Copyright: 1993-2003 V. Iuorno


Overview

Please read the disclaimer.

To learn more about LookDisk, click on one of the following lines:

What is LookDisk?

Search for files

Search for text within files

Search duplicate files by content

Search duplicate files by name

Disk overview

Load list

Options

FAQ & Tips

History of changes

If you would like to send me (Vincenzo Iuorno) a comment or suggestion about LookDisk, write to: vinc1964@yahoo.com. You can find the latest version of LookDisk at:http://www.fxSearch.com/ldw_eng

Disclaimer:

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE SUPPLIED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR VINCENZO IUORNO BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR OTHER DAMAGES FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE.


Default parameter window

This is usually the first window you see when you select on of the LookDisk functions (except for text search where you see the text parameter window first). In this window you can enter the file name (or a fraction of it) you are looking for, select in which drives/disks to search and you can also enter a folder name for the search if you wish. Following some details on each entry field:

File name:

Enter the name of the file you are looking for or a fraction of it. For example if you are looking for a file called holiday.bmp you either enter 'holiday.bmp' or just 'holiday', without the quotes. Tip: LookDisk will also find folders which correspond to the name you have entered.

Drives:

Select the drives where LookDisk should search for the file. If you are not sure which drives to select, then select them all.

Folder:

If you want LookDisk only to look into a specific folder/path, then enter its name here.

If you need additional search criteria, like file size, file attributes etc, then click on the top of the window on 'Extend Parameters' which takes you to a page with more search options.

Once you click on the 'Search' button, LookDisk will start looking for the file name you have entered, and show the found file(s) in the file list.


Extended parameter window

This window offers you a wide range of search parameters. If you only want to search by a single file name I recommend you using the Default parameter window.

Following the description of all parameters and options:

Files to search:

Enter the file name or a fraction of it in the entry field to the left and then press the 'Right-arrow' button to include the file name in the list of files to be searched. You can enter up to 20 file names to be searched.

To delete an entry from the file list, select it first and then click on the 'Left-arrow- button. To delete all entries at once, click on the 'eraser' button.

Files to be excluded:

All the file names entered here will be excluded from the search.

File size:

If you are looking for files which have a specific size, then you can use this option.

You can specify whether LookDisk should search for files with a given file size that is smaller, larger or equal (than the one you entered).

File date:

If you search files with a specific date (date modified), then use this option. Enter the date in the form 'day month year'. E.g. 11 03 2003 is 11th March 2003.

Tip: If you enter 0 in any of the date components (day, month, year) and select equal/=, then LookDisk will ignore that date component. E.g. if you enter 00 06 2003 and select equal/=, then LookDisk will search for file which were last modified in June 2003 (independently of the day).

File attributes:

If you are looking for files that have specific file attributes (e.g. read-only) use this option. Files will be found who have at least one of the selected file attributes.

Drives:

Select all the drives/disks you want to be searched. The dark green button selects all drives, except for CD-ROMs and floppy-drives. The light green button deselects all drives.

Folder search:

If you want LookDisk only to look into a specific folder/path, then enter its name here.

Folder exclude:

Enter the folder name that you want to exclude from the search (if any). You can use wildcards, like * or ? in this field. E.g. if you enter *WINDOWS* then any folder which has WINDOWS in its name will be excluded from the search.

Once you click on the 'Search' button, LookDisk will start looking for the file name you have entered, and show the found file(s) in the file list.


File list

This window displays all the found files. You can copy, delete or move the files in this list. Before doing so, you need to select the files you want to copy/delete or move. By double-clicking on a file, LookDisk starts automatically the program that is associated with it in your Windows-settings. For example if you double-click on a file called holidays.doc, then LookDisk will start MS-Word (if you have installed it) which in turns opens holidays.doc automatically. For some picture files with the ending 'BMP', 'JPG' and a few more, LookDisk has in-built viewers.

Files that are part of a Zip-Archive are shown in the following format in the name column:

file*(Zip-archive)	E.g. letter.doc*(archives.zip)

As an example see the screen-shot below:

Lines with files that are part of Zip-Archive cannot be selected (and therefore copied, deleted or moved) but you can double-click on such lines and LookDisk will start any program you have installed to handle Zip-Files.

The list of found files can be printed or saved to an external file, see Save file list.

You can sort the file list by clicking on the respective header (Name, Size etc.). The first click sorts the list ascending, the second click sorts it descending. Note: Sorting only works for the file search function (not text or duplicate search).

Following a few details on the options:

Font

This option allows you to set the font for the lines in the file list. Depending on your needs you can chose a bigger or smaller font.

Selection colour

This option allows you to specify the colour of selected lines (default is light blue).

Colour of current line

Here you can change the colour which marks the current line in the file list (default is yellow).

Windows-like selection

If this option is selected, then the selection of files in the list works like any other Windows-selection.

If this option is off, then you can select individual files with each mouse-click, without having to hold down

the CTRL-key.


Save file list

This window allows you to save the list of found files. You have two options on how you wish you to save the list, either in Text-Format or LookDisk-Format.

Text-Format

If you chose to save the list in Text-Format, then you can easily load the saved list into other programs like MS-Word or any text-processing software. If you wish to load the list into MS-Excel or any software that can read delimited data then you need to specify a delimiter for each field in the file.

Note: You cannot reload a list into LookDisk that was saved in the Text-Format.

LookDisk-Format

By saving the list in the LookDisk-Format you can reload it at a later stage into LookDisk, see the load list window. Note: You cannot load a list that was saved in the LookDisk-Format into any other program but LookDisk.


What is LookDisk?

LookDisk is a Freeware Disk-Utility that helps you find your files, text within files or track duplicate files on your disks. Some additional features are:

•	The disk overview shows you at a glance the capacity and the free space of all your disks.

•	The list of found files can be printed or saved to an external file (and reloaded at a later stage).

•	LookDisk supports Zip-Files, meaning it can find files inside Zip-Archives or it can search for text in files that are part of Zip-Archives, see Zip-File Support for more details.

•	Your entries are saved each time and do not have to be re-entered each time you restart LookDisk.

•	LookDisk can handle large amounts of files without slowing down or using lots of memory on your PC.

To learn more about each function, click on one of the following:

Search for files

Search for text within files

Search duplicate files by content

Search duplicate files by name

Disk overview

Load list

Options

FAQ & Tips

History of changes

LookDisk has been around for almost 10 years, initially I created a DOS-Version,  later a version for Windows 3.1 and finally the version for Windows 95/98/2000/ME/NT/XP. If you have any comments about LookDisk, please write to vinc1964@yahoo.com (Vincenzo Iuorno). The LookDisk home page is at: http://www.fxSearch.com/ldw_eng


Search for files

This function helps you find files on all your disks, including CD-ROMs, network-drives or floppies.

To search for files you have two parameter windows at your disposition:

Either the default parameter window or the extended parameter window.

Please click on one of the above key words to learn more about each parameter window.

The found files will be displayed in the file list.


Search for text within files

With this function you can search for any text in any file. As opposed to the other functions, the first window you see here is the one where you enter the text to be searched.

Following the description of entry fields and options:

Text:

Enter the text you are looking for.

Text - Hex-Codes:

If you select hex-codes, then the text has to be in hex-form (A0, E1 etc.).

Match case:

Select this option to perform a case sensitive search. If you are not sure about the spelling I recommend that you do not select this option.

Search only 1 text in each file:

If this option is selected then LookDisk stops searching within a file as soon as one text was found.
If you do not care how many times a text occurs in a file, then I suggest that you select this option to speed up the search.

Whole words only:

To search for a specific word as opposed to a string of letters, select this option. But if you are not sure about the spelling of the word you are looking for, I recommend not selecting this option.

Show line numbers:

To see at what line numbers the text was found, select this option. Please note, line numbers are only accurate for words/text found within text files (not in Word/Excel etc. documents).

Show found lines:

Select this option to see the lines containing the text/word you are looking for.

Lines shown before/after text location:

With this option you can specify how many lines you would like to see before or after the text location.

Once you click on the 'Continue' button you are taken to the window with the search parameters.

Depending on your search parameters you can either use the default parameter window or the extended parameter window.


Search duplicate files by content

This function finds duplicate files which have the same content, independently of their names. If you are running short of space on your disks, then this function can help you to regain some space.

Note: Although LookDisk can find duplicate files on your PC, it can NOT determine which files you can safely remove/delete. Following some recommendations:

•	If you are not 100% sure if a file can be deleted or not, then do not delete it. Even if you are sure that a file can be deleted, I suggest that you first move it to another folder or save it (on tape or another disk).

•	Should you decide to delete a file, then delete it into the Windows Recycle-Bin (LookDisk gives you that option when deleting files). If you later realise that you needed that file you can restore it from the Recycle-Bin, provided you did not empty it earlier.

•	Since this function can run for a very long time (depending on the number of files on your PC), I recommend that you restrict the files LookDisk is searching by limiting the search only to files larger than a certain size or having a specific extension (see extended parameter window).

•	If you are not sure about the duplicate files that can be deleted, try to get help from someone who is competent on Windows.

The duplicate files will be shown in the file list.

In the file list window you have two additional menu options for this function:

Automatic Selection - For each group all but the latest file

This menu function selects in each duplicate file group every file but the latest one. See screen shot below for an example:

Automatic Selection - For each group all but the oldest file

This menu function selects in each duplicate file group every file but the oldest one. See screen shot below for an example:

The above two menu options (automatic selection) can facilitate the selection of the duplicate files but it does NOT mean that you can safely delete all these files, please see the comment above regarding the deletion of duplicate files.


Search duplicate files by name

 This function finds duplicate files which have the same name, independently of their content. If you are running short of space on your disks, then this function can help you to regain some space.

As with all functions here as well you can either use the default parameter window or the extended parameter window.

In addition to all the other search parameters, this function offers an additional option:

Do not consider file extension for comparison

If this option is selected, then LookDisk ignores file extension for the search of duplicate file names. E.g. letter.bak1 and letter.bak2 will be treated as being duplicate files. If you do not select this option, then only files with the exact same name will be found.

Note: Although LookDisk can find duplicate files on your PC, it can NOT determine which files you can safely remove/delete. Here are some recommendations:

•	If you are not 100% sure if a file can be deleted or not, then do not delete it. Even if you are sure that a file can be deleted, I suggest that you first move it to another folder or save it (on tape or another disk).

•	Should you decide to delete a file, then delete it into the Windows Recycle-Bin (LookDisk gives you that option when deleting files). If you later realise that you needed that file you can restore it from the Recycle-Bin, provided you did not empty it earlier.

•	If you are not sure about the duplicate files that can be deleted, try to get help from someone who is competent on Windows.

The duplicate files will be shown in the file list.

In the file list window you have two additional menu options for this function:

Automatic Selection - For each group all but the latest file

This menu function selects in each duplicate file group every file but the latest one. See screen shot below for an example:

Automatic Selection - For each group all but the oldest file

This menu function selects in each duplicate file group every file but the oldest one. See screen shot below for an example:

The above two menu options (automatic selection) can facilitate the selection of the duplicate files but it does NOT mean that you can safely delete all these files, please see the comment above regarding the deletion of duplicate files.


Disk overview

This window shows you the capacity and free space of all your disks. You can select if you want to see the capacity of network-drives, floppies or CD-ROMs. You can sort the list of disks by according to their size or free space by clicking on the corresponding header column.


Load list

In this window you can reload the file list of one of the previous actions by clicking on the respective button. You can also reload a file list that you previously saved in the LookDisk-Format, see also the save list window.

You cannot reload a list that was saved in the Text-Format.


Options

In the options window you have two tabs where you can select general LookDisk options:

File Deletions

Ask for confirmation on file deletions

If you want to confirm each time you deleted a file, select this option. This options affects the default selection in the file deletion window.

Store deleted files in the Windows Recycle-Bin

If you want to store deleted files in the Windows Recycle-Bin, select this option. This options affects the default selection in the file deletion window.

Ask for confirmation on deletion of system-files

If this option is selected, then each time you are trying to delete a system-file, LookDisk will ask you for a confirmation. Note: In most cases there is no reason why should delete a system-file and therefore I recommend you leave this option on.

Ask for confirmation on deletion of read-only files

If this option is selected, then each time you are trying to delete a read-only file, LookDisk will ask you for a confirmation. Note: In most cases there is a good reason why a file is read-only and therefore you should be very careful before deleting such a file.

Misc.

Show hint texts on controls

If you don't want to see mouse-over hint texts (tool tips) for certain controls, then turn this option off.

Ask for confirmation on search abortion

If this option is selected/on, then each time you abort/cancel a search, LookDisk will ask for a confirmation.

Search for files inside Zip-Files

This option controls whether LookDisk will search inside Zip-Archives or not. All the functions (search for files, search for text, search for duplicates) are affected by this option. If you don't want to search inside Zip-Files then by turning this option off you can speed up the overall search.


History of changes

 You can download the latest version from: http://www.fxSearch.com/ldw_eng.

For any comments about LookDisk write to Vincenzo Iuorno at: vinc1964@yahoo.com

Version 2.80 - 4 April 2003

•	Support for Zip-Files implemented: Files and text can be searched within Zip-Archives and also duplicate files can be found in Zip-Archives.

•	When searching text in large files (> 500KB)  a progress bar is shown

•	Help-File is now available

•	File-viewers page in options-window removed (obsolete as Windows-settings are used)

Version 2.73 - 12 March 2003

•	Save list as text file: Now you can enter a delimiter-character to separate fields so that the list can be loaded easily into other programs, like Excel etc.

Version 2.72 - 5 March 2003

•	Bug in text-search function fixed which prevent LookDisk from finding certain text.

Version 2.71 - 26 November 2002

•	Bug in automatic selection for duplicate files fixed.

•	LookDisk home page is shown in about window and can be reached from there.

•	Entry to search for a specific file size extended by two digits.

Version 2.70 - 17 November 2002

•	New options in list of found files to set display format of file date and size.

•	File path is shown in status line of list of found files (useful for long path names).

•	Paths '.' and '..' are not displayed in the file list anymore.

Version 2.64 - 5 October 2002

•	First English Version of LookDisk 2.64.


Disclaimer

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE SUPPLIED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR VINCENZO IUORNO BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS OR OTHER DAMAGES FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

In other words, I (Vincenzo Iuorno) am not responsible for anything you do with LookDisk.


FAQ & Tips

How can I speed up the search for text/words in files?

I cannot find a file but I am sure that it's on my PC.

How can I search only the root-directory on my drives?


Search only the root-directory

If you only want to search the root-directory of your drives then proceed as follows:

- Select the check-box next to the left of the folder entry-field.

- Enter only a backslash in the folder entry field  (\)

- Deselect the check-box to the right of the folder entry-field (Sub-folders).

- Click on the 'Search' button

Now LookDisk will search for files only in the root-directory of every selected drive.


Speed up search for text within files

If it takes a long time to search for text within files, try to narrow down the files LookDisk is searching by specifying a folder (if you know it) or the file file extension. E.g. if you are searching for text within Word-Documents, enter *.doc in the file name field. Also, to have a faster text search make sure following options are NOT selected in the text window:

Show line numbers

Show found lines

Show lines before/after found text

And select following options:

Search only 1 text in each file

Match case


Cannot find file

If you cannot find a file using LookDisk then following reasons could be the case:

•	You did not enter the correct file name or a fraction of it. E.g. the file you are looking for is called letter.doc but you entered detter.doc. Try using only a fraction of the filename or use wildcards. E.g. *ter.doc will find all files that end with ter.doc, like letter.doc, netter.doc etc. In case you are using the extended parameter window make sure you do not select the parameters for file size, file date or file attribute.

•	Have you selected all available drives on your PC? If not, select all drives and re-start the search.

•	If you don't remember the file name or a fraction of it, but you remember some text within the file you are looking for, use the function Search for text within files

•	If you still cannot find the file you are looking for try to remember if you accidentally deleted it. If that's the case you can try to recover it from the Windows Recycle-Bin.


Zip-File Support

LookDisk can search for files within Zip-Archives (files with the ending .zip, e.g. letters.zip) and it can also find text inside files that are part of a Zip-Archive. The functions that search duplicate files can search inside Zip-Archives, too. You can turn on or off Zip-File support in the options-window, see screen-shot below.

Files that are part of a Zip-Archive are shown in the following format in the name column of the file list.

file*(Zip-archive)	E.g. letter.doc*(archives.zip)

As an example see the screen-shot below:

Lines with files that are part of Zip-Archive cannot be selected (and therefore copied, deleted or moved) but you can double-click on such lines and LookDisk will start any program you have installed to handle Zip-Files.