Data overhaul

I'm hoping to get advice on tools and tactics to manage a data overhaul
I have carelessly and/or ignorantly created a mess with my current files and folders. In going from Win 10 to 11 and adding a new machine (NUC), I copied many old files from the previous system and then I kept adding new files to what has become a "jungle" of badly organized data. Windows has kept track of program files, but I want to clean house and reorganize a large number of files dating back as far as 2016. I would be grateful for tips from anyone who has experienced this or who has advice on the topic and wants to chip in. I'm using

If using File Explorer a handy feature for organizing is to click the heading of a column such as Name, Size, Type, etc., to reorganize as to how it is to be sorted, makes it easy to select a file, random files or a group of files. Random is hold down the Ctrl key while clicking files as desired, Group is hold down the Shift key, click one file for the first of a list then scroll to the last file of the group and click it, will highlight the selected files. Clicking the column heading will reorganize as Ascending or Descending in that column.

As Berton says, column sorting is the way to go.

To add to that; the search function is a practical way to isolate or present files so as you can clean up particular file types all at once, along with using Bertons suggestion.

If you were to search using the wild card * (star) which is accessed from your keyboard holding the shift key then pressing number 8 at the top of your keyboard, you can search for particular file types like in this example:

Typing the wild card and extension *.txt into the search box at the top right of file explorer will give you all text files within the folder you are searching. If you wanted to search the entire computer for .txt files, you would click on C: (or This PC) in the left panel then use *.txt in the search box. The search box will search in whatever particular folder you are viewing in the right panel.

Once your search for that particular file type is finished, as Berton says, you can then sort the results as needed and start cleaning up your PC.

The wild card can be used to search any file type extension, *.doc for instance, which is your word document extension, you just need to replace the extension with the one you want to search for.

To do a slow but in-depth search of your entire system, search from This PC instead of Home

I hope that helps.

P.S. The wild card Star * represents “ANY” Any name preceding the .extension type

(Random image from the web)

More about the File Explorer Search function.

Searching by date range (this is also relevant for W11):

KEY TAKEAWAYS​

• Easily search for files within a specific date range in Windows 10 and Windows 11 by typing "modified:FirstDate .. EndDate" in the search box. The date must be written as mm/dd/yyyy, or whichever format your PC uses.
• Use the File Explorer UI in Windows 10 to search for a range of dates by clicking the Date Modified button and selecting from several predefined criteria.
• In Windows 11, enter an asterisk (*) as a wildcard character in the search bar to search for everything, then navigate to Search Option > Date Modified to search for files modified in a specific range.

At some point of disorganization, getting organized can be a daunting task and I commend you for doing it. If you do it right the first time, you will be more apt to stay organized for the rest of your computing life once you consider how much time and effort you put into getting organized in the first place.

The main thing is to develop a plan and stick with your formula. Changing your tactics mid-organization can get you confused. You may end up deleting something you don't mean to, keeping stuff you don't want, or organizing the same files more than once. What is right for me and my mess may not be right for you but here is one way of doing it. What the others have said is all true, but I find the search method to be tedious in most cases so I do it a little differently. If you have a lot of files, you know it will take more than one sitting to organize so the way I do it, I know exactly which folders have been organized already.

1. Organize your user folders ONE AT A TIME. First comes the cleaning. Delete the unnecessary junk first.

Let's assume you start with your Documents folder.
Begin by clicking on the 'name' column header, Delete the files you know at a glance you do not want to keep as well as duplicate files(files with same name, same date, same size and a number suffix.) Once that's done, click on the 'date' column header. Seeing everything by date can help you see other files you know you no longer need to keep.
Then click the 'type' column header. This will quickly group files so that similar file types are sequential. Since your trying to get just the documents folder organized right now, you'll need to eliminate everything that's not a document. Let's say there's a bunch of pictures (they should all be grouped together at this point) Left click the first picture file. Hold down the SHIFT key and select the last picture file. This should highlight everything between first and last file. Drag that group of files over into the Pictures folder in left pane of file explorer.
Do the same thing for any other file type that is not a document.

Would you look at that. There's nothing in Documents but.....documents.

2. Now comes the organizing. Rename any document file that doesn't have a meaningful name. If you have multiple files relating to one subject, build yourself some sub folders depending on the subject., For example, since you are working in Documents, you might have a bunch of stuff related to:
Utilities
Church
Recipes
Medical
Receipts
Computers
Pets
....Whatever

(If you really want to organize create sub sub-folders in each of these new folders.)
You might end up with a file structure something like this:
Documents
---Church
---Medical
------Dr. Jones
------Dr. Smith
---Recipes
------Desserts
---------Cakes
---------Pies
------Meats
------Salads
---Utilites
------Electric
------Gas
------Water


3. While in that same folder, drag and drop the files already in that folder to their proper sub folder.
The documents folder is now organized.
Keep in mind from here on in your organization, if anything you move from one of your other folders into Documents needs to be in one of your sub folders, you'll have to move it there.

Use the same procedure for any other folder that's messy. If you have a lot of photos, you'll find the Pictures folder to be the most time consuming to organize if you don't already have them named aready. With pictures, having sub folders are very important. Otherwise you spend a lot of time searching for what you want.

Handy things you might not know:

Having 2 instances of file explorer running at the same time comes in handy when moving files from one folder to another especially if you're dealing with sub-folders..
Open a folder in file explorer where you're moving files FROM.
Select the snap feature (the square icon to the left of the close (X) Select the left side of the split pattern. That explorer window moves to left half of your screen.
Open another file explorer windows by selecting Win Key+E and browse to the folder you are moving files TO. Use the snap feature to put that window on the right side of your screen.
This allows you to see both folders at the same time and move your files left to right. You can independently work in either file explorer window.

To select multiple sequential files, use the method I listed above. Select first file, hold down SHIFT, select last file
To select multiple non-sequestial files, select first file, hold down CTRL key and then all non sequential files one at a time.
To select ALL files in a folder CTRL+A

Hope some of this help.

An astoundingly good mini-tutorial! Gives me hope that I can wade out of this swamp. Would be a good item to put in general tutorials listing.
Thank you very much.

JFWIW:

Trying to sort out your own PC, is bad enough, but as a working computer tech, I've had to attempt to recover data files that were hopelessly scattered throughout an entire HD. With no rhyme or reason to their placement.
Just a little bit of forethought would have made that job so much easier. I've spent hours, doing searches for specific file types, and then copying those files off to another HD, for eventual burning to a DVD.(s)

So, as my own data files have increased, over the years, I've developed my own strategy for Data File placement.
Rule #1: NO DATA file ever lives on my C: drive, but in it's own folder on my D: drive (second partition of my main HD/SSD)
So if drive C: has a serious problem, no data file is ever damaged.

I had a serious 'Accident' on this PC last week, where the entire C: partition just disappeared. It had become "Unallocated" space.
Restoring the partition was simple enough, using an old Backup Image File, but NO data file was ever touched.
Then after a few simple program updates, everything was back to normal.

So, don't allow your valuable data files to be scattered all over your HD. Then you won't have to organize them....they will already be Organized.

If you were local, I'd be glad to help you with your problem.
Cheers Mate!
TM

Very logical advice. I just wince at the thought of relocating hundreds of files. Do you have a heirachary of folders for data? Will a mass migration be adequate? Will links to program files be maintained?
Thank you for your help.