Hi, I've only just started using this program. All I want to do is a side by side comparison of two sets of the same files and see if they match.
My CDROM is becoming very unreliable and I can't figure out how to verify multiple copies of a data CD when I cannot be sure if I'm even reading the original correctly. I figure if I can prove multiple consecutive folder copies are the same, then I am reading properly, even if the CD randomly spins down during a read.
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Well I figured out a very inelegant way of doing what I needed, I renamed the folders (swapped names) and was able to verify one set of files against the hashes from the other. I was able to see that one copy was the same and one was not. It would have been nice to be able to see if the file sizes matched (or not) as well, with some kind of side-by-side display, or option to compare with a bit more flexibility to the relative path along the lines of my workaround.
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In order to make the relative path functionality work, you must have relative paths. Normally, absolute paths are converted to relative ones when the hash list is saved to a file. However, since you cannot write the hash list to the root of the CD (well, technically, you could, but this is probably not desired), you must convert them manually. The strip operation allows you to do this. The strip operation strips a specified number of leading directories from the tagged paths.
Example: comparing the set of files in d:\path1 to the same files in e:\path2
Hash all of the files in d:\path1.
Tag all entries and use the Strip operation to remove 2 path components (resulting in the removal of d:\path1\ from all tagged entries.)
Do a Verify All using e:\path2 as the base path. Entries with mismatching hashes and/or file sizes will be red, etc. The file information pane will give more details on the mismatch (hash 1 vs. hash 2, etc.)
If you want to retain file sizes to compare against later, you must use the FVA, FVB, or CSV file format
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi, I've only just started using this program. All I want to do is a side by side comparison of two sets of the same files and see if they match.
My CDROM is becoming very unreliable and I can't figure out how to verify multiple copies of a data CD when I cannot be sure if I'm even reading the original correctly. I figure if I can prove multiple consecutive folder copies are the same, then I am reading properly, even if the CD randomly spins down during a read.
Well I figured out a very inelegant way of doing what I needed, I renamed the folders (swapped names) and was able to verify one set of files against the hashes from the other. I was able to see that one copy was the same and one was not. It would have been nice to be able to see if the file sizes matched (or not) as well, with some kind of side-by-side display, or option to compare with a bit more flexibility to the relative path along the lines of my workaround.
In order to make the relative path functionality work, you must have relative paths. Normally, absolute paths are converted to relative ones when the hash list is saved to a file. However, since you cannot write the hash list to the root of the CD (well, technically, you could, but this is probably not desired), you must convert them manually. The strip operation allows you to do this. The strip operation strips a specified number of leading directories from the tagged paths.
Example: comparing the set of files in d:\path1 to the same files in e:\path2
Hash all of the files in d:\path1.
Tag all entries and use the Strip operation to remove 2 path components (resulting in the removal of d:\path1\ from all tagged entries.)
Do a Verify All using e:\path2 as the base path. Entries with mismatching hashes and/or file sizes will be red, etc. The file information pane will give more details on the mismatch (hash 1 vs. hash 2, etc.)
If you want to retain file sizes to compare against later, you must use the FVA, FVB, or CSV file format