CNET Editors' review
Directory Report 34 bundles several system utilities in one flexible program. Its core is the venerable Print Directory, which displays tree views of selected directories or entire disks that you can save or print to a wide range of outputs. Directory Report also finds duplicate files and directories and compares directories, even with an outside program. It can rename multiple files in sequence; change the created, modified, and accessed dates of files; change file owners; compute checksums; run from the command line; and more.
Directory Report's wizard browsed to our User Account as a starting root directory (you can have as many as you like), so we selected it. The program briskly scanned our system and displayed the directory in a classic Explorer-style tree view categorized by folder size, both with and without subdirectories; date created, accessed, and modified; and other categories we could add via the View menu. The finished scan also displayed a pop-up listing all our protected directories with the option to print or save the data. We clicked a folder in the main directory view, which opened the root view in a left-hand panel and our selected folder's directory tree in the main view. This simple, old-school tree view is still the clearest and most comprehensible way to display directories and their contents, and one of Directory Report's chief advantages over more elaborate attempts. From here, we had a wide range of options for sorting, searching, and comparing data.
Directory Report integrates several other useful tools, such as the Duplicates Finder. Its options included comparing checksums, which we commend, as well as byte-by-byte and more common comparisons like size and name. The tool made 14 passes yet took less than a minute to scan our directory, identifying duplicates in color in its report. A pop-up let us select files in a group by various categories instead of manually, with several options for handling them. The Largest menu let us quickly find the largest files, directories, and owners in our system, with a few surprises. The handy Check Cluster Size tool estimates the block or cluster size for a given file system. Handier still is the built-in checksum generator, which saves the bother of a separate tool.
Editors' note: This is a review of the full version of Directory Report 34. The trial version is limited to 10 days.
Publisher's Description
From AMB Software:
Directory Report is a multiple function program. You save money since you buy one program instead of many single function programs. Directory Printer: Print a directory tree of an entire disk or a single directory. Prints DLL,EXE version info. Prints to a printer, Text, Clipboard, Excel, Excel program, XML or HTML file. Prints AVI, MP3, MSI, MS-Office, and WAV info. Prints cyclic redundancy checksum CRC. Find duplicate files. Find duplicate directories. Find duplicate files based on the same name, size, CRC and/or comparing byte by byte. The duplicate files search is highly optimized to quickly eliminate non-duplicates. You can move, delete to the recycle bin, delete permanently or replace duplicate files with a hardlink.
Multiple file rename. Rename files in sequence and rename files based on MP3 attributes. Multiple file change date. Change the created date, accessed date and modified date. Multiple file change owner. Shows file owner. Reports total files and bytes for each file owner. Directory Report looks just like the MS-Explorer. In addition it shows the size of each directory. When you open a directory it automatically shows the size of each subdirectory. This allows you to quickly drill down to the directories which are using the most space.
What's new in this version: Version 34 can print and save MS-Office properties.
More Popular File Management downloads
- EaseUS Partition Master Home Edition
62,537 downloads
- Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition
23,091 downloads
- TeraCopy
11,440 downloads
- Unlocker
9,551 downloads
- GoodSync
9,288 downloads
-
All versions:
4.3 starsout of 91 votes
-
Current version:
4.4 starsout of 17 votes
-
My rating:
Write review
-
"Cool, useful program."
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
I bought the program primarily for two reasons...well, three.
First, I needed a way to get a print out (or to be able to save a txt file) of every directory and subdirectory on some of my hard drives, which I want to swap in and out of hard drive docks as a method of backup storage. I have thousands of photographs from my business. I've given up trying to put them all on DVD disks. The challenge has been remembering where everything is, so I needed some reference for that.
Directory Report does that in spades, and lots of other things I haven't explored much yet, like comparing two drives for duplicate files.
I've run compare a couple times and it seems to work fantastically, so I know I'll be using that as I organize and compare 1TB drives I have.
Third, I read reviews in several places that were very positive, so I figured it was worth $25 to have a reliable, well-functioning program.Cons
Non so far...seems very flexible and has lots of tools.
Summary
Glad I found this program, it'll allow me to do some things I've struggled at in the past. Just the time I've wasted in one day more not knowing how to effectively manage the 6TB of data I have more than pays for the program.
-
"Helped me find many unknown huge files"
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
I used this program to help me clean up my computer.
It found many huge files I did not even know about.
I quickly uninstalled the programCons
None at all
Summary
This program is well worth the price
-
"More Than Expected!!"
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
Tells me what I asked for.
Does it quickly.
Produces reports that mean something to me and with minimal effort converted to info my users understand.
The price is far too affordable for the information you can quickly produce.
Helps me clean up (and keep clean) our file structure and associated file ownership.
Helps me quickly identify files\folder that have not been access in a time specified so that I can contact their owner for removal (unless need for legal purposes\requirements.)Cons
None that we've found so far.
Summary
Our Scenario: Small quasi-government entity with < 500 users. Decreasing budget. User turnover typical of a business of similar size. About to implement space quotas for users/departments/divisions soon.
Our Needs: To identify who owns what and to assign ownership to orphaned files/folders to others and reassign ownership of departing users to department managers.
As you would expect from a company that has not enforced a policy of ownership in the past, there are many orphaned files/folders in our file structure. Windows can tell you a lot about them in their reports but we've not found another utility that presents them as well as "Directory Report." I can't begin to describe how much information is available by running simple tasks in Directory Report. Every attribute that a file has is displayable. So far I've learned in the short time I've used it, that you can sort your results by any attribute displayed. Downloading the results into a CSV file and using Excel, you can sort by dozens of attributes.
We're now able to scan our file structure and assign all files of a particular type (owned by an existing user or files that are no longer owned by anyone because the owner was delete in Active Directory before file ownership was transferred) to another user in two steps - highlight the file(s) and change ownership. This is FAR better that changing the ownership on the whole folder structure which could possibly unintentionally change the ownership of files owned by others in our shared-folders environment and thereby needlesly put the new owner over-quota. -
"Hands-down best product to remove duplicate files!"
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
Very quick scans and ability to perform specific batch deletes based on file strings or paths.
Cons
Would like to see ability to delete empty folders
Summary
I tested six different duplicate file removers and Directory Report left the rest in the dust. The extremely fast directory scans, unlimited number of files to be included in scanning, and batch file delete capability using very specific parameters saves many hours in getting your duplicates cleaned up.
-
"Very nice utility."
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
Easy to use. Great for finding where space is being consumed.
Cons
None so far.
Summary
Good utility that is worth the money.
-
"Great program"
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
Very accurate.
Good set of control features.
Finds those duplicates alsoCons
None so far
Summary
I've been using this programs since 2009. I keep several back ups of digital images and use Directory Report to keep everything in order.After using it the 1st. time I was amazed at how many duplicates I had stored. Use of the program freed up several GB of storage space. Great Program.
-
"Tons of detail, easy to use"
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
Simple interface, provides lots of options to include more or less detail, outputs to CSV file that I can view in Excel.
Cons
If you need to refresh the screen to do something such as re-sort the data it can take a while, and it can take a long time to do a big report.
Summary
Got the job done very well for my needs and I will recommend this!
-
"A powerful, compact utility"
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
Powerful and feature-rich, with a simple user interface. In contrast to many disc/file utilities that try to impress with busy, cluttered interfaces, this simple utility makes all its features readily accessible in a clean, uncluttered menu system.
Cons
None so far
Summary
I installed this utility to deal with an overwhelming problem of file duplication on a PC that is synched with several other PCs. I've yet to explore its many other features, but it was a smashing success in the main job of finding duplicate files spread far and wide across a large hard drive. Highly recommended, and well worth the $25 fee.
-
"I use Directory Report almost every day"
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
This program is so useful. I love it. It tracks my disk usage, finds duplicate files and renames my files. I wish I found it years ago.
Cons
This program is perfect
Summary
Well worth the price
-
"Great utility for finding duplicate files"
Version: Directory Report 34
Pros
Directory Report is fast and easy to use. I use the filters to scan only the files I want.
Cons
There aren't any
Summary
I highly recommend this tool
Add Your Review
Submit your reply
E-mail this review
Report offensive content
See more CNET content tagged:
Previous Versions:
