How Does one Eat an Elephant?

I am sure that many will wonder why filemod even has a "delete file" option when windows of course contains a very good file delete option.  The answer is that the two work very differently.  Basically, we will be the first to agree that if the standard windows delete works for your application, by all means use it. 

However, we have seen times that the standard windows delete function can bog down on very large directories and large numbers of files.  The windows delete function does seem to go through a "preparing to delete files" stage.  If it gets through that stage quickly, then files are deleted very rapidly afterwards.  However, we have seen for some very large directories on some computers, that the windows delete function never gets done "preparing to delete files".  What to do then?  Well, filemod approaches file delete function very differently.  It does not "prepare"; it just starts deleting any files that it can find - within the directory that you choose of course - and its nested directories. Filemod's only delay might be due to examining directories that have no files in them.  While it looks at each file quickly before deleting it, it may be in fact slower if one could fairly compare the two delete operations.  However, in some cases, it seems the only alternative.  As to the answer to the question above "How does one eat an elephant?  Well that question is sometimes an analogy used in business for approaching a large task.  And the standard business answer is "one bite at a time".  And that is what filemod does.  "One file at a time".  It starts soon, runs automatically, and does get the job done.  At least for any application we have seen. 

Filemod file delete need after using "memmod"

One of the usages we have seen for the filemod delete operation is after using the memmod "create directory files" application of filemod.  The memmod "create directory files" is a privacy feature that fills and writes over hard drives open areas - making any files that were there non-recoverable.  That of course is its good news.  However, the memmod feature of filemod can write 101 directories and 100,000 files for each gigabyte of hard drive that it fills.  That complexity seems very high for the standard windows delete function.  However, if the windows delete function works for your computer we would still suggest using it.  If not, then use filemod delete.

Filemod delete usage

Filemod will start deleting files one at a time, fast and automatically, as soon as it finds them.  If you have already used filemod delete on a directory but then stopped it and then restarted it, there could be a delay.  The delay will be filemod going through the now empty directories of files till it gets to the directories that still have files.

Filemod delete - like all filemod functions - does not affect the directories themselves - just the files.  So after you use filemod for "delete directory files" you will still need to follow up and use the windows delete to delete the directories themselves.  However, that should be a much smaller problem.  For example, for a 20 gigabyte hard drive fill, if our math here is right, there would be 2020 directories that were created.  On the other hand, there are many more files:  2 million.  So, eliminating the files will make the job of deleting the directories much easier for the standard windows delete function.

Another filemod delete application

There may also be an application where you may wish to delete all of the files in a directory structure but leave the directory structure in place.  If so, that of course would be another good application for filemod "delete directory files", since it would do that function very naturally since it operates on files and not directories.

Summary
 

A very powerful bulk file name changer program / attribute modifier and more!

Wish to see a screen shot of the main program and see its other features?  If so click here.

Readme.txt and help included.

Now available for both download or CD-ROM Shipment!

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