0

I have a tricky question to ask: is there some software that can search for all the possible user created file types across an entire hard disk?

Specifically:

I have no idea where they have stored their files and the user doesn't know either. (!) I only know a few of the file types that the user has used - not all of them. There are multiple users of the same machine using the same login (!)

It's a 2TB hard disk and user files are all over the place - what I would like to achieve is to extract the user files from the OS etc and place them all in a folder for the user to sort through. I really don't want to have to search for all file types I can think of, manually.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Tim
  • 21
  • 3
  • [see here](https://superuser.com/questions/691578/how-to-display-change-the-owner-of-a-file-on-windows-7/1103541#1103541) this should give you an idea how to list the files with ownership and just filter the output for the user in question... – Zina Dec 07 '20 at 11:13

1 Answers1

0

Assuming file indexing is enabled, you may find all the files created by one user account from Windows Explorer.

Enter Explorer on the disk (C: etc) and enter the following in the search bar: owner:user-name.

If the format of the result is too wordy, click the View pane and choose Details.

You may also add the Owner to the displayed columns by clicking the column headers, choosing "More..." and selecting Owner. The found sub-string will be displayed as highlighted for better visibility.

harrymc
  • 455,459
  • 31
  • 526
  • 924
  • Many thanks for the info - yes I could do that, but was thinking more along the lines of search by file type rather than specific user. I am not sure if what I need actually exists - so for now search by user will have to suffice. – Tim Dec 10 '20 at 16:03
  • You may combine conditions like this: `*.doc owner:user-name`. – harrymc Dec 10 '20 at 19:42