded images\Screenshot (1).png' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded images\shepard-fairey-war-is-over.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\070209165144a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\070209165806a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\181107185053a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\181107190544a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\181107190846a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\181107192356a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\201209183923a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\201209184017a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\201209184249a.jpg' 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information Comparison completed, duration 111 milliseconds 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Unchanged Entries 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Folders: 0 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Files: 0 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Total: 0 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Changed Entries 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Folders: 0 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Files: 0 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Total: 0 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Missing Entries 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Folders: 2 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Files: 12 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Total: 14 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Unknown Entries 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Folders: 5 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Files: 28 25 JAN 2019 16:23:25 Information - Total: 33
You may also compare an inventory against the original folder.